Free Republic

Seven years after running for president as the GOP standard bearer, U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney on Monday described himself as a “renegade Republican” and said that he is “not part of the Republican establishment these days.” In a wide-ranging speech at the Sutherland Institute, a conservative think tank in Salt Lake City, Utah’s junior senator argued against “socialist” proposals being discussed on the Democratic presidential debate stage such as “Medicare for All” and free college tuition. He also lamented that “neither party is interested in talking about the debt and the deficit.” “I guess I should consider myself a renegade...

They quote the following tweet: Estimating public expenditures of $162.3M for early January storms, @JerryBrownGov asks President Trump for a federal disaster declaration.

President Obama liked the idea laid out in a memo from his staff: an ambitious plan to expand high-speed Internet access in schools that would allow students to use digital notebooks and teachers to customize lessons like never before. Better yet, the president would not need Congress to approve it. White House senior advisers have described the little-known proposal, announced earlier this summer under the name ConnectEd, as one of the biggest potential achievements of Obama’s second term. There’s just one little catch — the proposal costs billions of dollars, and Obama wants to pay for it by raising fees...

...Jonah Goldberg explained that Mike Huckabee's brand of conservatism was inconsistent with traditional conservatism, in that the former Arkansas Governor believes that government exists, not to protect individual liberty, but to make people live moral lives in accordance with his personal beliefs.... While Rick Santorum doesn't have the record of supporting tax hikes that Tax Hike Mike had or some of the other points listed above--though some of the do apply, he certainly has a record of backing certain social policies based upon the notion that government exists to ensure a certain behavior from its citizens.... On the fiscal and...

Rick Santorum's taken a large lead in Michigan's upcoming Republican primary. He's at 39% to 24% for Mitt Romney, 12% for Ron Paul, and 11% for Newt Gingrich. Santorum's rise is attributable to two major factors: his own personal popularity (a stellar 67/23 favorability) and GOP voters increasingly souring on Gingrich. Santorum's becoming something closer and closer to a consensus conservative candidate as Gingrich bleeds support. Santorum's winning an outright majority of the Tea Party vote with 53% to 22% for Romney and 10% for Gingrich. He comes close to one with Evangelicals as well at 48% to 20% for...

At a campaign stop this weekend, in-the-spotlight GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum said he supports increased Internet regulation. According to Santorum, our rights aren’t “absolute” and stop at whatever point their exercise begins to infringe on the rights of others. Piracy represents an abuse of intellectual property rights — and that abuse should have consequences, Santorum says.So far, so good. Everybody agrees that piracy is a problem.But Santorum seems too ready to look to regulation for the solution to the piracy problem, suggesting that government interference might be an effective way to thwart piraters. That, to me, seems short-sighted, given...

Santorum's so-called surge is all but gone. Huntsman is catching up.

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, who served as Speaker of the House and is now head of the House minority, is once again spending her Christmas at the exotic Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Ka'upulehu in Kona on the island of Hawaii. Pelosi reportedly plans to spend her Christmas Eve at midnight mass in St. Michael's Catholic Church in Kailua-Kona. Pelosi spent the last two Christmas holidays in Kona at the same hotel in an elaborate suite that rents for $10,000 a night.

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) seeks the chairmanship of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee (CNSNews.com) – Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) may have some explaining to do to fellow GOP colleagues as he seeks the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, given the incoming wave of new conservatives who may not appreciate some aspects of Upton's voting record.Upton joined with Rep. Jane Harman (D.-Calif.) in  2007 to co-author the legislation that effectively banned indoor incandescent light bulbs in the United States. In the last Congress, he an Harman teamed up again to offer new legislation that would extend the...

Reporting from Chicago — First Lady Michelle Obama promoted early voting this morning – in words and example – at a time when both political parties are encouraging their supporters not to wait until election day. Obama, who is making a Midwestern campaign swing, cast her ballot at the Martin Luther King Community Center, not far from the Kenwood home that she and President Obama rarely get to visit. Clutching a blue folder, Obama presented her credentials to election officials before being led to the polling station. Asked if she was familiar with touch-screen voting, Obama nodded and then spent...

MC LEAN, VA, Nov. 25 -- "Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has been hit with criticism over his record on taxes as governor of Arkansas. The faultfinders have been members of his own party, who take issue with tax increases he enacted. In recent interviews on Fox News, Huckabee responded to some of these questions, but we found him to be misleading and incorrect on several points:" (www.FactCheck.org, 11/21/07) - Huckabee frequently says he cut taxes "almost 94 times" but leaves out the 21 taxes raised during his tenure. In the end, he presided over a net tax increase. -...

