Monthly Archives: December, 2023

Proposed new legislation would revoke the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit organization that is providing material support for terrorist groups.

The bipartisan bill, introduced by U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tenn., and U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., comes out of the House Ways and Means Committee, which unanimously approved the legislation last week.

“The abuse of the charitable system for support for terrorist organizations is sickening,” Cliff Smith, Washington Project Director at the Middle East Forum, said in a statement. “Unsuspecting donors deserve better, and the leaders of these charities who take advantage of them certainly don't deserve to keep their charitable status.”

The issue has been thrust to the forefront after the Oct. 7 attack by the terrorist group, Hamas, on Israel that left more than 1,400 dead and hundreds captured, including Americans.

Since that attack, pro-Hamas and anti-semitic demonstrations have broken out around the country and the world. Several top U.S. universities came under fire for refusing to condemn the worst elements of those protests, and now lawmakers are considering taking a closer look at just who receives federal funds and if those funds make their way to terrorist-supporting groups.

The committee pointed to one instance where the tax-exempt charity, the Holy Land Foundation, funneled $12.4 million to Hamas before being shut down about 20 years ago.

“The Committee learned of other groups, currently operating in plain sight in America, led by many of the same individuals as the Holy Land Foundation,” the committee said in a statement.

Federal foreign aid efforts have wrestled with this issue as well, making clear it is difficult to send financial aid to Gaza without it falling into the hands of Hamas.

In fact, the Office of Inspector General for the USAID, the federal foreign aid agency, released a “situational alert” earlier this year saying it has “identified this area as high-risk for potential diversion and misuse of U.S.-funded assistance.”

“It is USAID OIG’s investigative priority to ensure that assistance does not fall into the hands of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) including, but not limited to, Hamas,” the federal watchdog said.

Currently, efforts to block funding to Hamas and other terror groups have focused on overseas work. Under the new legislation, U.S. nonprofits making that same mistake could lose their tax-exempt status.

“It is unconscionable that American taxpayers are forced to provide indirect support for terrorist groups, giving allied organizations and their donors generous tax breaks intended for charitable activities,” Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld, Coalition for Jewish Values president, said in a statement. “There is nothing charitable about supporting atrocities, and there should be no tax exemptions for terror.”

It remains unclear if and when the new bill will get a vote on the House floor.

“Our tax code should not be used to support or finance violent terrorism around the world,” House Ways and Means Chair Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., said at the committee meeting on the bill last week. “This bill revokes tax-exempt status for ‘terrorist supporting organizations,’ defined as groups that have provided material support or resources to a listed terrorist organization within the past three years.”

Special counsel Jack Smith wants the U.S. Supreme Court to decide if former President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election were protected by presidential immunity.

Smith is moving forward on two fronts to have the matter in the D.C. case decided before the March 4, 2024, trial date.

"The United States recognizes that this is an extraordinary request," prosecutors wrote in their request to the Supreme Court. "This is an extraordinary case."

Smith wants to fast-track Trump's appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, but he wants the nation's highest court to weigh in first.

"This case presents a fundamental question at the heart of our democracy: whether a former President is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin," prosecutors wrote.

Trump has argued that he has presidential immunity from D.C. charges, which accuse him criminal conspiracies to subvert the 2020 election results.

The Washington D.C. trial is set to start March 4. Special Counsel Jack Smith's team of federal prosecutors charged Trump with four federal counts related to contesting the 2020 election and the storming of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. The charges include conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction, and conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one's vote counted, according to the indictment. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

That trial starts the day before Super Tuesday on March 5, when 15 Republican primaries and caucuses are scheduled to take place.

This story is developing and will be updated.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s governor is making it clear he’s not going to sign off on the end of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Gov. Tony Evers was a guest on Upfront on Milwaukee TV over the weekend and said he will veto the Republican-backed plan to get rid of the elections commission and shift its powers to the secretary of state’s office.

“Under no circumstances, simple as that,” Evers said.

Republican Rep. Ty Bodden, R-Stockbridge, introduced the plan last week. He said moving the responsibility for managing Wisconsin’s elections to the elected secretary of state will help restore faith in the state’s electoral process.

“The Wisconsin Elections Commission and its makeup has been a disaster for the state of Wisconsin. The Government Accountability Board was a failed agency and WEC was another failed experiment that replaced it. Let’s not try to reinvent the wheel, but rather give the responsibilities back to the secretary of state, the position that administers elections in 38 other states,” Bodden said last week.

“Moving it to the secretary of state and having the secretary of state essentially be overseen by the Legislature, that’s a non-starter,” the governor countered. “We’ve got a good system. We’ve got a good leader in the system, and I’m going to veto anything that moves us in a different direction.”

Republican lawmakers have been pushing to fire Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe for years. Republicans have been furious with Wolfe since the 2020 elections, and the still unanswered questions about things like ballot drop boxes, the money from the Mark Zuckerberg-backed Center for Tech and Civic Life and for a string of other Election Commission decisions that all seemed to benefit Democrats in Wisconsin.

