Free Republic

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants the state to take over some funding of government services for rural, thinly-populated fiscally constrained counties and allow them to eliminate their property taxes. (The cost) would be about $300 million per year, a drop in the bucket of the nearly $50 billion in general fund spending. “I’m just telling you that is budget dust, like, that’s easy for us to do,” DeSantis said. “And I’m not suggesting that, like, we have to just do that, but I’d be willing, of course, we’re going to help with that. You know, we want, we want homeowners...

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller addressed claims there’s “pork” in the One Big Beautiful Bill, telling Salem radio host Charlie Kirk such rumors are false. "There’s no pork in the bill," he said. "The bill has been public for weeks. Every single provision is just one campaign pledge, one promise, one campaign vow after another. The only new spending in the bill is to secure the homeland of the United States and save American sovereignty — fully paid for, by the way, by increased visa fees on foreigners."He explained further:The 2017 Trump Tax Cuts were rightly hailed...

Elon Musk has warned "if the massive deficit spending continues," there will be no money for Social Security, health care or defense, as he continues opposition to President Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill." The tech billionaire and former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) made the comment about Trump's spending package on his Truth Social website in the early hours of June 4. Newsweek contacted Musk for comment via the SpaceX and Tesla press offices outside of regular office hours on Wednesday. Why It Matters The House narrowly passed Trump's budget package on May 22 in a 215-214...

Under the current administration, led by Democrat Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Abortion Free New Mexico has obtained very limited data about taxpayer funded abortions through New Mexico Medicaid. In an Inspection of Public Records (IPRA) request on February 6, 2025 made to the New Mexico Health Care Authority (HCA), Tara Shaver of Abortion Free New Mexico asked for a plethora of information regarding the numbers of abortions that were funded through New Mexico Medicaid. The response that the Health Care Authority provided was unprofessional, unclear and incomplete but Abortion Free New Mexico is publishing what has been revealed so far...

America’s eighth-largest school district handed taxpayer cash to Planned Parenthood to train teachers that biological sex is a “myth,” according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Philadelphia School District (PSD), which oversees almost 200,000 students, paid Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania (PPSP) nearly $40,000 in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) HIV grant funds to provide up to 70 trainings which decry biological sex as a “myth,” support medical child sex-changes and normalize men in women’s sports, according to documents obtained by the DCNF through a public records request. Planned Parenthood delivered Comprehensive Sexual Education to more...

Beginning next year, visitors to Hawaii will be subject to a “climate impact fee” which aims to generate funds for mitigating future environmental challenges the state expects to face. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green signed Act 96 into law Tuesday, effectively approving a tax — also known as the “Green Fee” The law now increases the the state’s Transient Accommodation Tax (TAT) by .75%, to 11%. This fee will be applied to costs for tourism-related activities including hotels and cruise ships that dock in Hawaii. Unlike other state programs, the money generated won’t go into a dedicated special fund. Instead, the...

I was under the illusion that, with Donald Trump back in charge and the wind at his back, Washington Republicans might actually take off the gloves, say eff-it, and take on the swamp. With the failures inherent in the Big Beautiful Bill, it appears I was wrong. I don’t blame Trump. This abysmal betrayal of the American people was written in the halls of Congress.The Republicans in Congress talk a good game, but when it comes to actually doing what they say they’re going to do, it turns out they’re really snake oil salesmen. Not that this is new. Remember...

“ There are no solutions, there are only tradeoffs,” says the venerable Thomas Sowell, but “you try to get the best tradeoffs you can get, and that’s all you can hope for.” Reasonably understood, Trump’s tariff agenda has always represented a tradeoff for Americans. Despite an awful lot of misunderstanding of how tariffs function in both theory and practice that has proliferated in recent months, tariffs are not a solution that will magically increase wages for American workers or reshore American manufacturing without considerable costs, and most certainly, the tariffs were never going to be paid by the nations who...

The full House of Representatives has passed the reconciliation bill to defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business. The bill passed 215-214. Two Republicans voted against the bill — Reps. Thomas Massie and Warren Davidson — and another, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, voted “present.” Rep. Andrew Garbarino and Rep. David Schweikert missed the vote. “We’re going to get it [to Trump’s desk] by Independence Day, July 4th,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday regarding the budget bill. The House Energy and Commerce Committee signed off on the bill first last week and then the House Budget Committee followed suit...

After holding the tax bill hostage, House Republicans from high-tax states have extorted an enormous increase in the state-and-local tax deduction—not that they will get much credit for it. Unlike the bill’s pro-growth provisions, this giveaway to the affluent will have no economic payoff and subsidizes profligate Democratic-run states. Speaker Mike Johnson late Tuesday greased the wheels for the reconciliation bill’s passage by cutting a deal with Republicans from New York, New Jersey and California to raise the state-and-local deduction to $40,000 with a 1% annual inflation adjustment over 10 years. The deduction would be phased out starting at $500,000...

