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BRUSSELS, Belgium: This week, the European Commission launched an investigation into the influx of Chinese electric vehicles (EV) to protect European Union (EU) producers. In the investigation, the commission will decide whether to impose punitive tariffs against cheaper Chinese EV imports, which it claims benefit from state subsidies. In her annual address to the European parliament, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said, "Global markets are now flooded with cheaper electric cars. And their price is kept artificially low by huge state subsidies." In its highest-profile case against China since an EU probe into Chinese solar panels...

The Biden administration’s massive expansion of food stamp benefits is linked to at least a 15% rise in grocery prices, a new study said on Thursday. President Biden’s Department of Agriculture rolled out revised nutritional standards for federal food benefits in 2021 that expanded the program by roughly 25% from pre-COVID pandemic levels. Overall spending on the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP) more than doubled between 2019 and 2022, according to findings from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) previewed by Fox News Digital. It went from $4.5 billion in 2019 to $11 billion in 2022, the study said.

In a move that gives the lie to years of propaganda claiming falling costs, the wind industry’s leading lobbyists have written to the Government threatening to abandon the U.K. unless subsidies for their companies are hugely increased. The industry lobbyists claim that unforeseen rising costs now require three actions: A revision to the auction rules so that the winners are not determined by lowest bids but by an administrative decision that weights bids according to their ‘value’ in contributing towards the Net Zero targets. Special new targets and thus market shares for floating offshore wind, one of the most expensive...

"As fuel taxes plummet, states weigh charging by the mile instead of the tank.” That was the headline of a recent AP story, which should scare freedom-loving citizens everywhere. And you can place the blame squarely on government-subsidized EVs for this terrible new development. The background is that state and federal gasoline taxes aren’t raising “enough” money these days to pay for roadway construction and maintenance. And a big reason for the growing shortfall is the increase in electric vehicles. EVs get massive tax subsidies to convince people to buy them, but their owners don’t pay gasoline taxes, for the...

The victor of the 2024 election is set to face a number of new legislative deadlines immediately upon entering office that could have drastic effects on the country’s economy. More than a dozen candidates are eyeing the Oval Office in 2024, positioning themselves as the best choice to address the nation’s cultural and economic challenges. However, upon taking office in 2024, the winner of the presidential election must deal with the impending expirations of both the 2017 tax law as well as subsidies included in Obamacare. On top of that, the debt limit bill is also set to expire just...

This week the Trump administration managed to impose a massive tax increase on middle-income families beginning in 2018. You could be excused for missing this story if you were focusing instead on President Trump’s draconian budget or Republican efforts to take away health care from tens of millions of people. But, indeed, on Monday, the Trump Health Care Tax was born.

In addition to being illegal, President Biden's attempt to grant loan forgiveness to college students transfers wealth from the working class to scions of the upper class. Fifty-six percent of the student debt is owed by people who went to grad school. None of this debt is owed by people who never went to college. Persons earning as much as $125,000 a year qualify for Biden's debt forgiveness program. Likewise, subsidies for electric vehicles (EVs) assist wealthier Americans to purchase vehicles that are out of the price range of what the working class can afford. The majority of those receiving...

The European Commission is seeking feedback on whether the 27-country bloc needs to loosen state aid rules to allow governments to support companies affected by the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, with plans for a European fund in future. The $430 billion act, which grants consumers tax credits for U.S.-produced electric vehicles (EV) and other green products, has triggered fears it could disadvantage European Union companies and tempt businesses to relocate to the United States. […] The EU executive will ask countries if looser state aid rules known as the temporary crisis framework, adopted in March for businesses hit by the...

Having survived the recent cabinet reshuffle the international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, is confronted with the biggest headache of her short ministerial career: the fallout of the US intention to cut funding to UNRWA, which constitutes one of the most serious challenges to UK policies in the Middle East. Donald Trump’s threat to cut financial assistance to the UN agency specifically responsible for Palestinian refugees will be a disaster not only for the refugees but also for Israel and neighbouring countries. It does not advance US interests either. Provoked by the Palestinian rejection of Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as...

California’s electricity woes result from man-made climate policies, not from climate change.. ... Solar and wind power have rapidly expanded thanks to rich government subsidies along with the state’s renewables mandate. These have made it harder for baseload gas and nuclear generators that run around the clock to make money. Many have shut down, and the result is that the state often lacks sufficient power when the sun goes down. ... The state must therefore rely on imports from other states ... But these imports are becoming less dependable since California’s neighbors are also losing base-load generators owing to their...

