Free Republic

... [T]he signature domestic issue in President Obama’s first year in office — health care reform — is shaping up to be the antithesis of President Reagan’s supply-side economics. The starting point for Ronald Reagan was the idea that people respond to incentives. The incentives that he most worried about were those provided by the tax system. According to his budget director, David A. Stockman, Mr. Reagan would regale the staff with stories of how he, as an actor, used to alter his work schedule in response to the tax code. “You could only make four pictures, and then you...

Research 2000, in conjunction with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, has polled the Arkansas Senate race. The good news for Blanche Lincoln is that she leads her opponents; she leads Gilbert Baker 41%-39% and she leads Curtis Coleman 43%-38%. The bad news is that I follow Senate races like Kirstie Alley follows the Swiss Made Fudge catalog, and I still have to look up who Gilbert Baker and Curtis Coleman are (the answer, according to Politics1, is "state senate minority leader" and "Republican activist"). Senators who have trouble getting to 40%, let alone 50%, against completely unknown opponents don't last...

The group of intelligent patriots swelled to around 100 yesterday, Oct. 30th from 4-6 PM in Roanoke County VA at the intersection of westbound Brambleton Avenue (US221) and Northbound Electric Road (VA 419). In keeping with the upcoming Halloween holiday, one lady dressed as a doctor with a mask and stethoscope. Her sign, with a drawing of a hypodermic syringe, read “Congress Sticks it to America Again.” One gentleman’s sign showed a caldron and a caption of “Obamacare, a Real Witch’s Brew.” The reaction of those drivers passing by who expressed opinions was overwhelmingly positive by about 20 to 1,...

INDIANAPOLIS -- The issue of national health care reform could endanger the political future of Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh. The moderate is in hot water with liberals for his failure to endorse a reform bill, 6News' Norman Cox reported. As recently as two days ago, Bayh said he might not be able to support a motion to proceed with a floor debate on health care if it's too expensive. This week, the liberal group MoveOn.org delivered petitions to Bayh's Indiana offices signed by 244 people identified as former Bayh donors and volunteers. They said if he votes to sidetrack health...

The Pelosi Plan ... and the Swine Flu Democrats.by William Kristol 11/09/2009, Volume 015, Issue 08 In 1993, a newly elected Democratic president and a Democratic Congress pushed through a tax increase on a party-line vote. The next year Democrats lost control of Congress, with House Speaker Tom Foley defeated in his reelection bid and the Senate seat of retiring majority leader George Mitchell going Republican. In 1995, the newly elected Republican Congress tried to reduce the rate of growth of Medicare. The proposal was pilloried by the Clinton White House as drastic and unconscionable. The bill did not...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Dozens of lawmakers have drawn scrutiny from their ethics monitor this year for everything from financial dealings to travel and campaign donations, according to a leaked account showing an active House panel secretly at work.

Is there a more hypocritical figure in American politics than Joe Lieberman? The Connecticut senator declared Tuesday that he would support a filibuster of any health care reform bill that has a public option - even the version with the "trigger" compromise accepted by Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe - because it might cost money. "I think that a lot of people may think that the public option is free," said Lieberman, one of the Senate's big spenders, in a suddenly frugal mood. "It's not. It's going to cost the taxpayers and people that have health insurance now, and if it...

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has spent tens of thousands of dollars in the three-way NY-23 race to support pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, pro-taxation, pro-stimulus DIABLO candidate Dede Scozzafava, who has refused to promise not to run as a Democrat next year if she loses the Republican primary as expected. That's bad enough, but at least many of the ads so far have focused on attacking the Democrat, which we can all agree upon. Rumors posted to NRO and elsewhere are saying that this weekend things will change, and hundreds of thousands of NRCC dollars will pour into the district...

Yet another example of the folly of assigning liberals to guard duty. Joining Rachel Maddow on her MSNBC show Thursday to vent about that pesky wabbit Joe Lieberman was Fire Dog Lake blogger Jane Hamsher. Democrats wield considerable leverage over Lieberman, Hamsher opined, to keep him from joining a GOP filibuster of ObamaCare or punish him if he does -- MADDOW: ... I think you’re right to point out that other senators sort of gently expressing their disapproval of his proverbial toplessness at this point is a bigger deal than it would be in the real world, that their words...

