Free Republic

Congressional negotiators reached a bipartisan deal late Sunday to fund the federal government through September, easing the threat of a shutdown but denying President Trump several key priorities — including money for his promised border wall with Mexico. The estimated $1-trillion omnibus package would provide $12.5 billion in increased military funding, about half the amount Trump requested from Congress. Another $2.5 billion for defense is available if the administration submits a counter-terrorism strategy to fight Islamic State. But the final deal failed to include the big cuts to domestic non-defense accounts that Trump was seeking, and thus emerged as something...

After voting to proceed to a bill that didn’t exist earlier this week, the Senate has finally produced text of the continuing resolution, a short-term government spending bill. The bill, written behind closed doors by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, was brought to the floor late Thursday afternoon, and for the majority of Senate Republicans, represented their first opportunity to see the text. According to McConnell, senators will have four days (two of them on a weekend) to review the bill before having to cast their votes next week. As far as conservative priorities go, the bill is a failure....

On Tuesday night, the Senate voted to proceed to the continuing resolution, a bill that will allegedly fund the government until Dec. 9. The only problem is that there isn’t actually a bill yet. There is no text. There is no agreement between Democrats and Republicans on what the bill will fund—Planned Parenthood, the Export-Import Bank, control of the internet—all of it remains a mystery. Yet the Senate voted 89-7 to proceed to this nonexistent bill. The Senate operates under complex parliamentary rules that require a series of votes in order to “proceed to” or “get onto” a bill. The...

It’s time to make a list. A list of those so-called conservatives and Republicans endorsing Donald Trump, the megalomaniac who regularly threatens his opponents and the press, raves about making members of our military adopt ISIS-like tactics, has funded Obamacare and Gang of Eight Democrats, promises to forcibly relocate American companies to his liking, and has demonstrated again and again he intends to govern as a tyrannical King rather than a President. Call it a boycott, call it a blackball, call it a blacklist, call it whatever you want. I’m done with these folks and other conservatives should be, too....

When candidate Donald Trump announced his candidacy to run for President last year we knew immediately there would be a seismic shift in the political landscape. Those who have followed politics in the last 8+ years suspected the 2016 race would inevitably boil down to Globalists -vs- U.S. Nationalists.

On Thursday night, Conservative Review Editor-in-Chief Mark Levin took on the rising tide of "populist nationalism" with a history lesson. Populism, Levin explained, is really just progressivism. The populist movement in America was the forerunner of the progressive movement, and both populism and progressivism share the same disdain for constitutionalism that conservatives reject.

Greenville, S.C. - In the latest volley in the war of insults between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, Cruz's campaign is attacking Rubio for missing the Conservative Review Forum here tonight. Rubio was scheduled to speak, but ultimately did not attend. "This is a final admission that Marco Rubio isn't even going to try to compete for the votes of conservatives in South Carolina or anywhere else. And who can blame him? Rubio isn't conservative," said Rick Tyler, Cruz's communications director, in a statement. "Instead Rubio and his campaign would rather hide behind their deceptive campaign tactics and liberal record...

It’s pretty clear Donald Trump isn’t a conservative. The problem is many voters in the Republican Party think he is. These voters are real, they care about the constitutional principles that make America exceptional, and Trump needs them. He can’t afford to have the base of the Republican Party leave him for Ted Cruz.This is why he needed Sarah Palin’s endorsement. This is why he went to Liberty University and talked about “2 Corinthians.” This is why Cruz’s comment about New York values was problematic for him. Many pundits made the mistake after the last debate of thinking the comment...

Mark Levin has been trying to stay out of the conflict between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.  He says he likes both men and has both on his show.  But as Trump has escalated his birther attacks on Cruz, Levin has spent hours of airtime defending Cruz against these arguments...while studiously not mentioning who is making these arguments. Well, it looks as though Levin has finally had enough, because ConservativeReview.com, of which he is editor in chief, has published a piece (that Levin has tweeted a link to) that exposes Donald Trump's political inconsistencies, point by point. Entitled Trump's...

It is hard not to feel protective over Donald Trump while the political classes are seething and scornful. They are unacquainted with such powerlessness. Control was never supposed to stray this far from their grasp. And their rage, manifested in every hapless attack on Trump and his supporters, actually seems to be improving the likelihood of that outcome they fear most of all. How tempting, under these circumstances, to rush to his defense, as so many in the conservative movement have already done. The Donald has boldly made himself a standard bearer of unpopular (…within the political bubble), yet critical...

