Fearmongering over Medicare hides the real fix seniors need



Democrats are casting the shutdown showdown as a battle over health care costs, tapping into widespread anxiety over the cost of health care, especially among those enrolled in Medicare. For them, it’s politics. But for millions of American seniors, the worry is real — not just a convenient talking point.

Recent polling shows 58% of Medicare recipients 65 and over are concerned about future health care costs, and half are worried a major health situation could result in either debt or bankruptcy.

If left unchanged, Medicare will be unable to pay full benefits by 2036.

While medical debt is a growing concern among Medicare recipients, the staggering size of the federal debt — largely driven by Medicare spending — is a ticking time bomb Congress can no longer ignore. As one of the largest federal spending programs, Medicare consisted of a jarring $874 billion out of the $6.75 trillion federal budget (about 13 cents of every dollar spent in FY2024).

While Medicare receives some funding from premiums paid by enrollees, the single largest source of revenue comes from the federal government's general fund. If left unchanged, Medicare will be unable to pay full benefits by 2036.

Medicare Advantage toes the line

Fortunately, policy solutions exist that can help both seniors and taxpayers.

Medicare Advantage merges public financing with private delivery under accountability. The government pays a fixed amount per enrollee to private plans, calibrated by benchmarks and quality measures. Plans that achieve higher star ratings — which were just released for 2026 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services earlier this month — receive bonus payments. Meanwhile, poor performers lose ground.

This structure introduces incentives for efficiency and quality that are lacking in traditional Medicare. Yet, successive years of cuts to how Medicare Advantage plans are reimbursed have forced several major insurers to announce they’re withdrawing from certain Medicare Advantage markets next year.

Companies like UnitedHealth, Humana, Aetna, as well as regional plans such as UCare (serving Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin) and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, are withdrawing from select Medicare Advantage counties across the country, citing rising costs. Seniors are using more medical services than expected, driving up claims, while federal reimbursement rates are being cut. Added regulatory and administrative burdens (such as expanded reporting requirements and prior authorization rules) further limit insurers. Together, these pressures make participation unsustainable in some markets.

If unchanged, more insurers will leave Medicare Advantage, and options for seniors will continue to shrink. Meanwhile, Medicare costs are growing much faster than private health care spending.

In 2023, traditional Medicare spent $15,689 per enrollee, more than double the private sector amount. This is a result of the traditional fee-for-service model, which pays providers per treatment instead of per patient, rewarding volume over outcomes, encouraging unnecessary care, and driving up costs.

Conversely, Medicare Advantage’s structure encourages prevention and coordination. To attract enrollees, Medicare Advantage offers supplemental benefits such as vision, dental, hearing, wellness programs, transportation, and over‑the‑counter benefits. Many Medicare Advantage plans now include these extras at little or no additional cost. That flexibility helps tailor benefits to beneficiary needs.

Better treatment, lower costs

When allowed to work, Medicare Advantage delivers higher satisfaction, lower costs, and greater access to coverage than traditional Medicare. One Harvard study found that seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage had better health outcomes than seniors on traditional Medicare. A National Institutes of Health review of hundreds of studies found that Medicare Advantage provided significantly better quality of care and health outcomes than traditional Medicare by a factor of four to one. Another NIH study found that across 48 studies, Medicare Advantage enrollees received more preventative care and had fewer hospitalizations and emergency visits, shorter stays, and lower total spending.

The financial and quality advantages are clear. One study comparing expected out‑of‑pocket costs in Medicare Advantage versus traditional Medicare found that from 2014 to 2019, projected costs were 18% to 24% lower under Medicare Advantage. For seniors on fixed incomes — that is significant.

RELATED: Democrats deny shutdown is about health care for illegal aliens — then one admits the truth

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Seniors get it. This year, the majority of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. Over the last two decades, enrollment in Medicare Advantage has skyrocketed. Unsurprisingly, polling shows 93% of Medicare Advantage enrollees were satisfied or very satisfied with their coverage, and 94% would recommend it to their family and friends. The Congressional Budget Office now projects that by 2034, Medicare Advantage could account for nearly two-thirds of all Medicare beneficiaries.

