Fascinating!-----How Gates, Soros, and Ford Use "Equity" to Hijack Federal Grants

The moral halo of philanthropy is one of the most impenetrable armors in American public life. -@amuse

Wrapped in the rhetoric of generosity and reform, large foundations like the Gates Foundation, Soros' Open Society, and the Ford Foundation operate under the assumption that doing good excuses their methods. 

But methods matter. 

Especially when those methods amount to a private-to-public laundering operation, designed to seed ideologically rigid organizations with just enough early capital to unlock the federal coffers. 

What follows is not generosity, but influence peddling, and not in the margins, but at scale.
Let us begin with a familiar model: private equity. 

When George Soros breaks a currency or Bill Gates acquires a company, they begin not with domination, but with leverage. A modest injection of capital, paired with structure, timing, and most importantly debt, can produce wildly asymmetrical returns. That same logic is now applied not to companies or commodities, but to ideology. The left-wing philanthropic giants fund non-governmental organizations (NGOs) whose only product is political conformity. They seed them with grants, polish their proposals, and send them, briefcase in hand, to Washington. The return on investment is swift and staggering...

The scale is almost unfathomable. 

Private foundations make more than $100 billion in grants available to NGOs each year. Those NGOs, freshly seeded and polished, in turn raise nearly $900 billion from the federal government in additional grants. The leverage is nine to one. For every dollar a foundation donates, the federal government grants nine...

Education Secretary Linda McMahon reveals greedy truth behind student loan forgiveness

President Trump’s education boss Linda McMahon has defended the administration’s decision to resume student loan debt collections — insisting that greedy colleges have “profited massively” from Biden-era forgiveness measures. 

In a fiery Wall Street Journal op-ed addressing the move, the education secretary blamed the Biden administration and universities for making “empty promises to students while pocketing their loan dollars.”

• “Colleges and universities call themselves nonprofits, but for years they have profited massively off the federal subsidy of loans, hiking tuition and piling up multibillion-dollar endowments while students graduate six figures in the red,” McMahon wrote.
• “A widely cited 2015 study found that for every dollar of increased federal caps on subsidized loans, colleges raised tuition by 60 cents,” she continued.
• “Many of the degree-granting programs that qualify for student loans are worthless on the job market, but colleges continue to accept students to these programs and encourage them to borrow to pay for them...

Trump's Education Boss Exposes How Biden's Debt Forgiveness Was 'Massively' Profitable

Trump's Education Boss Exposes How Biden's Debt Forgiveness Was 'Massively' Profitable: 

She pointed to their practices of “hiking tuition and piling up multibillion-dollar endowments.” Meanwhile, students “graduate six figures in the red.”

McMahon cited a 2015 study to back her claim. It found that “for every dollar of increased federal caps on subsidized loans, colleges raised tuition by 60 cents.”

She criticized universities for offering “worthless” degrees. “Colleges continue to accept students to these programs and encourage them to borrow to pay for them,” she wrote.

McMahon emphasized fairness in her approach.

All ruled by democrats! And billion$$ in free money!-----Even after bankruptcy, Detroit is in debt

Watchdog group counts the tally as $1,600 per taxpayer - John LaPlante 

The news comes more than a decade after the city entered federal bankruptcy court.
The Financial State of the Cities, published in late February by Truth in Accounting, reports that the nation’s 75 of the nation’s largest cities had $300.7 billion in debt. 

Public officials in 53 cities “have not included the full cost of government in their budget calculations,” said the Illinois-based nonprofit focused on public information about governmental finances.

• Detroit had $4.8 billion in bills but only $4.4 billion available at the end of the 2024 fiscal year, leaving a shortfall of $381.8 million, or $1,600 per taxpayer, the report said.
• Detroit is $1.6 billion short of the money it needs to pay its pension obligations and $1.4 million short of what it needs to pay its retirees’ health insurance expenses, according to Truth in Accounting...

DOGE's top 5 BIGGEST cuts

Government workers bought luxury cars with YOUR tax dollars - Glenn Beck

President Trump has only been in office for a month, and already, he seems to have accomplished more than most presidents do in their entire careers...

• DOGE is part of Trump's initiative to curb runaway government spending and to start to chip away at the Fed's crushing debt. At the time this article was written, U.S. debt sat at over $36 trillion, with an estimated $1.9 trillion a year federal budget deficit.
•  According to the U.S. debt clock, Musk and the DOGE crew have already saved more than $136 billion, and that number only keeps growing.

To help track DOGE's progress, we've assembled a list of their top five biggest cuts:

1. USAID - The United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, has been hit with the some of largest cuts out of any government agency and will potentially even be shut down. This comes after Musk and his team revealed theabsurd things USAID was funding, including a transgender opera in Colombia. The total cut came out to approximately $6.5 billion.
2. Department of Education...

