Free Republic

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s grand plan to spend $1 trillion over the next 10 years on highways and other infrastructure improvements faces a formidable roadblock in Congress and state legislatures. There’s agreement the investment is badly needed to improve the nation’s sagging infrastructure but how to cover the huge expense is the point of tension. Trump would use $200 billion in public funds to generate $800 billion in private money under a partnership program that would finance government bonds and also return a profit to private companies through interstate tolls and other user fees. To do that, Congress would...

The Democratic Party is looking for any hint anywhere in America that they are turning back the tide that hit our political shores with the arrival of the TrumpTrain. While many in the media have touted President Trump’s low approval ratings as a sign that the Republican Party is already in retreat after a decisive electoral college victory last fall, the fact remains that the Democrats are in disarray and will not be returning back to power any time soon. Even Salon.com’s Andrew O’Hehir agrees with this assessment of the Left. He wrote a recent soul searching article for his...

The key interlude occurred with the ubiquitous Kamala Harris, the same Senator Harris who failed the bar the first time she took the bar exam. Only a Kamala-Comey marriage could birth this debacle: Harris: “So was there any kind of memorandum issued from the attorney general or the Department of Justice to the FBI, outlining the parameters of his recusal”? Comey: “Not that I’m aware of.” Thursday night, Attorney General Sessions’ Justice Department released a statement about Comey’s testimony. The statement reads as follows: “In his testimony, Mr. Comey states that he was not aware of any kind of memorandum...

The most stunning thing in James Comey’s testimony to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was what he said about special prosecutors, also called special counsels. “After former President Clinton met on the plane with the attorney general, I considered whether I should call for the appointment of a special counsel and decided that would be an unfair thing to do because I knew there was no case there,” Comey testified, speaking of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. “And calling for the appointment of a special counsel would be brutally unfair because it would send the message,...

President Trump said Friday he is "100 percent" willing to testify under oath about his interactions with James Comey in order to dispute the fired FBI director’s claims. “One hundred percent,” Trump said when asked if he would give a sworn statement to Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the investigation into Russia’s election interference. "I would be glad to tell him exactly what I told you,” the president said during a press conference in the White House Rose Garden.....

James Comey asserted in his extraordinary testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee that the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is authorized to override Justice Department oversight procedures, a questionable claim which if true would raise serious questions about long-standing rules aimed at preventing abuses by federal law enforcement officials. The former head of the FBI told the Senate panel that he believed he had received a direction from the president in February that the FBI end its investigation of Michael Flynn’s alleged involvement with Russia–a direction with which he and his kitchen-cabinet of “FBI senior leadership” unilaterally decided...

Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly said Wednesday that his agents are not actively trying to deport illegal immigrant Dreamers, but pleaded with Congress to pass a bill granting them a more permanent legal status, saying only lawmakers can solve the problem. Mr. Kelly declined to take a position on whether the 2012 amnesty President Obama created for Dreamers is legal, but said the program, known in government circles as DACA or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is still in effect. He said “illegals” who have been properly approved for DACA will be safe from deportation, but said those who...

Ex-FBI Director Comey released a statement ahead of his appearance before Congress, and it has heads spinning. I’ll tell you how things look through what I call the Persuasion Filter. There are several related stories swirling around the news that involve Russia, Trump, Trump’s campaign staff, and Comey. All together, the stories are beyond the capacity of the human brain to hold the details and keep them from automatically conflating in our minds and becoming more soup than individual ingredients. When you have this level of complexity, humans reflexively default to using bias over reason. Our capacity for reason isn’t...

As a former staffer and now a member of Congress, one of my goals is to ensure this institution I have the incredible honor of serving in is transparent, efficient, and accountable to those we represent. After all, it is the People’s House.As members of Congress, we have asked the American people to trust us with their hard-earned tax dollars so it’s critical that we lead by example and ensure each dollar we spend to operate our offices is done efficiently and to help serve our constituents.At the start of my second term, I requested to serve on the Committee...

