Holy Cow! Blockbuster! GOBSMACKED! Stunned Fox Business Crew Blown Away By ‘Incredible’ Jobs Report
By Tommy ChristopherFeb 3rd, 2023, 10:38 am
717 comments

Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo let out a “Wow!” as Fox Business Network correspondent Cheryl Casone ticked through a January jobs report that had the entire panel gushing and saying they were “Gobsmacked!”

Friday morning saw the release of a new jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that showed 517,000 jobs added, nearly tripling expectations. Including revisions, the total gain reported was just shy of 600k:


Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 517,000 in January, and the unemployment rate changed little at 3.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job growth was widespread, led by gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and health care. Employment also increased in government, partially reflecting the return of workers from a strike.

…

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for November was revised up by 34,000, from +256,000 to +290,000, and the change for December was revised up by 37,000, from +223,000 to +260,000. With these revisions, employment gains in November and December combined were 71,000 higher than previously reported.

On Friday morning’s edition of Fox Business Network’s Mornings With Maria, Bartiromo laid out her expectations seconds ahead of the release:

MARIA BARTIROMO: All right. We’ve got 10 seconds left. Let’s review. Dow Industrials down 71 points ahead of a report we’re expecting to show 185,000 jobs created in the month of January. We’re expecting the unemployment rate to be at 3.6%. The numbers are imminent. Markets right now negative. Let’s see how these markets trade as the numbers come out and we check wages. Sharon pisani dow industrials now down to 50. What can you tell us?

CHERYL CASONE: All right. 517,000 jobs were added.

MARIA BARTIROMO: WOW!

CHERYL CASONE: 517,000 jobs were added. We’re looking at an incredible amount right now.

MARIA BARTIROMO: Blockbuster!

CHERYL CASONE: Yeah. All right. That’s a blockbuster number… Let me go through the numbers right now. Okay. The jobless rate coming in at 3.4%. So the jobless rate is coming in weaker than expected. The estimate was for 3.6%. The rate coming in at 3.4%. But again, I got to go back to that nonfarm number. Holy cow! 517,000 jobs out of the estimate was 185,000. Labor force participation rate, 62.4, which is a little bit better than we saw the month before.

Charles Payne expressed concern despite the strong report, but even he was mystified by the market reaction, and the rest of the panel tried to find reasons for caution, but here’s a sampling of their reactions to the numbers:

• CHARLES PAYNE: I’m really shocked that we had the down initial down 250-260 Dow points and we’ve come back 100 points. Something is in this report that stopping a complete sell off at the moment. I haven’t found it yet, though.
• MARIA BARTIROMO: Stephanie, your reaction?
• STEPHANIE POMBOY: Well, I guess gobsmacked.
• STEPHANIE POMBOY: I’m sort of speechless, I guess.
• BECKY FRANKIEWICZ: I’d say first amazing blockbuster report shows the American worker is still firmly in the driver’s seat when it comes to our labor force and economy.

Watch above via Fox Business Network’s Mornings With Maria.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/holy-...ss-crew-blown-away-by-incredible-jobs-report/

 

Three quarters of the those jobs are people having to take on a SECOND JOB due to the highest inflation rate in fifty years so total jobs added is below government projections....

 

Only 3000 posts? I would have guessed the number is much higher. Here is the latest Biden gaffe. It turns out more than half the women in Biden's administration are actually women. At least he knows what a woman is.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/02/03/joe-biden-more-half-women-my-administration-women/

 

Well, but the only way he can tell for sure is to sniff them.

 

Remember that "Inflation reduction act" that Joe is so proud of?
You know, the one that was gonna let the IRS hire a few thousand new agents and they'd go after the rich fucks who don't pay their share?
And no worriers, they would be so busy going after the rich fucks that the minions; you know, the minimum wage minions, wouldn't have to worry about the auditors coming after them. Not until they make $400,000 that is.
Remember?
​

Internet shreds Biden’s IRS plan to target workers' tips: 'Finally, we're gonna take down the rich waitresses' (msn.com)

Internet shreds Biden’s IRS plan to target workers' tips: 'Finally, we're gonna take down the rich waitresses'
Story by Joe Silverstein • 2h ago


The Internal Revenue Service was slammed on Twitter after the government agency proposed a new reporting program for workers who receive tips. and it's sad that Joe thinks there's just more blood to suck out of


The program would track point-of-sale data provided by employers in order to ensure that service workers like waiters, many of whom are paid less than minimum wage and rely on gratuity from customers, are paying taxes on the tips they receive.