SACRAMENTO – State spending under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been growing faster than it did under former Gov. Gray Davis, who was ousted in a historic recall election driven mainly by a huge budget gap. The new state budget proposed by Schwarzenegger would spend $103.8 billion in the general fund, which pays for most programs – an increase of more than 30 percent since he took office, about the same as the boost under Davis. But it took Davis five years to raise spending by about one-third. Schwarzenegger, who was elected in the fall 2003 recall, has done the same...

The legendary test pilot Chuck Yeager once wrote of Rep. Duncan Hunter: "Congressman [Hunter] is the best candidate for President of the United States of America that I know -- he has integrity, tenacity, courage, and diplomacy. He is intelligent and thoughtful, does his research, and acts on it. I have known Congressman Duncan Hunter for over 35 years. Duncan served his country in the Army and is a Vietnam vet. In Vietnam, he served in one of the most dangerous outfits -- the 173rd Airborne Brigade and the 75th Army Rangers." Yeager doesn't hold back on his enthusiasm for...

Mr Bush said "terrible want" still exists in Latin America US President George W Bush has unveiled a social aid programme to alleviate the plight of the region's poor, two days before a tour of Latin America. Millions of dollars will be spent on education, housing and health care. In a speech, Mr Bush described poverty in the region as "a scandal" that had caused some people to question the value of democracy. The Bush administration has been criticised by opposition Democrats for neglecting Latin America. Correspondents say Washington is adjusting to the election of increasing numbers of left-wing...

SANTA FE— Gov. Bill Richardson is proposing a nearly $5.7 billion state budget that provides for an 11 percent increase in spending next year and leaves room for about $125 million in tax cuts. In releasing its budget recommendations to the Legislature on Wednesday, the Richardson administration proposed a more than doubling of state money for pre-kindergarten programs serving 4-year-olds and phasing in over two years an expansion of Medicaid to provide health care to more uninsured low-income adults.~~ snip ~~ Public schools and higher education accounted for much of the governor's proposed budget increase. The governor recommended ... a...

Reid to Reimburse Campaign for Donations Oct 16 4:37 PM US/Eastern By JOHN SOLOMON Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid has been using campaign donations instead of his personal money to pay Christmas bonuses for the support staff at the Ritz-Carlton where he lives in an upscale condominium. Federal election law bars candidates from converting political donations for personal use. Questioned about the campaign expenditures by The Associated Press, Reid's office said Monday he was personally reimbursing his campaign for $3,300 in donations he had directed to the staff holiday fund at his residence. Reid also announced...

Nation & WorldBush's Grand Strategy By Michael Barone 3/6/06 Three and a half years ago, in September 2002, the Bush administration issued its National Security Strategy. It was, as Yale historian John Lewis Gaddis has written, "the most fundamental reassessment of American grand strategy in over half a century," since Harry Truman set America on its course in the Cold War. Today a consensus seems to be rising that the Bush administration is veering off the course it set then. Gerard Baker in the Times of London writes that the days of American military intervention are over. Reporters write that...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Saturday acknowledged problems in the start of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit for the elderly but said the government was working to fix them. In his weekly radio address, he also insisted the program was a "good deal" for seniors and encouraged more to sign up. Hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled Americans have run into difficulties getting their prescription drugs since the Medicare drug program began on January 1, and many were turned away empty-handed. Several states stepped in to pay for the medications after people were not properly...

I joined the Republican Party a little bit later than most, as a direct result of the messages I heard from Ronald Reagan. When I began my own business, I discovered that most of the things I had been taught in college about government were wrong. As Ronald Reagan said and I quickly learned, government was a lot like a baby; a large appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. I could find precious few government agencies that accomplished their actual mission, and none that did so efficiently. I came to the conclusion that the...

A SAD DAY IN AMERICAToday is the first day that Medicare recipients can enroll in the latest wealth transfer from the young to the old: Medicare prescription drug coverage. This is the largest expansion of government in decades...and it was all at the behest of a Republican president. Over the coming decades, the Medicare prescription drug benefit will cost trillions of dollars...the Gimme Generation will clean up and our children will be paying for it the rest of their lives. And what was the point? George W. Bush, the biggest spender in the history of the republic, pushed the prescription...