The model for the future

Medicare Advantage provides the model for quality, affordable health care for seniors that aligns with what they prefer. Reducing regulatory burdens and barriers within the insurance market will provide Medicare Advantage plans greater flexibility and even entice those insurers leaving the Medicare Advantage market to reconsider.

Medicare cannot continue as purely fee‑for‑service without reform — neither for the medical and financial health of Americans, nor for the sake of the federal budget. The current fiscal challenges plaguing the federal budget demand models that can bend the cost curve while improving quality. Medicare Advantage is not a cure-all, but it is among the most promising tools in the toolbox.

What if your country loved you back?



My first year in college, I was super into music. I played guitar and joined a campus band and went to see other bands every chance I got.

But I was too young to go to bars, so I often had to sneak into shows or find other ways to watch and learn from other guitarists. I desperately needed a fake ID.

In Portland, we have the recent phenomenon of people not having license plates on their cars. Shouldn’t everyone have license plates on their cars?

When I returned home that summer, I went to great lengths to get an official Oregon state ID with a birth year on it that would make me 21. Not a cheap fake one. A real ID. I possibly committed a felony in the process.

So for the next two years, I saw a lot of bands and musicians. In my mind, access to live music was definitely worth the risk.

Judgment day

When I think back to this episode in my life, I’m shocked I had the nerve to pull this off. I not only misrepresented myself on official documents, but I straight-up lied to my local DMV!

Sure, it was the 1980s. So it was much harder to check. But still ...

I also imagine what would have happened if I’d been caught and ended up in front of a judge. How would I have defended myself?

I would probably have just told the truth: I was in a band. I needed to see other bands. Music was my great love. I wasn’t doing it for the alcohol.

And how would the judge have reacted?

He would have looked at me, a nice kid, in college, not an actual criminal.

He would have been older, my parents’ age, most likely male, most likely white, like me.

He would have probably had kids my age. Maybe a kid who was into music.

And he would have thought about his own life and the time he snuck in somewhere, maybe to an R-rated movie or a local burlesque show.

And if I were respectful and showed remorse, I probably would not have been dealt with too severely. Probation, community service. No real harm. No real foul.

Back to the future

But then I think: What would happen in that same situation now? What if my college student self lied to the DMV in 2025? And got caught?

For starters, the judge could be of either sex. And might be of any race.

If the judge weren’t white, there would be the danger the judge would look at me and think: “white privilege.” Or the judge would have other feelings of resentment, since our media and societal messaging relentlessly emphasize all the unfair advantages white people have.

And being male and aggressively pursuing a dream like “becoming a good guitarist” might annoy a female judge. Men aggressively pursuing things was part of the reason women have been held back throughout history.

Also, such a crime would seem much more serious. Our current society demands constant proof and verification of our identities at all times.

No, in 2025, you would be dealing with state authorities that, at best, didn’t like you and, at worst, considered you a threat.

There would be no “boys will be boys” leniency. This was the GOVERNMENT you were dealing with. Which is not your friend. And is not your family. THE GOVERNMENT doesn’t love you.

Love is love

It sounds weird to say that a government “loves” or “doesn’t love” its citizens.

And yet, when I was 16 and filling out my first 1040 tax form for my after-school gas-station job, I remember the feeling I had for the people I was giving my tax money to. That feeling was a kind of love.

I didn’t mind paying my taxes. I understood the concept. We all give money to the government. And it builds roads and bridges. It employs school teachers, firemen, the police. It tries to take care of the citizens.

In those days, the state taxes in Oregon were so low, it was almost a joke. When I mailed my tax form, I imagined it arriving at some modest building, surrounded by mountains and trees.

I pictured our “state employees” as a small cadre of park ranger types and a handful of nice ladies who worked in the office. That’s how sparsely populated our state was.

If the state of Oregon sent you a letter, it was probably a notice telling you when deer hunting season began.

