<a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/fraud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fraudsters</a> may have stolen as much as $60 billion from the various <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/unemployment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unemployment</a> insurance programs enacted by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lockdown</a>-era stimulus bills, according to a <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105523.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Government Accountability Office.
State workforce agencies, which are responsible for administering unemployment programs, have officially reported $4.3 billion of fraud between April 2020 and June 2022. Another fraud measure, cases flagged by the Labor Department as potential fraud, could imply some $45 billion in fraudulent payments between March 2020 and April 2022. Extrapolating another lower-bound estimate from the agency, which said at least 7.6% of regular unemployment insurance payments were fraudulent, would imply a conservative estimate of $60 billion.
“Current measures and estimates do not reflect the full extent of fraud, but they do provide important insights on fraud risks,” according to a <a href="https://www.gao.gov/blog/how-prevalent-fraud-federal-programs-we-take-look-focusing-unemployment-insurance-oversight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> from the Government Accountability Office. “And while fraud risks increased as a result of the pandemic, some will remain long after if not addressed.”
Some $878 billion was paid across all unemployment insurance programs between April 2020 and September 2022. “The unprecedented demand for benefits and the need to implement the new programs quickly increased the risk of financial fraud,” the agency continued.
Officials in the Department of Justice have been attempting to claw back the fraudulently obtained taxpayer funds. One example cited by the report noted a former state workforce agency employee who used others’ identities to submit nearly 200 fraudulent applications; the individual was ordered to pay $4.3 million in restitution and will spend over five years in prison. In another instance, an individual used stolen identities to submit at least 300 applications across the country and will spend more than 3 years in prison after paying $1.6 million.
Other brazen examples of unemployment insurance fraud include a rapper who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lamborghinis-rappers-and-the-new-york-jets-the-4-craziest-examples-of-covid-stimulus-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">boasted</a> about his scheme in a music video, as well as multiple current and former IRS employees who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/current-former-irs-employees-took-thousands-in-fraudulent-covid-relief-spent-it-on-gucci-a-mercedes-and-trips-to-vegas-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">abused</a> their positions to gain access to the funds.
Broader tallies of misappropriated economic stimulus funds imply a much higher amount of lost resources. The Labor Department <a href="https://www.pandemicoversight.gov/spotlight/unemployment-insurance-fraud#:~:text=The%20Department%20of%20Labor's%20Office,work%2C%20that%20amount%20will%20increase." target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimates</a> that $163 billion in unemployment insurance benefits “could be improper, with a significant portion being attributed to fraud.” ID.me CEO Blake Hall <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shock-half-of-covid-19-unemployment-funds-may-have-gone-to-scammers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">predicted</a> that $400 billion, or half of the unemployment monies, were ultimately stolen.
House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee issued multiple <a href="https://waysandmeans.house.gov/republican-leaders-request-hearing-on-unemployment-insurance-fraud/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">requests</a> for hearings about the fraud over the past two years; Democrats have consistently <a href="https://waysandmeans.house.gov/democrats-vote-to-blatantly-ignore-greatest-theft-of-american-tax-dollars-in-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blocked</a> the requests to examine the extent of fraudulent activity, the lawmakers say.
“American families, whose wages have eroded under President Biden’s inflation crisis, have watched as hundreds of billions of their hard-earned tax dollars were lost to criminal activity and fraud because Democrats refused to acknowledge the problem and repeatedly rejected Republican efforts to put basic safeguards in place to protect against this activity,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) said in a statement provided to The Daily Wire. “Congressional Democrats walked away from their oversight responsibilities of getting to the bottom of how this happened, what they could do to prevent it, and even how much has fully been lost, leaving criminals to profit off the backs of taxpayers.”

pile of 100 dollar notes on table on fire

Fraudulent Lockdown-Era Unemployment Payments May Amount To $60 Billion, Government Watchdog Says

Fraudulent Lockdown-Era Unemployment Payments May Amount To $60 Billion

COVID-19

Economy

Lockdowns

Stimulus

U.S.

