Free Republic

Since Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) won a delegate from Samoa on Super Tuesday, she now meets the current requirements laid out by the Democratic National Committee for candidates to be included in the next debate. However, DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa announced Tuesday night that "we are upping the requirements going forward. The inclusion of Rep. Gabbard at this stage is not in the best interests of the Party. All the top people have determined that it is best that everyone get behind former Vice-President Joe Biden as our nominee. Allowing Gabbard back in at this late date is incompatible...

During his speech to supporters following the primary results in South Carolina on Saturday, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg bragged about the amount of money he's "investing" to oust President Donald Trump from the White House come November. "Some of you may remember back in Philadelphia in 2016, I spoke at the Democratic Convention and warned that Donald Trump was not fit for office. In 2018, I worked to help hold him accountable by supporting candidates who flipped 21 seats in the House," he explained. "That made Nancy Pelosi speaker and allowed us to begin holding Donald Trump...

Senator Elizabeth Warren unveiled a sweeping plan Monday to forgive massive amounts of student loan debt for middle-class Americans as she tries to appeal to the young voters expected to play a major role in the 2020 campaign. The Democratic presidential candidate from Massachusetts also called for free tuition at state colleges and universities as another way to relieve the higher education costs that have financially crippled many millennials.

After years of Republican-led debate over how to pare back Social Security’s rising costs, Democrats are flipping the script with an ambitious plan to expand the New Deal-era social insurance program while making gradual changes to keep it solvent for the rest of the century. The Social Security 2100 Act, which was introduced this past week in the House and the Senate, represents a sea change after decades dominated by concern that aging baby boomers would bankrupt the government as they begin drawing benefits from Social Security and other entitlement programs. It would be the first major expansion of Social...

President Trump is using targeted Facebook ads to assure supporters he will build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, reports BuzzFeed News. "There's been a lot of noise and a lot of rumors," reads the ad from Trump's personal Facebook page. "WE WILL BUILD A WALL (NOT A FENCE) ALONG THE SOUTHERN BORDER OF THE UNITED STATES," it adds, calling the issue "non-negotiable." The ad has been targeted to specific Facebook users in recent days. Vice President Pence’s Facebook page is running a similar ad, according to BuzzFeed. Trump’s declaration comes after he tweeted last week that the...

Dear Republican Electors: Ok, if you've read this far, knowing that it's me, Michael Moore, writing to you -- well, thank you for having an open mind and the willingness to listen to someone you don't agree with. I am writing you not as a card-carrying Democrat (I'm not) who voted for Hillary (I did), but simply because I am an American who, like you, deeply loves this country and its people. Tomorrow is the day you are supposed to gather with your fellow electors and choose the next President of the United States. I am not going to ask...

Extending an olive branch to Bernie Sanders and his supporters, Hillary Clinton on Wednesday will announce a plan to make in-state public colleges and universities free for students from families who make less than $125,000 a year. Sanders made free in-state tuition a core plank of his campaign for the Democratic nomination, and Clinton and Sanders discussed the issue in their meeting last month, according to a Clinton aide. Clinton often mocked that plan from Sanders during the primary, saying she didn't want taxpayers to pay for Donald Trump's kids' education. Her plan includes an income cap Sanders' did not....

President Obama continues his push to tweak free market forces and buy votes with an executive move that will force businesses to pay extra for overtime work of certain salaried employees. Managers earning more than $455 a week are not eligible for overtime pay, even if those "managers" are really shift supervisors at a 7-11 or fast food restaurant. The number of potential people impacted by this change is hard to quantify. The law governing oversight is rooted in the Fair Labor Standards Act 1938. In 1975, the Department of Labor set the minimum to $250 a week, which...

On CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, host Candy Crowley asked a question of Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisc.) that should offend people on both sides of the aisle. “If I am an unemployed American…or if I am a minimum wage worker… why would I become a Republican?” (video follows with transcript and commentary): (video link) CANDY CROWLEY: If I am an unemployed American and I hear from Republicans that, “Yeah, you know, we should go ahead and do that provided we do the following three things,” and it’s a caveat approval of extending those [unemployment] benefits, or if I am...

Bet you didn’t know that cement was really, really bad for you.    It’s not actually bad for you, but that isn’t stopping the EPA from imposing more ridiculous rules, known as MACT, that will require the cement industry to invest billions in new technology over the next two years in order to improve air quality. Hey: We may not have jobs, but take a deep breath. Can't you breath easier knowing that you'll breath easier in the unemployment line now that Obama's extending the dole? All this as Obama calls on Congress to give him more money to create more...