Two House Democrats are launching a long shot bid to impeach President Donald Trump, a step that illustrates the deep political divide engulfing Washington and much of the country. The effort by Reps. Al Green of Texas and Brad Sherman of California has little chance of success in the Republican-led House. They don’t even have the backing of many fellow Democrats. Nevertheless, the lawmakers said Wednesday they are drafting articles of impeachment. They say Trump obstructed justice when he fired FBI Director James Comey, who was investigating possible Russian ties to the Trump campaign. Federal authorities say they have definitive...

https://youtu.be/oV_urRnwnFU

Here comes Comey. The former FBI director with an ego almost the size of Donald Trump’s takes the stand Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee probing Russian collusion with the Trump team in the election. The President had best beware. Playing the role that John Dean did in the Richard Nixon Watergate drama wouldn’t bother James Comey. He’s become the architect of White House fate. He torpedoed Hillary Clinton’s bid to become president. He could now torpedo Mr. Trump as President. Or help save him. Don’t bet on the latter. Mr. Comey’s got an axe to grind. Having helped Mr....

The Washington establishment and media elite has gone into a full-blown craze over a Senate hearing on Thursday featuring fired FBI Director James Comey. Broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC have all announced they’ll be carrying the hearing live, and CNN already has a countdown clock to Comey’s testimony — usually reserved for elections and major events. CNN, known for hyping up politics as sports events, compared the hearing to the Superbowl:

TOWN HALL SHUTS DOWN WHEN REP. NANETTE BARRAGAN RUNS AND HIDES FROM TRUMP SUPPORTERS.

The following paints a grim scenario. As you consider it, remember that sociopaths have no empathy. Thus, they have no gut feelings, no inner voice, to guide them about right or wrong, good or bad, wise or unwise. If you try to put yourself in Trump’s shoes, and conclude that you would never, could never, do such things, as a human being or as an American, you are using the wrong yardstick. Trump’s yardsticks are his own malignant narcissism first and Steve Bannon second. Rubles-to-doughnuts, Steve Bannon is painting this picture for Trump right now: With the appointment of Robert...

There are lots of reasons Hillary Clinton didn’t win last year’s presidential election. One of the big ones, in her opinion (and the opinions of many others), is tied to media, specifically the media’s obsession with Clinton’s private email server, and disinformation spread on Facebook by “malicious actors” in Russia. The Democrats did a poor job controlling the narrative and telling their own story, Clinton said, which will be important as the party tries to take back control of Congress. “We [the Democratic party] are not good historically at building institutions and we’ve got to get a lot better, and...

A July 10, 2009 celebration, the Muslim iftar, drew an estimated 1,000 people to the Hill, thanks in part to an active Congressional Muslim Staff Association (CMSA). The group was formed in 2006 and regularly held networking events and briefings on the Muslim community. A few years later, in the 113th Congress, the CMSA did not even list itself as an official association — due to a turnover in leadership, lack of participation and what some regarded as a backlash against Muslim staffers. While the organization is taking steps to re-register as an official association, it is definitely in rebuilding...

In 2015, after the November midterm elections gave control of both the House and Senate to Republicans, President Obama announced his amnesty plan. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, rather than exercising his constitutional duty to check and balance an overzealous executive branch, folded like a cheap suit and funded Obama’s plans. Feeling frustrated over Republican capitulation to the minority party in Congress, I wrote, Why Vote Republican? I hoped my lowly voice would serve as a warning to Republicans ahead of the presidential election that voters needed a reason to vote. More than simply giving control of the White House...

...“Those concerns turned out to be unfounded, I turned out to be wrong in that regard,” Lee said, adding that he still sees Trump’s stated dedication to returning power to the American people “as a central vision of his presidency.” When asked whether turbulence in the White House gets in the way of Congress achieving their legislative agenda, Lee said “with great certainty” Congress has themselves to blame for any inaction. “If you have Republican members of Congress claiming that it's the president's fault somehow that we're not passing Obamacare repeal, that we're not passing tax reform yet, I think...

Talks have been bubbling in recent months about making major route changes to Interstate 14, but the primary organization behind the push says it’s facing resistance from a West Texas representative and the state’s senior senator. Regional transportation lobby group Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance (MOTRAN) has pushed to change the congressionally approved western route of I-14, also known as the Forts to Ports Highway and the Gulf Coast Strategic Highway System. Forts to Ports aims to connect Fort Bliss in El Paso with Fort Hood in Central Texas and Fort Polk in Louisiana. The plan also connects to military deployment ports...