Free Republic

Ask any budget expert in Washington to explain the ballooning deficit and debt, and Social Security and Medicare will be high on the list of causes. That’s wrong. The real driver, the elephant in the room, is means-tested social-welfare spending—Medicaid, food stamps, refundable tax credits, Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, federal housing subsidies and almost 100 other programs whose eligibility is limited to those below an income threshold. True, Social Security and Medicare are a drain on general revenue and will become big fiscal problems if not reformed. But they aren’t the major source of our current...

Vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) said Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that Vice President Kamala Harris’s main thrust of her economic policy is to “throw everybody on welfare.” Co-host Joe Kernen said, “Given that as we now know, people’s economic beliefs can evolve, as we’ve seen maybe from, you know, former President Trump’s opponent, but I’m wondering whether yours have evolved? Because then we’ll get into some of the things you said in the part and how much daylight right now is there between what you believe and what would I call you an economic populist? Is there...

Ask any budget expert in Washington to explain the ballooning deficit and debt, and Social Security and Medicare will be high on the list of causes. That’s wrong. The real driver, the elephant in the room, is means-tested social-welfare spending—Medicaid, food stamps, refundable tax credits, Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, federal housing subsidies and almost 100 other programs whose eligibility is limited to those below an income threshold. True, Social Security and Medicare are a drain on general revenue and will become big fiscal problems if not reformed. But they aren’t the major source of our current...

Massachusetts welfare recipients have been using their EBT cards while on tropical vacations to Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and other trips thousands of miles away from their home state, an investigation by the Boston Herald revealed. Public records obtained by the outlet showed dozens of EBT card expenditures at several popular vacation destinations, including California, Florida, and Alaska, as well numerous holiday islands. While the federal and state governments spent $3 billion on the taxpayer-funded EBT cards in Massachusetts during Fiscal Year 2024, 32 charges were made in Hawaii — with the largest expenditure being $378 on the...

Single-mother families make up one in five American families with children under 18. I grew up in one of them. Solo parenting is no easy feat. Even though my Philadelphia childhood was filled with happy memories, we went through hardship, too. I remember how stressed my mom would get about making ends meet. In high school, while I spent hours on homework, she was in court fighting not to lose our house. Too many single moms like mine face unnecessary economic insecurity that jeopardizes the wellbeing of their families. While some argue marriage is the best solution, what really uplifts...

Harris will propose providing up to $25K in down payment support for 1st time homeowners, with more generous support for 1st generation homeowners, according to campaign official She'll announce tomorrow in NC, along w/ her plan to ban corporate price-gouging on groceries

A recent study confirms that universal basic income—no-strings-attached benefit checks offered to recipients regardless of need or contribution to the program—discourages work. That’s relevant to the presidential race. Kamala Harris has called more than once for paying UBI-like benefits. Participants in the UBI program worked nearly 1½ hours less a week on average, and unemployment rose. Other adults in recipient households reduced their work effort, too. Overall, the study found for every dollar in benefits, “total household income excluding the transfers fell by at least 21 cents.” As vice president, Ms. Harris cast the deciding vote to create a temporary...

London (PTI) -- Anjem Choudary, a radical Islamist preacher with dual British and Pakistani nationality, was on Tuesday jailed for life with a minimum term of 28 years behind bars by a UK court for directing a terrorist organisation.Choudary, 57, had been found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court of directing Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) and encouraging support for the proscribed organisation through online meetings. Sentencing him at the same court to a prison term means he would be in his 80s by the time he can seek parole. Justice Mark Wall told Choudary his behaviour was of the “highest culpability”. “Organisations such...

Choudary: Refuses to discuss his dissolute youth At 39, Anjem Choudary should be a symbol of success for his peers. Born into the working-class family of a market trader in Welling on the outskirts of London, he has risen - thanks to the opportunities offered by the British education system - to become a qualified lawyer. But it is unlikely his old school will be inviting him to be guest speaker on prize-giving day. Their former pupil is not famous for his elegant oratory in court. Instead, the articulate Mr Choudary preaches hatred and murder in the streets of Britain...

It's one of the wealthiest states in America, with residents of its fanciest zip code luxuriating in $3 million red-brick apartments. But the writing is on the wall for Massachusett, says an alarming new study. The 50,000 non-legal migrants who've entered the state since Joe Biden became president are putting a costly strain on schools, healthcare, and other services. Jessica Vaughan, author of the report for the Center for Immigration Studies , says the state is destined for bankruptcy. That's because migrants will drain state coffers of a staggering $1.8 trillion over the next two years. Even though some non-legal...

