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Social Security Benefits to Be Cut by 24% over Next Seven Years: Fiscal Watchdog

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Social Security beneficiaries are expected to face a 24% cut in payments by late 2032 following the enactment of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, according to new projections from a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog.

The projected cut would equal an $18,100 annual benefit cut for a dual-earning, middle-class couple that retires at the start of 2033, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget revealed in an analysis released Thursday. In comparison, a single-income couple at the same class level that retires at the end of the seven-year period would see a lower benefit cut of $13,600 per year.

“Policymakers pledging not to touch Social Security are implicitly endorsing these deep benefit cuts for 62 million retirees in 2032 and beyond,” the nonprofit organization said. “It is time for policymakers to tell the truth about the program’s finances and to pursue trust fund solutions to head off insolvency and improve the program for current and future generations.”

The new tax law essentially reduces the incoming tax revenue toward Social Security’s trust fund, accelerating the retirement program’s depletion. The drastic cut would take effect once the Social Security trust fund runs out of money in less than a decade.

Retirees may also find it harder to access healthcare due to an 11% cut in Medicare hospital insurance payments, the analysis shows. (Read more from “Social Security Benefits to Be Cut by 24% over Next Seven Years: Fiscal Watchdog” HERE)

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Obama’s Intel Agencies Interfered In The 2016 Election, And Of Course The Media Don’t Care

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If you told me a week ago that the federal government would release a bunch of official emails related to interference in the 2016 election and President Trump but virtually all of the media wouldn’t give a damn, I’d have assumed you were on drugs.

That’s what happened though. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Friday declassified a slew of internal government communications proving that then-President Obama’s intelligence agencies deliberately blocked the publication of a conclusive assessment that Russia had not manipulated votes in the 2016 election — contradicting the Russian-interference lie aggressively pushed by both Democrats and the dying news media.

As Margot Cleveland wrote this week here, “[T]he email threads declassified last week indicate the [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] … buried the PDB [President’s Daily Brief] to provide the intelligence community cover to issue a contrary assessment concerning Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election — and did so, against the recommendations of a wide array of intelligence professionals.”

At a minimum, that means a former president used American taxpayer dollars to smear his successor, sowing suspicion that Trump’s victory was illegitimate. That is, by definition, a scandal.

If it were Trump who did that to Biden, we would be hearing about this 50 years from now. Instead, the dying media are sweeping it away as a bore. (Read more from “Obama’s Intel Agencies Interfered In The 2016 Election, And Of Course The Media Don’t Care” HERE)

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Florida Judge Says ‘Hands Are Tied,’ Won’t Unseal Epstein Grand Jury Transcripts

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A federal judge has denied the Trump administration’s request to unseal transcripts from Florida grand jury proceedings related to a 20-year-old criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, saying her “hands are tied.”

U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of Florida Robin Rosenberg wrote in her denial that an unrelated 2020 ruling by the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals “does not permit” her to unseal grand jury records in instances not covered by the criminal procedure rule, CNBC reported.

“Eleventh Circuit law does not permit this Court to grant the Government’s request; the Court’s hands are tied — a point the Government concedes,” Rosenberg wrote.

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) petitioned the U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, Florida, to obtain the transcripts from two grand juries that convened there in 2005 and 2007, respectively.

In its argument for the transcripts, which are normally left sealed in such cases, the DOJ pointed to a “strong public interest in the historical investigation into Jeffrey Epstein,” the convicted sex offender suspected of trafficking minors to other pedophiles. (Read more from “Florida Judge Says ‘Hands Are Tied,’ Won’t Unseal Epstein Grand Jury Transcripts” HERE)

Showdown: Trump DOJ Has Responded to the Federal Judges Who Tried to Boot One of His Prosecutors

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As Sarah wrote earlier today, federal judges in New Jersey tried to boot interim US Attorney Alina Habba. They refused to extend her interim term, and other shenanigans were happening in the backdrop[.]. .