President Biden previously promised that new funding provided to the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act would not be used to target Americans making under $400,000 per year. This latest development, conservatives argue, represents a violation of that promise.

"The IRS, flush with a boosted enforcement budget that they totally promise is to go after rich people has… announced a crackdown on service industry tipped workers," Kevin Glass, a conservative commentator, remarked.

REPUBLICANS BLAST BIDEN ADMIN OVER PLAN TO CRACK DOWN ON WAITERS' TIPS



This photo taken April 13, 2014 shows the headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in Washington. AP Photo/J. David Ake© AP Photo/J. David Ake

"Those 87,000 new IRS agents that you were promised would only target the rich... They're coming after waitresses' tips now: 'monitoring of employer compliance based on actual annual tip revenue and charge tip data from an employer's point-of-sale system.'" Mike Palicz, director of tax policy at Americans for Tax Reform, tweeted.

Matt Whitlock, a GOP communications veteran, added, "The ‘Inflation Reduction Act,’ everyone. Sending the super-sized IRS after waitress tips to pay for electric Bentleys for the wealthy."

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., tweeted, "Stop the presses. No need to raise the debt limit. Biden is going after those billionaire waitresses' tips."

John Bhasham, a U.S. Army veteran and conservative commentator, retorted that Biden is going to make "rich waitresses" pay their fair share.

"BREAKING: @joebiden, Who Promised In LAST NIGHT's State Of The Union That New Tax Policies WILL ONLY TARGET PEOPLE WHO MAKE MORE THAN $400,000/yr Now Has The #IRS Targeting #Waiters & #Waitresses TIPS! FINALLY, WE'RE GONNA TAKE DOWN THE RICH WAITRESSES AT WAFFLEHOUSE!" he tweeted.

WHITE HOUSE DODGES QUESTION ON BIDEN'S $250K LINE OF CREDIT AGAINST DELAWARE BEACH HOME AMID SCANDALS



Biden's IRS is looking to crack down on waiters' tips. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images© Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Commentator Carol Roth, criticized the government for targeting middle class Americans instead of the wealthy.

"We are going after ‘billionaires’ is a trick they use to get you to give up your principles so they can come after you. The govt isn't looking to expand IRS staff and programs because of ‘billionaires'. They aren't going after the wealthy; they are creating barriers for you," Roth tweeted.

Mostly Peaceful Memes, a popular conservative account whose name is a play on CNN's "mostly peaceful protest" headline against the backdrop of burning cars during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, tweeted, "I was told all those new IRS agents were gonna go after billionaires."

"@joebiden's IRS has no business going after waiters' tips," Citizens Against Government Waste tweeted.

This is the latest public controversy for the Biden administration, which has presided over the Chinese spy balloon infiltration into the United States, the southern border crisis, depleting military reserves as aid is shipped to Ukraine, depleting oil reserves after Biden released them into the market just before the midterms and also sold them to China, and various other scandals.

 

Oh, but wait.
There's more!
Member Biden's guarantee that no one was gonna cut Social Security or Medicare?
That he'd veto any attempt?
By God! In Biden we have the defender of the little guy!
Nu uh!
Biden Pledges To Prevent Medicare Cuts — But He’s Cutting Medicare Advantage Right Now (msn.com)
Biden Pledges To Prevent Medicare Cuts — But He’s Cutting Medicare Advantage Right Now
Story by Laurel Duggan • Yesterday 10:31 AM

President Joe Biden pledged to stop anyone who tries to cut Medicare during his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, but his administration is currently pushing to cut billions of dollars from Medicare Advantage.