Unemployment

A majority of Americans want the government to <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/stimulus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spend</a> money to solve the problem of inflation.
According to a <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/majority-americans-back-stimulus-checks-inflation-poll-1755636" target="_blank" rel="noopener">poll</a> conducted by Newsweek, roughly 63% of respondents agree that Uncle Sam should issue another round of stimulus checks to battle <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/inflation">inflation</a>, including 42% of respondents who strongly agree. Meanwhile, a meager 18% said they disagree, while 15% neither agree nor disagree. The poll was taken among eligible voters two weeks before the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/2022-midterms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">midterm</a> elections.
In response to the lockdown-induced recession, lawmakers approved multiple rounds of stimulus checks over the past two years, including $1,200 payments issued through the CARES Act in the spring of 2020. An appropriations bill passed later in the year created $600 payments, while the American Rescue Plan greenlit $1,400 payments.
The legislative packages, which also included forgivable business loans and bailouts for state and local governments, led to the largest deficit spending in American history. The difference between revenue and expenditures surged from nearly $1 trillion in 2019 to $3.1 trillion in 2020, according to <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Office of Management and Budget, while the current deficit of $1.4 trillion continues to exceed the last pre-recession deficit by roughly $400 billion after President Joe Biden passed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mega-maga-trickle-down-biden-makes-bold-claim-on-how-he-fixed-the-budget-after-republicans-blew-it-out" target="_blank" rel="noopener">multiple portions</a> of his agenda.
Biden, however, recently argued that his policies decreased spending more than those enacted by his predecessor, who indeed oversaw rapid increases in spending even before the recession.
“On my watch, things have been different. The deficit has come down both years that I’ve been in office,” Biden said. “And I just signed legislation that’s going to reduce it even more in the decades to come. Now Republicans in Congress are doubling down on their commitment to explode the deficit again. Just this week, Republican leaders said if they get their way, they’re going to extend the Trump tax cuts, which are due to expire in a couple years.”
Multiple state governments have considered their own rounds of stimulus checks. Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-prepares-to-send-out-inflation-relief-checks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">provision</a> in June that will offer handouts between $200 and $1,050.
Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA) renewed a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pennsylvania-governor-calls-for-more-stimulus-checks-says-its-mind-boggling-anyone-would-worry-about-more-inflation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">push</a> in August for $2,000 handouts, dismissing any concerns that the policy would worsen cost pressures. “It’s just mind-boggling, the sense that giving somebody who is trying to put food on the table or pay the rent, that that is somehow inflationary, when how many trillions of dollars did we give away to the very wealthy during the Trump years in tax breaks?” he remarked.
Despite their enthusiasm for more government spending, voters have their eyes on the economy and cost of living more than any other issues ahead of the midterm elections. One <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-midterm-poll-spells-bad-news-for-democrats-on-the-economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> from ABC News and The Washington Post found that 84% of voters identify the economy as their top concern. While 43% of respondents to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americans-who-have-worse-finances-since-biden-was-elected-overwhelmingly-blame-democrats" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> from Bankrate reported that their finances are worse than two years ago, only 18% say they are better, and most of the individuals in the former category say Democrats are responsible.
Inflation has weighed on the economy over the past two years as supply chain bottlenecks and labor shortages raise expenses for businesses. According to a <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, year-over-year inflation reached 8.2% in September.

Voting

Ahead Of Midterms, Most Eligible Voters Want More Stimulus Checks To Fight Inflation

Most Eligible Voters Want Another Round Of Stimulus Checks To Fight Inflation

2022 Midterms

Inflation

Politics

Poll

Republican lawmakers are asking President Joe Biden why COVID-19 tests are not yet widely available in the United States — despite trillions in COVID-19 stimulus.
Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) — who serve as Republican leaders for multiple key committees — observed in a <a href="https://gop-waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Letter-to-President-Biden-on-COVID-19-Spending-1.5.22.pdf">letter</a> to President Biden that Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra has said there are $10 billion in unspent funds for COVID-19 tests.
“Who made the decision to not exhaust these funds prior to the holiday season?” they asked the commander-in-chief. “Will the remaining funds be used for the federal response, or will some be disbursed to states?”
They asked the Biden administration to explain its rejection of an October proposal that would have added more than 730 million at-home COVID tests to the market per month. “Who was authorized to make this decision? Why were more proactive measures not taken to prepare for future variants, given the spread of the Delta variant over the summer?”
Additionally, the lawmakers noted that only 9% of Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan’s spending allocations “actually went to public health spending to fight the virus,” while the rest went to bailing out state governments and other social programs. They detailed the wasteful use of these funds — including New York spending $2.1 billion for &#8220;direct checks to illegal immigrants,&#8221; Michigan giving $3,200 stimulus checks to prison inmates, and Chicago spending $31 million on a guaranteed income program.
“American taxpayers deserve an honest and detailed accounting of where the $6 trillion in COVID-19 relief passed by Congress has been spent and how much remains,” the lawmakers wrote. “Your Administration has misused taxpayer dollars to spend on items unrelated to COVID-19 and repurposed funds for the southern border crisis of your own creation.”
“The American people deserve transparency and answers to these important questions from their government before being asked to further foot the bill for another attempt by your White House to spend hundreds of billions or even trillions more in the name of ‘combatting COVID-19.’ A permanent pandemic narrative cannot be used by your office to avoid this responsibility,” they continued.
Indeed, the Biden administration has faced immense pressure over its apparent failure to make COVID-19 testing kits widely available. On Monday, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-is-it-you-guys-were-so-unprepared-peter-doocy-hammers-psaki-on-testing-failures">asked</a> White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki why President Joe Biden’s administration has been so “unprepared” for the uptick in demand for COVID-19 testing.
“I heard the president say, ‘Google COVID tests near me.’ So, as somebody isolating with COVID, I did that, and the appointments everywhere were completely jammed. So, why is it you guys were so unprepared for the need for testing after the holidays?” Doocy asked.
“Well, Peter, I’m happy to see you back and well,” Psaki replied. “I would second say that there has been a massive surge in cases — as you know and were a part of — in D.C. and New York. And there has been an unprecedented — and in other parts of the country as well — there’s been unprecedented demand for tests.”
“So what we have done over the course of the last few weeks, and even before that, is the president quadrupled our testing capacity since the summer,” Psaki continued. “We opened 20,000 sites across the country and we’ve also opened additional federal sites, including one in D.C. only recently.”
Doocy pressed further: “At the rate you guys are going, these tests are not going to be available until spring. So will you admit that these free tests you guys promised are not going to be ready until after the Omicron surge?” 

Psaki responded that tests would be available “very soon.”