Don't buy Dems' lies: The GOP isn't stripping Medicaid from millions of Americans

Get ready to be bombarded with ghoulish ads warning about grandmothers dying and children denied needed cancer treatments “just to make billionaires like Elon Musk even richer.” - Betsy McCaughey 

The ads, paid for by a Democratic PAC, started running Monday. 

And Monday night Democrats attending President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress held up paddles with the message “Save Medicaid.”
It’s demagoguery in full swing to combat Republican efforts to control federal spending on Medicaid and stabilize the nation’s debt...

Gov. Kathy Hochul is claiming, “House Republicans just voted to rip health care away from up to 1.8 million New Yorkers — all to bankroll giveaways for billionaires.”...

These are lies. The needy are not going to lose their health care, and the demagogues know it.

• To control Medicaid spending, Republicans are calling for a “work requirement” for able-bodied adults without children or an elderly dependent...

I love it when I listen to progressives in the investment community bemoan the #DOGE cuts to government as something that will collapse the economy and the markets.

But here's what will collapse the economy: Mounting debt and deficits. That is $37 trillion in debt and counting- Charles Gasparino | Facebook

• Yes, it will slow things down as we reduce spending on garbage like trans dance festivals and the vast federal bureaucracy of jobs that any company would have downsized decades ago. 
• When we make cuts to entitlements--and yes they will be coming-there will be some pain. That is until we reap the benefits of smaller government: Less debt, and more accountable government, less spending and less need for taxes AND tax cuts. 
• Deporting migrants means fewer people tapping into Medicare and Medicaid...

We were heading for a showdown with the bond market and you never want the market to impose it's brand discipline on the size of government; that's when you truly have Armageddon...

Lawler: DOGE Is Doing a 'Comprehensive Forensic Audit' of the Federal Government

Lawler: DOGE Is Doing a 'Comprehensive Forensic Audit' of the Federal Government: 

Lawler added, “When you’re staring down $36 trillion in debt and counting, you know, obviously, something has to give. And I think that’s what we’re seeing right now, a comprehensive forensic audit of every department and agency in the federal government.”

Mark Calabria on Mortgages, Interest Rates, and Debt

Critics argue they serve mostly to make the financial system riskier and more statist. - Christian Britschgi 

• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac distort the housing market, explains Mike Pence's former chief economist.

One such critic is Mark Calabria, the former head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency that has acted as conservator of the GSEs since 2008. In an interview with Reason's Christian Britschgi, he argues that Fannie and Freddie do little to expand homeownership.

What Fannie and Freddie provide is not a homeownership subsidy but a home debt subsidy. And we have seen this repeatedly, whether it's the mortgage introduction, whether it's mortgage credit subsidies—these things work through the demand channel, not the supply channel. To the extent that it is increasing the mortgage market, it's increasing mortgage demand, which if you're not doing anything about supply is only going to run up prices...

Biden-Harris regime able to eliminate 1 million native-born jobs in a year * WorldNetDaily * by Owen Klinsky, Daily Caller News Foundation

Biden-Harris regime able to eliminate 1 million native-born jobs in a year * WorldNetDaily * by Owen Klinsky, Daily Caller News Foundation: 

"Biden's economic legacy, besides 40-year-high inflation and record debt, could perhaps best be described as transforming the American labor market into a temp agency for foreign workers and government bureaucrats," E.J. Antoni, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation's Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, told the Daily Caller News Foundation regarding the increasing disparity between foreign and native-born employment. "He [Biden] has left behind blue collar America to import new blue voters."

How To Cut $2 Trillion Of Fat From The Federal Budget

"A goal of $2 trillion of budget savings is crucial to the very future of Constitutional democracy and capitalist prosperity in America." - Quoth the Raven - By David Stockman, Brownstone Institute

• For want of doubt, just recall this sequence. When Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 on a call to bring the nation’s inflationary budget under control, the public debt was $1 trillion.
• By the time Donald Trump was elected the first time it had erupted to $20 trillion, which has now become $36 trillion. 
• And under current built-in spending and tax policies it will hit $60 trillion by the end of the current 10-year budget window...

7 Ridiculous Examples of Government Waste in 2023 - Intellectual Takeout

Almost nobody doubts that the federal government wastes a lot of money. - Patrick Carroll

But just how much money is wasted?..

The report for 2023 came out on December 22, and as usual, the stories spanned the range from hilarious to deeply disconcerting. 

In all, Paul identified $900 billion in government waste from 2023.
Here are some of the highlights.

• $659 Billion for Interest on the National Debt...
• $6 Million to Boost Egyptian Tourism...
• Training DHS Employees to Be Their ‘Authentic & Best Selves’...

Biden-Harris reckless spending added TRILLIONS to national debt * WorldNetDaily * by Andrew Powell

Biden-Harris reckless spending added TRILLIONS to national debt * WorldNetDaily * by Andrew Powell: 

According to commentary from the Heritage Foundation, the Biden-Harris team has increased the federal debt by $7.4 trillion, and spent another $1 trillion from the treasury. EJ Antoni, research fellow at the Grover M. Hermann Center located at the Heritage Foundation, stated those who cannot pay their bills only have to look to the Biden administration for someone to blame.

