Free Republic

When Barack Obama and the Democrats on Capitol Hill forced the $800 billion stimulus bill into law, they insisted that waste, fraud, and abuse would not be tolerated. They put “Sheriff” Joe Biden on the case in March 2009, with Obama warning stimulus recipients that “around the White House, we call him the Sheriff — because if you’re misusing taxpayer money, you’ll have to answer to him.” The Department of Transportation employees gathered for the speech laughed at that statement, according to the White House transcript — and well they should have. An in-depth report from McClatchy and ProPublica...

Two Planned Parenthood chapters, two United Way organizations, a food bank association and a Catholic hospital system are among 90 nonprofit groups that will receive a total of $60 million to help people sign up for health insurance, the Department of Health and Human Services announced today. Planned Parenthood chapters in Montana and Iowa received grants totaling about $500,000. Ascension Health, the nation’s largest Catholic hospital system, won a $241,000 grant to help people in Kansas. The Ohio Association of Food Banks will receive a $2.1 million grant. Florida Covering Kids & Families, based at the University of South Florida,...

Congressional Republicans keep saying they oppose Obamacare. Yet they’re refusing to take the simplest and easiest action against it. The way the law is designed, insurance companies get taxpayer subsidies if they incur big losses on the exchanges. That guarantee has encouraged them to participate in the exchanges. It has also enabled them to charge lower premiums, since they do not have to cover their risks. Republicans could force supporters of Obamacare to defend these taxpayer subsidies by advancing legislation to stop them, as Senator Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Representative Tim Griffin (R., Ark.) have proposed. But their colleagues...

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg is returning to lead the financial data and news company he founded in 1981 but left to serve three terms in City Hall. The company, Bloomberg LP, said Wednesday that current CEO Daniel Doctoroff will step down at the end of the year. Doctoroff was a deputy mayor under Bloomberg. His departure makes way for Bloomberg to take back the helm of the company, of which he still owns more than 85 percent. …

During the interview, Ryan addressed several issues on which conservatives have been critical of the Republican Party, from perpetuating crony capitalism to immigration. Perhaps most interesting was the congressman’s defense of votes he and fellow Republicans took in favor of TARP and the 2009 auto bailout, and his belief in the efficacy of a short-term reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank. When asked how his votes for TARP and the auto bailout comport with the populist, free market philosophy Rep. Ryan espouses in his new book, noting that he "did not enjoy" such votes, Ryan justified them on grounds of "defensive...

How’s this for a depressing passage: “There’s just a lot more regulation going on,” Zelizer said. “There’s a lot of intersection between the economy and Washington.” “There’s just a lot more regulation going on.” My liberal friends, “regulation” is the mother’s milk of the crony capitalist state, the “fascist light” state. Our system of “regulation” is in most regards now just a vehicle for rent seeking. Blindly defending regulations in 2014 because liberals are supposed to be for regulation, is to give power to a vested corporate oligarchy. Am I saying that all regs are bad? No. Am I saying...

In what might have appeared to be a minor political event a few weeks back, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called congressman Tom Marino (R-PA) “insignificant” and “inconsequential” in a debate on the House floor. Why would the former House Speaker insult a colleague in such a manner? She didn’t count her way to this assessment; Democrats do not hold a majority of the House. Nor did she reason her way to this position, as there was nothing in Rep. Marino’s argument on the immigration issue that raised empirical red flags. Perhaps it was a momentary lapse in judgment in the midst...

"The public be damned!"— William H. Vanderbilt, railroad magnate, 1882 A shattering new study by two political science professors has found that ordinary Americans have virtually no impact whatsoever on the making of national policy in our country. The analysts found that rich individuals and business-controlled interest groups largely shape policy outcomes in the United States.This study should be a loud wake-up call to the vast majority of Americans who are bypassed by their government. To reclaim the promise of American democracy, ordinary citizens must act positively to change the relationship between the people and our governmentThe new study, with...

A startling new political science study concludes that corporate interests and mega wealthy individuals control U.S. policy to such a degree that "the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy." The startling study, titled "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens," is slated to appear in an upcoming issue of Perspectives on Politics and was authored by Princeton University Professor Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Professor Benjamin Page. An early draft can be found here. Noted American University Historian Allan J. Lichtman, who highlighted the...

Comcast and Time Warner Cable are spending more than $130,000 on a dinner to honor one of the federal regulators who will rule on their controversial merger plan, according to records of the companies’ contributions. The fundraising event for the Walter Kaitz Foundation will honor Federal Communications Commission panel member Mignon Clyburn as an advocate for diversity.