Well, Ms. Grace won’t be the next interim US Attorney for New Jersey since Attorney General Pam Bondi fired her today. The reason: the Trump DOJ does not tolerate the extrajudicial antics of rogue judges (via ABC News):

The Justice Department on Tuesday said it fired Desiree Leigh Grace as the newly appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, hours after federal judges in the state chose her over President Donald Trump’s pick, Alina Habba.

The announcement came after federal judges in New Jersey opted not to appoint Habba, Trump’s former personal attorney, as the state’s top federal prosecutor on a permanent basis. Trump appointed Habba as the state’s acting U.S. attorney in March.

“This Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the President’s core Article II powers,” Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X in announcing Grace’s firing.

(Read more from “Showdown: Trump DOJ Has Responded to the Federal Judges Who Tried to Boot One of His Prosecutors” HERE)

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Trump Says He May Eliminate Capital Gains Tax on Home Sales in Effort to Bolster the Housing Market

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President Trump said Tuesday he is considering eliminating the capital gains tax on home sales — a potentially massive financial break for sellers.

“We are thinking about no tax on capital gains on houses,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Trump was responding to a question from Real America Voice reporter Brian Glenn, who is in a relationship with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Georgia GOP congresswoman recently introduced a bill in Congress calling for the elimination of the tax on home sales.

Minutes earlier, the president had unloaded on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates.

“It’s causing a problem for people who want to buy a home,” Trump said. (Read more from “Trump Says He May Eliminate Capital Gains Tax on Home Sales in Effort to Bolster the Housing Market” HERE)

Trump Says His FBI Found Nothing ‘Abnormal’ When Investigating Assassination Attempt

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President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that his FBI had concluded its investigation into Thomas Crooks and found nothing “abnormal” more than a year after the assassination attempt on his life.

While Trump’s FBI said there was no “there there” while investigating the assassination attempt in March, the president told Fox News that he was having a hard time believing the official narrative surrounding the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Ten days out from the anniversary of the assassination attempt, Trump told the Daily Caller that he was “very satisfied” with what his administration turned up.

A year after the assassination attempt, details on tragedy and 20-year-old Thomas Crooks remain limited.

“What an interesting world that we know more about two people at a Coldplay concert just hours after that viral video than we know of Thomas Crooks one year after the assassination attempt. What is holding back the investigation on Thomas Crooks?” Real America’s Voice White House correspondent Brian Glenn asked.

“They have reported to me and told me things. They really say they haven’t found anything abnormal. I will say this, the Secret Service was very brave because they were right there and they jumped on me. They made mistakes. They should’ve had someone on that roof. They should have had communication with the local police. They made some mistakes,” Trump said while taking questions at a meeting with the Philippines president. (Read more from “Trump Says His FBI Found Nothing ‘Abnormal’ When Investigating Assassination Attempt” HERE)

Top Intelligence Officials Contradicted Brennan: ‘No Intelligence’ To Support Key Russia Hoax Claim

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Top officials working on an intelligence community analysis about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election were overruled by CIA Director John Brennan, according to records exclusively reviewed by The Federalist. The records are related to ongoing criminal investigations into Brennan and other top intelligence officials for their roles in launching the Russia collusion hoax.

The dispute was over the “key judgment” in a January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that Russia had interfered in the election specifically because Putin and the Russian government “aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances.”

The senior intelligence officials pointed out the lack of evidence to substantiate the claim. “We have no intelligence to directly support this ‘aspiration’ point,” said one member of the small group of individuals working with Brennan, FBI Director James Comey, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on the assessment of Russian activity in the lead-up to the 2016 election.

The official worried that the inclusion of the claim would “open the IC to a line of very politicized inquiry that is sure to come up when this paper is shared with the Hill.” A recent CIA analysis of the inclusion of this disputed “key judgment” noted the risks of including poorly supported judgments since skeptical readers are inclined to “reject an entire analysis if a single judgment appears exaggerated, biased, or unsupported.”

