Free Republic

In the summer of 2009, when the outrage over the Democrats’ emerging health care reform bills was at its height, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was excoriated by the left for saying: “The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.” The roiling debate over the HHS decision to mandate...

Standard and Poor downgraded the credit rating of the USA from AAA to AA+. Add in the fact that they downgraded the credit of institutions such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae for being too reliant on government (shocker!), are mulling downgrades of Britain and France, and said they might downgrade the USA again in a few months if the situation doesn't improve, and we're looking at financial free-falls worldwide. This of course has prompted a renewed interest in American debt, since the S&P said that was the main factor in this downgrade. In fact this morning John Chambers, Managing...

No Child Left Behind is an example of why the 'one size fits all' mentality is an improper way to govern. Placing standardizations as well as allocating specific resources at the federal level is not working. Our education system is decaying. With increasing costs and decreasing scores it is clear that reform is necessary to ensure that the future of our nation have the knowledge and skills to compete in a global economy. Chairman Kline of the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee is sponsoring two pieces of legislation to address this issue. The two bills reform federal education...

After a yearlong fight, House Republicans land a blow against the politicized National Mediation Board (NMB). After assuming office in 2009, President Obama appointed two pro-union members to the three member NMB, the federal agency that oversees union-employer relations in the transportation industry. Effectively controlling the board, Obama’s Democrat appointees rewrote long-held election law to make it easier for unions to organize transportation workers. While the National Labor Relations Board’s nefarious activity has received much publicity, Obama’s regulatory overreach began with the NMB. Since the National Railway Act’s was ratified in 1926, a union needed to receive a majority of...

Republicans favor Jesse Kelly as their candidate for former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' Arizona House seat, according to a poll released first to POLITICO. A Wenzel Strategies survey, paid for by Citizens United Political Victory Fund, shows Kelly is ahead of his nearest GOP primary challenger by close to 25 percentage points in the special election. The poll, taken Wednesday and Thursday of this week, puts Kelly at 43 percent to State Sen. Frank Antenori's 18 percent and sports commentator Dave Sitton's 10 percent. Twenty percent aren't sure. The poll included 700 respondents and has a 3.68 percent margin of error....

House and Senate negotiators have released a conference committee report spelling out several of the provisions of the payroll tax cut extension legislation, which also extends unemployment benefits and the “doc fix” for Medicare reimbursements for physicians. The bill would extend the 2 percentage point cut in Social Security and Medicare withholding taxes to 4.2 percent through the end of the year. The payroll tax cut provision would put a full $1,000 in the pockets of the typical American family over the course of 2012, according to the office of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. Under current law,...

Yeah, I know I'm supposed to feel all warm and fuzzy about the fact that Democrats and Republicans didn't play this out to the 11th hour, like they do with every other dispute these days. We're supposed to cheer because the system worked and it produced a bipartisan result in a year that will see precious few of them. Too bad that it sucks money out of an already-ailing trust fund while delivering none of the economic impact promised when we tried it last year:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Congressional negotiators resolved all differences on an agreement to extend...

In a pact early Thursday morning, congressional negotiators gave final approval to an economic plan worth more than $150 billion that would extend a payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits. A key roadblock was overcome when the lawmakers agreed to require new federal workers to contribute more to their pension plans, clearing the way around 12:30 a.m. for a majority of the House-Senate conference committee to begin signing the deal. The pension provision represented a concession to key Maryland Democrats who, even after prodding from President Obama, did not grant their support until current federal workers were shielded from the...

One of life's minor annoyances occurs when someone receives preferential treatment because of his wealth or perceived power. Many people have experienced this firsthand when a "VIP" comes into a restaurant and jumps ahead while they've been waiting for a table. This offends most Americans because it is contrary to our sense of fair play. It divides people into elites and everyone else. This is where we are heading with health care. Don't think so? Well, on October 11, 2011, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) declared that PSA screening for prostate cancer in healthy men was no longer...

