Stop the Bleeding: Fraud, Tariffs, and
the $1.8 Trillion Deficit
Posted By: Mercedes44, 1/19/2026 5:32:12 PM
The U.S. federal government finished Fiscal Year 2025 with about $7 trillion in outlays and just over $5 trillion in revenues, leaving a deficit of roughly $1.8 trillion -- a gap that adds to the exploding national debt and threatens economic stability. Under current trajectories, deficits are projected to remain near this scale for the foreseeable future, absent dramatic policy changes. What if, as some argue, the solution is staring us in the face: eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse across government programs and pair that with stronger tariff revenues? Could that alone balance the budget without cutting core programs or raising taxes? Is this wishful thinking or a real possibility?
people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "Mercedes44"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Most Recent Articles posted by
Mercedes44"
The U.S. federal government finished Fiscal Year 2025 with about $7 trillion in outlays and just over $5 trillion in revenues, leaving a deficit of roughly $1.8 trillion -- a gap that adds to the exploding national debt and threatens economic stability.
Under current trajectories, deficits are projected to remain near this scale for the foreseeable future, absent dramatic policy changes. What if, as some argue, the solution is staring us in the face: eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse across government programs and pair that with stronger tariff revenues?
Could that alone balance the budget without cutting core programs or raising taxes? Is this wishful thinking or a real possibility?
Thousands of Iranians working for the biggest names in tech are calling for an end to the Islamic regime as ongoing bloodshed facing anti-government protesters in the country has become a flashpoint in the US.
A petition signed by founders, engineers and scientists working everywhere from Google and Meta to Amazon and Tesla had gathered 3,400 signatures, according to a post this week by tech founder and CEO Kooshiar Azimian. Thousands of Iranians working for the biggest names in tech are calling for an end to the Islamic regime.
Kooshiar Azimian
“We stand with the people of Iran and call for the end to the Islamic regime,” a statement in the post read.
On Thursday, the White House released its self-described “Great Health Care Plan” (emphasis in the original). The plan — all 359 words of it (yes, I counted) — contains some good policies and some not-so-good ones.
Most notably, however, it eschews any reference to the enhanced Covid subsidies that the administration was reportedly going to embrace just before Thanksgiving. That in itself should relieve conservatives, but it doesn’t mean the plan’s other components don’t deserve scrutiny of their policy merits, or lack thereof.
Attorney General Pam Bondi threatened to prosecute protesters who disrupted a church service Sunday in St. Paul, Minn.
Bondi wrote on the social platform X that she spoke to Jonathan Parnell, the pastor who leads Cities Church. A group of protesters interrupted Parnell’s sermon Sunday and accused David Easterwood, another pastor at the church, of being affiliated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Attacks against law enforcement and the intimidation of Christians are being met with the full force of federal law,” Bondi said. “If state leaders refuse to act responsibly to prevent lawlessness,
Six years after it was founded, a rightwing party is poised to rise to power in today’s presidential election in Portugal.
No less than 11 candidates are involved in the election, making it likely that the two top candidates will have to compete in a runoff ballot next month in the likely event that no one gets over 50% of the vote.
“Almost 11 million people are eligible to vote in the election, with most results expected late in the day. The winner will replace President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who has served the limit of two five-year terms.Among the front-runners, according to recent opinion polls, are André Ventura,
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent never disappoints when he makes a Sunday show appearance. That held true Sunday morning as he joined Kristen Welker on NBC News' Meet the Press. Whether the topic was Greenland or the Fed, Bessent was well prepared to address the questions Welker raised.
Right out of the gate, Welker zeroed in on Greenland, noting that both Denmark and Greenland insist it's not for sale, and asking: "What makes President Trump think it is?" Bessent emphasized its strategic value.Welker followed up by asking Bessent whether Trump is serious about annexing Greenland, or instead, using the discussion as a negotiating tactic.
What would the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. have to say about his country’s contentious racial landscape on this, his 97th birthday?
America is a far different place from the nation that saw King felled by an assassin’s bullet in 1968 at the young age of 39; different even from the country that made this a federal holiday in 1983.
Black Americans still face real inequities. Look at the huge numbers of crime victims, disproportionately black, generated by terrible progressive policies on public safety.
Or the decay of America’s public schools, once an engine of black social mobility:
Things are getting a bit crazy in Minnesota.
