2 months ago
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PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: Indiana Senator Jim Banks introduced the Family First Act, proposing increased tax credits for families with children and pregnant women.
👥 Who’s Involved: Republican Sen. Jim Banks, with supportive comments from Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT).
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📍 Where & When: Introduced in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.
💬 Key Quote: “Congress needs to do everything we can to help parents give their kids a shot at the American Dream,” Banks said.
⚠️ Impact: The bill aims to provide financial relief to parents and expectant mothers, adjusting tax policies and credits to support family formation.
IN FULL:
Senator Jim Banks (R-IN) has introduced new legislation aiming to provide tax relief for American families and pregnant women. The proposal, named the Family First Act, seeks to increase the child tax credit to $4,200 for families with children aged zero to five and $3,000 for those with children aged six to 17. The Act also proposes a novel $2,800 tax credit for expectant mothers.
Banks emphasized that Congress has a vital role in assisting parents to help their children achieve the American Dream, highlighting measures within the bill such as tax reductions, eradication of marriage penalties, and streamlined benefits for hardworking families. The proposed changes would require families to have an income of at least $20,000 to receive full child tax credit benefits or $10,000 during pregnancies, favoring those in gainful employment. Each recipient of the child tax credit would also need a Social Security Number for the parent and child.
The proposal would do away with the Head of Household tax filing status and also streamline the existing Earned Income Tax Credit. Current provisions for the child tax credit, initially expanded during 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, reportedly lifted approximately 2.9 million children out of poverty, based on U.S. Census Bureau data.
In addition, the Family First Act aims to eliminate the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction that some taxpayers use when filing federal taxes. The Earned Income Tax Credit would be overhauled to ensure the family portion doesn’t vary based on the number of dependents, aiming to maintain or enhance tax cuts for families.
Representative Blake Moore (R-UT) has expressed support for the legislation, saying, “This fiscally responsible approach affirms the dignity of work and promotes marriage, supporting families as they build stronger and more prosperous communities for the next generation.”
Birthrates are currently below replacement in the United States and the West generally, creating pressure for them to accept mass migration from non-Western countries to address demographic challenges. Pro-family policies like Banks’s could provide an alternative to this economically questionable approach, without the social issues accompanying a large influx of people from less compatible cultures.
PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: New York Attorney General Letitia James, a key figure in Democratic Party lawfare efforts against President Donald J. Trump, could face jail time stemming from allegations she engaged in multiple instances of mortgage fraud and falsification of records. The allegations were made in a criminal referral submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) by Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte.
👥 Who’s Involved: The claims involve Letitia James, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Bill Pulte of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
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📍 Where & When: The alleged fraud involved properties in New York and Virginia in 2023, and the criminal referral was sent to the DOJ earlier this week.
💬 Key Quote: Kyle Welch, a George Washington University School of Business professor specializing in financial fraud, remarked on the allegations’ potential legal consequences, saying they “could carry jail time” and lead to disbarment.
⚠️ Impact: If charges are brought against James, the New York Attorney General could face a prosecution based on paperwork errors and falsified records similar to the one that she brought against President Donald J. Trump last year.
IN FULL:
New York Attorney General Letitia James faces allegations of mortgage fraud, sparking the potential for federal prosecution. Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), alleged in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that James falsified a mortgage application in 2023 by stating her primary residence was in Norfolk, Virginia, despite her official position requiring her to reside in New York.
James, a Democrat who took office as attorney general in 2019, is accused of indicating on a 2023 mortgage document that a Norfolk property was her primary residence. The single-family home, built in 1947, was acquired for $240,000, with James securing a $219,780 mortgage. Pulte also highlighted discrepancies in James’ ownership of a Brooklyn property, where she allegedly misstated the number of housing units in 2021. Furthermore, he raised concerns about a property purchased with her father listed as a spouse in previous transactions.
Kyle Welch, a financial fraud specialist and professor at George Washington University’s School of Business, noted in a recent interview the gravity of the allegations, suggesting a conviction could “carry jail time” and result in James’s disbarment as an attorney.
The New York Democratic Attorney General had sought similar legal actions against President Donald J. Trump in 2024 as part of a broader partisan lawfare effort to derail the America First leader’s presidential campaign. Last year, she sued Trump, leading to a civil judgment ordering him to pay $454 million for alleged business records fraud.
“Letitia James built her ‘nobody is above the law’ brand by prosecuting Trump for inflating his financial condition—statements that came with disclaimers, involved banks that said they weren’t harmed, and still resulted in a half-billion-dollar fraud conviction,” Welch said before continuing: “Was Trump’s case a 100 percent political prosecution? Yes. Now, James is under scrutiny for allegedly misrepresenting her own finances to get a mortgage. No disclaimers. No ambiguity.”
“James and her defenders can’t seem to see the carbon-copy nature of these cases. And unfortunately, New York Democrats and the DNC helped normalize this tit-for-tat legal targeting under the banner of ‘accountability.’ Well, the shoe’s on the other foot now,” the business professor added.
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