President Barack Obama has proposed a $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2013 that aims to slash the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years but still envisions growth in the government's major health benefit programs. The agency-by-agency breakdown: ------ Agency: Agriculture Spending: $154.7 billion Percentage Change from 2012: 4.8 percent increase Discretionary Spending: $23 billion Highlights: Obama's budget envisions savings of $32 billion over 10 years by cutting some farm subsidies, such as eliminating direct payments, which are made regardless of price and crop yield. Other subsidies are paid only when prices dip or a farmer's revenue drops....

There is a political landmine in our Constitution. As with the real thing, which can lie dormant for many decades and eventually kill non-combatants, Article II Section 3 grants a power that could unintentionally injure our liberties 220+ years later. No American President has exercised this power.1 However, for a president hostile to our traditions, who invokes the Constitution when it serves his purpose and ignores it when it does not, this potentially explosive clause could, under certain circumstances provide the legal basis for one man rule. From Article II Section 3: “ . . . and in Case of...

On Tuesday Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House committee on Oversight and Government Reform, took a major step toward holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his failure to provide subpoenaed documents and other information about Operation Fast and Furious.

Combat judicial activism by utilizing checks on judicial power Constitutionally available to the elected branches of government. (Read an extended white paper on restoring the proper role of the judicial branch here.)

The U.S. House this week will vote on H.R. 4013, a bill which will continue payroll tax relief for the remainder of 2012. In all of 2011 and through February of 2012, the Social Security payroll tax rate nominally paid by employees has been reduced by two percentage points, from 6.2% to 4.2%. For someone earning $50,000 annually, this has reduced their FICA tax by $1000 over the year. Americans for Tax Reform is supportive of this extension of payroll tax relief: Now is not the time for workers to see their take-home pay decline because their taxes went up....

n his New York Times bestselling book, Throw Them All Out, Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer revealed how members of Congress enrich themselves and their relatives using earmarks and insider information. Now, the Washington Post, following in Schweizer’s footsteps, has conducted a study that found 16 members of Congress have used their power of the purse to benefit companies, colleges, and community groups tied to their relatives. *snip* Among those cited in the Washington Post report were the following (below):

Senior Muslim Brotherhood official tells 'Al Hayat' if the US cuts aid to Egypt, it would be violation of 1979 peace accords. US aid to Egypt is guaranteed by the Camp David Accords, and stopping it would be a violation of that treaty, a high-ranking Muslim Brotherhood lawmaker said Sunday. Essam El-Erian, who also serves as chairman of the Egyptian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said that should aid from Washington be cut, the Brotherhood would consider changing the terms of Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel. El-Erian told the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat the US needs to understand that “what was...

While positive ratings for Congress remain at an all-time low, more voters than ever see the Republican agenda in Congress as extreme. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 35% of Likely Voters say it would be more accurate to describe the agenda of Republicans in Congress as mainstream, while 52% feel extreme is a more accurate description. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure.

In his New York Times bestselling book, Throw Them All Out, Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer revealed how members of Congress enrich themselves and their relatives using earmarks and insider information. Now, the Washington Post, following in Schweizer’s footsteps, has conducted a study that found 16 members of Congress have used their power of the purse to benefit companies, colleges, and community groups tied to their relatives...

The Washington establishment believes that the government shutdown of 1995 was a disastrous mistake that accomplished little and cost House Republicans politically. The facts are exactly the opposite. While the shutdown produced some short-term pain, it set the stage for a budget deal in 1996 that led to the largest drop in federal discretionary spending since 1969. The discipline imposed by this budget — overall spending grew at an average of 2.9 percent a year while I was speaker of the House, the slowest rate in decades — allowed us to reach a balanced-budget deal in 1997. ...the balanced budget...

Leadership: Two top Democrats in Congress say the legislature doesn't really need to pass a budget. Excuse us, but passing a budget isn't optional; it's required by law. Is this the future of rule under the Democrats? House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer is tired of passing budgets as the law demands. He thinks Congress can just keep spending money without any sort of budget. "The fact is, you don't need a budget," he said last Tuesday. "We can adopt appropriations bills. We can adopt authorization policies without a budget. We already have an agreed-upon cap on spending." Actually, "the fact...