My taxes also paid for the Coast Guard, which bravely rescued fishermen from sinking boats. And the local sheriff, who, if he busted your high school keg party, didn’t come down on you too hard, because he used to throw keg parties too.

In other words, I didn’t mind paying my taxes because I felt loved by these people. I felt loved by my federal government too. Didn’t it build the national parks and send people to the moon? And make cars safer? And issue cool postage stamps honoring Elvis and the Beatles?

From what I could see, the main concern of all these people was keeping me safe. And making everyone’s life a little better.

In this way, my country loved me. Maybe not in a particular way. But in a general way. Weren’t we one nation, under God, indivisible, and all that?

Weren’t we all in this together?

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The unloved generation

So what do young people think now? Do they believe their country loves them? I kind of doubt it. But I don’t know. I’m not 16 anymore.

One way a country can show love for its people is by being consistent, like enforcing the law the same for everyone, so that everybody feels valued.

In Portland, we have the recent phenomenon of people not having license plates on their cars. Shouldn’t everyone have license plates on their cars?

This is just one small thing. But I see it every day. Cars, driving around, without front or back license plates. Shouldn’t the police stop them and give them a ticket for “lack of license plates”?

But the police don’t do that. City officials have reduced their numbers and limited their authority. This has caused crime to increase. So the police don’t have time to stop people for lack of license plates.

So now, if you get in an accident with someone without license plates, the car can just drive away, and there’s nothing you can do. This makes people feel helpless. And distrustful. And unprotected. And unloved.

Turning Japanese

I visited Tokyo recently. The Japanese are very strange, with their complicated language and unique culture.

But one thing I felt very strongly. Their country loved them. You could feel it in the air.

They had corruption and politics and all the usual human problems. But overall, there was obvious love. You saw it everywhere.

The government gave old people jobs to make them feel useful. It built incredible subways and infrastructure to make workers’ lives easier.

People were quick to come to each other’s aid. They respected each other’s property. They didn’t litter. They didn’t steal. They treated each other with great kindness and consideration.

Their country loved them. And because of that, they felt inspired to love each other.

It’s an odd point to make, I know. But just imagine if your country loved you. Wouldn’t that be nice? Wouldn’t that be the best feeling in the world?

While the lights are off, let’s rewire the government



The United States faces an existential threat from the accelerating military power of communist China — a buildup fueled by decades of massive economic expansion. If America intends to counter Beijing’s ambitions, it must grow faster, leaner, and more efficient. Economic strength is national security.

The ongoing government shutdown may not be popular, but it gives President Trump a rare opportunity to make good on his campaign pledge to drain — and redesign — “the swamp.” Streamlining the federal government isn’t just good politics. It’s a matter of survival.

A government that builds wealth rather than expands debt can out-produce China, sustain deterrence, and restore the American ideal of self-government.

George Washington ran the nation with four Cabinet departments: war, treasury, state, and the attorney general. The Department of the Interior came later, followed by the Department of Agriculture, added by Abraham Lincoln in 1862 when America was an agrarian power.

The modern Cabinet, by contrast, is a bureaucratic junkyard built more in reaction to political problems than by design. The Labor Department was carved from the Commerce Department to appease the unions. Lyndon Johnson invented the Department of Transportation. Jimmy Carter established the Department of Energy in response to the Arab oil embargo. The Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence emerged after 9/11.

The result is a patchwork of agencies wired together with duct tape, overlap, and patronage. A government designed for crisis management has become a permanent crisis unto itself.

Enter the Department of National Economy

A return to first principles starts with a single question: How can we accelerate American productivity?

The answer: consolidate. Merge the Departments of Commerce, Labor, Agriculture, Transportation, and Energy into a Department of National Economy. One Cabinet secretary, five undersecretaries, one mission: to expand the flow of goods and services that generate national wealth.

The new department’s motto should be a straightforward question: What did your enterprise do today to increase the wealth of the United States?

Fewer bureaucracies mean fewer fiefdoms, less redundancy, and enormous cost savings. Synergy replaces stovepipes. The government’s economic engine becomes a single machine instead of six competing engines running on taxpayer fuel.

