Category: Fox News
VIDEO: Texas Republican brutalizes Democrat witness arguing that large-scale Somali immigration has strengthened Minnesota
A congressman from Texas crushed a Democratic witness in congressional testimony about the effect of large-scale Somali immigration on Minnesota.
Republican Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas questioned former Justice Dept. prosecutor Brendan Ballou during Wednesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing on fraud in Minnesota. Ballou was a witness for Democrats on the committee.
‘It doesn’t sound like something that makes our country stronger to me, and I think most Americans would agree with me on that.’
“Does large-scale Somali immigration make Minnesota stronger or weaker?” asked Gill.
“Certainly stronger,” Ballou responded.
“Certainly stronger,” Gill repeated. “Do you know what percentage of Somali-headed households in Minnesota are on food stamps?”
“No,” Ballou replied.
“Fifty-four percent. Do you know what that number is for native Minnesota-headed households?” Gill asked.
Ballou disputed the term “native households,” which led to Gill interrupting to say that only 7% of non-Somali Minnesotan households were on food stamps.
“What percentage of Somali-headed households in Minnesota are on Medicaid?” Gill asked.
“I don’t know,” Ballou said.
Gill told him the figure was 73% and compared it to the number of non-Somalis on Medicaid.
“The number is 18%. That’s quite an astounding difference, I think we would agree,” Gill said.
Gill went on to say that 81% of Somali-headed households were on welfare in general, a figure Ballou did not know.
“Let me just ask you, after 10 years of being in the United States, what percentage of Somali-immigrant households continue to be on welfare?” Gill asked.
“I don’t know,” Ballou said.
“The number is 78%,” he replied.
Gill said that about half of working-age Somalis who have been in the U.S. for 10 years or more speak English “very well.”
“That seems pretty low, doesn’t it?” Gill asked rhetorically. “It doesn’t sound like something that makes our country stronger to me, and I think most Americans would agree with me on that.”
Video of the exchange was posted to social media by the Oversight Committee.
RELATED: Minnesota news outlet gets wrecked for story on Somali migrants’ economic impact
Ballou asserted in his testimony when questioned by Democrats that the incidents of Somali fraud were low compared to their population in Minnesota. While 82 Somalis have been indicted thus far, Ballou said that this represents about 0.07% of the 108,000 estimated Somalis in Minnesota.
“When you compare that to one-third of all Americans [who] have a criminal record, and I think it’s 40% approximately of white men under the age of 23 have been arrested, I don’t think the statistics really compare,” Ballou said.
Gill also posted the video of the interaction to his social media timeline.
“This Democrat witness claims large-scale Somali immigration makes Minnesota stronger. The numbers tell a different story,” he wrote.
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Trump wants to ban institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes
President Donald Trump said in a statement on social media that he is moving to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes and that he wants Congress to “codify” the ban into law.
The president has made easing the housing crisis a goal of his second term, and many have pointed to institutional investors as a large source of the problem.
‘People live in homes, not corporations.’
In a post on Truth Social Wednesday, Trump mentioned banning institutional housing purchases and hinted at other solutions to ease the housing crisis.
“For a very long time, buying and owning a home was considered the pinnacle of the American Dream. It was the reward for working hard, and doing the right thing, but now, because of the Record High Inflation caused by Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress, that American Dream is increasingly out of reach for far too many people, especially younger Americans,” he wrote.
“It is for that reason, and much more, that I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes, and I will be calling on Congress to codify it,” the president added. “People live in homes, not corporations.”
Trump did not provide details about these “steps” in the post.
He went on to say that he would discuss the policy at a speech in Davos, Switzerland, during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
Housing prices skyrocketed during the pandemic, when interest rates were lowered to encourage economic activity and many Americans moved to larger homes to take advantage of work-from-home policies. While interest rates have returned to historic averages, housing prices continued to climb, albeit at a slower pace.
Many have blamed companies like BlackRock for purchasing single-family homes as part of their investment portfolios, but some say institutional investors make up a small portion of the market.
Others say that encouraging more housing construction would lower housing costs by easing regulations and increasing supply to meet the demand.
An email to Blaze News from a spokesperson for BlackRock denied that the hedge fund owned any single family homes and linked to their statement online about the issue.
“A number of other large asset managers and private equity firms are very active today in purchasing single-family residences. BlackRock is sometimes confused with them,” the statement reads. “As a fiduciary asset manager, we invest and manage capital on behalf of our clients in a vast array of public and private U.S. real estate markets — but buying individual homes is not one of them.”
The company also referenced an Investopedia report saying many confuse BlackRock with BlackStone, which purchased housing stock after the 2008 financial meltdown.
BlackRock’s stock slid by 2.3% in the wake of the announcement.
Editor’s note: This article has been edited after publication to include a statement from BlackRock and to remove the company from the headline.
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‘Eat real food’: Trump administration flips ‘corrupt food pyramid,’ encourages meat and veggies over bread and oatmeal
In the ongoing effort to make America healthy again, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other members of the Trump administration gathered for a special press conference on Wednesday to announce a major overhaul of dietary guidelines
The guidelines, promoted under the simple command to “eat real food,” introduce a “new pyramid” that prioritizes protein, dairy, healthy fats, and fruits and vegetables over whole grains, which is essentially an upside-down version of the conventional food pyramid most people are familiar with.
‘These guidelines replace corporate-driven assumptions with common-sense goals and gold-standard scientific integrity.’
“These guidelines replace corporate-driven assumptions with common-sense goals and gold-standard scientific integrity,” Kennedy said at the press conference.
He added that they will “revolutionize our nation’s food culture and make America healthy again.”
RELATED: Trump administration overhauls childhood vax schedule. Here’s the downsized version
Screenshot of government website
“For decades, we’ve been fed a corrupt food pyramid that has had a myopic focus on demonizing natural healthy saturated fats, telling you not to eat eggs and steak, and ignoring a giant blind spot: refined carbohydrates, added sugars, ultra-processed food,” Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said, “A healthy meal is within reach for all American families. These new dietary guidelines are a framework which is meant to be customized to meet the needs, the preferences, and the financial status of all American families.”
The inverted pyramid is the result of many studies conducted by the government to challenge the current paradigm and address our nation’s health problems. The guidelines were published in multiple documents, including a series of appendices that is over 400 pages long.
Some users on social media joked that HHS was copying a “South Park” bit in which scientists, at the behest of character Eric Cartman, “flip the pyramid” to reveal the “true” nutritional standards.
The old food pyramid originated in Sweden in the 1970s and was later adapted by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1992.
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