President Biden Delivers Remarks On December 2021 Jobs Report

GOP Lawmakers Ask Biden Why Trillions In COVID Stimulus Somehow Haven’t Paid For COVID Testing Kits

Biden Administration

COVID

One of the terrorists responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing received a $1,400 COVID relief check last summer that federal prosecutors are now seeking to take in order to make restitution to the victims of the attack, a report says.
The terrorist, who The Daily Wire is not naming due to company policy about not giving notoriety to mass murderers, was ordered to pay more than $100 million to the victims of the attack.
&#8220;Prisoners were largely eligible to receive $1,400 payments included in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that President Joe Biden signed into law last March,&#8221; Newsweek <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/boston-marathon-bomber-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-got-1400-covid-relief-that-feds-seek-claim-1666167">reported</a>. &#8220;Republicans unsuccessfully rallied against allowing inmates to receive the checks at the time, although prisoners were also not excluded from stimulus checks included in the GOP-backed Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act that former President Donald Trump had signed the previous year.&#8221;
Prosecutors are seeking the money from the terrorist&#8217;s inmate trust account which, as of December 21, 2021, had $3,885.06 in it.
Boston 25 News <a href="https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/boston-marathon-bomber-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-got-1400-covid-relief-payment/BVKRJUHHHVEIFBVS5IM3INNDNI/">noted</a> that deposits to the defendant&#8217;s account became more frequent after he was sentenced, including:
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>The Defendant received a $1,400 COVID relief payment on June 22, 2021.</li>
<li>Between May 2016 and June 2021, the Defendant received multiple deposits from the Office of Federal Defenders of New York. The amounts varied between $40 and $250, totaling approximately $11,230.</li>
<li>Between August 2015 and August 2021, an individual residing in Indianapolis, Indiana, made monthly deposits between $30 and $60, totaling approximately $2,555.</li>
<li>Between August 2015 and December 2017, an individual residing in Bloomfield, New Jersey, made monthly deposits of $50, totaling approximately $1,450.</li>
<li>Between September 2013 and December 2018, an individual residing in Frederick, Maryland, made periodic deposits between $50 to $200, totaling approximately $950.</li>
<li>$3,486.60 from 32 other individuals.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
“In light of the Defendant’s payment history and incarceration status, the United States requests that this Court enter an Order authorizing the BOP to turn over all funds, held in the Defendant’s inmate trust account, including any funds subject to an administrative hold by BOP, to the Clerk of Court as payment toward the outstanding criminal monetary penalties imposed against the Defendant,” prosecutors said. “The United States submits that the requested relief is reasonable and appropriate in this instance, especially in light of the Defendant prioritizing payments to his siblings over the victims of his crimes.”
The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-court-overturns-death-sentence-for-boston-marathon-bomber-dzhokhar-tsarnaev">reported</a> that the terrorist petitioned the First U.S. Court of Appeals in December 2019 to overturn his death sentence, arguing that his trial never should have taken place in Boston. The terrorist pleaded guilty to setting off a bomb that killed three and injured hundreds of others at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013.
The terrorist carried out the attack in April 2013 with his brother. The two &#8220;used two homemade pressure cooker bombs near the finish line of the race, killing three people and injuring several hundred others. 16 people lost limbs as a result of the bombings,&#8221; The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-court-overturns-death-sentence-for-boston-marathon-bomber-dzhokhar-tsarnaev">reported</a>. &#8220;During the manhunt for the brothers, the brothers killed MIT policeman Sean A. Collier, kidnapped a man in his car, and had a shootout with the police in Watertown, where they shot and severely wounded two officers, one of whom, Boston Police Department officer Dennis Simmonds, was injured by a hand grenade and died in April 2014.&#8221;
Related:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-court-overturns-death-sentence-for-boston-marathon-bomber-dzhokhar-tsarnaev">Federal Court Overturns Death Sentence For Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boston-marathon-bomber-suing-federal-government-for-alleged-prison-mistreatment-after-his-hat-is-taken-away">Boston Marathon Bomber Suing Federal Government For Alleged Prison Mistreatment After His Hat Is Taken Away</a></li>
</ul>

Explosions At 117th Boston Marathon

Boston Marathon Bomber Received $1,400 COVID Relief Check From Biden’s Stimulus Bill: Reports