VIDEO: Delivering the weekly Republican address, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) outlined Republicans’ plan to make health care more accessible and affordable for American families at a price our nation can afford. The address highlights the differences between Republicans’ smart, fiscally responsible reforms and Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) 1,990-page government takeover of health care.

Chuck Schumer and Rahm Emanuel, the architects of the Democrats’ historic take-back of Congress in 2006, talk to each other nearly every day in abrupt, Morse code bursts stripped of hellos, goodbyes and thank-yous. On the surface, everything seems normal. But Schumer and Emanuel — whose relationship hovers somewhere between a business partnership and a sibling rivalry — are now finding themselves on opposite sides of an internal Democratic argument on health care reform.  Schumer, a New York Democratic senator, is pushing a proposal that allows states to opt out of a public option. Emanuel, who left the House to...

GOP Leader: “Only Republicans have offered solutions to lower health care costs and make it easier to obtain quality, affordable coverage without imposing a massive burden on the American people.” Washington, Oct 30 - Delivering the weekly Republican address, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) outlined Republicans’ plan to make health care more accessible and affordable for American families at a price our nation can afford. The address highlights the differences between Republicans’ smart, fiscally responsible reforms and Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) 1,990-page government takeover of health care. More on Republicans’ common-sense health care solutions is available at http://healthcare.gop.gov. Audio...

Pence to Pentagon: Rethink decision to offer H1N1 vaccine to Gitmo detainees By Tony Romm - 10/31/09 10:20 AM ET The Pentagon's announcement Friday that it would provide H1N1 vaccinations to Guantanamo Bay detainees who ask for it is a "terrible decision," one House Republican stressed Friday. The White House should immediately cancel the program to ensure Americans are able to receive those vaccinations first, added Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.). "I don't know if detainees at Gitmo should never be given the H1N1 vaccine," Pence told CNN during an interview. "But, certainly, at a time of such acute shortages, again,...

Take your country back. Monday call your congressperson and demand they Kill The Bill

Republicans on Capitol Hill are challenging an assertion by House leaders that their new health-care package comes in under President Obama's spending limit of $900 billion over the next decade. The true cost of the measure, the GOP argues, is more than $1 trillion. A House leadership aide dismissed the charge as "GOP spin." But, in this case, the spin is essentially true. According to a preliminary estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, expanding coverage to an additional 36 million Americans would cost $1.055 trillion over the next decade under the House plan, counting tax breaks for small businesses,...

Time after time, Republicans have reached out to President Obama and congressional Democrats to work together on common-sense solutions to lower health care costs for families and small businesses. President Obama promised the American people a bipartisan process. Unfortunately, Democrats have chosen a partisan, go-it-alone approach. It’s yet another broken promise, and it defies the will of the American people. Through the month of August, the American people let Members of Congress from both parties know that they didn’t want a government takeover of health care. But instead of listening to Americans’ concerns, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Democratic...

Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ) spoke with Freedom Radio immediately after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the 1,990 page health care bill Thurday. Here's a excerpt: Listen to the full interview with Congressman Shadegg and get Honest Conservative's take on the bill tomorrow, Sunday night at 8 PM Eastern, on Freedom Radio. The call in number is 646-478-5613.

It’s Halloween Everyday in Washington D.C. - This Halloween - and all year long - in Washington D.C., many politicians will be dressing up as concerned, moral, honest and Constitution-honoring representatives of the American people. Among these will be the rising American Left of the Socialist-Democratic Party. These are wolves dressed up in sheep’s clothing. The Left has had an anti-American agenda which is being unfolded before our very eyes (government controlled healthcare, for example). They have a vision for America which is rapidly and rigorously becoming a tangible reality. This vision is a secular socialist state for America and...

Michelle Bachmann has asked that as many as possible meet with her on Thursday to chase down congressmen and look them in the eye and tell them NO on the health care bill. It would really be great if lots and lots of people answered her call.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a fixture in state and national politics for 35 years, is expected to maintain the Democratic Party's hold Tuesday on a congressional seat that stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay area through the California delta. <snip> Garamendi's Republican opponent, David Harmer, has been campaigning against excessive government spending. It's unclear how widely that theme will resonate in a congressional district that supported Barack Obama with nearly 65 percent of the vote in last year's presidential race.

This is the official pdf from the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled by Nancy Pelosi today. It is 1,990 pages.

