Free Republic

If you love the United States Constitution, then by definition you love government. That's what the Constitution does. It creates a government. What we as Tea Partiers do not love is progressivism or any other movement and/or ideology that seeks to pervert the Constitution and build government that will control every aspect of our lives. Loving government doesn't mean loving big government. We do not love big out of control bloated disrespectful government. But anti-government means anarchy, and Tea Partiers are not anarchists. Anarchists do not love the United States Constitution. This is ground where we cannot under any circumstances...

SACRAMENTO - DNA is back in the spotlight, cracking cold cases. But questions are being raised after the state spent decades collecting the DNA of infants without parents realizing it. California has been collecting newborn blood samples since 1983. Many parents were shocked to hear their children’s blood is being stored in a state database, and possibly even sold to outside researchers. Pricking the toes newborns, to test their blood for certain disorders. The remaining blood becomes “property of the state,” and could be shared with outside researchers. “I feel like that’s something that should have been discussed with us,...

Every 25-year-old in the country should be given a £10,000 Government grant in an effort to solve the yawning economic gap between the generations, a prominent think tank has proposed. The proposal for a Citizen's Inheritance, to be funded by a revamped, tougher version of inheritance tax, is one of a number of policies proposed by the Resolution Foundation at the end of a two-year study into intergenerational inequality. The report from the think tank's Intergenerational Commission, backed by business lobby group the CBI and trade union group the TUC, warns that today's thirty-somethings are the first generation to see...

Up to 270 women may have had their "lives shortened" after the NHS failed to invite them to breast screenings, the Health Secretary has said. Jeremy Hunt made the announcement as he said the government will order an independent review into NHS breast cancer screening after hundreds of thousands of women were not invited for screening. Some of the women have since developed cancer. Making a statement to the Commons, Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said there could be 135 and 270 women who "had their lives shortened as a result", adding it was "unlikely to be more than this range...

After beating back the repeated Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Democrats, for the first time in years, are taking the offense on health care. While the flashiest proposal—for an entirely government-run system—remains a distant aspiration, Democrats are again looking for new ways to expand Washington’s role in shaping the health-care system. Their ideas include new plans to expand coverage, restrain drug prices, and create a public competitor to private health-insurance companies. Encouraging all of these efforts are polls showing that support for the ACA clearly increased during the long legislative struggle over its future. “People are increasingly...

Emboldened by a base thirsty for bold new initiatives, ambitious Democrats have spent large chunks of the Trump era building and working out how to sell a slate of unapologetically progressive policy programs. Now, as the 2020 presidential primaries come into sight, yet another new front is emerging. Over the last two weeks, a growing roster of potential candidates for the Democratic nomination have stated or affirmed their support for some form of legislation that would guarantee a job to every American. The party's left flank has, for decades, sought to advance universal solutions to perennial problems. Since President Donald...

President Trump has signed into law two bills that are hugely contentious not just for the Left/Right divide, but also for Conservatives and Libertarians. The FOSTA and SESTA bills seek to eliminate the options for child sex traffickers having a “safe space” to connect with other deviants, but the bills also have wider ramifications on internet freedoms. The Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), and Stop Enabling Sex-Trafficking Act (SESTA) are being as widely criticized as they are applauded. Some of the argument for and against are spurious at best, but from each side, there is also something that has...

After months of behind-the-scenes lobbying, multiple marathon hearings and several revisions to the legislation, New Jersey lawmakers finally approved a controversial bill on Thursday to bail out the state’s nuclear power plants. The bill (S2313/A3724) cleared the state Senate by a 29 to 7 vote and passed the Assembly 60 to 10 with one abstention. It now goes to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk. The measure would effectively impose a surcharge on ratepayers to prop up nuclear power plants owned by Public Service Electric & Gas—the state’s largest energy company—if a state board determines the plants need financial assistance. A typical...

In one of the most aggressive efforts in the nation to curb soaring healthcare spending, a new California measure would put the state in charge of setting prices for hospital stays, doctor's visits and most other medical services covered by commercial insurers. The bill, backed by labor unions and consumer groups, is certain to rouse fierce opposition from physicians and hospitals, setting the stage for a brawl between some of the Capitol's top lobbying heavyweights. Proponents also face friction on the left from advocates of single-payer healthcare, who espouse an alternate vision of how to overhaul the state's healthcare. Despite...

Rent a moving truck from Las Vegas to San Jose and you'll pay about $100. In the opposite direction, the same truck will cost you 16 times that, or nearly $2,000. What accounts for the difference? The simple laws of supply and demand, says economist Mark J. Perry. With so many people leaving the Bay Area, there are not enough rental trucks to go around. Perry, a University of Michigan professor, published his findings in a new study with public policy think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI). CBS News reported recently that operators of a San Jose U-Haul business have...