Boston Bomber

Joe Biden

The European Central Bank and the Bank of England are tapering monetary stimulus programs introduced in response to COVID-19.
The Bank of England is the first major central bank to hike interest rates, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/business/bank-of-england-interest-rates-rise.html">The New York Times</a>:
<blockquote>Policymakers voted to raise the bank’s interest rate by 15 basis points to 0.25 percent. The rate had been at 0.1 percent since March 2020, when the onset of the pandemic sent financial markets careening and the government first introduced lockdown measures.
The Bank of England was the first major central bank to raise interest rates as inflation climbed to the highest level in a decade and the bank said it would not peak until April. Eight of the nine policymakers voted for a rate increase, compared with just two in November. After the announcement the pound jumped against the U.S. dollar, gaining more than 1 percent.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/business/the-european-central-bank-moves-to-ease-the-end-of-pandemic-era-stimulus.html">The New York Times</a> also reported that the European Central Bank — which manages the euro — will modify its asset purchases while keeping its interest rates intact:
<blockquote>The European Central Bank announced on Thursday that it would end its pandemic-era bond-buying program in March, but would try to ease the transition by pledging additional support for the eurozone economy in the coming year.
The bank left its interest rate untouched, and Christine Lagarde, the bank’s president, said that it was “very unlikely” it would move higher in the coming year despite rising inflation, which the bank sees as largely driven by high energy prices…
Given the uncertainty caused by the latest variant of the coronavirus, Omicron, which has led European governments to reintroduce lockdowns and other restrictions on public life, E.C.B. policymakers said they needed “to maintain flexibility.”</blockquote>
The moves from the European financial institutions come after similar policies from the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States.
In March 2020, the Federal Reserve pegged a near-zero interest rate target and started making monthly bond purchases of $120 billion. In November, officials <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/as-high-inflation-persists-federal-reserve-unveils-first-official-plan-to-roll-back-stimulus">revealed</a> the first step in rolling back monetary stimulus — slashing bond purchases by $15 billion in both November and December. On Wednesday, however, central bankers <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-reserve-releases-plan-to-more-urgently-address-high-inflation">announced</a> that they would accelerate the conclusion to their quantitative easing program while hiking interest rates three times in 2022.
As in Europe, price levels are continuing to rise in the United States.
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index — which the Federal Reserve uses to inform monetary policy decisions — <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-feds-favorite-inflation-measure-hits-three-decade-high">hit</a> a year-over-year rate of 4.1% in October. More recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-inflation-skyrockets-to-6-8-higher-than-expected-fastest-rate-in-nearly-40-years">revealed</a> that the Consumer Price Index is rising at a 6.8% clip — the largest year-over-year increase since June 1982.
Also on Wednesday, the Penn Wharton Budget Model — a nonpartisan public policy research initiative at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School — <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/thanks-to-inflation-the-typical-american-family-took-a-3500-hit-this-year">discovered</a> that inflation trends require the typical American household to spend around $3,500 more in 2021 to maintain their standards of living.

EU flag

European Countries Begin To Taper COVID-Era Monetary Stimulus

Europe

According to the new jobs report that was released last week, the economy appears to be struggling.
“The numbers are out, and on the top line they are way worse than expected. Something seems very off: only 266,000 jobs created in April, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 6.1%, according to the report,” reported <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/live-blog/2021-04-30/u-s-employment-report-for-april?utm_source=twitter&amp;cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-economics&amp;utm_content=economics&amp;utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&amp;utm_medium=social">Bloomberg</a>. 
<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/07/jobs-report-april-2021.html">CNBC</a> wrote, “Hiring was a huge letdown in April, with nonfarm payrolls increasing by a much less than expected 266,000 and the unemployment rate rose to 6.1% amid an escalating shortage of available workers. Dow Jones estimates had been for 1 million new jobs and an unemployment rate of 5.8%.”
“Economists were hoping for a figure roughly 1 million jobs larger — making this the biggest miss, relative to expectations, in the history of the payrolls report,” added <a href="https://twitter.com/axios/status/1390648052097163271">Axios</a>.
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-unemployment-rate-increases-numbers-way-worse-than-expected-talk-of-inflation-grows">The Daily Wire</a> reported, “The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm">said</a> that nearly 10 million Americans, 9.8 million to be exact, remained unemployed in Biden’s economy.”
In bizarre fashion, Biden suggested that this disastrous jobs report actually stands as evidence in favor of his American Rescue Plan and that “more help is on the way.”
“And so, you know, we’re gonna help schools and children, and child centers across the country as well, accelerate the reopening and that’s underway,” Biden said.
“So look, it’s going to continue to improve,” Biden added. &#8220;Today&#8217;s report makes clear: Thank goodness we passed the American Rescue Plan. Help is here and more help is on the way, and more help is needed.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BIDEN: &quot;Today&#39;s report makes clear: Thank goodness we passed the American Rescue Plan. Help is here and more help is on the way.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/pNP4CNoo0k">pic.twitter.com/pNP4CNoo0k</a>
&mdash; Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1390701111552708608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
On Twitter, Biden appeared to pivot on his previously positive rhetoric regarding recovery.
“We’re still digging our way out of a very deep hole,” he tweeted. “No one should underestimate how tough a battle this is. We still have a job to do here in Washington. The American people are counting on us. So, let’s get it done.”
This strategy is not only a Biden classic, it&#8217;s the standard Leftist reaction to their own failures. The solution to all problems is &#8220;more government,&#8221; and when the problems get worse because of &#8220;more government,&#8221; the cure is even more government.
Biden’s American Rescue Plan was a $1.9 trillion spending bill and stimulus package passed in early March to supposedly speed up the United States’ economic recovery following the pandemic.
On January 20, Biden announced the plan, “laying out the first step of an aggressive, two-step plan for rescue, from the depths of this crisis, and recovery, by investing in America, creating millions of additional good-paying jobs, combatting the climate crisis, advancing racial equity, and building back better than before.”
“As last month’s jobs report underscored, the virus and our economy are intertwined. We cannot rescue our economy without containing this virus,” the Biden announcement stated in January.
The problem for Biden here is that we are — by almost all available metrics — containing the virus. The economy should be recovering as a result. And yet, the jobs report suggests otherwise.
As The Daily Wire noted, “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce directly blamed the Biden administration’s stimulus spending for the worsening economy, saying that he was paying people to not work.”
“The disappointing jobs report makes it clear that paying people not to work is dampening what should be a stronger jobs market,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce <a href="https://www.uschamber.com/press-release/us-chamber-calls-ending-300-weekly-supplemental-unemployment-benefits-address-labor">said</a>. “One step policymakers should take now is ending the $300 weekly supplemental unemployment benefit. Based on the Chamber’s analysis, the $300 benefit results in approximately one in four recipients taking home more in unemployment than they earned working.”
It&#8217;s becoming clear that COVID-19 is no longer the roadblock to economic recovery in the United States. Instead, that role is being played by Democrats.

