Free Republic

Ted Cruz vows to repeal “every word” of Obamacare and Common Core if he becomes president. He would “abolish” the IRS, flatten the Tax Code so Americans can fill out their taxes on a postcard, and “finally, finally, finally” secure the border. To which Lindsey Graham says: not going to happen.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz announced his 2016 presidential campaign last month, making him the only current official Republican candidate — for now. All of that is expected to change next week as Marco Rubio and Rand Paul make their own announcements, and likely push Cruz into the presidential background. But it’s not just me who believes that Ted Cruz has no shot of being the party nominee, much less the eventual President in 2016. Here are four pretty persuasive groups who also say that President Cruz is never going to happen. 1. His fellow Texas politicians It’s pretty hard to...

... Regardless of whether you're a supporter or opponent of Obamacare, you may have missed an important "ruling" from the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week that resulted in Obamacare logging a key victory. The case, Coons vs. Lew, was initially brought to court in 2011 by business owner Nick Coons and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Eric Novack. The two, with the help of additional legal backing, alleged that the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB, would trim Medicare costs and potentially hurt their business by instituting reimbursement levels that wouldn't cover their own expenses. These allegations are where the term...

Christianity’s tent is not big enough to accommodate both the supporters of Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act and Rutgers professor Brittney Cooper, who in a Wednesday piece for Salon blasted both the state’s pre-fix RFRA and the religious right in general. “This kind of legislation is rooted in a politics that gives white people the authority to police and terrorize people of color, queer people and poor women,” declared Cooper. “That means these people don’t represent any kind of Christianity that looks anything like the kind that I practice…This white, blond-haired, blue-eyed, gun-toting, Bible-quoting Jesus of the religious right is...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is the only major Republican likely 2016 presidential candidate who hasn't weighed in on the controversy over Indiana's "religious freedom" law that erupted this week — and his explanation for avoiding the issue is questionable.

Republican presidential hopefuls are united in blasting President Obama for his chaotic enforcement of marijuana laws, but the unity quickly breaks down when they are asked how they would handle things if they were in the White House. Some have sent mixed signals, saying state decisions should be respected while questioning how Mr. Obama has respected those decisions. Others have refused to say how they would wield the federal bureaucracy against marijuana. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is one of the few potential candidates to take a firm stance, saying he would insist on following federal statutes that outlaw the drug....

Overlooked in the media coverage of and academic debate about physician-assisted suicide: it’s not the people most likely to receive it who are promoting it. “It’s the well off and healthy who are calling for it,” Farr A. Curlin, M.D., the Josiah C. Trent Professor of Medical Humanities at Duke University School of Medicine said at the Heritage Foundation on March 30, 2015. On the same panel on which Dr. Curlin spoke, Ryan Anderson of the Heritage Foundation noted that disability rights groups are actively opposing such measures. Moreover, Anderson pointed out, in Oregon, which has physician-assisted suicide, “95 percent...

More voters say their family is worse off than better off under ObamaCare. In addition, most of those who had to change their insurance coverage because of the health care law say it cost them money. That’s according to a Fox News poll released Thursday. Overall, 42 percent say the country is worse off under the 2010 health care law. Some 44 percent felt that way last year (June 2014). […] Clearly partisanship plays a role: 73 percent of Republicans say the country is worse off under Obamacare, while just 12 percent of Democrats feel that way. Has the law...

Astrophysicist and cosmologist Neil DeGrasse Tyson is defending Scientology in light of HBO's highly critical documentary on the church. HBO's documentary "Going Clear" did not show the church in an entirely positive light — Scientology has a built a reputation for tormenting members who leave it either by surveillance or harassment. The film highlights the celebrities who made the religion intriguing to the world as well as the horrific stories of abuse from former members. But Tyson, in an interview with The Daily Beast, declined to bash the controversial church, saying people are free to believe whatever they want. "So,...

A three-year-old named Lee defends the abortion of his sister in a new children’s book – by an author with her own “ghost sister.” “Sister Apple, Sister Pig” by Mary Walling Blackburn focuses on an adult topic: abortion. The story follows Lee as he (or “she,” as the author stressed) searches for his sister – who might be an apple, a pig, or somewhere in a tree. Lee later decides “Sister is a happy ghost!” and explicitly says he’s glad Sister isn’t around to inconvenience his parents.

Bill Maher recently offered his opinion on the celebrity-proclaimed boycott of designers Dolce & Gabbana after the pair made comments that they do not approve of gay adoption or “synthetic children.”In an interview with an Italian magazine, The Huffington Post reports that Domenico Dolce said: “’I am gay, I cannot have a child. I guess you cannot have everything in life,’ Dolce added. ‘Life has a natural course, some things cannot be changed. One is the family.’” The ensuing reaction led Maher, who is known for attacking both sides of the political aisle, to unload on liberals’ “crazy political...

