Free Republic

Despite the ongoing budget concerns, commissioners voted 4–1 this week to allocate funding for the 2025 Gay Softball World Series. The measure, sponsored by Garcia, dedicates $468,610 to the tournament, with Ramsey casting the lone “no” vote. Garcia said the money would come in part from a tourism fund designed to attract events that bring visitors to the county. However, while part of the funding does come from that tourism fund, the other part comes from Precinct 2’s General Fund—largely supported by property taxes. In effect, at least 50 percent of the $468,610 will come from local property tax revenue...

GENEVA, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The International Labour Organization is assessing the impact of a $107 million funding cut proposed by the Trump administration to the Geneva-based U.N. agency, according to an internal message reviewed by Reuters. Staff at the ILO, which promotes international labour rights, told Reuters there are fears of further job cuts as the U.S., which contributes 22% of the ILO's regular budget, seeks to row back on funding. President Donald Trump has moved to unilaterally cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid authorised by Congress for a number of international programmes, including a $107 million cut to...

Kansas City’s $50 million experiment with free bus fare is hitting the brakes — because the city can no longer afford it. Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s socialist proposals — including free buses in the five boroughs and Soviet-style, city-owned grocery stores — are now 0-2 when tried elsewhere, after Kansas City’s own venture with a government-run grocery abruptly closed earlier this month. The Midwest city used federal COVID-19 relief money in 2020 to become the first in the country to institute free buses. But local funding dried up, and riders and conductors slammed the buses as unreliable, filthy, rolling homeless...

President Donald Trump’s administration is considering a move, called a “pocket rescission,” that would effectively rescind federal funding and potentially bypass congressional approval, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said on July 27.The strategy occurs when a president submits a rescission proposal under the Impoundment Control Act—requesting Congress to cancel previously appropriated funds—within 45 days of the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30. The funds are withheld during the 45-day congressional review period, and if Congress doesn’t act before the fiscal year ends, the funds expire.When a rescission request is made outside of the fiscal year-end window,...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says he will seek progressive revenue solutions to address a budget deficit without raising property taxes.

Eighty billion dollars flushed down the toilet, as air traffic controllers were stuck using equipment dating from the Carter era. Democrat frontrunner for 2028 Pete Buttigieg, is the kind of guy who could give California's Gov. Gavin Newsom or Los Angeles's mayor, Karen Bass, a run for the money. Amid news of an aircraft near collision over North Dakota, following a disastrous similar military-civilian crash in Washington, D.C. in January, we learn this about how he ran the cabinet office he headed, the U.S. Department of Transportation. So while he was 'breast-feeding' his twins and telling us about his 'husband,'...

For a party with such distrust in the mainstream media, Republicans certainly put a lot of stock in the headlines about PEPFAR. While thousands of people would most certainly not die from the targeted cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Senate Republicans are determined to keep throwing taxpayer dollars at the Democrats’ woke programs in the name of “foreign aid.” In a blow to Donald Trump’s goal to end government bloat and abuse, moderate senators — led by Susan Collins (R-Maine) — threw a tantrum over the White House’s plan to shave a fraction ($400 million) of...

The House gave final approval to President Donald Trump's request to claw back about $9 billion in funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid early Friday. The vote marked the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted such a rescissions request to Congress, and the White House suggested it won't be the last. Some Republicans who indicated they were uncomfortable with the cuts,yet supported them anyway. “The money that we're clawing back in this rescissions package is the people's money. We ought not to forget that,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., chair of the House Rules Committee....

The House gave final approval to President Donald Trump’s request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid early Friday as Republicans intensified their efforts to target institutions and programs they view as bloated or out of step with their agenda. The vote marked the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted such a rescissions request to Congress, and the White House suggested it won’t be the last. Some Republicans were uncomfortable with the cuts, yet supported them anyway, wary of crossing Trump or upsetting his agenda. The House passed the bill by...

Our country cannot get its fiscal house in order unless and until it starts slowing the explosion of Medicare spending.The budget reconciliation measure Congress recently passed includes some important reforms designed to help reduce entitlement spending. But any realistic assessment of the nation’s fiscal position reinforces why Washington must go much further in reducing spending than the half-measures enacted in recent weeks.In March, as lawmakers were beginning debate on the “big, beautiful bill,” the Congressional Budget Office released its annual version of the “Long-Term Budget Outlook,” which features economic and budgetary projections for the next three decades. The CBO report...