Grayson: FOX News is stalking me By: Josh Kraushaar October 30, 2009 05:59 PM EST Rep. Alan Grayson, the Florida Democratic congressman who made headlines recently with his provocative partisan comments, told supporters Friday he’s being stalked by FOX News. In a fundraising email sent out by his campaign, Grayson said FOX News is ambushing him because he’s a “strong voice for justice” but that he won’t be taken down by the cable news network’s “weapons of mass distraction.” The confrontation that sparked the note involved FOX News correspondent Griff Jenkins, who approached the freshman congressman outside his Capitol Hill...

Limbaugh Tells Fox News Dems Trying to 'Steal' Private Sector The conservative radio talk show host blasted the Democrats' health care bills as a front that would steal money from American businesses and effect the partial takeover of the private sector. Health care reform legislation being pushed through Congress represents the "biggest snatch of freedom and liberty" in U.S. history, Rush Limbaugh tells "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace in an exclusive interview to air this Sunday. The conservative radio talk show host blasted the Democrats' health care bills as a front that would steal money from American businesses and...

If members of Congress were up for a job review right now — instead of a year from now — the ranks of the unemployed would swell to an even higher level. Americans place a lot of the blame for conditions in the country on Congress and, because of that, about two-thirds want to “throw them out” of office, according to the latest FOX News poll. The national telephone poll was conducted for FOX News by Opinion Dynamics Corp. among 900 registered voters from October 27 to October 28, 2009. The poll has a 3-point error margin. A sizable majority...

Alan Grayson's recent self indulgent behavior has paralyzed his ability to serve as an advocate for the citizens of Central Florida. On December 16th 2009, the day on which the Sons of Liberty dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor, Central Floridians will again say no to the overreaching government intrusion propagated by Grayson. Central Floridians will drop a money bomb to show Grayson and Pelosi that an oppressive, overreaching government has not and never will be what makes America great. Pledge your support today, so that Grayson is defeated.

Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works committee will boycott the markup of the Kerry-Boxer climate bill if Chairwoman Barbara Boxer tries to take it up next week. The seven Republican members on the committee met on the Senate floor last night and unanimously agreed to a boycott, according to Republican aides. Boxer told POLITICO on Thursday that she plans to mark up the bill on Tuesday, scheduling that requires noticing the hearing on Friday. As of noon, no notice had been issued. Democrats have a 12-7 majority on the committee, so Boxer doesn’t need any Republican votes to...

A House Democratic leader strongly hinted Friday that amendments won’t be allowed on the healthcare bill. Hispanic members, abortion-rights opponents, supporters of “single-payer” healthcare and liberal members are all clamoring for the chance to offer amendments to the landmark legislation. Some want to change the bill, while others want to make a point or gauge support for their proposals. But Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), a key player in the healthcare debate, said Friday he doesn’t expect those groups will have much of a chance. “Unless there are major problems I would expect the opportunity for amendments to be very limited,...

The health care bill recently unveiled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi is over 1,900 pages for a reason. It is much easier to dispense goodies to favored interest groups if they are surrounded by a lot of legislative legalese. For example, check out this juicy morsel to the trial lawyers (page 1431-1433 of the bill): Section 2531, entitled “Medical Liability Alternatives,” establishes an incentive program for states to adopt and implement alternatives to medical liability litigation. [But]…… a state is not eligible for the incentive payments if that state puts a law on the books that limits attorneys’ fees or imposes...

A document from the House ethics committee lists an examination into whether the chamber's rules were violated when Rep. Linda T. Sanchez put three legislative aides to her fellow-congresswoman sister on her payroll after an embezzlement scheme had left Rep. Loretta Sanchez's office short of funds. The document, a July tracking report obtained by The Washington Post, says that the sisters, both California Democrats, "shared transferred staff from one office to another after embezzlement," and that a meeting between lawyers for the ethics committee and the congresswomen had taken place June 1. The document also says that lawyers for the...

