Free Republic

WASHINGTON – The federal government wants to ban sales of electronic cigarettes to minors and require approval for new products and health warning labels under regulations being proposed by the Food and Drug Administration. While the proposal being issued Thursday won't immediately mean changes for the popular devices, the move is aimed at eventually taming the fast-growing e-cigarette industry.

Honestly, unless you are a big government liberal, how many people think the federal government should have more power than it already exercises over its citizens? Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, 94, thinks the Constitution needs at least six amendments in order to bring the country more in line with what he believes is good for us. He outlines them in his new book, "Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution." It is a revealing look into liberal thinking and the ideological opposite of radio talk show host Mark Levin's book, "The Liberty Amendments: Restoring...

One of the biggest land grabs in American history occurred in 1976, when President Jimmy Carter signed into a law the “Federal Land Policy and Management Act.” That stroke of the pen transferred hundreds of millions of acres of land, located primarily in the western states, into the control of the federal government. In reaction, an alliance of ranchers, farmers, and other concerned citizens – the “Sagebrush Rebels” as they came to be known -- challenged the move and sought to return the land back into the hands of the states. Ronald Reagan, at the time running for president, supported...

Tensions between states’ rights supporters and the federal government remain high after the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) retreated last week at the Bundy Ranch after a tense standoff with hundreds of supporters, many of whom were armed. The Bundy Ranch situation has escalated little over the course of 20 years, but finally, the BLM stepped too far when they claimed dominion over thousands of acres of land in Nevada and began seizing Cliven Bundy’s cattle. The response by patriots throughout the country was swift and awe-inspiring as citizens flocked to the middle of nowhere to support the rancher, including...

"Some think Social Security is going bankrupt, but since the program uses taxes from current workers to pay current retirees, it is impossible for it to go bankrupt. The program also doesn’t contribute to the national debt or the deficit as some have suggested. All taxes and spending for the program happen independently of the federal budget." "Social Security took in more money than it paid out in benefits until 2010, which created an enormous trust fund, but since 2010, the program has paid out more in benefits than it has received in taxes. Should this trend continue, the trust...

These words of Thomas Jefferson's are etched under the dome of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." Imagine if Jefferson had finished that thought with these words: "Unless, of course, you're 57 years old and a U.S. federal law enforcement officer." In the beginning of our republic, our Founding Fathers fought for freedom from governing tyranny, including for those who worked in government. And if a man's work ethic, health and passions allowed him to labor until his dying breath, he...

(CNN) – Hoping to help close the gap between workers' skills and the needs of businesses, President Barack Obama on Wednesday will announce he's putting hundreds of millions toward job training programs that produce highly skilled workers. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will head to a community college in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania to make the announcement. The funding will come in two parts: $500 million toward a new job training competition that pairs community colleges with businesses, and $100 million for new apprenticeship programs to train workers. The White House says the new initiatives are meant to combat a...

The FBI is reportedly visiting fun shops looking for people talking about “big government.” InfoWars reported: FBI counterterrorism agents are visiting gun shops in South Carolina to investigate “suspicious purchases” made by people who talk about “big government,” according to a new report. Author Brandon Turbeville says he was approached by an individual who works in a Columbia, South Carolina gun shop to relate the story of how an FBI agent entered the store on Monday, showed his credentials, before proceeding to ask a series of stunning questions. Telling the gun store worker he was tasked with visiting all the...

One can be a supporter of the rule of law and still recoil in anger and disgust from the militarized display of force by the federal government toward Clive Bundy. The disproportionate nature of the government’s reaction to Bundy suggests this has less to do with delinquent grazing fees than it does with the selective assertion of raw governmental power — sending a message not just to Bundy or a disfavored group, but to America as a whole. The same federal government that deploys Bureau of Land Management shooters tricked out like SEAL Team 6 directs Border Patrol agents to...

New figures by the Congressional Budget Office released on Monday reveal that over the next 10 years the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio will double to 78%. Over the last four decades America's average debt-to-GDP ratio was 39%. At the end of 2007, federal debt was just 35% of GDP. The CBO report says gross federal debt will soar from $17.7 trillion to $27 trillion over the next ten years. CBO warned of the dire consequences the nation's debt will have if gone unchecked. "Such high and rising debt would have serious negative consequences," says the report. "Federal spending on interest payments...