Kentucky Senator and Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) stated that he will “oppose Senator McConnell (R-KY) when he brings forward the continuing resolution,” but didn’t offer his support to McConnell staying as majority leader, citing a lack of an election or other choices, and arguing, “it isn’t about opposing a person” on Monday’s “America’s Newsroom” on the Fox News Channel.

The House will vote Friday on a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security for three weeks in an attempt to avert a shutdown slated for Saturday at the massive agency. If the bill is approved by the House, the Senate is expected to quickly follow suit — though the upper chamber also plans to move forward with a bill funding Homeland Security through the end of the fiscal year. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced the new strategy to his rank-and-file members during a closed-door caucus meeting Thursday night. Senior Republicans predicted it would win enough support to clear the...

Congress is coming back. And the painful truth is that the Republican leaders will not stop Barack Obama unless they hear from you in overwhelming numbers. Our action center is live. You can call them by clicking here. It is the truth. Republicans will not stop Barack Obama’s executive overreach. In fact, while you were enjoying your Thanksgiving there were a number of stories out that the Republican leadership wants to give its members an opportunity to express their outrage and opposition. Expression is not action. They will take no action to stop the President. In fact, a few days...

This is a call to action: STOP Congress from passing an Omnibus Spending Bill through September of 2015, instead they need to pass a clean CR through January 2015, then they'll at least have the tools to fight Obama's lawlessness through defunding his "executive actions" on Amnesty, Obamacare, and whatever else. CAPITAL HILL SWITCH BOARD (Please use this): (202) 224-3121

Congressman Louie Gohmert (TX-01) joined Gibson with the latest on Obama’s plan of granting amnesty to illegals. Gohmert told Gibson that some of the illegal immigrants are admitting that they are not fleeing gang violence but are paying gang members to sneak them in illegally into America. On stopping Obama’s agenda, Gohmert said when A President is completely lawless it is time to shut down funding to anyone who will act illegally. We must use the powers of the purse granted by the constitution to reign in Obama.

P.L. 113-46, The Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014, runs out on January 15th, 2014. * The continuing resolution (CR) funds the federal government until January 15, 2014 at the same level as in fiscal year * It also suspends the limit on the federal government’s debt until February 7, 2014. * The act sets up a process for verifying the incomes of people who apply for health insurance subsidies under Obamacare, the topic of the original version of the bill. *It provides back pay to the 800,000 government workers who were furloughed during the shutdown. * It also creates a joint...

"We told you you would lose!" wail the Beltway bundlers of the Republican establishment. "We told you you would lose!" moan neoconservative columnists from their privileged perches on the op-ed pages of the Beltway press. "Look at what Ted Cruz and this Tea Party people did to us," wails the GOP establishment. "Look what has happened to our brand." And 2014 was looking wonderful. What a basket of wimps. While the political and communications strategy of the fight to defund Obama seems not to have been thought through, can someone explain what else a moral and principled Republican party could...

My fellow Americans, the President, the Democrats and the News Media have won a great political victory today, but the American people have lost an important battle. Republicans were elected to control the House of Representatives to stop the hemorrhaging of taxpayer monies. We have tried valiantly to rein in the spending, to stop this headlong sprint to bankruptcy that will happen to our beloved country. Those of us trying to do the responsible thing for the USA have been ridiculed, demeaned and degraded by those who pretend they wish for a 'more civilized' dialogue. We have been called terrorists,...

----"Plan B" and fiscal cliff vote, redux. Having hammered out a deal to shoot back to the Senate tonight -- with most Republicans reportedly on board -- House GOP leadership has been forced to delay or cancel those votes after support among conservatives collapsed in the early evening hours. The rules committee meeting, which would have formally drawn up the bill and advanced it to the full house, has been postponed indefinitely. The reason is simple. They don't have the votes: What happened? The counter-offer's broad outline, which I've been following all day, seemed to be on track. Then the...

[with AUDIO] House Republicans wouldn’t accept a bad deal on the government shutdown and the pending federal debt ceiling negotiations from President Barack Obama, House Rules Committee chairman Texas Republican Rep. Pete Sessions announced. “I will tell you we will not back down, but there is much, much that we must understand about what is out there and how to accomplish it,” Sessions said on an interview set to air on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show on Friday night. Hewitt asked Sessions about the possibility of a deal made by the first of the month to ensure the government fulfills certain...