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has unveiled a dozen initiatives aimed at tackling the city's persistent carbon problem. Congestion pricing, also known as tolls, tops the list. Any tolling system on cars entering downtown would help fund expanded transit service and more electric-vehicle charging stations in underserved neighborhoods, according to the mayor's office. The measures are intended to help Seattle turn a corner on its spotty record on greenhouse gas emissions. Seattle officials have long claimed to be national leaders on climate change by slashing the city's carbon dioxide emissions, even as the growing city's emissions have stubbornly hovered around 6...

KEY LARGO, Florida -- At dinner with friends, I was asked what is wrong with Washington. The question presumes a standard by which "wrong" can be defined. I am frequently asked this question by people who do not live in "the swamp." They don't behave like Washington politicians. If a disagreement arises in their personal or professional life, they discuss it and usually compromise and work things out. Only in Washington, they note, does this rarely happen, and when it does it makes headlines. The most obvious answer to the question I am asked -- often before the appetizer arrives...

Maybe you think the worst is over for Chicago Public Schools: Springfield sprang for millions in budget and pension relief last year. Time to lean back and sip an icy beverage. Sorry to interrupt this reverie, but there are 1 billion reasons that you’re wrong. That is, the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund is short another $1 billion, according to the fund’s consultants.(snip) Why is this happening? Because of new estimates that reduce expected investment returns over the next decades by a half-percentage point, from 7.75 percent annually to 7.25 percent. Even a relatively small tweak creates a big hole. Hence,...

It's either Yes or No, Mr. POTUS, Donald J. Trump. Sir, you are the human being in this God's world put there by the American people to save this once magnificent Nation Republic. A profile in courage awaits your pen killing this monster of destruction of the American Republic..case closed!!! Veto that bill!!!

Brenda Arthur received an unexpected visit on March 8 that, one week later, leaves her feeling more than a little uneasy. At her door that day was an officer with the West Virginia State Police. He wanted to know about her involvement in a Freedom of Information request regarding a local mosque. Arthur, who will turn 67 this summer, is leader of the West Virginia chapter of ACT For America, whose mission is to educate Americans about the advancement of Islamic principles in Western societies. As a Jewish American, she was concerned about a major expansion of the Islamic Association...

Maybe Donald Trump is such a powerful communicator and pot-stirrer that other countries, embarrassed by their own trade barriers, will eliminate them. Then I will thank the president for the wonderful thing he did. Genuine free trade will be a recipe for wonderful economic growth. But I fear the opposite: a trade war and stagnation -- because much of what Trump and his followers say is economically absurd. "(If) you don't have steel, you don't have a country!" announced the president. Lots of things are essential to America -- and international trade is the best way to make sure we...

Of all the promises candidate Donald Trump made during the 2016 presidential campaign, none will be more difficult to fulfill than cutting the size and cost of the federal government. That's because Congress, which must decide whether to keep a federal agency, has the final word in such matters and spending, especially spending in one's home state or district, is what keeps so many of them in office. Who doubts that self-preservation is the primary objective of most members of Congress? Ronald Reagan made similar promises about reducing the size of the bloated federal government, but was unable to fulfill...

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that he believes bump fire stocks can be effectively banned through regulation, teasing that an announcement from the Justice Department would be coming soon. "We've had to deal with previous (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) legal opinions but our top people in the Department of Justice have believed for some time that we can, through the regulatory process, not allow the bump stock to convert a weapon from semi automatic to fully automatic," Sessions said at a gathering of state attorneys general in Washington. "We've been working on that for some time....

Imagine you open the faucet of your kitchen sink expecting water and instead out comes cash. Now imagine that it comes out at the rate of $1 million a minute. You call your plumber, who thinks you’re crazy. To get you off the phone, he opines that it is your sink and therefore must be your money. So you spend it wildly. Then you realize that the money wasn’t yours and you owe it back. Now imagine that this happens every minute of every day for the next three years. At the end of the three years, you owe back...

Proposal aimed at keeping up with population growth would limit cities’ power over housing, handing more control to state. The mayor of Berkeley, California, has called it “a declaration of war”. A neighborhood group in Los Angeles said it would be akin to forcing Native Americans from their land. Amid a desperate housing crisis, legislators in the Golden State have prompted an outcry with new proposals that threaten to take the rulebook that governs American city planning and throw it out the window. Their proposition: reducing cities’ power to decide what gets built and putting more control into state hands....