Anxious and somber faces greet me as I step into the crowded waiting room. A sense of dread fills the air. Men and women sit silently, clutching folders and envelopes, stacks of papers and piles of files. The fear in the air is so thick you can almost cut it with a knife. I join the morbid group as I slump into the nearest empty chair and wait for my turn to see....the ACCOUNTANT! It's tax time, and even though we go through the same depressing ritual year-after-year, it just doesn't get any easier. If I think about it too...

Last week, National Intelligence Director Gen. James R. Clapper sent a brief letter to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in which he admitted that agents of the National Security Agency (NSA) have been reading innocent Americans' emails and text messages and listening to digital recordings of their telephone conversations that have been stored in NSA computers, without warrants obtained pursuant to the Constitution. That the NSA is doing this is not newsworthy -- Edward Snowden has told the world of this during the past 10 months. What is newsworthy is that the NSA has...

Richard Griffin, the new general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, wants to give unions a veto over a unionized employer's decision to relocate. If Griffin has his way, and he most assuredly will, some unionized businesses will be pinned in place at the discretion of their unions. The change Griffin is contemplating is unnecessary and inconsistent with both the law and the dynamics of our free-enterprise system. It will upset the balance mandated by the Supreme Court and should send a chill up the spine of unionized companies contemplating relocating an operation. Griffin's intent was disclosed in a...

Although it’s been going on for years, it seems lately there is an all-out assault by the nanny government to crack down on our liberties. Nowadays, when the people say no, our rulers just do the old end around, or sleight-of-hand. They cause us to concentrate on one thing while they regulate behind our backs. Lately it seems that even this tactic has changed and the Nanny State has begun to attack us from all sides. Take this global warming nonsense. With every passing year, the people are coming to realize what a hoax it has been. Every poll conducted...

Walking the streets of Zurich, Switzerland, one might stumble upon the following ad for an apartment: “1BR/1BA: No smoking, drinking, loud music, electricity, Facebooking, selfies, text messaging (or cell phones altogether), deodorant, hair spray, perfume or cologne, fast food, guns, things that look like guns, things that don’t look like guns that could be made to look like guns, or anything else that might possibly cause someone discomfort or consternation. Send telegram for appointment.” It may sound like a joke, but it really is not. It is exactly the type of environment developers from the “Healthy Life and Living Foundation”...

Hey you. Yea, you, running a business. Or opening a franchise. Or preparing to retire after a lifetime of hard work. Mike Konczal has a message for you: Stop congratulating yourself and accept the fact that all your success is only possible because you’ve got a massive, federal welfare state backstopping you every step of the way. Konczal is a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute (Franklin, not Theodore, if that even matters). He’s penned an essay in the latest issue of Democracy that does a better job than Barack Obama did explaining the president’s “You didn’t build that” philosophy. Sure,...

Parents across the country may hold the key to this year’s mid-term elections as they vent their anger over the implementation of a controversial education achievement measure called the Common Core State Standards Initiative. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have adopted the initiative in a bid, they say, to improve education standards in Math and English, and give new life to what many view as a sagging education system. Indiana recently voted to back out of Common Core. But many parents see the initiative as a bid by the federal government to take over the education system. They...

We're told government protects us, but protectors quickly become bullies. Take the Food and Drug Administration. It seems like the most helpful part of government: It supervises testing to make sure greedy drug companies don't sell us dangerous stuff. The FDA's first big success was stopping thalidomide, a drug that prevented the nausea of morning sickness. It was approved first in Europe, where some mothers who took it proceeded to give birth to children with no arms and legs. The FDA didn't discover the problems with thalidomide. It was just slow. The drug application was stuck in the FDA's bureaucracy....

My all-time most-viewed blog post wasn’t the parable about beer and the tax system. Nor was it the joke about California, Texas, and the Coyote. Those won the silver and bronze trophies. The gold medal belongs to the two pictures that explain how the welfare state begins and how it ends. Those images make a very serious point that the social capital of a nation gets eroded and the economy gets overburdened when there are too many people riding in the wagon and not enough people pulling the wagon. And I’ve been especially fond of the wagon cartoons because they...

America may have recovered handily from the Great Recession, and the bull market may now be five years old, but in no way should America think that it is remotely immune or even insulated from the next economic shock. It remains a fact that Americans just have too small a nest egg in savings — many with little or no savings and investments whatsoever. A report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), which is collected on employees who participate or have the option to participate in retirement plans, says they just are not doing enough. Many metrics of the...