Free Republic

Help wanted signs have cluttered the windows of many businesses across Wyoming and the United States for months. Businesses want to hire people, but there aren’t enough applicants to fill available positions. It’s a strange economy where people have money to spend, but businesses don’t have enough people wanting to work and earn the money they spend. A new study by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, a free market advocacy group, suggests that excessive unemployment benefits may be one contributing factor. Fewer WorkingThe Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the U.S. workforce participation rate was at 62.1% in November. This was...

(NEXSTAR) – Officials across several U.S. states are warning against a rise in scams that leave SNAP beneficiaries without any money in their account and no other way to buy groceries. One mom in Oklahoma didn’t realize she had been victimized until she tried to buy a $1 drink. Her EBT card was rejected for “insufficient funds,” Nexstar’s KFOR reported. She later found out someone had spent all $462 at a market in Brooklyn, New York. A single father of eight kids, also in Oklahoma, recently had $800 stolen from his account. “I don’t have that extra support. I can’t...

(NEXSTAR) – Millions of America’s older adults will see a bump in the amount they receive in monthly Social Security benefits, starting in January. The increase in payments is the largest in decades at 8.7%, and is designed to help offset the soaring inflation that would otherwise limit recipients’ purchasing power. The bump in benefits is aptly titled a cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA. On average, Social Security benefits will increase in January by more than $140 per month, according to the Social Security Administration (SSA).

The brave Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, is the enemy of all globalist power seekers with her ideas of empowering the people of Italy and saving her country from the ultimate weakness and co-dependent mindset that is needed for greedy globalists to establish dominance in the Italian Republic.Meloni is an Italian politician who has been serving as the prime minister of Italy since 22 October 2022, she is the first woman to hold this position and she is the focus of the media and of the Globalist Communist movement.She is making the news cycles go crazy with talk about...

NEW YORK (AP) — The Biden administration has officially undone a Trump-era rule that barred immigrants from gaining legal residency if they had utilized certain government benefits, allowing for a return to a previous policy with a narrower scope. The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday said a new regulation for the “public charge” rule would go into effect in late December, although the Biden administration had already stopped applying the previous version last year. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement that the shift “ensures fair and humane treatment.” “Consistent with America’s bedrock values, we will not...

Supporters of a plan to expand benefits for millions of veterans exposed to toxic substances and fumes are furious after a surprising defeat in a Senate procedural vote left the bill in limbo. Veterans advocates and lawmakers who support the bill are vowing to keep fighting for its passage, framing Wednesday night's shocking development as a delay rather than a defeat. Still, it's a delay they say could cost cancer-stricken veterans their lives as they wait for care and should be blamed on a group of Republican senators they described as "liars," "hypocrites" and "cowards." "How are these people human?...

The Biden administration plans to launch an initiative providing temporary I.D. cards to migrants awaiting decisions on their immigration proceedings so they can more easily access services and government benefits. Illegal immigrants and asylum-seeking migrants awaiting final decisions on their cases often have difficulty getting housing, healthcare and transportation without identification cards. In order to relieve some of these obstacles, and serve as a mutual benefit to the government, officials are now considering a pilot program that would provide I.D. cards while incentivizing checks ins and more frequent communication with law enforcement throughout immigration proceedings, two sources familiar with planning...

Your retirement planning likely includes getting income from the Social Security Administration, but when you start collecting Social Security benefits can have a big impact on your planning. The earliest you can collect is age 62, but you'll get more money if you delay your benefits past your initial Social Security eligibility. If you wait until after your full retirement age (somewhere between 65 and 67) to start collecting Social Security you can earn delayed retirement credits, which will increase your benefits even more. You might think that waiting for bigger benefits is better, but that's not always the case....

Some 40,000 National Guard and 22,000 Reserve soldiers who refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 are no longer allowed to participate in their military duties, also effectively cutting them off from some of their military benefits, Army officials announced Friday. "Soldiers who refuse the vaccination order without an approved or pending exemption request are subject to adverse administrative actions, including flags, bars to service, and official reprimands," an Army spokesperson said in a statement. The move comes in the midst of the annual training season, during which part-time soldiers are often ordered to serve from two weeks to a month...

Just when the wife of one incarcerated Jan. 6 prisoner believed things couldn’t get worse, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) informed her they are going to suspend all of her husband’s benefits. According to United States Representative Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), “this is what you have when vindictive leftists get in charge of major parts of the government.” In an unsigned letter from the VA—dated June 13 and appearing to originate from the “Director Regional Office,”—Angel and Kenneth Harrelson were notified that the administration “received information from the United States Department of Justice” that Kenneth had been “indicted and charged...