Budget cuts have been at the center of the fight over how to handle the debt ceiling, and Republicans have denied charges that they are plotting to cut Medicare or Social Security. The Biden administration, however, is moving to cut $4.7 billion from Medicare Advantage, an increasingly popular alternative to traditional Medicare, from 2023 to 2032, according to Axios.

“We will not cut Medicare,” Biden said in his Tuesday speech. “If anyone tries to cut Social Security — which apparently they’re not going to do — and if anyone tries, and Medicare, I’ll stop them. I’ll veto it.”

His comment was met with praise from Democrats including Democratic New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who suggested independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had actually written the speech.

The Biden administration’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Jan. 30 it plans to conduct audits and recoup funds from overpayments to insurance programs dating back to 2011, which will mean clawing back $4.7 billion from the program, according to Axios.

On Feb. 1, CMS proposed $3 billion in Medicare Advantage cuts as part of an effort to change the way insurance companies record their data; insurance companies would get less money from Medicare Advantage for certain diagnoses, according to Kaiser Health News.

Republican Texas Rep. Brian Babin said Biden had “gutted” Medicare Advantage with these moves.

The White House did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

 

And say, while we're at it, Shooter has always said, the politicians always, but always get their cut when the government throws money around.
Top Biden admin official's husband is CEO of, has $25 million stake in green energy financing firm (msn.com)

Top Biden admin official's husband is CEO of, has $25 million stake in green energy financing firm
Opinion by Thomas Catenacci • 1h ago


EXCLUSIVE: Senior Department of Energy (DOE) official Wahleah Johns' spouse is the top executive and co-founder of a green energy firm that specializes in financing solar projects.

Johns — who was selected to lead the DOE's Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs in January 2021 — is married to Billy Parish, the CEO of the California-based Mosaic, according to Office of Government Ethics filings reviewed by Fox News Digital. Overall, Parish has more than $1 million in vested stock options of Mosaic and an up to $25 million stake in the firm, the filings showed.

Parish co-founded Mosaic more than a decade ago as a crowdfunding startup which has since grown into a solar financing giant that has provided more than $10 billion in funding to residential solar and energy-efficient installations for contractors and consumers.

Mosaic works with a network of more than 700 installation companies, according to Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm that provided $220 million in financing to the company in 2016. The company has boasted that its platform is used by the "majority of the nation's top solar installers" including SunPower, Vivint and NRG Energy.

However, the direct family ties between Johns, who has focused much of her efforts in office on boosting solar projects, and such a major a solar loan provider could present a conflict of interest depending on Mosaic's relationship with the DOE and whether it has recently obtained funding from the federal agency, an ethics expert said.

"If Mosaic has received funding from the Department of Energy or if they're slated to become a recipient of any funding, like any of the grants or loan guarantees, that could present an issue," Michael Chamberlain, the director of government watchdog group Protect the Public's Trust, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
SPECIAL COUNSEL RULES BIDEN'S ENERGY SECRETARY VIOLATED HATCH ACT

"The same level of scrutiny should be given to officials in any administration," Chamberlain added. "If somebody is going to raise the alarm about a certain person that has some kind of tie back to Big Oil, then the same level of scrutiny should be given to someone who comes from, say, a green energy company or an environmental organization that's been involved in these issues or stands to potentially benefit from programs that come through their agencies."

He noted Johns is the latest in a string of Biden administration officials to have close ties to the green energy industry. In another example, DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm maintained her large stake in Proterra, an electric bus manufacturer, months after assuming the position.

Parish, meanwhile, has applauded federal programs including the recently-passed $739 billion climate and tax package Inflation Reduction Act, which he said would incentivize Americans to switch to solar. The bill extended the 30% solar residential tax credit for the next decade.

"The Inflation Reduction Act is rich with consumer incentives and tax breaks that will drive the adoption of clean energy products," Parish said in November. "Families can save tens of thousands of dollars over the lifetime of a solar system."

NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES DEPENDENT ON FOSSIL FUEL RESOURCES RIP BIDEN ADMIN FOR DOUBLE STANDARD

Mosaic is a member of the Solar Energy Industries Association which spent nearly $2 million lobbying the Senate on issues including the Inflation Reduction Act last year.

And Johns, who has previously stood alongside activists protesting oil pipeline development, recently announced the DOE would help fund $50 million worth of clean energy projects in Native American communities.

"The $50 million that will soon be available is intended to support the transition to a clean energy future and energy sovereignty," Johns said in a statement on Jan. 26.

Since 2021, the DOE's Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs has provided grants for more than 20 renewable energy projects, most of which involved solar development.

The DOE and Mosaic didn't respond to requests for comment.

 

And finally, remember Biden saying he was gonna make those fat cat BILLIONAIRES pay their fair share?
They should be paying a higher tax rate than their food server, right?

Well, the details are that if one has a net worth of $100 MILLION they have to pay a minimum tax of 20%.
Well, that sounds fair, right? If some fat cat is worth $100 MILLION, they can afford to pay $20 Million, right?

Minor problem. Bidens plan would include, in figuring that $100 MILLION net worth, unrealized capital gains as income. Now think about that. If you buy, say, $10 MILLION in a stock and it takes off and is now worth, say $50 MILLION, and that pushes you over that magic $100 MILLION threshold, you would now owe $8 MILLION in taxes ($50 MILLION minus $10 MILLION =$40 MILLION X 20% =$8 MILLION).

Mind you, you haven't actually improved your wealth position by $40 MILLION, there isn't $40 MILLION tucked away in one of your bank accounts, but you will pay tax as if there was that money available to you.

OK. So these fucks have to actually start paying "fair" taxes. What happens if the stock tanks in the future, and is now worth what you paid for it, or worse, you lost money on it? Is the government going to give you back your money?

You bet.

And what if next year the stock is now worth $60 MILLION? Does that mean you owe the government $12 MILLION? Shooter is pretty sure that the rich fucks in this country won't be rich fucks for very long, if this thing passes.

Now, lets look at this from Nancy Antoinette's viewpoint. Her net worth is somewhere between $120 MILLION and $250 MILLION. A lot of that value is in stocks that hubby Paul has so adroitly purchased at just the right moment and unloaded at just the right moment. No insider trading going on here, just ask them.
Anyway, this would mean they would owe taxes of up to $50 MILLION.
Think the old girl will ever let this one pass?

You bet.

For that matter, think any congressional politician will let this one pass? Well, maybe. The average net worth of a member is Congress is just over $1 MILLION. Wonder what their tax bills look like? Be nice to look at Nancy Antoinette's taxes, wouldn't it? After all, she made such a stink about Trump withholding his tax returns, we ought to be able to see hers, right?
Good luck with that one, too.

 

Let’s cancel social security and Medicare and yada yada
was by Senator Joe B
https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1623332325592379395?s=20&t=_9aFYLd6KNIhSVYBxmnkPA

 

I guess he forgot that he was for it, cutting or terminating medicare, before he was against it, cutting or terminating medicare.
Then again, he's always been on the wrong side of policy decisions since day one...

 

So much for honesty in government.

 

Certainly not from this Administration....

 

Secret China Donations to University of Delaware Soared After the Opening of the Biden Institute


Facebook/Biden Institute, University of Delaware; Nicolas Asfouri/Getty Images
SEAMUS BRUNER and JEDD MCFATTER14 Feb 2023


A second university has been found to have received more than $6.7 million in anonymous donations from China, including direct funding from the Chinese government, after Joe Biden set up a program there in his name, according to a Government Accountability Institute analysis. The revelation comes following reporting that anonymous China-linked funds flowing to the University of Pennsylvania almost tripled after the inauguration of the Penn-Biden Center, which illegally housed classified documents.

On March 13, 2017, less than seven weeks after concluding his second term as vice president, Joe Biden announced the founding of the Biden Institute at his home state’s University of Delaware (UD). According to the announcement, part of Biden’s “vision for the institute is an annual conference at UD, similar to the World Economic Forum or the Aspen Institute.”