Evers defended Wolfe.

“I think she’s a very capable person, but we have a good system now,” Evers said. “I want to keep it.”

Bodden’s plan has support in both the Assembly and Senate, though it’s not clear if it has enough support to pass both chambers, especially with a promised veto hanging over its head.

(The Center Square) – The top Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly says the deal to swap DEI jobs for pay raises at the University of Wisconsin is still on the table, but he also says it’s not changing.

Speaker Robin Vos told News Talk 1130’s Jay Weber on Monday morning he’s willing to give UW regents time to reconsider, but he’s not going to soften his stance on ending diversity, equity and inclusion spending on UW campuses.

“The deal was negotiated in good faith,” Vos said. “We are not changing one thing in this deal. We are not going backwards. If anything, I’d prefer to go forward. But, you know, a deal is a deal, and you have to keep your word. So, it’s going to last for a little while. But this is not forever.

Vos didn’t say how long he’s planning to leave the deal on the table, but he suggested regents could reconsider and vote again after the holidays.

UW regents on Saturday voted 9-8 against the deal that Vos agreed to with UW President Jay Rothman.

Some regents felt the agreement “sold out” students and faculty of color.

Democrats spent the weekend cheering on the regents and demanding Vos soften his stance.

The top Democrat in the Wisconsin Assembly, Rep. Greta Nuebaur, D-Racine, said Vos needs to give up and authorize the UW pay raises.

“An important reminder that the GOP can schedule a vote to release UW employees’ pay raises AT ANY TIME. This is completely within their power,” Neubauer said on social media. The GOP is cynically withholding raises and funds for critical university projects as leverage and we can’t let them get away with it.”

Rep. Alex Joers, D-Middleton, took it a step further.

“The Speaker and legislative Republicans now have the opportunity to do the right thing for WI. Release already approved pay raises, allow buildings to move forward, fund our universities, and drop their culture wars on DE&I,” Joers tweeted.

Vos said Democratic lawmakers must not know him very well.

“There is zero chance. I will do everything in my power to make sure that we either enforce this deal, or we wait until the next budget to talk about it again,” Vos said. “We are not going to give the raises, we are not going to approve these new building programs, we are not going to approve the new money for the university unless they, at least, pass this deal.”

Vos says the regents have a meeting scheduled for early January and said he will give them time to reconsider. But Vos said the deal “will not last forever.”

University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned Saturday, just days after her testimony at a Congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., about antisemitism on campus and the university's timid response was widely criticized.

"It has been my privilege to serve as President of this remarkable institution. It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members to advance Penn's vital missions," Magill said in a Saturday statement.

She is expected to remain on staff at the university as a faculty member at Penn Carey Law, according to an email sent Saturday afternoon to the campus community.

Magill and other university campus presidents have faced a growing wave of criticism after allowing campus protesters to call for the genocide of Jews in response to the ongoing Israeli war against the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza.

At Wednesday's hearing, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y, asked the presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University whether calling for the genocide of Jews on their campuses violates their universities' bullying and harassment policies.

"If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment," Magill replied when asked specifically.

More from the back and forth between Magill and Stefanik, as The Center Square previously reported:

Stefanick repeats: "Does calling for the genocide of Jews constitute bullying or harassment?"

"If it is directed and severe and pervasive, it is harassment," Magill replied.

"So the answer is yes," Stefanik followed up.

"It is a context-dependent decision," Magill replied.

"It's a context-dependent decision, that's your testimony today, calling for the genocide of Jews is depending upon the context? That is not bullying or harassment? This is the easiest question to answer. 'Yes,' Ms. Magill."

"If the speech becomes conduct, it can be harassment," she replied.

"Conduct, meaning committing the act of genocide? Speech is not harassment? I'm going to give you one more opportunity for the world to see your answer," Stefanik said and repeated her question.

Magill, who smiled throughout her answers, said, "It can be harassment."

Later Wednesday, Penn posted a video of Magill attempting to clarify her remarks.

"In that moment, I was focused on our university's long-standing policies aligned with the U.S. Constitution which say that speech alone is not punishable," she said. "I was not focused on, but I should have been, the irrefutable fact that a call of genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate ... In my view, it would be harassment or intimidation."

After Magill's resignation, Penn Board of Trustees Chair Scott L. Bok also resigned.

(The Center Square) – The man who signed Act 10 into law is predicting an expensive turnaround if the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturns it.

Former Gov. Scott Walker was a guest on Madison television over the weekend. He told Channel 3000’s For the Record that ending Act 10 would weaken voters, parents and communities, and give more power to Wisconsin’s public sector unions.

"I want to make sure that in this school district and every other school district across the country and every other municipality and county, that the people that we elect locally are the ones in charge, that we don't go back to a system where a handful of union bosses called the shots across the state," the former governor said.

A handful of public sector unions last week asked the new liberal-majority court to overturn Act 10. The unions argue the law creates two groups of public sector union workers, and therefore violates the Wisconsin Constitution’s equal protection clause.