Following the pattern of other provocative statements about potential domestic terrorist threats from the Obama Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued a statement exposing the threat of “hundreds of thousands” of “sovereign citizens” who can turn violent “at the drop of a hat” during encounters with the police. Citing three specific cases in three years and a trend of an increase in arrests of believers in individual sovereignty from 10 to 18 cases per year, mostly for non-violent crimes, the FBI declared law enforcement to be “inundated” with threats. This may be the most exaggerated and offensive...

America's police state: The drones are coming Friday, February 10, 2012 A new federal law accelerating domestic use of government aerial surveillance drones brings America frighteningly close to an Orwellian police state. President Obama is expected to sign the FAA Reauthorization Act, which expedites approval for federal, state and local police to use these drones. The Federal Aviation Administration's existing case-by-case approach is chilling enough -- it's being sued over its refusal to disclose publicly which agencies use drones and how they're used. Still, it's known that the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection arm uses drones domestically....

The House yesterday passed a new "reform" measure aimed at curtailing the practice of trading on securities with inside information amongst members of Congress and their staff. Suprise! Some members of Congress were arriving in Congress and becoming rich on the experience. Ever wonder how people go to Congress and become millionaires? The publication last year of a new academic report cleared up for us at least one way the millionaires' club known as Congress benefits.A report from four scholars, Alan J Ziobrowski; James W Boyd, Ping Cheng; and Brigitte J. Ziobrowski, titled Abnormal Returns From the Common Stock Investments...

Colonel Martha McSally was a pilot in the United States Air Force. She was the first American woman to fly in combat since the 1991 lifting of the prohibition of women in combat. McSally is also the first woman to command a USAF fighter squadron, the 354th Fighter Squadron (354 FS) based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. in 2001 Martha McSally successfully challenged the military policy that required US and UK servicewomen stationed in Saudi Arabia to wear the body-covering abaya when traveling off base in the country. .....

Today the Committee on Education and the Workforce hosted a hearing on the President’s January recent recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board. To refresh everyone’s memory, President Obama made “recess” appointments to the NLRB early last month, while the Senate was not actually in recess. The Senate was in what is called a pro-forma session. In the context of appointees, longstanding Senate procedures consider pro-forma recess nearly identical to standard recess. Therefore, recess appointments cannot be made at this time. Recently, several different organizations have decided to file suits against the administration for these illegal appointments. During yesterday’s...

PRINCETON, NJ -- A record-low 10% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, down from 13% in January and the previous low of 11%, recorded in December 2011. Eighty-six percent disapprove of Congress, tying the record high for disapproval set in December.

TAPPER: President Obama is going to be introducing his outline for a budget. Fed Chair Bernanke has said the lack of a budget having been passed by the Senate has had an adverse affect on growth because it’s created uncertainty. Harry Reid has said that he doesn’t think there’s a need to introduce a budget this year. Who does the president think is right, Harry Reid or Ben Bernanke? CARNEY: Well, I think the president will be presenting his budget. That budget has spending caps set based on the Budget Control Act. And his budget will reflect the need for...

President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Jan. 25, 2011. Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson. Washington D.C., Feb 8, 2012 / 09:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A letter from 154 bipartisan members of Congress is urging the Obama administration to reverse a contraception mandate that religious employers say would require them to violate their consciences. The Feb. 6 letter to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, condemned the recent mandate as an “unprecedented overreach by the federal government.”Congressional leaders urged Sebelius to “reconsider the final rule” as it...

The Republican-controlled House sought Wednesday to give President Barack Obama and his successors the line-item veto, a constitutionally questionable power over the purse that has been sought by Republican and Democrats alike. The legislation, expected to pass, would allow a president to pick out specific items in spending bills for elimination. Currently, the chief executive must sign or veto spending bills in their entirety. The president's choices for removal would then have to be approved by Congress. Congress has made several attempts in the past to enact line-item veto bills, saying that surgical cuts to spending bills are useful both...

Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s … a drone, and it’s watching you. That’s what privacy advocates fear from a bill Congress passed this week to make it easier for the government to fly unmanned spy planes in U.S. airspace. The FAA Reauthorization Act, which President Obama is expected to sign, also orders the Federal Aviation Administration to develop regulations for the testing and licensing of commercial drones by 2015.