At the time of Biden’s announcement at UD, multiple members of the Biden family were working on deals worth millions of dollars with foreign businessmen linked to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence. And Biden’s other university program at the University of Pennsylvania was apparently housing classified documents from the Obama-Biden administration in an improper way.


Prior to hosting the Biden Institute, UD had never disclosed any funding from China. One year later (and just two months after the Penn Biden center opened its D.C. office), anonymous donations from China to UD skyrocketed. The first payment came in April 2018 in the amount of $3,204,070 from an anonymous donor in China. In December 2018, another anonymous donation from China arrived for $1,869,515. A third anonymous China-linked payment, for $624,904, arrived in December 2019.

In 2020, the year that Biden was campaigning for president, anonymous Chinese state-linked entities sent three more payments totaling $1,005,761 to UD, the bulk of which arrived after Biden had been declared the president-elect.

Three of these donations from China—with a combined total of $1,005,761—were reported as coming from a “Foreign Government Source,” according to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) records assembled from information reported to the DOE by the University of Delaware.

It should be noted that, according to the available records, none the donations from China to the University of Pennsylvania following the creation of the Penn Biden Center appear to have been reported to the DOE as coming from a “Foreign Government Source” — a fact which led at least one fact-checker to conclude that the Penn Biden Center was being unfairly labeled as “China-funded” because the influx of funding from China to UPenn following its establishment was not given this DOE identifier. However, three donations originating from China to the University of Delaware in the years following the launch of the Biden Institute clearly bear the “Foreign Government Source” identifier.

The actual DOE record field for this identifier asks, “Is this funding from a government?” For these three donations, the answer supplied by the University of Delaware is “Yes,” as seen in the three images below taken from the DOE website (highlight added for emphasis).

Neither the Biden Institute nor the UD have responded to requests to identify the Chinese donors or explain why the Chinese government decided to fund UD after the Biden Institute was created.

Perhaps the most mysterious aspect of the Biden Institute is how it was conceived.

The initial idea for Biden Institute at UD was apparently hatched by Joe’s son, Hunter Biden, while the elder Biden was still the vice president.




In March 2016, Hunter Biden met with UD’s incoming president, Dr. Dennis Assanis, as Hunter and his business associates were making plans to create a “stage” to promote the “Biden brand,” emails from Hunter’s abandoned laptop show. Other emails on the laptop indicate that Hunter and his business associates were concerned about boosting Joe’s “future earnings potential,” while Joe was still the vice president.




One month after meeting with the incoming UD president, Hunter discussed plans for both the Biden Institute at UD and the Biden Center at UPenn with a talent agent named Craig Gering, his laptop correspondence shows. Gering’s “confidential notes” reveal plans for Hunter Biden to serve in some capacity at the Penn Biden Center, where classified documents were recently found to be stored illegally.

Gering noted that the Biden academic ventures could operate like the “Clinton Global Initiative without the money raise.” The Clinton Global Initiative, GAI previously reported, served as a way to enrich the Clinton family foundation by brokering access to Hillary Clinton’s State Department. The Clintons had to raise their own funds for their initiative, prompting the question of how the Biden programs would work “without the money raise.” Chinese government funding could be at least part of the answer.



Gering’s closing thoughts regarding the Biden academic ventures indicate they would be primarily about “wealth creation” for the Biden family. These ventures began as the Biden family was personally collecting large amounts of money — ultimately some $31 million — from deals linked to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence and as Hunter was paying for his father’s bills — a potential crime while Joe Biden served as vice president of the United States.

Multiple members of the Biden family also appear to have been involved in the planning of the Biden Institute.



UD has long held troves of Biden’s Senate records — more than 1,800 boxes — and has stymied public requests to view these records. In June 2022, a judge rebuked UD for its lack of transparency. It is unknown what documents, classified or otherwise, the Biden Institute at UD may have been housing from Biden’s vice presidency.

After the Penn Biden Center’s funding from China almost tripled, the university sent an open letter to the Justice Department calling for an end to investigations into Chinese espionage within American universities (UPenn alleged due to concerns over “racial profiling”). The Biden Justice Department acquiesced.