We reported how an ICE agent was attacked earlier in the week, federal vehicles were destroyed and damaged, and people even stole weapons out of the vehicles. All this isn't just falling on ICE. As we reported, Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino said civilian vehicles were getting assaulted as well. But what happened to a group of tech workers at a deli in Minneapolis was pretty wild.
Five software engineers went out to eat at a local deli for a casual lunch, when one of the men got a bit of a surprise as they were eating.
Denmark has controlled Greenland since 1721. Indigenous peoples lived there for thousands of years before that. In 1953, the world’s largest island transitioned from colony to become part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Today its domestic affairs are considered self-rule, while Denmark is responsible for Greenland’s foreign policy, defense, and currency. But with regard to Greenland and the women who have lived there, Denmark has had a dirty little secret centered on population control: a relatively recent birth control practice that was forced on thousands of women, for which the country only apologized in September 2025.
The Iranian regime has killed at least 16,500 people and injured over 330,000 more as they continue to ruthlessly target demonstrators – and even uninvolved civilians – in nationwide anti-government protests, a shocking new report claims.
The alarming death toll – far exceeding the roughly 3,100 verified by activist groups – was detailed in a new report from doctors on the ground treating victims amid the slaughter, the Sunday Times reported.
The disturbing figures, compiled from eight major hospitals and 16 emergency departments, revealed between 16,500 and 18,000 people have been killed, with most victims believed to be younger than 30. “This is a whole new level of brutality,”
NUUK, Greenland — Native Greenlander Amarok Petersen was 27 years old when she learned the gut-wrenching truth about why she couldn’t have children — and that Denmark was to blame.
Suffering from severe uterine problems, a medical doctor discovered an IUD birth control device in her body that she didn’t know she had.
Danish doctors had implanted it when she was just 13 as part of a population control program for thousands of native Greenlandic girls and women.
“I will never have children,” Petersen told The Post, with tears of anger and sorrow welling in her eyes. “That choice was taken from me.”
Ex-legal fixer Michael Cohen on Friday accused New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of forcing him to testify against his former client, Donald Trump, as part of their civil fraud and “hush money” cases against the now-sitting president.
“I felt compelled and coerced to deliver what they were seeking,” Cohen wrote in a Substack post. “Letitia James and Alvin Bragg may not share the same office or political calendar, but they share the same playbook.”
Cohen took to the independent journalists’ platform to reveal his thoughts about participating in the legal proceedings,
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
In the days since Renee Good tried to run over an ICE agent in Minneapolis and was shot and killed by an ICE officer, the liberal media has found yet another offensive word to whinge over.
“The far-right has coined a new derogatory term for white women, which has gained traction following the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, in Minneapolis earlier this month,” reports The Independent. The objectionable term is the acronym AWFUL, which stands for Affluent White Female Urban Liberal. Another variant is AWFL. The New York Times was the first paper to report on this new “offensive” term.
“Beyond labels and name-calling,
Anti-ICE protest disrupted a Sunday church service in Minneapolis after a group of activists entered a congregation and forced worship to stop, according to footage shared online.
The incident occurred at Cities Church, a Southern Baptist Convention congregation, where protesters stormed into the sanctuary chanting anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement slogans. The group alleged that one of the church’s lead pastors was affiliated with ICE, a claim the protesters repeated while interrupting the service.
Video from inside the church shows congregants visibly shaken with the service ultimately being shut down. It is unclear how the protesters obtained the information that led them to target the church.
Rep. Eric Swalwell Vows to Take Away Driver’s
Licenses from ICE Agents if Elected Governor 29 replies
Licenses from ICE Agents if Elected Governor 29 replies
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) vowed that if elected to be the next governor of California, he would take away driver’s licenses from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
While speaking at an event by the Empowerment Congress, Swalwell was asked about his plan to “protect” people in the state from ICE agents, according to Mediaite.
Swalwell explained that he would “direct law enforcement” officials to use “every power to prosecute” ICE officials for “battery, false imprisonment, and murder,” according to the outlet.
“They’re gonna lose their immunity,” Swalwell said. “They’re not going to be able to drive, I will take your driver’s license. Good luck walking to work, a**holes.”