An official with the Social Security Administration said seniors and others who rely on the benefits program are likely to receive a cost-of-living adjustment "closer to 8%" at the end of 2022 due to the current rate of inflation, which is the highest in four decades. That increase would represent the biggest-cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, since 1981. The average monthly Social Security check is about $1,658, which means beneficiaries could see an increase of $132.64 per month in early 2023, bringing the average check to about $1,790. The agency's COLA takes effect in December, with the updated benefits paid out...

A German state agency has said that it will likely soon be providing over 400,000 more Ukrainian migrants with unemployment benefits over the next few weeks. A total of around 410,000 migrants ostensibly from Ukraine will soon be on the German dole, with hundreds of thousands more on top of that expected to end up receiving unemployment benefit in the central European state before the end of the year. This is the assessment of Germany’s Federal Employment Agency, which is already reportedly giving handouts to millions of migrants under the so-called “Hartz IV” scheme. According to a report by Die...

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended the Biden Administration’s policy of releasing illegal immigrants with criminal records inside the US, calling it “a key fundamental principle of implementing alternatives to incarceration.” “Look, here’s the deal,” Mayorkas said. “Throughout history criminals have been a part of every society. It would be abnormal and inequitable for us to try to impede their necessary migration toward habitats that can better support their needs. Of necessity, this means that wealthier societies must expect to bear a fairer share of the burdens of dealing with them. Insisting that our borders be closed to...

It's a good goal to retire with your mortgage paid off so you don't have mortgage payments hanging over your head while you're on a more fixed income in retirement. It can also be very helpful to not have your Social Security benefits taxed. Fully 37 states -- plus the District of Columbia -- don't tax Social Security benefits. See whether your state does -- and if so, if it taxes benefit holders in a meaningful way. SNIP Here are the 37 states that do not tax your Social Security benefits: Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii...

The Supreme Court of the United States denied certain military veterans a chance at greater retirement benefits in a nearly unanimous opinion authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Thursday. Justice Neil Gorsuch bucked the 8-1 majority and would have allowed a subset of veterans to recoup more Social Security funds after their service ended. Stylized as Babcock v. Kijakazi, the case turns on the Social Security Act’s so-called “windfall elimination provision,” which is a statute designed by Congress to reduce Social Security payments for retirees who receive separate pension payments. Such retirees would otherwise, in Congress’s view, receive a...

A Trump Administration effort to track sex crimes committed by teachers against students was canceled by the Biden Administration. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona explained that "there are two main reasons why we feel the Trump policy must be discarded. First and foremost, any Trump policy that can be undone has to be a good thing. Second, sexual offenses by teachers against students are so rare that it seems a waste of time and money to try to even track it, much less punish it." "Most of the recent cases have involved female teachers having inappropriate contact with male students,"...

Two months after the Pentagon began requiring all troops to get the coronavirus vaccine or face dismissal, the vast majority have now had shots, in part because none received a religious exemption, military officials said. https://t.co/3zpPg5hpG6 — NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) November 4, 2021 Troops who refuse the coronavirus vaccine won’t see any extra protections or leniency in how their dismissals are handled, Defense and Veterans Affairs officials confirmed Wednesday. Instead, decisions on whether to give those individuals other-than-honorable discharges — potentially blocking them from a host of veterans benefits — will be left to local commanders, and their cases won’t...

The more things change, the more they remain the same. It’s an old adage, but it’s held true over the centuries. Forgetting to check the weather report and being caught in a storm without an umbrella. Rude people on airplanes. The loud man at the bar brazenly boasting of his far-fetched accomplishments. It’s a different day, a different storm. A different flight, a different person. A different bar, a different loud man. The circumstances change, but the feeling is still the same. While this feeling of déjà vu can creep into our personal lives all too often, it’s now spilling...

The latest annual report from the Social Security Trustees showed the insecurity of social security.According to the July 2021 snapshot from the Social Security Administration, nearly 70-million people receive a monthly benefit check, of which 51.3 million are over the age of 65.Social Security provides the majority of income to most elderly Americans. The system provides at least 50 percent of incomes for about half of seniors. For roughly 1 in 4 seniors, it provides at least 90 percent of total incomes. But, that dependency ratio is directly tied to the financial insolvency of the vast majority of Americans. According...

A man in Austria kept his mother's "mummified" body in the basement for more than a year after she died to continue collecting her pension and care benefits, Tyrol police said in a news release on Thursday. The unidentified 66-year-old man from Tyrol in West Austria told police that his 89-year-old mother died at home in mid-2020, per the news release. Officials said the mother was believed to have had dementia, Austrian national public service broadcaster ORF reported. The man stored his mother's body with ice packs to prevent odor and used bandages to soak up fluids, police officer Helmuth...