Free Republic

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) assailed the Big Beautiful Bill's cuts to Medicaid as "an unfair assault on the heath of America's most vulnerable people. Millions will be denied coverage. Others will be forced to work in order to get health care. When voters find out what Republicans are doing they will vote them out of office." Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind) defended the legislation, saying "if you think about the four things that we're doing in Medicaid to strengthen it, you'll see that we're removing any payments that are illegal, ineligible or duplicate, and we're ensuring that able-bodied adults have a...

Perry Carbone, Attorney for the United States, Acting under Authority Conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 515; Charmeka Parker, the Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General (“USDA-OIG”); and Christopher G. Raia, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation(“FBI”), announced the unsealing of a Superseding Indictment charging six individuals in connection with a sprawling fraud and bribery scheme that generated over $66 million in unauthorized transactions under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”)—colloquially known as food stamps. This is one of the largest food...

Youtuber JohnnieGirl exposes Hoodrat who stole from Ulta Beauty but has section 8 and other things for free. The woman who stealing also claims to be slow and mentally ill. She offered to pay for the stolen items on the spot after being caught. Taxpayers this is where your money is going.

the International Monetary Fund has urged governments to encourage fit, older workers to delay retirement. Its recommendation is that people of the baby boomer generation should stay in work for longer to help balance public finances amid fiscal pressures caused by an ageing global population. The IMF said: “The 70s are the new 50s,” and released data that suggested a person aged 70 in 2022 had the same cognitive function as the average 53-year-old in 2000. Physical health had also significantly improved, the IMF found. Governments burdened with historically high levels of public debt, the IMF said, could not afford...

BOSTON – A Colombian woman, unlawfully residing in Boston, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for identity theft offenses, including receiving rental assistance, Social Security and SNAP benefits, as well as voter fraud under the stolen identity. The defendant also allegedly applied for a United States passport and obtained a Massachusetts Real ID and eight other state IDs. Lina Maria Orovio-Hernandez, 59, was charged in a superseding indictment with one count of false representation of a Social Security number; one count of making a false statement in an application for a United States passport; one count of aggravated...

Down in the swamps of Washington, D.C., our Congress is said to be hard at work hammering out a budget for the coming fiscal year. With a crisis of massive deficits looming, supposedly they are going to come up with some major areas where government spending can be cut. One of the areas under consideration for significant cuts is the program formally known as the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” or SNAP, and informally known as “food stamps.” According to the latest data from the Department of Agriculture, as of February 2025 the SNAP program had some 42+ million “participation persons,”...

For years, Democratic state leaders believed their immigrant programs were free from federal interference. But Republicans in Washington are now threatening to penalize states that continue them.

There are at least six million job openings in the U.S., yet we have a record number of working age men not working. Maybe one reason is the Feds are still paying people welfare not to work. Brad Wilcox and Grant Bailey of the Institute for Family Studies report: The 2024 Current Population Survey indicates that 31% of men ages 25-40 who are not working full-time collected some form of cash or cash-equivalent benefit in the form of food stamps, Social Security for disability, Supplemental Security Income, or unemployment insurance in the prior year. Such benefits are particularly common among...

In his budget plan for fiscal year 2026, President Donald Trump has proposed cutting a total of $32.9 billion in funding to HUD. The plan includes a $26.7 billion cut to federal rental aid — approximately 40% of the total — and would essentially end Section 8 and other housing voucher programs, according to NPR.

The House’s big, beautiful budget bill is bigger than it is beautiful, so it’s worth noting the better parts of the draft. The House Agriculture Committee is moving on a modest welfare reform in food stamps that will resuscitate the program’s connection with work. Americans who manage to sift through the media distortions will approve. By one think-tank estimate, nearly 13 million able-bodied adults were on food stamps in 2022, and the benefit covers some 12% of the U.S. population. People are supposed to work as a condition of benefits, but millions don’t. Live in California? The Biden Administration in...

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) slammed Republicans on Tuesday for proposing major cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps an average of over 42 million Americans purchase food each month. “Folks who paid taxes and played by the rules, expecting that their government will help them if they fall on hard times and you guys want to tell them to all go screw themselves?” he said at a House Agriculture Committee markup meeting...... Experts warn that the bill could lead to more children facing food insecurity just as research shows that work requirements don’t actually lead to a...