Fold Homeland Security into the Coast Guard

Homeland Security should be absorbed by the U.S. Coast Guard, which already functions as a paramilitary force with both military and police authority, much like Italy’s Carabinieri. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, DHS personnel would share discipline, training, and accountability.

FEMA would cease to be a dumping ground for political hacks. Any discrimination in disaster aid — such as punishing Trump voters — would trigger a court-martial.

The Secret Service would focus solely on protective duties, handing its financial-crime work to the FBI. The secretary of the Coast Guard would gain a seat in the Cabinet.

Restoring intelligence to the OSS model

The Office of Director of National Intelligence should be re-established as the Office of Strategic Services, commanded by a figure in the tradition of Major General “Wild Bill” Donovan. Elements of U.S. Special Operations Command would be seconded to the new OSS, reviving its World War II lineage.

All intelligence agencies — CIA, DIA, FBI, the State Department, DEA, and the service branches — should share common foundational training. The current decline in discipline and capability at the National Intelligence University, worsened by the DEI policies of its leadership, demands urgent correction. Diversity cannot come at the expense of competence.

RELATED: Memo to Hegseth: Our military’s problem isn’t only fitness. It’s bad education.

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Law enforcement and the flat tax

At the Department of Justice, dissolve the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Shift alcohol and tobacco oversight to the DEA, firearms and explosives to the U.S. Marshals.

Let the DEA also absorb the Food and Drug Administration, which would become its research and standards division.

Return the FBI to pure investigation — armed but without arrest powers. Enforcement should rest with the U.S. Marshals. Counterintelligence would move to the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, reinforced by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

The IRS should be dismantled and replaced with a small agency built around a flat-tax model such as the Hall-Rabushka plan.

Move the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response to Homeland Security. Send its Office of Climate Change and Health Equity to NOAA — or eliminate it entirely.

At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, expand the inspector general’s office tenfold and pay bonuses for rooting out fraud.

Restoring deterrence

The Pentagon needs its own overhaul. Because of China’s rapid military buildup, the Air Force’s Global Strike Command should be separated from U.S. Strategic Command and report directly to the secretary of war and the president under its historic name — Strategic Air Command.

Submarines and silos are invisible; bombers are not. Deterrence depends on visibility. A line of B-1s, B-2s, B-52s, and 100 new B-21 Raider stealth bombers, all bearing the mailed-fist insignia of the old SAC, would send an unmistakable message to Beijing.

RELATED: Exclusive: China behind massive nationwide SIM farm network that directly threatens American critical infrastructure

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Toward a leaner republic

With Trump back in the White House, this moment is ripe for radical efficiency. A government that builds wealth rather than expands debt can out-produce China, sustain deterrence, and restore the American ideal of self-government.

George Washington’s government fit inside a single carriage. We won’t return to that scale — but we can rediscover that spirit. A lean, unified, strategically organized government would make wealth creation easier, limit bureaucratic overreach, and preserve the republic for the long fight ahead.

The world cut the cord. Government won’t.



The world is cutting cords at every opportunity. Wireless has become the default. Faster, cheaper, and more convenient beats wired every time. Consumers know it. Industry knows it. Government, as usual, lags far behind.

Americans used a record 132 trillion megabytes of wireless data in 2024. That follows 100 trillion in 2023, 74 trillion in 2022, and 53 trillion in 2021. The trajectory isn’t slowing. Artificial intelligence alone will accelerate demand.

Cutting cords makes life easier. Cutting government waste would, too.

Why the stampede to wireless? Because the technology now outpaces wired service. Fifth-generation networks can deliver speeds 20 times faster than 4G LTE. Sixth generation promises to be up to 100 times faster still.

Consumers are responding. More than one million Americans cut the cord on cable internet in 2024. Less than half of all cord-cutters now rely on cable providers for home service. The trend is irreversible.

Even cable companies acknowledge it when they install Wi-Fi routers after stringing fiber into a home. Wireless is the product people actually use.

Government’s fiber fetish

Everyone is adapting — except government. Because government is just that stupid.

