Free Republic

Despite years of calls from Texas voters to end the use of taxpayer dollars for lobbying, legislation to ban the practice died in committee this session, leaving Texans footing a multi-million-dollar lobbying bill. For years, both Democrat and Republican voters have called on elected officials to outlaw the use of tax dollars for lobbying. This issue was even a legislative priority this session for the Republican Party of Texas. Despite a Republican-controlled House and Senate creating ideal conditions for change, five pieces of legislation aimed at ending this practice ultimately died in the House State Affairs Committee, chaired by State...

One of the groups leading anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles is a taxpayer-funded activist organization with ties to the Democratic Party, while another has links to the Chinese Communist Party. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) — which received tens of millions of dollars in government grants during the Biden administration — staged a rally last week to denounce Immigration and Customs Enforcement arresting illegal migrants across the city, including those convicted of heinous crimes. Protests against ICE escalated since then, with more than 1,000 rioters taking to the streets, assaulting immigration officers, slashing tires and defacing public buildings,...

State Rep. Brent Money (R–Greenville) says that taxpayer-funded lobbying—a long-standing target of conservative activists—won’t be getting a hearing in the House State Affairs Committee. “For the last few days, we have been trying to get particularly taxpayer-funded lobbying pushed through State Affairs,” said Money in an interview with Texas Scorecard. “Middleton’s Senate Bill 19 has been sitting in there since late March—over a month. And so it’s just like, where is it? Can we get it moved?” According to Money, he spoke directly with both House Speaker Dustin Burrows and State Affairs Committee Chairman Ken King about the issue. The...

The Internal Revenue Service has agreed to help homeland security officials find immigrants they are trying to deport, according to court records, committing to sharing information in what would be a fundamental change in how the tax collector uses its tightly regulated records.In a court filing, the Trump administration said that the I.R.S. and Immigration and Customs Enforcement had reached the agreement on Monday and that the two agencies had not yet shared any information. Under the terms of the deal, a redacted version of which was submitted in the case, ICE officials can ask the I.R.S. for information about...

After back and forth between two federal agencies, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have reached a deal to aid in the deportation efforts of illegal immigrants.The agreement will allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to access taxpayer information to locate illegal immigrants subject to deportation.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem signed the agreement, which allows the IRS to turn over information about undocumented immigrants already facing deportation orders and are under federal criminal investigation.Under the agreement, ICE can submit names and request address confirmations for illegals who have been...

During the opening monologue on Sunday’s broadcast of FNC’s “Life, Liberty & Levin,” host Mark Levin offered his view on President Donald Trump’s tariff plan and contrasted it with the Democratic Party’s approach to the economy. Levin called the Trump administration’s effort a “growth plan” while criticizing Democrats for their approach centered on the redistribution of wealth. Transcript as follows: LEVIN: Can somebody please tell me what exactly are the Democrats doing to help our economy, to improve our country? What are they doing to help working men and women across the country, manufacturing across the country? All they want...

What does a nation that has killed more than 60 million of their own children deserve? Every single day, the number of American children that are killed exceeds the number of Americans that were killed on 9/11. Every single year, the number of American children that are killed is nearly equal to the number of Americans that have been killed in all of the wars that the U.S. has ever been involved in combined. More than 60 million babies have been slaughtered since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. At this point, we have become a society that has...

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has traveled extensively, including to overseas destinations, at taxpayer expense — and not always with a clear work purpose, according to an investigative report by KGO-7. The issue arose earlier this month when Lara turned up at a conference in Bermuda with industry executives, rather than at a state legislative hearing, as thousands of homeowners are still waiting for help after the Los Angeles fires. KGO, the San Francisco-area ABC News affiliate reported Monday: 7 On Your Side obtained and analyzed hundreds of public records that detail at least 46 cross-country and international trips all...

USAID in 2016 gave $310 million of your taxpayer money to a Palestinian cement factory. What did the Palestinians in Gaza use all that cement for, paid for by your taxpayer dollars? Any ideas? Oh yeah, that would be the 300 miles of terror tunnels that Hamas built underneath the Gaza Strip leading to the complete destruction of the Gaza Strip after October 7th. So, just slow clap for the geniuses in the permanent bureaucratic state.” - BEN SHAPIRO

WASHINGTON — President Trump signed an Executive Order Tuesday evening banning federal money from going toward child sex-change operations, referring to the procedures as “chemical and surgical mutilation” and calling the phenomenon of minors altering their sex a “dangerous trend.”