The experts did not disagree that Russia had continued its practice of attempting to sow chaos in presidential elections. They believed the intelligence indicated Russia sought to weaken presumptive winner Hillary Clinton and those efforts may have indirectly helped Trump. But they were concerned about the lack of evidence for the claim that became a cornerstone of the Russia collusion narrative, in which Trump was accused of conspiring with Russia to steal the 2016 election. (Read more from “Top Intelligence Officials Contradicted Brennan: ‘No Intelligence’ To Support Key Russia Hoax Claim” HERE)

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Trump’s Epstein Problem Just Got a Lot Bigger

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. . .[T]he Jeffrey Epstein scandal is proving difficult to tamp down.

Now a rebel band of Republican lawmakers including some of MAGA’s biggest stars – like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert – are joining forces with hundreds of Democrats to force a bombshell ballot on the Epstein files.

Despite the typical partisan battle lines being drawn on most issues in Washington, D.C. these days, this matter in particular has created an unlikely set of bedfellows.

Progressive Democrat Ro Khanna and libertarian-minded Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky teamed up last week to introduce the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which would compel Attorney General Pam Bondi to publicly release all unclassified materials relating to Jeffery Epstein.

The duo’s resolution is receiving the the backing of a diverse set of members, including New York socialist darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Michigan ‘Squad’ member Rashida Tlaib, as well as Boebert of Colorado, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Greene of Georgia. . .

Even if only the 10 GOP co-sponsors of the resolution were to support it, it would easily pass the House as just a simple majority is needed, which is 218 votes out of 435. (Read more from “Trump’s Epstein Problem Just Got a Lot Bigger” HERE)

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Secret Service’s ‘Sloped Roof’ Saga Takes a New Turn in Trump Assassination Attempt

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One year after the assassination attempt against President Trump, new details have emerged about a dispute between the Secret Service and Trump campaign staffers regarding the use of farm equipment to block a vulnerability at the rally that shooter Thomas Crooks exploited to nearly kill Trump, murder Corey Comperatore, and injure two other rallygoers.

Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s farcical testimony to Congress that the USSS counter snipers or local police couldn’t place themselves on top of the building where Crooks fired his shots because the sloped roof posed a safety hazard could go down in history as one of the worst explanations for a systematic failure in modern history.

The obviously ludicrous argument inspired countless viral memes: cows standing on sloped roofs, Secret Service agents walking on the sloped roofs of the White House, USSS counter snipers at the Butler rally kneeling on a different sloped roof nearby, even patches depicting Santa holding a rifle above the words “sloped-roof qualified.”

All kidding aside, the Secret Service’s failure to adequately cover that roof remains largely unexplained, a sore point between local law enforcement officers in Butler and the Secret Service – one that trained shooters have argued is a vulnerability too egregiously obvious to miss.

But new details are emerging that some of the Secret Service’s reasons for leaving that rooftop open not only had nothing to do with the pitch of the rooftop, but may have been, at least partially, because an inexperienced agent, and possibly her superior, were trying too hard to please Trump’s campaign staff. (Read more from “Secret Service’s ‘Sloped Roof’ Saga Takes a New Turn in Trump Assassination Attempt” HERE)

Trump Sues Rupert Murdoch, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones over Hit Piece

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President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch, Dow Jones & Company Inc., and several reporters after the Wall Street Journal published a hit piece alleging that Trump had sent a lewd letter to convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday.

Per CNBC, Trump filed the “lawsuit alleging libel” against Murdoch, Dow Jones & Company Inc., and the reporters behind the article:

Court records show that Trump filed a lawsuit alleging libel against Murdoch, the Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones, and the reporters who wrote the article in federal court for the Southern District of Florida. The complaint was not immediately available.

The alleged letter in question includes a third-person dialogue between Trump and Epstein inside the drawing of a naked woman, which includes Trump’s signature, the Journal claims, though White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says the outlet admitted to the administration it did not have possession of the letter it bases the story on.

(Read more from “Trump Sues Rupert Murdoch, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones over Hit Piece” HERE)

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