MINNEAPOLIS -- Rows of businesses stood shuttered inside a sprawling complex of Somali businesses on a recent afternoon. Karmel Mall in south Minneapolis contains more than a hundred small businesses in suites offering everything from clothing and food to insurance and accounting services. On Thursday, the noisy hallways inside lay quiet, save for occasional chatter between neighboring vendors. The smell of fried food still wafted from the bakeries, the central heating hummed and the sound of Quran recitation flowed quietly from some shops. But many sellers sat alone in their clothing stores, waiting for the occasional customer to walk by. Everyone
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) revealed that Democrats would “restore most of the cuts” that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had made.
While taking part in a discussion at the Center for American Progress, Schumer received a question about what he “can do about bringing” the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) back, after DOGE came in and made cuts.
“If you look at the budget actually, we’re working on right now — and we’ll have the T-HUD budget, you know, transportation and HUD budget, we restore most of the cuts and even go higher than previous years on many of the programs that DOGE slashed,” Schumer responded.
RINO Congressman Don Bacon (R-NE) floated the idea of impeaching President Trump if he invades Greenland.
“I would lean that way,” he said of supporting an impeachment over Greenland. “The off-ramp is realizing Republicans aren’t going to tolerate this and he’s going to have to back off. He hates being told no, but in this case, I think Republicans need to be firm.”
Bacon announced his retirement from Congress last July, and he’s eying impeachment as his final act.
Bacon also co-sponsored a bill with Democrats to curb Trump’s power and prevent a military invasion of Greenland, which Trump has not expressed plans for.
No politician is more of an enigma than Somali-born Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
For years she has been rumored to have married her brother – allegations she has called 'absurd and offensive'. Her family fortunes, steered by her white, American husband, have curiously skyrocketed to $30million.
And more recently, her Minneapolis community has been mired in shocking fraud allegations.But even more disconcerting is the question about her citizenship.
Is Ilhan Omar really an American?
Even after a lawyer representing Becca Good confirmed the pair were not married, news outlets and social media influencers refuse to correct the inaccurate portrayal of a "bereaved widow." (snip) Sticking with the lie that Renee and Becca were married is a critical part of the overall false narrative of their actions that day(snip)[:] A happy lesbian married couple had just dropped their young son off at school when they just happened upon an ICE operation in their community so they exercised their First Amendment rights at that moment to express their displeasure with illegal immigrant removals. But every aspect of that sympathy-promoting hagiography is untrue.
NYC socialists mustering army of 4,000
anti-ICE activists to bring Minnesota
tactics to Big Apple 20 replies
anti-ICE activists to bring Minnesota
tactics to Big Apple 20 replies
New York City socialists are mustering an army of more than 4,000 anti-ICE activists to form “rapid response” battalions and obstruct the feds in an expected imminent crackdown on illegal migrants in the Big Apple.
Mayor Mamdani’s comrades with the DSA outlined the mission Thursday at a monthly meeting of their Immigrant Justice Working Group in the swanky Midtown digs of the Chinese Communist Party-linked People’s Forum, where photos of communist idols Fidel Castro and Che Guevara decorate the walls.
“As we’ve seen in other cities, we still do anticipate a big wave of federal immigration enforcement,” a DSA leader who only identified herself as Marina
The US Pentagon has ordered about 1500 active-duty soldiers to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, the Washington Post reports, citing defence officials.
The army placed the units on prepare-to-deploy orders in case violence in the state escalates, the Washington Post report said.The move comes after President Donald Trump threatened to use the Insurrection Act, if officials in the state don't stop protesters from targeting immigration officials
What would the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. have to say about his country’s contentious racial landscape on this, his 97th birthday?
America is a far different place from the nation that saw King felled by an assassin’s bullet in 1968 at the young age of 39; different even from the country that made this a federal holiday in 1983.
Black Americans still face real inequities. Look at the huge numbers of crime victims, disproportionately black, generated by terrible progressive policies on public safety.
Or the decay of America’s public schools, once an engine of black social mobility:
Left wing podcaster Jennifer Welch recently spoke with former CNN hack Jim Acosta and provided a preview of what Democrats will do if and when they retake power.
Welch has not given up on the far left dream of prosecuting and jailing President Trump. She thinks the same should happen to Elon Musk and various other people in their orbit.
She is predicting a vicious future, in which Democrats get Trump and others to ‘admit their crimes’ and pay a price for them so that the country can ‘reconcile.’