Walker became extremely unpopular with unions, particularly Wisconsin’s teachers’ union, when he signed Act 10 in 2011.

The law limits Wisconsin’s teachers union to negotiation only for raises and caps those raises at the rate of inflation.

Walker said Act 10 has saved at least $16 billion since 2011.

“I think there's a whole lot of other hard-working taxpayers in the state – not only because of the tax savings, but more importantly because of the shift in power away from special interests back to the hard-working people, I think that's incredibly important – and certainly we're going to be exploring everything we can do with other like-minded people across the state,” Walker said. "My hope is that the new majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court doesn't cave to political pressure but rather follows the precedent that was set at both the federal and the state level in the past, which is more than just about a court case, it's really about ensuring that school districts and local governments continue to be in charge of what they do and not a handful of special interests.”

Walker’s interview came after the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on Friday promised to defend Act 10 wherever it needs to be defended.

“For the better part of the last 12 years, no piece of legislation has loomed larger in public policy debates in Wisconsin than Act 10, the collective bargaining reform law passed in 2011. The ‘Budget Repair Bill,’ introduced by Gov. Scott Walker in the first weeks of his first term, represented a fundamental break with the past and a new era for state and local governments in the Badger State and the country,” WILL’s Rick Esenberg said in a statement. “Since then, WILL has been on the forefront of examining the impact of Act 10 on education, the teaching workforce, and puncturing the myths that persist about the law. Now with a new lawsuit, we stand ready to defend the law in the court of law and in the court of public opinion.”

The rapidly growing debt of the U.S. federal government has hit another milestone, topping more than $100,000 in debt per person.

While the U.S. population and the U.S. national debt are large numbers that are difficult to calculate, the rough debt estimate and rough population estimate end up at about $100,000 of federal debt per person in the U.S.

The U.S. Census population clock estimates the U.S. population at nearly 336 million. Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department estimates the national debt is nearly $34 trillion.

“The national debt just exceeded $100,000 per citizen,” Rep. John James, R-Mich., wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “This should send a message to the White House that this reckless federal spending is at a breaking point.”

The U.S. Treasury confirmed in the middle of last month that in the first month of this fiscal year, the federal government had a deficit of $67 billion.

Concern about rising debt has grown along with the debt and recent international credit downgrades for the U.S.

The federal government received a credit downgrade from Fitch Ratings, one of the top international credit rating agencies in the world. The rating went from AAA to AA+.

Moody’s, one of the other top three credit rating groups, announced last week that it was lowering its evaluation of the U.S. credit from “stable” to “negative.”

The trust funds for Medicare, Social Security and highways are facing insolvency within a decade as the federal government borrows billions of dollars per day.

Despite these red flags, federal deficit spending, which has been elevated since the COVID-19 pandemic, Congressional spending shows little sign of slowing down. Deficits spiked during the pandemic, and while they have decreased from their COVID-era peaks, they still remain higher than before the pandemic.

This graph from the Treasury Department shows the trend:

House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., released evidence Monday of regular monthly payments from one of Hunter Biden’s business entities to his father, President Joe Biden.

Comer released bank records obtained via subpoena that allegedly show direct monthly payments from one of Hunter Biden’s business entities, Owasco PC, which is also under investigation by the Department of Justice tax-related charges.

Owasca PC was Hunter’s joint venture with a Chinese national that received $5 million from from Northern International Capital Holdings, an entity which is linked to the Chinese government.

“Today, the House Oversight Committee is releasing subpoenaed bank records that show Hunter Biden’s business entity, Owasco PC, made direct monthly payments to Joe Biden,” Comer said in a video released Monday. “This wasn’t a payment from Hunter Biden’s personal account but an account for his corporation that received payments from China and other shady corners of the world.”

According to bank documents provided by the committee, the payments appear to be monthly for $1,380.

This is the latest development in a steady stream of pieces of evidence released by the committee as part of the impeachment inquiry into the president. Comer also released copies of two checks from the Biden family to the president totalling $240,000.

Comer alleges that the timing and shuffling of money between accounts shows that a portion of the money given to the Biden family and associates via overseas deals was eventually funneled to the president.

IRS testimony, bank records, and an interview with Hunter Biden associate, Devon Archer, show that the Biden family and business associates received more than $20 million from entities in China, Ukraine, Russia and more.

That testimony also showed that the president participated in group phone calls with Hunter Biden and his business partners and that the Department of Justice pressured IRS investigators to back off interviewing the president for Hunter Biden’s tax crime investigation.

“When Joe Biden was Vice President, he spoke by phone, attended dinners, and had coffee with his son’s foreign business associates,” Comer said. “He allowed his son to catch a ride on Air Force Two at least a dozen times to sell the ‘Biden Brand’ around the world.

“Hunter Biden requested office keys to be made for his ‘office mate’ Joe Biden in space he planned to share with a Chinese energy company,” Comer added.

Hunter Biden is expected to meet with the committee this month.