State officials still funnel billions into fiber even as private-sector wireless has already done the job.

Barack Obama himself declared victory in 2015: 98% of Americans connected to high-speed wireless. At the time, average speeds were 10 Mbps. Today, average wireless speeds reach 155 Mbps — more than 15 times faster. The private market delivered that progress.

RELATED: Trump nukes Biden’s broadband gimmick, saving taxpayers billions

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Yet in 2025, states like Louisiana and Virginia plan to spend 80% of their federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program dollars on fiber. That program carries a $42.5 billion price tag. Fiber may be reliable in limited contexts, but it is costly and slow to deploy. Starlink has flagged projects with per-household connection costs exceeding $10,000. That’s not infrastructure — it’s idiocy.

The mismanagement is staggering. The BEAD program, launched in 2021, has yet to connect a single person. By late 2024, the score was still zero. Another year has passed, and states remain bogged down in bids and bureaucracy. Meanwhile, nearly every American has been online for a decade.

The market already won

Wireless continues to do the work. It connects homes, cars, and devices at ever-increasing speeds. The private sector solved the access problem years ago. The government now wastes hundreds of billions pretending to fix a problem that no longer exists.

That money buys ribbon-cuttings, not results. It funds reports and grants, not connections. It props up a fiber fetish that ignores how people live and work.

The pattern is clear: When consumers get to choose, they choose wireless. When politicians get to spend, they throw billions at fiber networks no one needs.

The market has spoken. Government refuses to listen. Cutting cords makes life easier. Cutting government waste would, too.

Fake money fuels real pain as elites cash in and families fall behind



Think for a moment about the “speed of life.” Two centuries ago, it took months to cross the Atlantic on a wooden ship. Today, it takes five hours by plane. The Pony Express once needed weeks to deliver a message. The telegraph shrank that to seconds.

Human ingenuity has always accelerated life, but it was still bound by reality — the limits of earth’s raw materials.

On August 15, 1971, America traded reality for illusion.

Technology built from those natural parts is real, sustainable, and grounded. But when systems detach from the real world, they become artificial. They may run for a time, but they cannot endure.

Now consider money as a form of energy. Once, it was tangible: gold coins, silver dollars, bills you could hold in your hand. Even when transactions became electronic, they were still tethered to reality, with gold as their anchor. Cotton became fabric, chickens became food, gold became money. Nature set the limits.

That changed on August 15, 1971.

Faced with economic pressures, President Richard Nixon severed the dollar from gold. In doing so, he handed America’s financial energy supply to the Federal Reserve and the political class — a system now untethered from nature. Money no longer reflected real value. It was conjured from nothing. Now the government, once dependent on the real economy, had the power to create its own artificial economy.

You can’t print money to pay your bills. You live in reality. Washington escaped it — at least temporarily. The result is a false economy where the supply of “financial energy” outruns the natural world.

The treadmill effect

That’s why ordinary Americans feel like they are running on a treadmill that only speeds up. The $37 trillion in so-called “debt” isn’t debt at all. Debt requires repayment. It is the measure of money created out of thin air. When fake energy collides with real commodities, prices rise.

Look around you. Everything in your home — your chair, your phone, your groceries — is either a commodity or built from one. Oil powers the machinery that produces and delivers them. Since 2000, the cost of commodities has risen about 8% every year. Wages, in contrast, have only risen about 3% annually. That gap explains why families can’t keep up, why the middle class shrinks, and why frustration mounts. And because the dollar is the world’s reserve currency, this inflation doesn’t just punish Americans — it ripples out to every nation on earth.

The burnout economy

Think of the human body. It runs on about six volts of electricity. Plug it into 220 volts and you’ll get incredible output — briefly — before the system burns out. That’s what the Federal Reserve and political elites have done to our economy: forced humanity into hyper-speed, compressing decades of natural economic activity into a few frantic years. The result is burnout — social unrest, inequality, rage, endless wars, and declining health.