President Donald Trump revoked Mike Pompeo’s taxpayer funded security detail, four people with knowledge of the matter told the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman. Only former presidents and their spouses are automatically granted ongoing protection, according to the Secret Service. Pompeo, who served as Trump’s former CIA director and secretary of state, will likely have to pay his own tab to fend off what Haberman called “ongoing threats.” Trump also saved the taxpayers money by revoking security from former national security adviser John Bolton and former Pompeo aide Brian Hook. Haberman reported on Trump’s change in policy: Mr. Pompeo and...

With the Legislature set to convene in the coming weeks, fiscal responsibility advocates are pressing for lawmakers to follow through on a ban to end taxpayer-funded lobbying. “Taxpayer-funded lobbying” refers to a common practice among cities, counties, and school districts that hire lobbyists with local tax revenue. These lobbyists then work to advance policies that benefit local governments—often at the expense of citizens. A 2019 poll from the Texas Public Policy Foundation showed 88 percent of Texans oppose the practice. In addition, the issue is a legislative priority for the Texas GOP this session. “A ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying has...

The Democrat mayor of Frederick, Maryland, has pledged taxpayer funds for migrants to fight deportation during President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. Mayor Michael O’Connor pledged to use funds from his budget for the “Legal Advocacy Fund” should Trump’s plan for mass deportations come to his city. “Ensuring they have the legal support they need to stand strong and remain in this community they have chosen to call home,” O’Connor said.

The British taxpayer is footing the bill for a record number of out-of-work migrants, who are reportedly costing the government up to £8.5 billion per year. A record 1,689,000 foreigners are currently unemployed or otherwise “economically inactive” in the UK, according to analysis of government figures by the Centre for Immigration Control. The think tank noted that the current level is the highest in British history, surpassing the previous high in 2012 of 1,628,000.

Amtrak, the national passenger railroad company of the U.S., continues to have routine breakdowns despite receiving massive injections of taxpayer dollars from the Biden administration, according to data from the Department of Transportation (DOT). Since 2021, there have been 333 Amtrak train incidents reported nationwide as of July 9, 2024, slightly less than the 397 incidents that occurred between 2016 and July 2020 during former President Trump’s tenure, according to the DOT. The Biden administration, as a part of an announced $66 billion for passenger rail in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, has dedicated huge amounts of taxpayer cash to Amtrak,...

The U.K. has spent millions on a plan to send migrants to live in Africa. It’s now tied up in logistical, political and legal issues.. Two years ago, the British government decided to spend big to outsource a migration problem. To deter migrants seeking asylum from illegally entering the country, it announced a radical plan: Those smuggled on makeshift dinghies to British shores would be sent to Rwanda, a small country in central Africa, where they would remain. The U.K. government handed Rwanda ... $150 million down payment and told it to get ready to host thousands of potential refugees....

California is beyond saving ... California Supreme Court .. block an anti-tax initiative from appearing on the ballot. This initiative, known as the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act, was backed by the business community and sought to make it more difficult to increase taxes in California. Among other things, it would have required the legislature to obtain voter approval for any new or increased state taxes. There's nothing groundbreaking about it, as voters in other states have used the ballot box to approve or deny tax initiatives before. But Gavin Newsom and the Democrat-controlled legislature were having none of...

The City of San Francisco is handing out bottles of beer, glasses of wine and shots of vodka to homeless alcoholics - and spending $5m a year on the program. The alcoholic drinks are served by nurses as part of the city's 'managed alcohol program', which has been running for four years, as a way of taking care of vulnerable homeless people. The program is designed to curb the amount of alcohol homeless people drink. It still allows them some, but in a more managed way, in the hope of curbing their addiction in a controlled manner.

Sanctuary states are planning to dish out billions in American taxpayer dollars to migrants in 2024, offering housing, food, and health care, among other things, to the new arrivals that have entered the United States on President Joe Biden’s watch. In New York, legislators approved a $237 billion budget, expected to be signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), that includes about $2.4 billion to provide housing, health care, and legal services to newly arrived migrants. New York State Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt has warned that such funding for migrants will only entice more illegal immigration to the sanctuary state....

The 75 largest cities in America were collectively $288 billion in debt at the end of fiscal year 2022... 53 major cities that do not have enough money to pay their bills. Yet all of them claimed their budgets were balanced, as is required by law. That means lawmakers understated each city’s debt by not including future costs like employee pensions and healthcare ... New York City has a taxpayer burden of $61,800, the largest by far despite being the most populous. The city has only six cents saved up for every dollar it will need to spend on retiree...