Borrowing a page from Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer’s investigation of how elected officials funnel taxpayer dollars to projects that increase the value of properties they own, the Washington Post has conducted a study revealing that 33 members of Congress earmarked more than $300 million for projects within two miles of land they own...

As a general matter, retroactive tax hikes are bad tax policy and even worse governance. There's a reason the Founding Fathers put a prohibition on "ex post facto" laws in the Constitution. When it comes to taxes, it's not fair for employers and families to comply with the tax code only to find that the rules then changed after the fact, and after it's too late to do anything about your original choice. It's "heads I win, tails you lose" government at its worst. Yet that is precisely what Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is proposing to do...

Democrats have been saying for a long time that the House could be in play in 2012, and now some Republicans are starting to join them. “For Democrats to take 25 seats, they will need a wave,” former congressman Tom Davis wrote in an op-ed in The Hill recently. “Continued polarization and obstruction could create such a wave.” Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele agreed that keeping the majority isn’t a done deal: “It could be very, very hard.” And last week, a member of the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board opined that the GOP majority could be...

While many Americans celebrated Groundhog Day [last Thurs]day, lawmakers in Washington were participating in a more regular tradition: debating the state of the economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke took the stand before the House Budget Committee to defend the central bank’s recent policy decisions, a performance that mirrored the pomp and circumstance of the activities in Punxsutawney. Bernanke’s repetition of poor policy prescriptions was a fitting way to celebrate the national holiday. Once again, he insisted that interest rates will remain low without affecting inflation, and that government spending will increase job growth. In fact, Bernanke warned lawmakers ahead...

(CBS News) Just before Christmas, American workers got a rare gift from Washington politicians - the current payroll tax cut would be extended for two more months. At the time, both President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner lauded the move to avoid a tax increase for millions of working Americans. But there's something the politicians weren't bragging about - the fact that they're paying for the two-month tax cut with what has turned into a brand new fee on home buyers. The new fee is a minimum of one-tenth of 1 percent on Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-backed...

Congress made eight different attempts to alter our U.S. Constitution concerning the Natural Born Citizenship Clause according to research by Carl Gallups proving they knew Barack Obama lacked presidential eligibility prior to the 2008 election! If there was no problem for Obama why would these people do this? There had never been a question of Natural Born Citizenship in our lifetimes! Why fix what wasn’t broken? The youtube ……..reveal a secret, closed door meeting was held with eight Supreme Court Justices just prior to the January 2009 Inauguration sent our other courts an unspoken message to don’t go there. Plaintiff...

The STOCK Act to ban insider trading by members of Congress has sailed through the Senate, 96-3, and many members of the U.S. Senate were no doubt kicking and screaming as they voted for it. Heck, some of the most prominent cosponsors were people that I identified in my book, Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison, as having stock-trading activities that correlated nicely with their legislative work.

Three Republicans, including an Englewood rabbi, are seeking the GOP nomination to run in the new 9th Congressional District. The three are vying for a chance to compete against Rep. Steve Rothman or Rep. Bill Pascrell, both Democrats, are engaged in a primary fight for the redrawn 9th District. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a talk show host and author of books including “Kosher Jesus” and “Kosher Sex,” told Bergen’s Republican Organization he wants to be the nominee, according to a report on politickernj.com. The congressional run is Boteach’s first bid for public office. Boteach and Rothman, a former Englewood mayor, were...

Last Thursday, the US Senate passed the STOCK Act, legislation that would ban members of congress from insider trading. From CBS News: Members of Congress are already subject to insider trading laws. But it is currently within the law for a lawmaker to buy a company’s stock after learning, for example, that an upcoming bill will grant that company a large government contract. The ultimate fate of the STOCK (Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge) Act, which comes in the wake of a “60 Minutes” story on potential congressional insider trading, remains unclear – though its prospects are relatively good. Passage...