More Than 1 Million Families Will Get a Supplemental Payment of up to $330 per Child Through the Empire State Child Credit $2.6 Billion Delivered to New Yorkers in Supplemental Payments Since 2022

Three years ago, San Francisco launched an experiment to give 150 pregnant Black and Pacific Islander women $1,000 a month, no strings attached, for the duration of their pregnancy and six months after the birth. *** Now, that effort is almost certainly about to come to a screeching halt. And another guaranteed income program to assist San Francisco’s transgender residents — who are 18 times more likely to experience homelessness than the general population — already has been shut down. Participants were only given a month’s notice before being cut off. *** So, how could two successful programs, lauded by...

During their presidential debate two weeks ago former President Trump asserted that "Biden is destroying Social Security. Millions of people are illegally entering the country and he's putting them on Social Security and Medicare. This will wipe out these programs." Biden's response during the debate was "we beat Social Security." Social Security was originally sold to Americans as a plan where they paid a share of their wages while they were working in order to receive benefits when they retired. But Democrats have made so many revisions to the program that people who have never paid anything into the program...

“Which country in the world allows itself to be exploited in this manner?”.. The argument that mass migration is needed to support GDP levels and pay for pensions took another blow when it was revealed 47.3% of welfare recipients in Germany are foreign migrants. According to newly released government statistics, nearly half of the 5.49 million people in Germany on benefits are foreign migrants, four percentage points higher than in 2022. €42.6 billion euros is now being paid out in welfare compared to to €36.6 billion in 2022. “In addition, there was another record €6.3 billion worth of administration costs...

Who needs U.S. citizenship, or for that matter, legal authorization to live in the U.S. when you've got Joe Biden's open borders? That looks like the story with illegals receiving Social Security benefits, a lifetime benefit that until recently had been perceived as nominally reserved for U.S. citizens, not illegal border crossers, and which Democrats are now trying to debunk. At the debate, NewsNation reported that Trump said:“Social Security … he’s destroying it because millions of people are pouring into our country and they’re putting them onto Social Security,” Trump said. “They’re putting ‘em onto Medicare and Medicaid. Putting them...

When you pay taxes, remember that the bottom 20% of income earners do almost no work, do not pay taxes, and receive government aid. The next lowest 20% pay minimal taxes but also receive government support.

On Friday’s edition of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) argued against cuts to SNAP benefits because “people are aching” due to inflation, but argued that’s not Joe Biden’s fault and there were supply chain issues. After discussing crop insurance, Jackson said, [relevant remarks begin around 1:05:50] “I’ve come to look at SNAP as food insurance and family insurance that the government uses. So, when people cannot do for themselves, I think the government should help them. When the people can do for themselves, the government needs to step back. Right now, people are aching. There’s been auto...

A group of several dozen migrants joined liberal Democrat politicians in New York City on Thursday to protest for even more government benefits for “newcomers.” The New York Immigration Coalition joined a group of elected Democrat officials on the steps of City Hall to demand more money from the city budget to be dedicated to migrants, according to Caribbean Life. The activists demanded an array of higher spending, including an additional $109 million for free legal services for immigrants, $5 million for language services, $25 million in support for two city programs for illegal aliens, and an end to policies...

Artificial intelligence scientist Geoffrey Hinton, known as the “Godfather of AI,” is urging the British government to enforce a universal basic income (UBI) to cope with the impact of AI technology. Universal basic income is a social welfare system in which the government provides every citizen with a standard minimum income. These payments are unconditional and transferred to citizens on a regular basis without any pre-qualification. The concept is in keeping with the Marxist ideal of wealth redistribution and has been proposed by socialist figures such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Hinton told BBC Newsnight that a universal basic income...

An alarming study has spotlighted how 42 million food stamp recipients spend their welfare handouts on ultra-processed junk food. Coca-Cola, Sprite and other soft drinks are the most commonly-bought items via the $135 billion-a-year Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a new study says. Candy, potato chips, frozen pizza, ice cream, cookies, and other ultra-processed food dominates the top 20 items, says a report from the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC). Report author Matthew Dickerson says recipients spend 'spend significant portions of their allotments on junk food.' These 'non-nutritious foods' include 'sugary beverages and ultra-processed foods, which can lead to poor...