But there is reason to believe that Chinese espionage at universities warrants more investigation, not less, particularly at UD.

In February 2022, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), sent a letter to UD President Dennis Assanis urging UD to terminate its academic and research partnership with China’s Xiamen University. Xiamen University actively supports Beijing’s military-industrial complex and allegedly conspired with Huawei to steal trade secrets from an American semiconductor startup. UD appears to still be working closely with Xiamen University and its personnel.

The Justice Department, the FBI, and a special counsel are under mounting pressure to scour Biden’s records at the University of Delaware for additional classified materials. Last month, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dodged when asked if President Biden had any objection to a search of his records at the UD.

Whether the White House objects or not, investigators might also examine the secret China money flowing to both the UD Biden Institute and the Penn Biden Center.

 

Where's mom?

 

Despicables have been screaming about how the Trump gang have been trading on their political influence since Trump came down the escalator.
Remember the howls and twirling about Jared's "secret" deals with the UAE?

Well.

Turns out, the Biden clan might have had that market cornered long before Trump turned his attention to the oval office, eh?
Biden bro hired to broker secret $140M Saudi deal when Joe was veep, docs reveal (msn.com)
Biden bro hired to broker secret $140M Saudi deal when Joe was veep, docs reveal
Story by Emily Crane • Yesterday 5:04 PM


Now-first brother James Biden was hired to help a Philadelphia construction company resolve a decades-old dispute with the Saudi government because he was the sibling of then-Vice President Joe Biden, court documents reveal.

The 2017 admission by James Biden, referenced in two affidavits from May 2021, is certain to draw the attention of the GOP-led House Oversight Committee as it investigates the first family’s influence-peddling dating back years.

The affidavit, first obtained by DailyMail.com, was filed in a dispute between the construction company, Hill International, and one of three law firms it hired to help claw back approximately $140 million the Saudis owed for a desalinization plant built by a Hill subsidiary in the 1980s.

That firm, Lankford & Reed, claims that Hill International also hired James Biden, now 73, in 2011 to negotiate a secret deal with the Saudis to settle the dispute – and get out of paying Lankford the 40% cut outlined in their contract.

President Joe Biden’s brother Jim Biden was allegedly hired to help negotiate a $140 million settlement between a private US company and the Saudi government because of his ties to his older sibling, a new report said. NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

In July 2017, Thomas Sullivan, a former Treasury Department official-turned-private investigator hired by Lankford, drove to James Biden’s home in suburban Philadelphia to discuss his role with Hill.

According to Sullivan’s sworn statement, James Biden said he was hired to handle Hill’s “business development” and had been assigned to help with the company’s interests in Saudi Arabia.

The first brother added that he was often tapped to represent Hill in meetings “because, of course, the name didn’t hurt,” Sullivan recalled.

James Biden also told Sullivan he had attended a February 2012 meeting with Saudi officials at which Hill would receive “final payment” for the desalination plant. Biden added that he had attended the meeting “because of his position and relationship” with his older brother, then Barack Obama’s No. 2.

According to the president’s sibling, Hill’s payment for its subsidiary’s work “would be made in both cash and ‘a very large amount'” of future business, Sullivan said.

After the meeting, Sullivan alleged, James Biden’s wife Sara walked him to his car and revealed that her husband and his older brother Joe were very close, and that they told each other everything.”

Sara Biden also told Sullivan that “he doesn’t like us talking to people,” the ex-Treasury man recalled.

“I didn’t ask for a further explanation,” Sullivan said, “since I was looking at two large men in dark suits, in a big black sedan parked on a side street looking directly into their house down the walkway I had just exited. I thought they were some type of security, probably Secret Service.”

In a separate affidavit, Lankford & Reed partner Thomas Lankford alleged that his firm and the Saudis had tentatively agreed on a settlement of Hill’s claims worth around $100 million by November 2011. However, after James Biden’s February 2012 meeting with Saudi officials in Riyadh, Hill initially “went dark” — then claimed that the Saudis had backed off on the settlement.