A group of angry Florida voters has launched the Web site MyCongressmanIsNuts.com in a drive to oust Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson, the outspoken congressman who grabbed national headlines earlier this month by calling an adviser to the Fed chairman a "K Street whore." The site is raising money to defeat the Orlando-area congressman and the site's organizers describe it as a "more appropriate alternative" to Mr. Grayson's CongressmanWithGuts.com, which the Grayson campaign says helped raised more than $250,000 in the first three weeks of October. As of Friday morning, the "Nuts" site took in about $3,335 since its launch Thursday...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA --- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s approval rating among Californians is a measly 34 percent. Forty-four percent of the state’s voters disapprove of her performance. Her congress receives only 23 percent approval, while two thirds of California voters disapprove of their own delegation. Within her own party, Pelosi has only 51 percent favorable rating. Yet there she is, arrogant and unflappable. Refusing to let reporters into the ceremony introducing her latest health care reform legislation, beefing up the public option in her plan, while celebrating what she calls an historical event. What is it about San Francisco politicians,...

The partisan split among the sample is a little narrower than usual — 40/37 between Democrats and Republicans — but never mind that. Focus on independents. Congressional Dems rate slightly higher than Repubs (36/29), but never mind that either. The more this becomes an anti-incumbency movement, the more the majority party will suffer. Further to that point, read Ruffini’s counter-Gingrichian advice to the GOP to follow Doug Hoffman’s lead and run conservative candidates next year as stealth independents in select areas. It’s a crafty idea for blue districts where the GOP has virtually no chance anyway; anywhere else and it’s...

House ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling, according to a confidential House ethics committee report prepared in July. The report appears to have been inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible computer network, and it was provided to The Washington Post by a source not connected to the congressional investigations. The committee said Thursday night that the document was released by a low-level staffer. The ethics committee is one of the most secretive panels in Congress, and its members and staff...

We’ve had lots of cable news charts on the site recently showing dramatic declines for both individual cable news show and cable news network ratings as a whole compared to their October 2008 election period. Many have asked about a comparison of Fox’s results with those of CNN and MSNBC, and reader MikeS has come through again, compiling the charts below showing the relative audience for each network compared to its October 2008 average for both adults 25-54 and average viewers. It’s pretty clear that the election year ratings hangover being suffered by both CNN and MSNBC initially struck Fox...

Further analysis on this story from Ed Morrissey: posted at 9:30 am on October 30, 2009 by Ed Morrissey Share on Facebook | printer-friendly By which we should deduce that over a million jobs got saved or created, indirectly, according to the White House. The official report will come out later today, but Jake Tapper grabs the advance leak from the White House and runs it down. Pay very close attention to the sources of this data: The Obama administration’s $787 billion stimulus bill directly saved or created about 650,000 jobs as of the end of last month, administration officials...

If you're an elected Democrat anywhere to the right of Barney Frank, and trying to defend a competitive seat next November, you've got to be starting to sweat. You wake up in the morning and just like every other morning as far as the eye can see the only thing in the news is the president's health-care reform. It's starting to look like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are leading the Donner Party, the snowbound emigrants who bogged down in the Sierra Nevada winter in the 1840s and resorted to cannibalism to survive. The betting is that with raw political...

Silence of the Lambs - - Part 5,432 Speak of Sin; Land in Jail Welcome to Post Christian America thelstcrusade.org A Christian evangelist who was once arrested, incarcerated, and charged under Pennsylvania's hate crimes law says the federal hate crimes bill that has been signed into law by President Obama is the most dangerous laws in the history of the United States. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was signed into law yesterday, creates additional penalties for violent crimes motivated by the victim's "actual or perceived" gender, "gender identity," sexual orientation, or disability....

North Carolina voters are not very happy with their representation and tend to think the country is on the wrong track, a poll released Friday by Elon University shows. Elon polled more than 700 randomly selected adults between Monday and Thursday, asking if they approved of the job being done by President Barack Obama, Sens. Kay Hagan and Richard Burr and Gov. Bev Perdue. Almost 60 percent of those polled said they think things in the country are on the wrong track; 38.9 percent felt strongly that the county is headed in the wrong direction. Their reasons seemed to be...

The Obama administration's new proposal for tackling financial risk in the U.S. economy, unveiled just two days ago, came under attack on Thursday from Congress and regulators, with questions raised about its funding and scope. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner scrambled in a congressional hearing to defend the plan against critics who said it would give too much power to regulators and enshrine government bailouts for troubled financial firms in law. Released by the Treasury Department and Democratic Representative Barney Frank on Tuesday, the plan is an bold attempt to make sure the Bush administration's confused handling of last year's...