Joe Biden Thinks The Failures Of Big Government Can Be Fixed By… More Big Government

Jobs

Landry&#8217;s CEO and Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta on Tuesday slammed President Joe Biden&#8217;s American Rescue Plan for extending enhanced unemployment benefits. According to Fertitta, businesses across the nation are struggling to hire people because some unemployed people don&#8217;t want a job.
The hospitality executive stated his businesses in Texas, thanks to the economy reopening, are up 2% in revenue compared to the same time in April of 2019. The problem, however, is he&#8217;s struggling to hire employees.
&#8220;&#8230; what we’re all fighting, of course, is there’s [sic] no employees out there, and now you’ve got the new American Jobs Act for the infrastructure that is going to make the labor market even tougher,&#8221; Fertitta <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2021/04/27/houston-rockets-owner-fertitta-jobless-prefer-enhanced-unemployment-benefits-to-work/">told CNBC anchor</a> Tyler Mathisen. &#8220;What’s amazing, Tyler, is our average wage for non-tipped employees is $14.50 an hour. Our problem [is we&#8217;re] running at 6% to 7% unemployment. That 6% to 7% doesn’t want a job. You can get a job in any industry you want basically right now.”
Mathisen pointed out that he has repeatedly seen retail businesses, like Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, and local restaurants, with &#8220;ads and banners&#8221; advertising open positions.
&#8220;Do you attribute most of that inability to attract workers to the ideas that workers are receiving and riding on unemployment benefits?” the CNBC host asked.
&#8220;100%,&#8221; Fertitta replied without hesitation. &#8220;It&#8217;s the extra $300 a week. When I first said this on CNBC a few weeks ago. Everybody looked at me like I was crazy, and then they all realized that this is what’s happening. There is [sic] no employees out there. We are offering bonuses everywhere.&#8221;
&#8220;At the same time, my casinos are having record-breaking months, okay. That’s stimulus, guys. That’s where your money is going,&#8221; the CEO explained. &#8220;It’s going out there to all of your high-end department stores, your Louis Vuittons, your Chanels, all your high-end steakhouses, all your high-end hotels. In the last week, I have traveled to Philly, to New York to L.A., and I see what is going out there, and it’s not just happening in Houston. People are spending money everywhere.”
According to Fertitta, inflation is going to hit consumers hard as businesses struggle to hire employees.
&#8220;You’re getting ready to have huge inflation for the consumer because the people in the slaughterhouses, the people raising the chickens, the people raising your produce, they can’t find employees, so they can only produce so much,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;So what happens? They raise the price to the consumer. Businesses like mine, which is retail, which is restaurants, which is hotels, and on and on and on, then what happens? We have to raise the price to the consumer. We have to pay more, so therefore you’ve built yourself in the inflation that you always wanted, it looks like.”
The Rockets owner said Americans are itching to get back to a pre-COVID &#8220;normal,&#8221; meaning they want to travel and spend money, which is good for businesses like his.
&#8220;This is going to be the Roaring 20s. It&#8217;s happening right now and if the government wants to keep giving out the stimulus to everybody, keep giving it out because I didn&#8217;t get any PPP money. I got no support from the government but they&#8217;re giving it to me right now through the stimulus,&#8221; he said with a laugh. &#8220;So all of the consumer businesses that didn&#8217;t take [PPP loans] are happy to take it.&#8221;
President Joe Biden&#8217;s American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion stimulus package that was<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-dem-controlled-house-approves-1-9-trillion-stimulus-biden-plans-to-sign-friday"> passed and signed</a> into law last month, extends enhanced unemployment benefits until September. During this period, Americans qualify for $300 per week in unemployment on top of the unemployment he or she receives from their state benefits.

Landry’s Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tilman Fertitta Interview

Houston Rockets Owner Tilman Fertitta Slams Enhanced Unemployed Benefits: Americans Have No Incentive To Work