It’s finally passed and heading for President Trump's desk for signature. The recissions package has made it over the finish line in a 216-213 vote in the House. It had to be bounced back from the Senate, which passed it on a 51-48 vote, as the upper chamber had made slight adjustments to it during the vote-a-rama process. The GOP has slim majorities in Congress, but they’re getting the Trump agenda through. 216-213:House approved the Trump WH's 1st round of DOGE spending cuts, $9B in foreign aid & public broadcasting from previously approved funding by Congress. Republicans Fitzpatrick (PA) &...

Senate Republicans blasted through Democratic and internal opposition to pass President Donald Trump’s multibillion-dollar clawback package early Thursday morning. The final vote tally was 51-48, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining every Democrat in voting against it. The package will now be sent to the House, which has until Friday to pass it. The $9 billion rescissions bill tees up cuts to "woke" spending on foreign aid programs and NPR and PBS that Congress previously approved. Republicans have pitched the bill as building on their quest to root out waste, fraud and abuse...

While headlines chase shadows and social media churns with conspiracies about Jeffrey Epstein, something far more serious—yet underreported—is unfolding: America just ran a budget surplus in June.That’s right — the U.S. government, long buried under record-breaking deficits, posted a $27 billion surplus, the first for that month in eight years. And it wasn’t a fluke. It was driven largely by one policy move: tariffs.Back in April, critics warned that Donald Trump’s newly announced “Liberation Day” tariffs would tank the economy.Instead, those tariffs have proven to be a financial engine.Trump invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to declare a...

The U.S. government posted a surplus in June as tariffs gave an extra bump to a sharp increase in receipts, the Treasury Department said Friday. With government red ink swelling throughout the year, last month saw a surplus of just over $27 billion, following a $316 billion deficit in May. That brought the fiscal year-to-date deficit to $1.34 trillion, up 5% from a year ago. However, with calendar adjustment, the deficit actually edged lower by 1%. There are three months left in the current fiscal year. A 13% increase in receipts from the same month a year ago helped bridge...

We’re told that passing President Trump’s $9.4 billion rescission package – the one that would eliminate much of the funding for NPR and PBS (they can hold telethons) and some modest cuts in foreign aid – is a tough sell in the Senate. Apparently, the Cookie Monster desperately needs tax dollars.’ It passed the House so the Senate needs to toughen up and get it done. If they can’t cut the budget by 0.13% or the deficit by 0.5% we are sunk.Fortunately, Trump is tightening the screws ahead of the July 18 deadline. We will keep you posted.

President Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill is one step closer to becoming law — and reshaping policy from Medicaid to taxes. The House passed the massive spending bill on Thursday afternoon in a 218-214 vote. Every Democrat voted against the bill, along with two Republicans: Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. The final passage came after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke for roughly eight hours and 45 minutes in opposition to the bill, breaking the record for the longest House floor speech in American history. The bill now heads to Trump's desk for signing, which...

If you like all the Science NASA has done since 1961, then wave it all goodby. NASA budget cut to the lowest since 1961 - before there was a manned space program. No more Rovers, probes, [ even 99942 Apophis probes cut, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis ]. There are no private entities that can or will pick up the slack. Cuts to Hubble and to Webb will leave them orbiting junk. Coupled with the possible collapse of SpaceX from 47's vengeance feud with Musk, the US will no longer have a space program - civilian or military. These twin disasters in the making...

With the passage of the BBB by the Senate today, one of the issues I was interested in was what happened to plans to eliminate Medicaid funding for illegal immigrants. And it's actually a bit difficult to figure out what is going to happen now.So the backstory here is that the feds haven't agreed to directly fund Medicaid for illegal immigrants anywhere. However, some states have rolled out versions of Medicaid which cover some illegal immigrants using state funds. California in particular has expanded Medical to cover all immigrants who meet the income threshold. However, that expansion cost the state...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed on Friday a budget that pares back a number of progressive priorities, including a landmark health care expansion for low-income adult illegal immigrants, to close a $12 billion deficit. It’s the third year in a row the nation’s most populous state has been forced to slash funding or stop some of the programs championed by Democratic leaders. Lawmakers passed the budget earlier in the day following an agreement of a $321 billion spending plan between Newsom and Democratic leaders. But the whole budget will be void if lawmakers don’t send him legislation to make it...

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told Senate Republicans to expect to see the legislative text of the budget reconciliation package on Friday evening and then to vote at noon Saturday to begin debate on President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” Several GOP senators, however, refused to say whether they would vote to proceed to the bill, including Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he’s a hard “no” on the legislation because it includes a provision to raise the debt limit by $5 trillion.