House Minority Leader John Boehner appears with a copy of the Democrats’ version of the health care bill during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg) Washington - The health care overhaul bill produced by House Democrats would impose an array of new taxes, fees and government mandates on major players in the health industry, including insurers, doctors and drugs and medical devices makers. In most cases, the pain has been meted out with an eye toward raising the money needed to finance President Barack Obama's plan for reshaping the health system but...

If you’ve been reading the papers lately you’ve probably concluded that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s political future doesn’t look good. The headlines speak for themselves: “Poll: Reid’s re-election numbers don’t add up”; “Harry Reid Seen Losing 2010 Reelection, Poll Shows”; “Senate Leader Harry Reid faces tough re-election” — just to name a few. If you’re just glancing at the polls, Reid’s two likely challengers are clobbering him in hypothetical match-ups — and some polls show Republican challenger Danny Tarkanian has a double-digit lead over him. Further, Reid’s approval rating ranges between 20 and 40 percent, with some polls showing...

KSTP investigated absentee ballot inconsistencies and reported their findings last night, and you can watch the video here. Many cities put up roadblocks to their investigation request -- and Bloomington threatened felony charges against KSTP if they reported on their findings. The most damning part is Sec. of State Mark Ritchie's denial of problems and response when asked to look at ballot envelopes and comment. "Ritchie first told us he could not read our examples, then said he wouldn't look at photocopies of absentee ballot envelopes." A 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS investigation has found that mistakes made with absentee ballots in...

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Washington, DC -- It's alive. The Medicare end-of-life planning provision that Governor Sarah Palin said was tantamount to "death panels" for seniors is staying in the latest Democratic health care bill unveiled Thursday. Recently, the DNC went on the offensive not only claiming The Governor is lying but communicated to it’s supporters to attack Sarah Palin on Facebook. The DNC executive director Jen O'Malley Dillon communicated via e-mail insisting private citizen Sarah Palin has been lying and should he harassed. The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and painful decisions families...

On Thursday, the United States House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution funding the Federal Government through December 18th. The continuing resolution was passed as part of the behemoth Interior-Environment Appropriations conference report. A continuing resolution is a stop-gap provision which allows the government to continue its operations until Congress can determine the next year’s appropriations. The actions taken today merely extended the expiration date of the resolution which went into effect on October 1st. By extending the existing continuing resolution Congress has continued to deprive ACORN and its affiliates of federal funds until December 18th. This is not a...

The House Democratic healthcare reform bill is going to "ream" the American people, according to Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas.) House GOP leaders were quick to march an entire hardcopy of the Democrats' nearly 2,000 page healthcare bill before TV cameras to denounce the measure for raising taxes, creating mandates and cutting medicare. "Nineteen hundred and ninety pages, that¹s about four reams of paper, I can say that the people who are getting reamed are the American people," Barton said at a press conference surrounded by fellow top-ranking House Republicans.

White House fights back on Cash for Clunkers Obama administration goes to battle with Edmunds.com on Cash for Clunkers analysis, saying the program contributed heavily to last quarter's economic expansion. By David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer Last Updated: October 29, 2009: 5:51 PM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Obama administration on Thursday lashed out at a prominent critic of its Cash for Clunkers program, arguing that the popular trade-in initiative helped give the auto industry and the economy a much needed boost in the past few months. In a blog post on whitehouse.gov, the administration argued that a report...

WASHINGTON (AP) - It's alive. The Medicare end-of-life planning provision that 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said was tantamount to "death panels" for seniors is staying in the latest Democratic health care bill unveiled Thursday. The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and painful decisions families face when a loved one is approaching death. For years, federal laws and policies have encouraged Americans to think ahead about end-of-life decisions, and make their wishes known in advance through living wills and similar legal documents. But when House Democrats proposed this...

Photo credit Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2009 - President Barack Obama today signed the fiscal 2010 National Defense Authorization Act during a ceremony at the White House. Obama hailed the act, which contains $680.2 billion in military budget authority, as transformational legislation that targets wasteful defense spending. The president was accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, congressional leaders and other senior officials, including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "There's still more waste we need to cut; there's still more fights that...

I searched and didn't find one so... Freepers: We need to get this Bill posted and split up into parts to contribute to the vetting process. It took considerable time to go through the first one and additional time is needed to get media attention focused on the findings. The more people reading the better. And Keyword searches can be a useful method for finding buried items.