Officials in President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration vowed that $1,400 relief checks for millions of Americans would go out almost immediately.
Twelve days later, millions of Americans are still waiting.
Now, a group of Democrats in the House are demanding answers.
In a letter posted on Twitter by one Democrat who signed it, Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), the lawmakers asked the heads of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) to move the payments more quickly.
&#8220;The American Rescue Plan was intended to provide much-needed economic stimulus and assistance to people across the country — immediately — and we are counting on your agencies to ensure that beneficiaries are not left behind in the seamless delivery of those payments,&#8221; wrote the Democrats, who also included House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA), as well as Reps. John Larson (D-CT) and Danny Davis (D-IL).
Of course, they blamed former President Donald Trump. Pascrell said slow payments to U.S. military veterans and Social Security beneficiaries can be blamed on &#8220;Trump appointees.&#8221; &#8220;Their inability to get out stimulus checks is another reason they need to be shown the exit,&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A few weeks ago I called for President Biden to fire the trump appointees trying to dismantle Social Security. Their inability to get out stimulus checks is another reason they need to be shown the exit. <a href="https://t.co/0JxKhiKjeO">pic.twitter.com/0JxKhiKjeO</a>
&mdash; Bill Pascrell, Jr. (@BillPascrell) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillPascrell/status/1374138289930842115?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
But there&#8217;s still time. The Treasury Department and IRS said Monday that another batch of payments is set to hit bank accounts by Wednesday.
&#8220;The IRS said a &#8216;large&#8217; portion of the second batch of payments will be mailed, though it did not provide an exact figure. &#8216;Taxpayers who do not receive a direct deposit by March 24 should watch the mail carefully in the coming weeks for a paper check or a prepaid debit card,&#8217; the agency said in a statement,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/22/more-stimulus-payments-will-hit-bank-accounts-by-wednesday-march-24.html">according</a> to CNBC.
“We urge people to carefully watch their mail for a check or debit card in the coming weeks,” said IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig.
&#8220;The IRS is making approximately 17 million direct deposits with a payment date of March 24 and is beginning to mail about 20 million checks and debit cards, according to a banking industry official,&#8221; The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/22/irs-sending-second-1400-stimulus-payments/">reported</a>.
Americans earning up to $75,000 in adjusted gross income are eligible to receive up to $1,400, with couples filing jointly and making up to $150,000 eligible for $2,800 payments. The payments are cut off completely for individuals earning more than $80,000. The payments are based on either 2019 or 2020 income, depending on when a taxpayer files their 2020 tax return.
The $1.9 trillion stimulus package, signed into law by Biden on March 11, also expands the child tax credit for one year. It will increase to $3,600 for children under 6 and to $3,000 for kids between 6 and 17.
Biden said shortly after signing the bill that help was on the way. &#8220;The American Rescue Plan is already doing what it was designed to do: make a difference in people’s everyday lives. We’re just getting started. By the time all the money is distributed, 85% of American households will have gotten their $1,400 rescue checks,&#8221; Biden said.

Partial view on a US Treasury payment check

Where’s Your $1,400 Stimulus Check? Democrats Demand Answer For Slow Payments.

Stimulus Checks

On Wednesday, many Americans saw their $1,400 stimulus checks hit their bank accounts, courtesy of the mammoth coronavirus relief package Democrats shoehorned through Congress last week.
The final destinations are fuzzier, however, for some of the other blocks of cash provided in the $1.9 trillion stimulus <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1319/text#toc-HFCC8BF50FFAD49A1A8AECB6F59D6861D">bill</a>, ostensibly aimed at alleviating the economic suffering caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Some of the items are only loosely related to relieving pandemic woes, and in some cases, Democrats appear to have given up attempting to connect the funding to the coronavirus at all, raising eyebrows among critics who argued the package should not be used as a &#8220;Trojan Horse&#8221; for a Democratic agenda.
&#8220;What we&#8217;re talking about here [was] a bill that only spent about one percent on vaccines and about nine percent on the entire health [fight],&#8221; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in a floor speech.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) responded to McConnell by arguing that the relief package is aimed at the problems that the pandemic created.
&#8220;What part doesn’t he like? Does he not like giving checks to people who need help? Does he not like opening schools safely? Does he not like vaccines?&#8221; Schumer <a href="https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1370369140943421442">said</a>, claiming that those items make up more than half the bill.
Among the more curious appropriations, the stimulus bill gives $135 million each to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The bill reserves even more, $200 million, for the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
The NEA had already been <a href="https://www.arts.gov/about/nea-on-covid-19">allotted</a> more than $162 million for the entire fiscal year of 2020 in a spending bill passed at the end of 2019, an increase in the organization’s funding from the previous year. Combined with the $75 million the NEA received in the CARES Act last year, the total of additional aid is well above the organization’s normal yearly budget.
Some of the NEA&#8217;s <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/17/life-without-arts-10-crazy-grants-given-nea-neh/">recent grants</a> include $50,000 to help bring “Trans Scripts,” a play about actual individuals who transitioned from male to female, to the U.S., and nearly $100,000 to adapt Shakespeare plays for the stage without words. The NEA and Institute of Museum and Library Services also teamed up to spend nearly a half a million dollars on a museum exhibit that “intends to provide attendees with the sights, sounds, smells, feel and taste of medieval times.”
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting also gets $175 million.
Another eye-catching item the stimulus bill provides is $20 million &#8220;to ensure the survival and continuing vitality of Native American languages during and after the public health emergency.&#8221;
Another $100 million will go toward Native American housing improvement.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will also receive $95 million worth of financial padding, and the Environmental Protection Agency will receive $100 million, half of which is designated to &#8220;identify and address disproportionate environmental or public health harms and risks in minority populations or low-income populations.&#8221;
Some of the funding in the bill, passed without the support of a single Republican in either chamber of Congress, is scheduled to be doled out over several years, as late as 2027.
The package reserves several large funding blocks for cybersecurity and technology, including $200 million to remain available well into 2024 for the U.S. Digital Service, the federal tech unit established after the Obamacare website&#8217;s disastrous launch and crash in 2013.
Another $650 million is reserved through 2023 for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to be used for cybersecurity risk mitigation, and $1 billion through 2025 for the Technology Modernization Fund, which enhances IT at federal agencies.
“Without modern and nimble IT systems, the federal government cannot deliver critical payments and services to individuals, families, and businesses who rely on them,” Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA) wrote in a letter to House leadership in which they pushed for TMF funding in the bill.
Although the bill is purportedly a coronavirus relief bill, $3.5 billion will go to fight other diseases in the form of a contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
Critics have also complained about a $350 billion &#8220;bailout&#8221; in the bill for state, local, and tribal governments that they say were badly managed by Democrats even before the pandemic.
Democrats tried and failed to include several other pricey items, including $112 million for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) expansion, an underground rail project in Silicon Valley that has seen slow progress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) represents most of San Francisco, where the subway currently runs.
The Biden administration&#8217;s attempt to use the stimulus bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour was also scrapped after two moderate Democratic senators indicated they would not vote for it.