Instapundit - WRAP YOUR HEAD AROUND THIS

the present government debt equals 93 percent of all the wealth generated in this country since the Constitution was ratified - Mark Tapscott

• Take all of the wealth — $152 Trillion — generated by every American since the first day this nation existed under the U.S. Constitution. 
• Now compare that with the total federal debt, including all debts, liabilities and unfunded obligations — $142 Trillion.
• In other words, the present government debt equals 93 percent of all the wealth generated in this country since the Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states in 1778, according to Just Facts’ James Agresti. 

Buying votes with YOUR money!-----Biden's student loan forgiveness plan suffers huge blow as two federal judges block key measure that would cost nation $160 BILLION - here's what if means for you | Daily Mail Online

Biden's student loan forgiveness plan suffers huge blow as two federal judges block key measure that would cost nation $160 BILLION - here's what if means for you | Daily Mail Online   

By STEPHEN M. LEPORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and REUTERS

• Joe Biden's student debt relief plan suffered a major hit Monday as two federal judges partially blocked a measure of a plan that is costing the nation $160 billion...

Lunch video-----$1 Trillion in Interest Every Year: The Crushing Reality of Federal Debt

Victor Davis Hanson - Why Are They Destroying Us?

If someone wished to destroy America, could he do anything more catastrophic than what we currently see and hear each day? - Victor Davis Hanson

"What would an existential enemy do that we have not already done to ourselves? 

• Here are eleven now familiar steps to civilizational destruction: 

1) Wipe out a 2,000 mile border. Allow 10-million foreign nationals to enter unlawfully. Have no audit of any; nullify all federal immigration laws. Let toxic drugs in that kill 100,000 Americans a year. Give free support for those millions who broke the law. Smear any objectors as racists and xenophobes. 

2) Run up $35 trillion in national debt. Keep adding $1 trillion to it each 100 days. Defame anyone wishing to cut wild spending as cruel and inhumane. 

3). Appease or subsidize enemies like Iran and China. Demonize allies like Israel. Allow terrorists to attack Americans without response...

How to Repair the Key Bridge Without Breaking the Bank

Fortunately, it’s possible for Washington to help Maryland rebuild the bridge without driving the nation deeper into debt. - David Ditch / @davidaditch 

• First, all officials must be clear that the cost of rebuilding should mostly or entirely fall on the owners and operators of the ship...
• Second, there’s no need for Congress to authorize new funding to begin the process of clearing the channel and rebuilding the bridge. In 2021, Congress passed a five-year, $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, the largest portion of which is devoted to roads and bridges. 

Rather than simply adding to the long-term debt, Congress has many options to repurpose funds from the 2021 bill, including:

• Canceling the administration’s $3.1 billion grant to California’s wildly dysfunctional high-speed rail project.
• Reducing federal spending on programs for low-priority, local-only infrastructure such as hiking trails, bike paths, and sidewalks.
• Pulling forward highway and bridge funds from allocations for 2025 and 2026 so they are available for the project starting in 2024...

Our debt-ridden economy is not strong and healthy - Detroit News

Our debt-ridden economy is not strong and healthy - Detroit News 

"Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had a friendly chat last week at the Detroit Economic Club, during which they marveled at the health of the U.S. economy...

• The “healthy” economy was propped up by $1.7 trillion in deficit spending in 2023, an amount equal to 28% of total revenues.
• None of us would consider our household finances healthy if we were putting a quarter of our spending on credit cards we never pay down.
• Earlier this month, the federal debt hit $34 trillion. That's a five-fold increase over the past 20 years. The Treasury reached that mark five years ahead of projections.
• In his three years as spender in chief, Biden has added roughly $6 trillion to the national debt.
• Donald Trump, his predecessor and current rival in the presidential campaign, added $8 trillion over four years. So don't expect fiscal discipline to be touted on the campaign trail this year.
• It should be front and center. Per-capita debt the amount each American owes on behalf of the country - is now about $100,000, up from roughly $61,000 at the start of Trump's first term.
• And there's no end in sight. The annual deficit is projected to hit $2.6 trillion by 2034...

Debt Clock link

Bill would let teachers jointly apply for debt relief programs | WOODTV.com

Bill would let teachers jointly apply for debt relief programs | WOODTV.com

"KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — Teachers struggling to pay their student loans as they work in the classroom may be able to get more help from a bill in Washington.
If passed, legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-MI, called the Teacher Debt Relief Act, would allow teachers to jointly apply for two federal loan forgiveness programs.

• Currently, select teachers who have worked for at least five years can qualify for up to $17,500 of relief under the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program. But the Higher Education Act of 1965, a federal law, prevents them from also applying for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program at the same time. This means teachers still have to make payments for 10 more years to qualify for full federal relief under the latter program.
• If the Teacher Debt Relief Act passes, changes to the Higher Education Act of 1965 would remove that barrier...