(The Center Square) - California Democrats aren’t ruling out new taxes on state residents to pay for health care for illegal immigrants despite the program’s costs growing from $9.5 billion this year to $12.1 billion in California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest budget proposal, or just a little more than the state’s $11.9 billion budget shortfall. Should new federal penalties pass, the program could cost the state an additional $4.4 billion in lost federal funding each year, increasing the relative cost of the program to $16.5 billion. An analysis from The Center Square has found the three main House GOP proposals...

Leaders of California's Democratic Legislative Latino Caucus on Monday said everything should be considered in order to keep providing health insurance to undocumented immigrants, including a new tax on Californians.

Now you know why Trump is so eager to cut wasteful spending! The real mystery is why Democrats and RINOs are so determined to continue wasteful spending and not cut taxes. Trump inherited a fiscal disaster from Biden and Congress. Not to mention The Federal Reserve. Credit default swaps (CDS) for the USA are near Greece (and China) levels. ... Since Covid struck in 2020, US debt is up a staggering 56% ... And M2 Money is up 40% since Covid.

EXCLUSIVE: The top tax-writer in the House of Representatives is arguing that President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" will be "big" for American taxpayers as well – including seniors. House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and other Republicans on the panel spent months negotiating behind closed doors on how to enact Trump's tax policies. Among those is an added $4,000 deduction for Americans aged 65 or older. Seniors with income of less than $75,000 as single filers, and less than $150,000 as joint filers, would be eligible for the full deduction, which then would begin to phase...

A radical proposal to eliminate all property taxes in Ohio is gaining momentum, and it’s revealing something profound about the state’s political climate: Ohioans are furious with their government. In a recent episode of Today in Ohio, the daily news podcast from cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer, the hosts dissected this controversial ballot initiative and the public reaction it’s generating. “Citizens for Property Tax Reform can now start collecting 413,000 signatures for a ballot issue that would eliminate property taxes in the state of Ohio,” said Lisa Garvin. The Ohio Ballot Board unanimously agreed it was a single-subject issue, clearing...

Many homeowners have seen their property taxes increase in recent years because of rising housing prices and local tax rates. But the property tax assessment isn't always set in stone: filing an appeal may lower the cost for years. The median property tax bill in the U.S. in 2024 was $3,500, up 2.8% from $3,349 in 2023, according to an April report by Realtor.com...... Appealing your assessment is "not a terribly difficult investment of time for a residential property owner," said Sepp. "The processes are reasonably easy and fair." Should you be successful, the change typically takes effect for the...

House Republicans’ “one, big, beautiful” tax bill includes a new temporary $4,000 deduction for older adults. The change, called a “bonus” in the legislation, is aimed at helping retirees keep more money in their pockets and provides an alternative to the idea of eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits, which President Donald Trump and other lawmakers have touted. The temporary provision would apply to tax years 2025 through 2028. The deduction would start to phase out for single filers with more than $75,000 in modified adjusted gross income, and for married couples who file jointly with more than $150,000. As...

Since he first started running for president in 2016, Donald Trump has sought a 15% corporate tax rate. Unleash Prosperity co-founders Larry Kudlow and Steve Moore were in the room with him nine years ago when he first started talking up that rate. In the 2017 bill we got the rate down from 35% to 21%. Corporate revenues increased. Trump ran on 15% in 2024 and won. Still the House GOP tax bill has no rate cut. Even the scaled back 15% rate for made-in-America companies is nowhere to be found. This could have easily been paid for with the...

Planned Parenthood’s leaders launch into its 2023-2024 annual report with a markedly sad tone: “It’s been over two years since the U.S. Supreme Court took away our constitutional right to abortion.” Very quickly, however, readers can see the truth: that never before in its history has the abortion giant been so well-funded by American taxpayers, and never before has it ended more unborn lives than this past year – nearly three years since the Supreme Court held there is no right to abortion in the US Constitution. “Abortion bans have made pregnancy more dangerous, put patients and providers at risk...

CV NEWS FEED // The Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) is included in House Republicans’ omnibus tax bill, US Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-LA, announced May 12. Cassidy, a chief sponsor of the ECCA, said in a post on X that the inclusion of the act in what President Donald Trump has called the “one big, beautiful bill” is a victory for parents and children. Cassidy and US Sen. Tim Scott, R-SC, led the introduction of the ECCA, which offers a charitable donation incentive for people and businesses who help fund scholarship awards to offset expenses for qualified students’ public...