John Drake

This says they do:

Okay. I see you're correct. I thought I remembered them using it 25 years or so ago. But I guess I was wrong. I did just find this. So how is the child tax credit different from EITC and its availability.

Question: how does the amount going into social security compare to the amounts being paid out to illegals using ITINS who then turn around and claim EITC?

Without looking it up, my light reading on social security shows that contributions closely match benefits rendered. It was something like one percent or so, with there being a positive balance in some recent years. The problem is with medicare and medicaid, which outstrip contribution by 85 percent.

You think it's a scam? A fake? How do you account for the photo of the woman in the hospital?

Give them some money. Or don't give them anything. That's all that is required. No need to put them in this digital version of a pillory so everyone can throw the equivalent of electronic rotten vegetables at them.

If everybody else is getting it, I certainly intend to get mine. Absolutely. But I can recognize that this will go down just like the Covid stimulus and fuel inflation three times as much as then. If we have an emergency to reduce the debt, this money should be applied to that.

So far, one of my banks says the same as yours and insisted I sign a form disavowing any recourse to fraud. My other bank had my photo requirement on the phone app working, but it stopped. I then had to in a few weeks ago and reregister the photograph and passport information. The latter bank still allows for online banking, however, which I prefer. The first bank mention cancelled that service, along with bank branches and ATMs in my area, all but making use of the phone app mandatory for anything outside of a visit to the bank.

Funny to see Trump Republicans now taking the stance that Democrats did in the 1970s. They want a "pure" leader for Ukraine or they'll cut him off. This is exactly the attitude towards the Shah of Iran that created Khoumeini and the Iranian theocracy.

It's probably all been put in Peter Schiff's basement.

Alas, if it comes in a little early and a bit further south, it could hit Bangkok. When would the mob scene start at the airport?

The trouble is that mercantilism fuels colonialism. Or at least that is what happened with European powers in the 19th century, where they fought to control raw materials in particular to manufacture finished products for export back to the colonies and elsewhere. That is precisely what Trump's old trade deal and this supposed new one seek to do, export things like American grain and meat, while receiving finished goods in return. And of course China never even lived up to this agreement originally. This will make the US a colony of China.

For some reason, DJT is also on the warpath about VAT. Thailand loads up on that through domestic and foreign tourists.

Trump and Elon are selling out the US. The country's international standing and domestic stability has been eviscerated in a mere four weeks. The US now has a foreign policy made in Beijing.

Trump, with Elon's backing, completes the circle. First North Korea, then Russia, and now China. I said a year ago on this forum he would betray his supporters on China, and now he's trying to do so. He's running up a surrender flag everywhere. https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/trump-eyes-new-trade-deal-with-china-includes-substantial-purchases-of-us-goods--nyt-93CH-3877869