Even environmental strain ties back to this misalignment. Artificial money fuels artificial demand, driving overproduction and overconsumption. Elites congratulate themselves for “managing” the system while ordinary citizens pay the price — in higher bills, weaker wages, and a constant sense of instability.

This was not inevitable. For nearly two centuries, the dollar was worth 100 cents, because it was tied to gold. Today, it’s worth about three cents. The rest has been stolen — not from us, but from the future. Tomorrow’s dollars are being dragged into yesterday’s spending. But eventually, nothing will be left to plunder. That is the endgame of artificial money: a collision between illusion and reality.

RELATED: Is Fort Knox still secure?

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Most Americans don’t fully understand this, but they feel it in their bones. They sense that something is wrong, that they work harder only to fall farther behind. Artificial money creates artificial problems — and artificial problems have no real solutions. Only a reckoning with reality can set them right.

Reclaim reality

Elites in Washington and on Wall Street will not save us. They are the ones benefiting from the distortion. The rest of us are left to adapt. For many, that means simplifying life, rediscovering the virtues of family, community, and localism — the parts of America still tethered to reality. In the countryside, where life is slower, you can still glimpse the America that once was.

On August 15, 1971, America traded reality for illusion. The day Nixon closed the gold window, government and elites unshackled themselves from the limits the rest of us still live under. Until we recognize that truth, we will keep chasing solutions to problems that can’t be solved — because they were never real to begin with.

Ilhan Omar Issues Error-Ridden Denial of Free Beacon Report on Her Skyrocketing Net Worth

Say it ain't so. Rep. Ilhan Omar issued an error-ridden denial of a Washington Free Beacon report on her newfound wealth, accusing this reporting of peddling fake news for citing her latest financial disclosure, which revealed the Minnesota Democrat and her husband saw their personal fortune explode to as much as $30 million.

The post Ilhan Omar Issues Error-Ridden Denial of Free Beacon Report on Her Skyrocketing Net Worth appeared first on .

Omar pushes corporate taxes while husband's company skipped IRS bills: Report



The husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who advocates ensuring corporations "pay their fair share," previously owned a company that reportedly owed money to the IRS.

Tim Mynett, Omar's husband, and William R. Hailer, Mynett's business partner, operated EStreetCo, an advertising, design, and public relations business that dissolved in June 2022, according to a Thursday report from the Washington Free Beacon.

'The company has no outstanding tax obligations from the COVID era; in fact, we have a balance due to us.'

A document obtained by the news outlet revealed that in 2023, after the company's dissolution, the IRS filed a lien for nearly $206,000 in unpaid income, Social Security, and Medicare taxes.

Omar announced in February that she introduced an amendment in the House Budget Committee to "make corporations pay their fair share." The representative has opposed Republicans' budget resolution, calling it "a blueprint for American decline."

"Let's be clear: They want to exploit your labor, take your tax dollars, and gut your earned benefits — all to bankroll tax cuts for their wealthy friends and donors. They want to increase your health care costs — while Elon Musk and his friends hoard even more wealth," Omar said in February during a speech on the House floor.

RELATED: Here are the top 3 LEAST patriotic members of Congress

Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

The Free Beacon noted that Omar's personal wealth is as much as $30 million. In a 2021 financial disclosure, she described EStreetCo as a "creative agency," claiming that her husband's share in the firm was worth $1,000 or less.

The news outlet reported that the Sonoma County recorder does not have any record that the IRS released its lien against EStreetCo.

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Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Annual Legislative Conference

However, a spokesperson for EStreetCo told Blaze News, "The company has no outstanding tax obligations from the COVID era; in fact, we have a balance due to us." Documents provided by the spokesperson showed that the IRS owed the company approximately $3,000 as of September 3, 2025.

A representative for Omar did not respond to a request for comment.

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Company Owned by Ilhan Omar's Multimillionaire Husband Owes IRS Over $200,000 in Unpaid Taxes

A company owned by Tim Mynett, the multimillionaire husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), failed to pay its fair share of taxes in 2021, according to a tax lien obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The post Company Owned by Ilhan Omar's Multimillionaire Husband Owes IRS Over $200,000 in Unpaid Taxes appeared first on .