Dollar In Flames

Here Are Some Of The Craziest Spending Items In The Coronavirus Stimulus Bill

Coronavirus Relief

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) slammed President Joe Biden&#8217;s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill during a Fox News interview on Thursday morning, saying that calling the bill a &#8220;coronavirus bill&#8221; was like thinking &#8220;the stripper really likes you.&#8221;
Host Brian Kilmeade asked Kennedy about the bill, which White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki bragged this week is the &#8220;most progressive bill in American history.&#8221;
&#8220;President Biden says it&#8217;s a coronavirus bill and my response is, &#8216;Right, you know, and the stripper really likes you,'&#8221; Kennedy said. &#8220;I said the other day that calling this a coronavirus bill is like calling Harvey Weinstein a feminist. It&#8217;s just chock-full of spending porn. There are parts of it I like. I like trying to help people who are unemployed, and I like trying to help our small business people, especially our restaurants.&#8221;
&#8220;But I don&#8217;t understand why we have to give bucket-loads of money to prisoners. Why do they need help?&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I don&#8217;t understand why we have to give money to people who are in our country illegally. I don&#8217;t understand why we have to give money to states whose revenues have gone up. I don&#8217;t understand why we have to give $130 billion to schools that refuse to open. I don&#8217;t know why we have to pay reparations — this bill has a reparations provision — and if you add up all the coronavirus spending, and then all the spending porn, there&#8217;s no comparison.&#8221;
&#8220;And to me, using a coronavirus bill to effectuate spending porn, is like looting after a natural disaster and that&#8217;s why I voted against it,&#8221; he concluded. &#8220;We tried with President Biden, he said, &#8216;Look, &#8216;I&#8217;ll meet you half way,&#8217; we said, &#8216;OK.&#8217; Well, and then he just ignored us.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Sen. John Kennedy:
&quot;President Biden says it&#39;s a coronavirus bill and my response is &#39;right, and the stripper really likes you.&#39; Calling this a coronavirus bill is like calling Harvey Weinstein a feminist.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/8WRqcRhu8P">pic.twitter.com/8WRqcRhu8P</a>
&mdash; Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1370034260380418051?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS HOST: Senator, are you celebrating the greatest progressive bill in the history of our country?
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): Well, I voted against it, Brian. President Biden says it&#8217;s a coronavirus bill and my response is &#8216;Right, you know, and the stripper really likes you.&#8217; I said the other day that calling this a coronavirus bill is like calling Harvey Weinstein a feminist. It&#8217;s just chock-full of spending porn. There are parts of it I like. I like trying to help people who are unemployed, and I like trying to help our small business people, especially our restaurants. But I don&#8217;t understand why we have to give bucket-loads of money to prisoners. Why do they need help? I don&#8217;t understand why we have to give money to people who are in our country illegally. I don&#8217;t understand why we have to give money to states whose revenues have gone up. I don&#8217;t understand why we have to give $130 billion to schools that refuse to open. I don&#8217;t know why we have to pay reparations — this bill has a reparations provision. And if you add up all the coronavirus spending and then all the spending porn, there&#8217;s no comparison. And to me, using a coronavirus bill to effectuate spending porn, is like looting after a natural disaster. And that&#8217;s why I voted against it. We tried with President Biden, he said, &#8216;Look, I&#8217;ll meet you half way,&#8217; we said, &#8216;OK.&#8217; Well, and then he just ignored us.</blockquote>

US-POLITICS-CONGRESS-SECURITY-WRAY

Kennedy On Stimulus: Calling It ‘A Coronavirus Bill’ Is Like Thinking ‘The Stripper Really Likes You’