Pennsylvania has turned its back on small business owners, according to a recent survey. […] “After a two-month survey of thousands of small business owners nationwide, we’ve heard directly from Pennsylvania’s small businesses that the state could do more to support them,” said Jon Lieber, chief economist of Thumbtack.com. “Creating a business climate that is welcoming to small, dynamic businesses is more important than ever, and Pennsylvania’s small businesses think the state could do a better job.” […] Marie Page, owner of Marie Page Cleaning Service in Reeders, said […] “We are taxed like crazy. It is hard to get...

Don't believe the hype that insurance companies are getting squeezed on Obamacare. That's the message from one of the architects of the president's health-care law. "All of these companies are expanding greatly in the exchanges," Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, former special advisor on health policy, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Friday. "Their revenues are up. Their profits are up. Their stocks are up. They're not suffering because of" Obamacare. Last week, Aetna Chairman and CEO Mark Bertolini appeared on the program, saying the insurer priced its 600,000 Obamacare customers who tend to be older and sicker at lower margins. Emanuel, vice...

At 74,000 pages, the IRS code is a mind-boggling ode to lobbying, pork-barrel spending and graft. These are the only good things that I can say about the IRS. Ode may be too friendly a word, however. Let’s instead call it an incantation for our country. Because the code holds a country in thrall like the winged monkeys in Dorothy’s Oz were held. And until the witch is dead, we monkeys must do her bidding. Politicians, economists and ordinary citizens can’t follow the tax code, which has tripped up cabinet nominees, majority leaders and others who ought to know...

The White House budget office launched USASpending.gov in 2007 to track federal spending after scores of lawmakers, including then-Sen. Barack Obama, successfully pushed through a bipartisan bill to ensure greater transparency with the funding. At last check, less than 8 percent of the site’s spending information was accurate, and federal agencies had failed to report nearly $620 billion in grants, loans and other forms of assistance awards, according to a recent report from Congress’s nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.

Launched in December 2007, USASpending.gov was meant as a way of tapping modern technology to hand the American public the means to track what the federal government spends. But a new report from the Government Accountability Office found that, in 2012 at least, more than $619 billion in federal awards that should be accounted for on the site weren't. Agencies, GAO found, are generally reporting on the contracts that they hand out. What's missing from the site are grants and awards, a range of federal spending that covers everything from agricultural development to research on new naval reconnaissance. The absent...

It highlights the role of a nonprofit called “BCFS” which, according to Time, has received more than $280 million since December to operate temporary housing shelters for children who illegally cross the Mexican border into the U.S. On July 7, two days before [the charity head] met Obama in Dallas, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded BCFS $190,707,505 in a single grant. The Time article also brings attention to an ongoing theme under the Obama administration: its penchant to withhold public information of public interest. According to Time, “To shield vulnerable kids from angry opponents of immigration and...

Seriously. Things are beginning to look kinda pathetic for the Kerry/ Obama foreign policy doctrine. Just this week Russia violated an arms treaty by testing a new type of cruise missile; and Obama’s response was to send a letter to Vladimir Putin (not joking) explaining his disapproval. Future ramifications might include a new hashtag campaign, unfriending Putin on Facebook, or sending angry text messages late at night. And, really, given the West’s reaction to Putin’s acts of aggression in Ukraine, it only makes sense that the former KGB agent would feel emboldened to disrespect an obscure Reagan era treaty. Vladimir...

Take, for example, David Grain. According to Federal Election Commission reports, Grain gave $60,000 to Obama’s campaign and the DNC in 2008, and he gave $22,500 in 2012. Grain has also been a lucrative fundraising partner for Obama. In 2008, Grain helped raise an additional $200,000 to $500,000 for Obama, according to a report in Bloomberg News. And now, money is set to flow the other direction… You see, Grain owns a private equity firm called Grain Management, LLC. that failed to qualify under existing rules as a small business for an upcoming Federal Communications Commission (FCC) airwave license auction....

As the quest for tax reform sweeps the nation, policymakers are faced with the dilemma of how to best build a tax code that promotes fairness, removes roadblocks to economic growth and maintains enough revenue to provide the proper amount of public services. As ALEC has pointed out Rich States, Poor States and other publications, low tax rates and smart tax choices are the path to prosperity because they increase a state’s competitiveness and are the least hurtful to productivity. However, in the effort to lower rates and make the tax code less of a burden, there is another impediment...

#EndExIm Heritage Action for America is coordinating with its social media activists for a TwitterFest tonight beginning at 5:30PM EST until approximately 6PM EST on the need for Congress to put a final nail in the coffin of the wasteful, sometimes corrupt and ultimately unnecessary, Export-Import Bank. It's a form of rent seeking international pork for corporations that already have a viable business model without it. Eliminating it takes Congress out of the role of picking winners in the free market. Please post at least one Tweet with this link http://heritageaction.com/2014/04/export-import-bank-reauthorization/ and be sure to use the hashtag #EndExIm