Trump’s tariffs haven’t sparked predicted trade war



For months, Americans were warned by the media about a global economic trade war that would begin in the wake of President Trump’s tariffs — but it hasn’t happened.

“All the fearmongering was totally wrong,” the Heartland Institute’s Justin T. Haskins tells BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler on “The Liz Wheeler Show.” “It was just totally and completely wrong.”

“As of right now, the data that we have clearly shows that the tariffs that have gone into effect have not dramatically increased prices for consumers. We obviously are not in the midst of an economic catastrophe or something like that,” he continues.

Haskins also points out that “revenues are up” and “tax revenues are up.”


“That’s a good thing because we have a gigantic deficit problem in this country and a gigantic government debt problem long-term, and this could be a potential solution to that,” he explains, though he notes that the mainstream media is not reporting any of the good.

“If you just were to Google this story and look around the internet, you’ll see people say that the tariffs are causing lots of inflation. You’ll see it in headlines all over the place, and I just want to give real data from the government that proves that that’s not the case,” Haskins says.

Haskins points to the CPI inflation rate, which is the standard used for measuring inflation.

“In July, the 12-month inflation rate from July 2024-2025, 2.7%, is basically the same as in June. That’s less than what it was in December and in January before Trump was even president. So at that point it was around 3%,” Haskins explains.

“So the inflation has actually gone down over the past eight months, if you’re just comparing it in that way. If you start looking at individual numbers, parts of the economy prices, CPI prices in specific parts of the economy where you would expect to see tariffs causing inflation, if tariffs do cause inflation, you’re not seeing it,” he says.

One example Haskins uses is with clothing, of which, he explains 97% is not made in the United States.

“We are seeing prices actually go down … so if tariffs are causing inflation, then you would think that would be one area where you’d expect to see prices soaring, and we’re not seeing that.”

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Oregon considers transportation tax hike on EVs to save government jobs



In an effort to prevent mass layoffs at the Oregon Department of Transportation, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek (D) is proposing a new, mandatory tax program for electric vehicles. While Republicans say the governor's proposal would be unnecessary if the state managed its money well, the tax proposal is set to be considered today in a special session announced last month.

Oregon is attempting to fill a $354 million budget gap for transportation infrastructure construction and repairs, possibly resulting from vehicles becoming more fuel-efficient.

'We invite Democrats to join us in funding essential services without raising taxes, to stand with Oregonians who cannot afford to shoulder more costs.'

“This could still be prevented today, without a special session, if Democrats made the decision to use existing revenue from the emergency board. We can still protect these jobs without raising taxes — and we should,” Oregon House Republican Leader Christine Drazan said last month. "We invite Democrats to join us in funding essential services without raising taxes, to stand with Oregonians who cannot afford to shoulder more costs.”

RELATED: Out of juice: Only 5% of US car buyers want an electric vehicle

Christine Drazan, former Oregon gubernatorial candidate and current House Republican Leader.Photo by Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images

The proposal, according to the AP, includes an EV road-usage charge that is equivalent to 5% of the state’s gas tax. It also includes raising the gas tax by six cents to 46 cents per gallon, among other fee increases.

EV drivers would be required to enroll in a pay-per-mile system based on road usage. They could either pay 2.3 cents per mile or a flat $340 annual fee, with a break-even point just under 14,800 miles per year.

ODOT policy adviser Scott Boardman said drivers would have several options for the government to track their mileage, including a smartphone app and the vehicle's telematics technology.

Oregon's existing system, OReGO, which was launched on July 1, 2015, is currently a voluntary program. Kotek's proposal would mark a departure from this system by making it mandatory. Skeptics warn that this may discourage car buyers from considering buying electric vehicles in the future, with the program set to take effect starting in 2027 and extending to hybrids in 2028.

If it passes, Oregon will join Hawaii as the only states to begin a mandatory pay-per-mile program for electric vehicles. Oregon lawmakers will debate and vote on the bill, which requires a supermajority in both the House and Senate to pass.

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