A draft of President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” includes a proposal to establish so-called “MAGA” savings accounts for children. The pilot program — described as the “money account for growth and advancement” or “MAGA account” in the GOP bill released on Monday — would give every baby with a Social Security number born in the next few years $1,000. That money will then accumulate interest and value through investments over time — and families and employees can contribute up to $5,000 in the children’ s accounts annually. The goal would be that once the kids become adults they will have...

House Republicans are proposing to bar most non-citizens from receiving taxpayer-funded benefits, including food stamps, in President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill.” GOP lawmakers are pursuing an extensive overhaul of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to help offset the cost of the president’s tax priorities. The House Agriculture Committee will include a provision in their draft bill to restrict SNAP benefits to those who are citizens or lawful permanent residents following Republican Illinois Rep. Mary Miller’s request to the panel to prohibit certain non-citizens from receiving food stamps. “Taxpayer-funded benefits like SNAP are intended for Americans in need,...

The Trump administration announced Monday that it has launched an investigation into California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants, a state program that provides monthly cash benefits to aged, blind, and disabled non-citizens who are ineligible for Social Security benefits due to their immigration status.The investigation began in Los Angeles, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles field office issuing a Title 8 subpoena to California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security said in a news release. According to the department, the subpoena requests all records from the Los Angeles County Department of Public...

Last year, the three federal grantmaking agencies that award funds to arts and culture groups received a total of $708.8 million to award in a nation of 340 million people—or just over $2 per resident. When Deborah Block, artistic director of Philadelphia’s nonprofit theater company Theatre Exile, received word last November that a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts had been approved for the development and production of R. Eric Thomas’ play Glitter in the Glass, she immediately set to work on getting this dramatic piece up and running. Fifteen people—including a stage manager, an assistant stage...

(WHTM) — A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to defrauding the United States Government of over $1 million in SNAP and Medicare benefits. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, James Sessoms, 60, of Philadelphia, pled guilty today to one count of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) fraud, seven counts of false statements in connection with health care benefits, and seven counts of Social Security fraud. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says that in October of 2024, Sessoms was charged by indictment with those offenses after he used stolen identities and Social Security numbers (SSNs) to file for SNAP and Medicaid benefits. The...

Welfare fraud under $25,000 in California could be decriminalized due to Senate Bill 560, which was introduced by State Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D) in February. The bill would decriminalize welfare fraud under that amount in the state for administrative errors, Fox News reported on Monday. According the outlet’s Bill Melugin, “Smallwood-Cuevas represents a large chunk of Los Angeles County, including Mar Vista, West LA, Baldwin Hills, Ladera Heights, Century City, Playa Vista, and part of downtown LA.,” he wrote in a social media post on Monday:

U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer warned states of losing federal funding if they fail to comply with President Donald Trump’s directives on rewarding illegal immigrants with tax dollars, according to an April 25 statement issued by the Department of Labor.“Our nation’s unemployment benefits exist solely for workers who are eligible to receive them,” Chavez-DeRemer wrote in a letter addressed to state governors.“To qualify for unemployment, one must be able and available to work, actively seeking work, and be legally authorized to accept employment in the United States. Unemployment benefits are not a handout for those in our country illegally.”The...

(Washington, D.C., April 24, 2025) – Today, at the direction of U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins, Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services John Walk issued guidance to all State agencies directing them to enhance identity and immigration verification practices when determining eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This guidance is one of many steps toward fulfilling President Trump’s Executive Order 14218, which directs USDA and other federal agencies to “enhance eligibility verification systems, to the maximum extent possible, to ensure that taxpayer funded benefits exclude any ineligible alien.” “President Trump has made...

This week, District of Columbia Judge Ibn al-Murderu ordered the restoration of the USAID funds designated for Hamas that he says "Secretary of State Marco Rubio has illegally canceled. The desire for government efficiency does not override the commitments made by the prior Biden Administration." ACLU spokesperson Bertram Petty praised the ruling, calling it "both correct and humane. Israel has cut off the humanitarian aid to Gaza that Hamas had been pilfering to supplement the contractual payments USAID had been making to the organization. This has made it impossible for Hamas to meet its payroll obligations to its fighters. These...