An associate of Jerry Brown calls Meg Whitman a "whore" over pension reform (AUDIO) October 7, 2010 | 6:22 pm In a private conversation that was inadvertently taped by a voicemail machine, an associate of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown can be heard referring to his Republican opponent Meg Whitman as a “whore” for cutting a deal protecting law enforcement pensions as the two candidates competed for police endorsements. The comment came after Brown called the Los Angeles Police Protective League in early September to ask for its endorsement. He left a voicemail message for Scott Rate, a union official....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Summoned back from summer break, the House on Tuesday pushed through an emergency $26 billion jobs bill that Democrats said would save 300,000 teachers, police and others from election-year layoffs. President Barack Obama immediately signed it into law. Lawmakers streamed back to Washington for a one-day session as Democrats declared a need to act before children return to classrooms minus teachers laid off because of budgetary crises in states that have been hard-hit by the recession. Republicans saw it differently, calling the bill a giveaway to teachers' unions and an example of wasteful Washington spending that voters...

Click here to find out more! When asked about the significance of her daughter, Chelsea, marrying Marc Mezvinsky, who is Jewish, and thus being married in an interfaith union, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded, “Over the years, so many of the barriers that prevented people from getting married, crossing lines of faith or color or ethnicity have just disappeared.” True, the barriers have disappeared, but serious difficulties remain. While some scholars argue that mixed-faith unions “serve as a refiner’s fire” that make the relationships stronger, the statistical evidence indicates this is all too frequently not the outcome. The American...

Republican Immigration Position Likely To Alienate Latinos, Obama Officials Say By Michael D. Shear Washington Post Staff Writer July 20, 2010 President Obama and his political aides privately acknowledge that the government's decision to sue Arizona over its new immigration law is helping to fuel an anti-immigration fervor that could benefit some Republicans in elections this fall. But White House officials have concluded that, over the long term, the Republicans' get-tough message is a major political miscalculation. They predict it will ultimately alienate millions of Latinos, the fastest-growing minority group in the nation. West Wing strategists argue that the president's...

PHOENIX — U.S. Sen. John McCain has pledged $5,000 to a legal fund for two Arizona sheriffs defending themselves against lawsuits over the state's new immigration enforcement law.Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu (BAB'-oh) and Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever have retained an attorney to defend their offices against federal litigation if they're prevented from implementing the law.

The White House faced fresh questions over back-room dealmaking after a Democrat acknowledged he had been encouraged by one of President Barack Obama's top advisers to apply for an international development job instead of challenging the candidate whom the president favored in a Senate race. The revelation again called into question repeated promises by Obama to run an open government that was above private political horse-trading. In appealing to voters this election year, Republicans charge that Obama's promise to change the ways of Washington has given way to the craven politics he campaigned against. Former Colorado House of Representatives Speaker...

WASHINGTON—After months of criticism that it hasn't done enough to prevent foreclosures, the Obama administration is announcing a plan to reduce the amount some troubled borrowers owe on their home loans. Discuss COMMENTS (86) The multifaceted effort will let people who owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth get new loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, a government agency that insures home loans against default. That would be funded by $14 billion from the administration's existing $75 billion foreclosure-prevention program. But it could spark criticism that the government is shouldering too much risk by taking on...

Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington Tens of thousands of people began assembling in Washington on Sunday to march for immigration reform, a politically charged issue that has been pushed to a back burner by the intense focus on healthcare. In a tactic that reflects the current economy, march organizers have tried to cast the immigration debate as part of economic recovery. "What's important today is that jobs and immigration go hand in hand," Marc Morial of the National Urban League said on Sunday in a television interview. "When you've got millions of undocumented workers working off the books, that...

Was this Yet Another Backroom Deal to Force Obama’s Bill Down the American People’s Throats? With a vote on Obama and Pelosi’s government takeover of healthcare expected tomorrow, Rep. Alan Boyd (D-FL) finally got off the fence and announced yesterday that he would vote “yes” for the bill. Boyd’s announcement came just days after one of his pet bills passed the House. Boyd is the sponsor of a bill, the Florida National Forest Land Adjustment Act of 2009 (H.R. 3954). The bill languished in committee after being introduced in October 2009. Suddenly, though, it received a vote Thursday in the...

Bye bye, Cornhusker Kickback. Hello, special treatment for Tennessee and North Dakota. Democrats unveiling revisions Thursday to their health care overhaul bill decided to kill the extra $100 million in Medicaid funds for Nebraska that has become a symbol of backdoor deal making. But the 153 pages of changes to the massive health care package include extra money for hospitals in Tennessee that serve large numbers of low-income patients. And though the bill would revamp the nation's student loan system to make the government the only lender, one bank — the state-owned Bank of North Dakota — would be allowed...