A private investigator said he spoke to Jim and Sara Biden at their Pennsylvania home in July 2017 about the Saudi deal. AP

According to Lankford, Hill International CEO Irvin Richter had told him that he had retained James Biden because the Saudis “would not dare stiff the brother of the Vice-President who would be instrumental to the deal.”

Lankford’s affidavit does not elaborate on why Richter believed Joe Biden would be “instrumental” to any settlement.

After James Biden’s February 2012 meeting, Lankford said, Richter “seemed indifferent” to the ongoing dispute and communicated with the law firms “only infrequently.”

In addition, Lankford claimed, US government officials, “who had previously been helpful, became guarded and emphasized that Hill was doing lots of business in Saudi Arabia.”

At some point after 2014, when Lankford said Richter declined his offer to sue the Saudis to settle the debt, James Biden revealed that Hill and Riyadh “had secretly agreed to settle … through the award of future contracts.”

According to Lankford, James Biden “also stated that the settlement may have involved a cash payment to Richter.”

As of May 2021, Lankford claimed, Hill International and its affiliates had been awarded $358 million from the Saudis in construction management contracts since February 2011 after doing “virtually no business” with Riyadh prior.

It is unclear from the affidavits how much James Biden was paid for his work on Hill’s behalf. A rep for the first brother didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

President Biden has long denied having any knowledge of his family’s foreign business deals – including those involving James and first son Hunter Biden.

James and Hunter were previously linked to a planned multimillion-dollar deal with Chinese state-backed energy conglomerate CEFC, which is currently being probed by federal investigators.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) asked the Treasury Department in July of last year for information about transactions flagged as suspicious that involve the first brother’s activities in the Middle East, specifically in Saudi Arabia and Qatar “where James Biden acquired relationships over the course of Joe Biden’s time in elected office.”

“It is crucial for the American people to learn the source of James Biden’s Middle East funding, to understand whether President Biden ever used ‘political connections’ to help James Biden or other family members enrich themselves at the expense of national security, and whether James Biden or other family members have ever improperly solicited funding in the Middle East,” Comer wrote.

 

Biden gets clean bill of health from doctors as Republicans focus on his age

Matthew Chapman
February 16, 2023



(Shutterstock.com)


President Joe Biden has been given a clean bill of health from his latest physical, reported The Washington Post on Thursday — a development that comes as he faces the prospect of being the first octogenarian to serve as and seek re-election as president, and as some Republican hopefuls take shots at age as a campaign issue.

"Kevin O’Connor — who has been Biden’s primary care doctor since 2009 — wrote that the most notable update from Biden’s last physical in November 2021 was his covid-19 infection over the summer, but said the president has not experienced any lingering symptoms that could be characterized as 'long covid,'" reported Toluse Olorunnipa and Yasmeen Abutaleb. "As part of the physical, Biden underwent routine skin cancer surveillance. O’Connor said one 'small lesion' on the president’s chest was excised on Thursday and sent for traditional biopsy and that the results are pending. O’Connor noted that Biden spent a 'good deal of time' in the sun when he was young and that he had several non-melanoma skin cancers removed before assuming the presidency."

All of this comes as some Republicans have tried to make the age of both Biden and former President Donald Trump a campaign issue, as they seek the presidency themselves.

One who has been particularly forceful is former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who stated, “America is not past our prime. It’s just that our politicians are past theirs,” and called for mandatory competency tests for any politician older than 75.

IN OTHER NEWS: 'Dumbest move I could possibly imagine': Michael Cohen reveals Trump just subpoenaed him in a lawsuit'

"Biden has several minor medical conditions he is treated for: non-valvular atrial fibrillation, a common type of irregular heartbeat; hyperlipidemia, or high cholesterol; gastroesophageal reflux; seasonal allergies; spinal arthritis; and mild sensory peripheral neuropathy of the feet," noted the report. "O’Connor said all the conditions were stable, and that the president takes three common prescription medications and two common over-the-counter medications to treat them."