Biden’s latest end-run around Congress turns a scandalously compliant IRS into a political tool. An executive order and presumed behind-the-scenes White House lobbying have convinced the supposedly apolitical tax agency to issue a statute-defying regulation that creates a new government health care subsidies affordability test. The White House boasts that the plan could reduce the number of uninsured by 200,000, but the Congressional Budget Office and health experts estimate the tiny change will cost taxpayers $225,000 per person.

While budgets should have been getting tighter for years now, some states, at least, are finally awakening to the need to watch their spending. Well, better late than never, right? One example of this newfound awareness is the effort of some to reconsider our generous subsidies for solar panels, particularly the rooftop panels that one sees high atop single family homes across otherwise reasonable suburbs. Mississippi, Florida, and other states are in the news right now as they debate the question of rethinking the levels at which the taxpayer ought to subsidize the homeowner for this choice of dubious economic...

Tacoma Narrows Bridge tolls will be reduced by 75 cents beginning in September, with the intent that they remain at that rate until the span is paid off in 10 years. The decrease is the result of Substitute Senate Bill 5488, which requires transfers of $3.25 million from the general fund to the toll bridge account each quarter until June 2032, for a total of $130 million. After the House changed the bill on Saturday, the Senate had to concur on Thursday, which sponsor Sen. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, said it would. Rates — currently set at $5.25 with a Good...

LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - Sky-high oil prices resulting from a potential Russian oil import ban could force governments to pour more cash into fossil fuel subsidies to shield consumers from rising energy bills, rather than use the money to fight climate change. Even before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, rising energy costs had triggered a wave of subsidies despite countries agreeing to rein them in at the COP26 climate conference in November. "The last thing that governments want to do is increase any subsidies for fossil fuel use but they have to be sensitive to the price shock," said Ben...

(the money quote): "U.S. grain and soy plantings Prevented plantings (thousands of acres) Crop Dec. 1, Nov. 9, Dec. 1, 2021 2021 2020 Corn 639 639 6,186 Soybeans 341 341 1,476 Wheat 293 293 1,272 Total for all U.S. crops 2,104 2,104 10,219"

Elon Musk has attacked a draft plan under consideration in California that critics say disincentivizes the use of rooftop solar panels.The Tesla founder was responding to changes proposed by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to the state's Net Energy Metering (NEM) program.Under the program, the estimated 1.3 million homeowners and businesses in the Golden State who have installed rooftop solar panels can sell back surplus energy to the grid and receive credit on their bills.But last month the CPUC released a proposal calling for a number of changes, one of which is how much customers are paid when they...

During the holiday season candy canes are once again omnipresent with all the joy they represent to go with their yummy goodness. But the business behind the production of that candy cane is fraught with trade battles pitting nations against one another as quotas and subsidization distort any sense of an honest pricing model. That is why it is good news that earlier this year, Representatives Kat Cammack (R-FL) and Dale Kildee (D-MI) introduced a new resolution to zero out the foreign subsidies that make sugar the world’s most distorted commodity market. “Time and again, the survival of American sugar...

Musk's finally ready to admit that government subsidies distort markets and that government actors are terrible at capital allocation."Say tomorrow, you get a phone call from Joe Biden," asked Wall Street Journal tech columnist Joanna Stern to Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a Monday night forum. "And he asks: What are your needs from this [$2 trillion spending] bill? How do you answer him?" "We don't think about it at all, really," Musk said, channeling Don Draper to the tune of the audience's uneasy laughter. "It might be better if the bill doesn't pass," Musk added. "The federal budget deficit...

Florida’s version of the American dream, which holds that even people of relatively modest means can aspire to live near the water, depends on a few crucial components: sugar white beaches, soft ocean breezes and federal flood insurance that is heavily subsidized. But starting Oct. 1, communities in Florida and elsewhere around the country will see those subsidies begin to disappear in a nationwide experiment in trying to adapt to climate change: Forcing Americans to pay something closer to the real cost of their flood risk, which is rising as the planet warms. While the program also covers homes around...

House Democrats are offering more than $1 billion in subsidies to local newspapers as part of a massive spending proposal released this week, even as polls show record levels of distrust in the media. The $3.5 trillion spending plan includes up to $25,000 in payroll tax credits for each journalist on a local newspaper’s payroll. The carve-out will cost $1.3 billion over the next decade, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. To offset this and other tax credits included in the bill, Democrats are proposing $2.9 trillion in tax hikes through higher corporate, capital gains, and personal income tax...