Support Jesse Kelly for Congress for the AZ-8 Special Election this April 17. Jesse KellyKelly for Congress web page. Campaign page

Saying the economy is “growing stronger,” President Obama issued a strong warning to Congress on Friday: “Do not slow down the recovery ... don't muck it up!" Speaking at a fire house in Arlington, Va. — hours after a jobs report showed the unemployment rate dropped from 8.5 to 8.3 percent — a fiery Obama said Washington has to do everything in its power to help the economy. He urged Congress to pass a payroll tax cut extension without drama and delay. “They just need to get it done, [it] shouldn’t be that complicated,” Obama said.

Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) will not run for re-election this year, a source close to the Congressman told Roll Call. The Blue Dog Democrat had decided against a bid in a redrawn 11th district, which was made substantially more Republican than his current district during GOP-led redistricting.

After President Obama's third State of the Union address this week, the Cost of Government Center decided to take a look at how this speech different from joint addresses past. The speech, while rife with the President's usual demands for tax hikes on families and small businesses, was more of a campaign speech than an executive joint address. It is telling, then, that the President spent more time avoiding many of the top issues of past addresses than mentioning them. Notably absent from the speech was any mention of his plan to salvage the economy via government “stimulus.” The President...

Links to all references: LIVE LINKS TO EACH HJR and SENATE RESOLUTION http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:H.J.Res59: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:H.J.Res67: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:S2128: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:H.J.Res104: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:H.J.RES.2: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:H.J.Res15: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:H.J.Res42: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:S2678: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:S.RES.511: LINK TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE http://thepatriotsnews.com/indx.php/content/163

The United States Department of Labor gives the unemployment rate in November of 2006, when Democrats won control of the House of Representatives, as 4.5 percent. In November 2008, when Democrats won the presidency, control of the House of Representatives and Senate the unemployment rate was 6.8 percent. When the Republicans won control of the House of Representatives in November 2010, the unemployment rate was 9.8 percent, says the United States Department of Labor. Now one year later, November 2011, with Republicans in control of the House of Representatives, unemployment is down more than 1 percent, says to the Department...

How many speeches has Barack Obama given on jobs? How many times has he said the economy is his number one priority? Unfortunately, his rhetoric doesn't match his actions. The only suitable job worth creating to him is a government job. When it came time to approve the Keystone Pipeline, a project that would transport oil from Canada to the refineries in the Gulf states, Obama said no. Tens of thousands of jobs would have been created, but politics won the day. Now, GOP members of the U.S. Senate are using the Constitution in an attempt to approve the pipeline...

WASHINGTON — Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday are expected to publish a report on the disputed gun trafficking investigation called Operation Fast and Furious, concluding that agents in Arizona — not Obama administration officials — were responsible for the tactics used in the inquiry and for providing misleading information relayed to Congress. In an 89-page report, titled “Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gun-walking in Arizona,” the Democratic staff portrays Fast and Furious as the fourth investigation, dating back to 2006, in which Arizona-based agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives employed...

The announcements by Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) that they would not run for reelection reflects what may be the last gasps of the Great Plains Democrats, much as California’s 2010 Democratic landslide assured that Republicans are soon to become endangered species in places like Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. The conventional explanation for these trends centers on culture or ideology, but the real cause may lie with an evolving conflict between two dueling political economies. On one side lies the information or “creative” economy, centered in coastal big cities and university towns. On the other lies...

Congressional caucus is determined to save F-35 WASHINGTON -- For all its high-tech stealth and record cost, the F-35 joint strike fighter embodies the droll military motto "hurry up and wait." Conceived in the heady post-Cold War 1990s, the futuristic fifth-generation jet fighter was to be a technological marvel built in a rush and paid for with "peace dividend" dollars. But now the fighter is billions over budget and years behind schedule. With the Pentagon facing $1 trillion in possible cuts, the F-35's high cost makes it a prime target. But thanks in part to campaign contributions from its main...

Recently, a federal district court in Washington, D.C. issued a ruling upholding an Obama administration policy that requires federally licensed firearms retailers in states bordering Mexico to report multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles. The case was brought by two NRA-backed firearm retailers and by the National Shooting Sports Foundation acting on behalf of its affected members. Plaintiffs have already filed an appeal—but while we await the outcome, your help is urgently needed in seeking congressional action to end this illegal policy. Devised by Attorney General Eric Holder’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the plan requires all of the...