Trump himself is 76 years old and has a number of well-documented unhealthy habits; if he receives the nomination again, it would set up a race where, no matter who ran, the winner would depart their four-year term as the oldest president in U.S. history.



https://www.rawstory.com/biden-gets...from-doctors-as-republicans-focus-on-his-age/

 

Check, please. Are IRS agents coming for servers’ tips?
If Your Time is short

• Tips are already subject to federal income taxes.
  
  
• The Internal Revenue Service is proposing a new service industry tip reporting program and is seeking public feedback.
  
  
• This is not a new concept. The newly proposed program seeks to replace three existing voluntary tip compliance agreements.
  

See the sources for this fact-check
If you work in the service industry and rely on tips, a recent claim on social media may have alarmed you.

Mike Palicz, director of tax policy at the conservative advocacy group Americans for Tax Reform, tweeted Feb. 7: "Those 87,000 new IRS agents that you were promised would only target the rich… They’re coming after waitresses’ tips now: ‘monitoring of employer compliance based on actual annual tip revenue and charge tip data from an employer’s point-of-sale system.’"

A screenshot of his tweet was also posted on Instagram, which was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

When PolitiFact reached out to Palicz, he said his tweet links to and quotes from the "IRS proposed rule."

Palicz’s tweet linked to a Feb. 6 IRS release about a notice for a proposed revenue procedure that would establish the Service Industry Tip Compliance Agreement (SITCA) program.

But Palicz’s statement leaves out important details about the notice, and what the voluntary program is all about.

First, tips are already subject to federal income taxes.

Second, the new IRS proposal is just that at the moment — a proposal. It is a plan that is open for public comment and offers a new strategy for service industry employers to voluntarily participate as a means to report tips to the IRS. People can comment on the plan by mail or electronically until May 7.

As the IRS described it, the program aims to use advancements in point-of-sale, time and attendance systems, and electronic payment settlement methods to improve tip reporting compliance.

The IRS is proposing this new effort as a means to replace existing voluntary tip compliance agreements known as the Tip Reporting Alternative Commitment Program, the Tip Rate Determination Agreement Program and the Employer-Designed Tip Reporting Program.

The IRS established these existing agreements in the late 1990s and early 2000s for industries such as restaurants and casinos, in which tipping is customary. According to the IRS, the agreements were designed to enhance tax compliance among tipped employees and their employers through taxpayer education, instead of traditional audit techniques.

Employers that currently operate under these existing agreements would be able to transition to the newly proposed Service Industry Tip Compliance Agreement, which would serve as the sole tip reporting compliance program for all service industries, excluding the gaming industry.

IRS spokesperson Eric Smith said the tweet is a mischaracterization and noted that tip income has always been taxable.

"This is not a proposal for the auditing of servers," read a separate statement the IRS sent to PolitiFact. "Yesterday’s action was a proposal for comment — not a rule — based on over a decade of feedback from restaurants and other businesses seeking the increased flexibility for their overall tax compliance on tips."

A 2018 study by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that 30% of employers with tip reporting agreements that filed forms for the 2016 tax year had projected unreported tips totaling close to $1.66 billion.

PolitiFact previously fact-checked claims citing the "87,000 IRS agents" figure, which stems from a 2021 assessment from the Treasury Department on how it would use $80 billion in new funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. The report said the funding could pay for 86,852 new full-time equivalent positions and that the hiring would take place over a 10-year period.

Not all of these hires would work as auditors or in enforcement. The money will also be used to upgrade technology and taxpayer services.

The Treasury Department previously said audits will not increase for small businesses and households below the $400,000 threshold.

Our ruling

Mike Palicz claimed that 87,000 IRS agents will now be "coming after waitresses’ tips," after the IRS announced a new service industry tip reporting program.

Tips are already subject to federal income taxes. But the IRS has proposed a new, voluntary tip program to replace existing programs of this type. It is only a proposal for now, and the IRS is seeking public comment for it.

Similar voluntary tip reporting programs have been in place for decades now.

The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate this claim Mostly False.

https://www.politifact.com/factchec...please-are-irs-agents-coming-for-servers-tip/