It is painfully obvious what the statist, anti-Christian, anti-freedom leftists have decided is their ruthless intent Abraham Lincoln, while campaigning for the U.S. Senate from Illinois, made a now-famous speech on June 16, 1858 in which, citing the irreconcilable North-South division of America on the eve of the civil war, said, ” a nation divided against itself cannot stand “; The Dred Scott decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in the prior year 1857, is regarded by many historians to be the tipping point to the Civil War, because the ruling dictated that a slave was the property of the...

My heart is broken right now realizing that harm has been done to LGBT people in this country. Much of it is real involving bullying and sexual abuse, among other things. But much of it is also imaginary leading to imaginary notions about 'enemies'. Those who have conservative religious beliefs about sexuality have been defined by activists that include major business leaders like Apple CEO Tim Cook as bigots, racists, KKK and Nazis. With that notion in their heads and with business- political-media support, one shudders to think what is happening at this moment in the attack on the Indiana...

Last week, the GOP-led Congress passed a budget resolution which, Republicans claim, will balance the budget in 10 years. The resolution is a policy document, intended to guide the appropriations process, and doesn’t itself have the force of law. More important than the details of the budget document, the action sets up the GOP to finally match its action to its rhetoric and undo the worst aspects of Obama’s fiscal policies. Over the next two weeks, while Congress is in recess, the House and Senate will begin to hammer out small differences between the budget resolutions that passed each chamber....

...Today, looking at the chart, there are many more “promises kept” than there are “promises broken.” Yet anyone who has been paying attention over the last few years would surely see that Mr. Obama had broken a tremendous amount of promises. So why does PolitiFact still have Mr. Obama’s promises kept at nearly twice those broken? I decided to take a look. The first thing I did was see what promises were considered broken. It’s a fairly hefty list, but some of the very largest are completely missing. The biggest, and most famous, broken promise is that “if you like...

The Supreme Court today decided it will not hear a lawsuit challenging the death panels in Obamacare that pro-life groups strongly opposed because they involve rationing health care and potentially denying lifesaving medical treatment — putting patients’ right to life at risk.Previously, one of the leading national pro-life groups called for legislation to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board established by the controversial Obamacare legislation because of pro-life concerns about it.“Repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) is critical to prevent the rationing of life-saving medical treatment,” said Burke Balch, J.D., director of National Right to Life’s Robert Powell...

Ayaan Hirsi Ali should be the perfect feminist hero. In theory, she fits the role on multiple levels: She’s an escapee from an abusive patriarchy. She’s an African immigrant who made her own way in a Western country, the Netherlands. She’s a fierce advocate for women’s rights. She’s a target for deadly violence by angry men who want to shut her up. She left her religion and became a scourge of its repressive practices. Except for the blemish on her record: Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a dissident from the wrong religion. Raised a Muslim in Somalia, subjected to genital mutilation...

Last quarter, when we showed what was "The Reason For The "Surge" In Q3 GDP", some were shocked to learn that in the quarter in which US GDP posted a 5% surge, it was none other than Obamacare - a mandatory tax according to the Supreme Court which has the benefit of flowing through the US income statement - which contributed the bulk of this upside. We are happy, and we use the term loosely, that history has just repeated itself, and now that the final number is available, what we wrote a month ago in "Here Is What Americans...

Peggy Young, a pregnant mother, was a driver for UPS. Though other workers received a “lighter duty” accommodation for conditions like sprained ankles, Ms. Young was denied an accommodation during her pregnancy, in violation of the federal PDA. Ms. Young lost in the two lower courts, and today the United States Supreme Court reversed their decisions in favor of Ms. Young. Ironically, during the course of the legal action, UPS changed its policy to grant “light-duty” to pregnant employees. The case drew widespread attention as pro-life advocates agreed with abortion supporters that pregnant women deserved protection in the workplace.

As LifeNews has reported, the Colorado woman who cut out a 7-month-old unborn baby from a mother’s abdomen, resulting in the death of the infant, will not be charged with murder. That’s because the state lacks an unborn victims law to hold criminals accountable when they kill or injure unborn children in such criminal attacks.However, new information reveals the prosecutor in the case is an abortion advocate who has the endorsement of prominent pro-abortion groups in a previous campaign for state Attorney General and who endorsed legislation to not regard unborn children as victims of such crimes, which would allow...