Lmst

Canadians still worried about economy, remain cautious about spending
Consumers are still feeling anxious over high prices and economic uncertainty from the U.S. trade conflict, according to a Bank of Canada survey published Monday, showing that some Canadians still perceive weakness in the economy even as several indicators improve.
#economy #spending #uncertainty
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canadian-survey-of-consumer-expectations-jan-2026-bank-of-canada-9.7051541?cmp=rss

#TorstenSlok, chief economist, Apollo Global Management: Fed data show #lower-income #households are experiencing higher #inflation b/c their consumer #spending baskets place greater weight on categories like rent, electricity, food, transportation & other necessities whose prices have risen faster

Graph showing the bottom 40% of US households by income suffer a higher inflation rate than the rest.

Over the past six months, per federal procurement records reviewed by The Lever,
a variety of shadowy private security and weapons firms have been tapped to provide firearms and combat training to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) snipers and special response teams
— several of which had never before received any federal contracts.

#Jonathan #Ross, the ICE agent who killed 37-year-old legal observer #Renee #Good in Minnesota last week,
was a 10-year veteran of an ICE "special response team",
the agency’s equivalent of a SWAT team.
Good’s killing has sparked nationwide unrest and scrutiny of ICE’s increasingly violent tactics.

The firms that have won valuable contracts under the Trump administration to train officers like Ross
include a Texas armed security company,
a politically connected sniper firm in Florida,
and a shadowy tactical training company in Virginia.
One, #Target #Down #Group, is owned by the brother of Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), as Wired reported in September.

These firms are among the many private entities
-- alongside private prison companies and social media surveillance firms
-- lining up for their cut of the Trump administration’s #deportation #spending #blitz,
💥which nearly tripled ICE’s annual budget with the enactment of the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill in July.

💥ICE’s workforce has ballooned by 120 percent sinceDonald Trump’s inauguration
amid an unprecedented hiring frenzy.
🆘 The agency has slashed its training requirements and loosened hiring standards to hire as many new recruits as possible.

The new contracts with little-known companies that advertise training in
“advanced techniques once exclusive to military protection units,”
are another window into the ongoing ❌militarization of ICE,
a subagency of the Department of Homeland Security.

ICE has long deployed tanks and specialized tactical units in the course of immigration enforcement.
But the agency is now spending more than ever before on munitions and military equipment to outfit its officers.
The consequences of this spending spree, in the view of many people who have taken to the streets in Minneapolis and around the country,
were seen in the killing of Good
and, a day later, the shooting of two people during a traffic stop by ICE.

A Bloomberg report last month found that ICE spent nearly
$140 million on weapons and ammunition in the final weeks of the 2025 fiscal year,
buying from some vendors that had previously worked primarily with the Pentagon.
(A single vendor, #Lionheart #Alliance, received a $49 million contract last month to provide tactical gear like ballistic helmets to ICE.)

Most new ICE recruits go through several weeks of routine training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, Georgia.
Five hours away at the Fort Benning U.S. Army base, near Columbus,
ICE conducts more specialized tactical training for its elite units.
As ICE’s special response teams have expanded, so has its programming at the military base.

ICE also rents firing ranges around the country for its agents;
ICE spends the second-highest amount of money on gun-range contracts in Minnesota, behind Texas.

ICE’s training methods at Fort Benning have come under scrutiny before.
In 2019, under the first Trump administration, the agency inked a contract with military contractor #Strategic #Operations, #Inc.
to build out its “tactical operations complex” at the military base,
including a “hyper realistic” replica of a home in Arizona
and an apartment complex in Chicago in order to train its agents for supposed “#urban #warfare.”

Strategic Operations, Inc. received a subsequent $975,000 contract from ICE in 2024
for another
“modular training structure” at
#Fort #Benning, procurement records show.

https://www.levernews.com/shadow-contractors-are-training-ices-attack-teams/

It is a striking pivot just months after the partisan clash last fall that led to the longest #government #shutdown in history.

Lawmakers are now in the process of negotiating & approving a series of #spending bills before a Jan 30 shutdown deadline. Appropriators in both the #House & #Senate have come to bipartisan agreements on 8 of the 12 bills that fund the government.

#law #Trump #Congress #funding

#Congress is quietly rejecting almost all of the deepest #cuts to federal programs that #Trump requested for this year, turning back his efforts to slash #funding for #ForeignAid, #GlobalHealth programs, #scientific #research, the #arts & more in a bipartisan repudiation of his #spending plans.

#law #legislation #House

#Congress Is Spurning Many of Trump’s Planned #Spending #Cuts

Months after the partisan clash that led to the longest #shutdown in history, lawmakers have agreed on spending bills that look far different from what #Trump wanted.

#law #legislation #House #funding
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/us/politics/congress-trump-spending-cuts.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Stop spending money #duet #capitalism #spending #stop #money #banks #cre... https://youtube.com/shorts/nHtYPtlNVCw?si=UqAlYvzEUDmn0tzp via @YouTube

HR 7006 Passes in the House – 3rd FY 2026 Minibus – Another bipartisan spending bill passes – Four spending bills remain: DOD, DHS, THUD, and LHH – January 30th deadline may mean another CR – https://tinyurl.com/4k9a8cn3 #Legislation #Spending

A quotation from Douglas Adams

NARRATOR: This planet has, or had, a problem which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humourist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Phase 1, “Fit the 2nd” (BBC Radio) (1978-03-15)

More about this quote: wist.info/adams-douglas/34708/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #douglasadams #hitchhikersguide #hitchhikersguidetothegalaxy #avarice #economicinjustice #economics #greed #incomeinequality #money #poverty #redistribution #spending #unhappiness
#wealth

N.S. auditor repeats call for more oversight of government spending outside budget
For the fourth year in a row, Nova Scotia's auditor general is recommending stronger oversight on how the provincial government spends money not included in the budget.
#government #oversight #spending #NovaScotia #Economy #Politics
https://globalnews.ca/news/11611286/nova-scotia-auditor-general-kim-adair-report/

TD report says two-thirds of Canadians surveyed plan to cut spending this year

TORONTO — A new report by TD Bank says two-thirds of Canadians surveyed say they plan to cut…
#NewsBeep #News #Headlines #CA #Canada #spending #TDBank
https://www.newsbeep.com/357081/

Review – Bills Introduced – 1-12-26 – 28 bills – HR 7006, 3rd FY 2026 minibus – HR 7011, FRA report on railcar PRD failures – Short version – https://tinyurl.com/4d9u79bk #Legislation #Spending #RailSafety

Bills Introduced – 1-12-26 – 28 bills – HR 7006, 3rd FY 2026 minibus – HR 7011, FRA report on railcar PRD failures – MIP: HR 7012 and HR 7013, Greenland acquisition – https://tinyurl.com/4detan4k Subscription required #Legislation #Spending #RailSafety

Montreal’s $7.7B budget raises spending by 5.4 per cent, has money for homelessness
The first budget since Martinez Ferrada won the November election raises spending by about 5.4 per cent, with last year's budget coming in at $7.3 billion.
#budget #spending #homelessness #Montreal #Canada #Economy
https://globalnews.ca/news/11609962/montreal-7-billion-dollar-budget/