John Kennedy

Senate Democrats blocked an amendment by Republicans on Saturday that would have stopped taxpayer-funded stimulus checks from going to illegal aliens and incarcerated criminals.
Republican Sens. Tom Cotton (AR), Ted Cruz (TX), and Bill Cassidy (LA) offered an amendment on the Senate floor to block prisoners from being able to receive stimulus checks, which was blocked in a 49-50 vote.
&#8220;The bill includes $1400 stimulus checks for individuals who make less than $75,000,&#8221; Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cotton-covid-relief-bill-convicted-murderers-stimulus-checks">reported</a>. &#8220;Inmates are included among those who receive stimulus checks, just as they were in both of the previous Covid relief bills that offered $1,200 and $600 checks.&#8221;
Cotton responded by highlighting some of the heinous criminals locked up in the U.S. justice system who will receive money in Biden&#8217;s stimulus deal.
&#8220;Dylann Roof murdered nine people. He&#8217;s on federal death row. He&#8217;ll be getting a $1,400 stimulus check as part of the Democrats&#8217; &#8216;COVID relief&#8217; bill,&#8221; Cotton tweeted. &#8220;Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Bomber, murdered three people and terrorized a city. He&#8217;ll be getting a $1,400 stimulus check as part of the Democrats&#8217; &#8216;COVID relief&#8217; bill.&#8221;
&#8220;Aaron Shamo was sentenced to life in prison for selling &#8216;1 million fentanyl-laced fake oxycodone pills to unsuspecting buyers,'&#8221; Cotton added. &#8220;He&#8217;ll be getting a $1,400 stimulus check while in prison from the Democrats&#8217; &#8216;COVID relief&#8217; bill.&#8221;
The three Senators issued the following statements about Democrats blocking their amendment:
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>Cassidy: “Prisoners do not pay taxes. Taxpayers pay for their every need. Inmates cannot stimulate the economy. But, under this bill they receive stimulus checks. This is a perfect example of nontargeted, inappropriate, and total waste of spending. It’s ridiculous that this is in the bill.”</li>
<li>Cotton: “COVID relief funding should go to hard-hit, law-abiding workers—not inmates serving their debt to society. Unfortunately, the Democrats would rather spend $2 billion on federal and state prisoners instead of American families.”</li>
<li>Cruz: “One of the clearest examples of how irresponsible the Democrats’ bill is the fact this bill prioritizes $1,400 relief payments to incarcerated felons – people who have not lost income because of COVID. The mismanaged priorities in this bill are detrimental to America and I was proud to join my colleagues in trying to close this egregious loophole.”</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
The Senate also voted 49-50 against an amendment from Cruz that would block &#8220;$1,400 stimulus checks from going to undocumented immigrants,&#8221; The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/541945-senate-rejects-cruz-effort-to-block-stimulus-checks-for-undocumented?rl=1">reported</a>.
&#8220;Eight Democrats had voted for a similar amendment sponsored by Sens. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), another White House hopeful, early last month during a debate on the Senate budget resolution,&#8221; the report added. &#8220;However, the Democratic caucus stayed unified on Saturday in defeating the Republican amendment.&#8221;
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) claimed that illegal aliens will not receive stimulus checks because they &#8220;do not have Social Security numbers,&#8221; therefore, &#8220;they do not qualify for stimulus relief checks.&#8221;
Cruz and Durbin got into it on the Senate floor with Durbin accusing Cruz of lying. Cruz asked if Durbin would yield for a question, which Durbin refused to take.
A top GOP Senate source told The Daily Wire that Durbin is wrong because, according to the source, the Democrats&#8217; bill would give stimulus checks to migrants who come to the U.S. legally on an authorized work visa and then overstay their visa, which then makes them an illegal alien. However, while they are legally in the U.S. working, they may receive a Social Security number. The Social Security Administration states on their <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/ssnvisa/">website</a> that noncitizens are able to apply for Social Security numbers.

President Biden Speaks After Senate Passes $1.9 Trillion Relief Bill

Democrats Reject Republican Attempts To Prevent Stimulus Checks From Going To Prisoners, Illegal Aliens

Democratic Party

Senate Democrats have reportedly decided to abandon an idea to increase the federal minimum wage through the House-passed $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, a decision that was made after some Democrats briefly considered enacting a work-around wage hike that would comply with the Senate’s complicated rules for passing the stimulus bill.
The Wall Street Journal, citing three people familiar with the matter, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-relief-bill-heads-to-senate-as-democrats-face-emerging-divisions-11614542698?mod=hp_listb_pos2">reported</a> Sunday evening that Democrats will no longer seek to use tax penalties or other options to compel companies into paying a higher minimum wage. Two of the people familiar with the plan told the WSJ that the decision was made to get the bill passed more quickly.
According to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/02/26/wyden-sanders-minimum-wage-tax-penalties/">The Washington Post</a>, which cited two congressional aides, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was exploring Friday the idea of raising the wages through tax penalties, but it was unclear whether Democrats would support it.
Earlier this week, the Senate parliamentarian tossed cold water on President Joe Biden’s idea of passing a $15 minimum wage hike through the stimulus bill, saying that the wage hike as written didn’t follow the rules of the Senate reconciliation process. Democrats will need to rely on reconciliation, a maneuver with complex rules that involves fast-tracking legislation related to the budget, to pass a bill without Republican support.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) still included the $15 minimum wage hike in the House-passed version of the legislation, dubbed the American Rescue Plan, and some lawmakers were exploring options for keeping a wage hike in a Senate version.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced Thursday that he would seek to write an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sanders-suggests-removing-tax-deductions-for-large-companies-that-dont-pay-at-least-15-an-hour">amendment to the stimulus bill</a> that would “take tax deductions away from large, profitable corporations that don’t pay workers at least $15 an hour.” Sanders also said that such an amendment would need to be included in the reconciliation bill.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) revealed a work-around plan, which he called “plan B,” in a statement Friday: “As chair of the Finance Committee, I’ve been working on a ‘plan B’ that would make big companies pay for mistreating their workers. My plan would impose a 5 percent penalty on a big corporations’ total payroll if any workers earn less than a certain amount. That penalty would increase over time.”
“America can’t continue to have millions of workers — workers who are disproportionately people of color and women, as well as essential workers like fast food workers and home health aides — earning starvation wages,” said Wyden.
The Washington Post, citing two sources on the condition of anonymity, has since <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/02/28/minimum-wage-backup-plan-biden-stimulus/">reported</a> that Wyden and Sanders are walking back the idea.
It&#8217;s not clear whether a work-around minimum wage increase would have garnered enough support among Democrats to pass in a Senate version of the bill. The House narrowly passed the legislation in a vote after midnight early Saturday morning 219-212, and two House Democrats ultimately voted against it. No Republicans voted in favor of it.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-dem-who-voted-against-1-9-trillion-stimulus-says-process-should-have-involved-republicans">House Dem Who Voted Against $1.9 Trillion Stimulus Says Process Should Have Involved Republicans</a>

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