Free Republic

An Ohio clinic that was touted by Obama while he was speaking on health care reform is now blaming ObamaCare after it was forced to cut $330 million from its budget. Fox 8 reports the Cleveland Clinic, which is the largest employer in Northeast Ohio with about 39,000 workers in the region, announced the cuts to its 2014 budget at a meeting Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the clinic tells Fox News the clinic is being forced to cut back to prepare for increased costs and decreased revenue under the health care reform law. These changes will include offering early retirement...

President Obama’s spokesman said Thursday that Speaker John A. Boehner suffers from “Putin envy,” after the speaker’s office criticized Mr. Obama in a video for being more willing to negotiate with the Russian president than with House Republicans. “The video, I thought, demonstrated a little Putin envy, a little odd bit of Putin envy, on behalf of the speaker, but maybe he can explain that,” said White House press secretary Jay Carney.

Sen. Ted Cruz said Thursday he will use any means necessary, including a filibuster on the Senate floor, to defund President Obama’s health care law while passing a short-term spending plan this month to keep the government open. House conservatives joined Mr. Cruz, Texas Republican, and Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, in heaping praise on House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, for putting forth a measure that would keep government funded past Sept. 30 while taking money away from the Affordable Care Act, a health overhaul they see as dangerous for the country. The two GOP senators said they...

WASHINGTON — If there was any question who’s setting the agenda and direction of the Republican Party in the House it was answered Wednesday when, after forcing Speaker John Boehner to agree to once again attempt to defund Obamacare, Rep. Steve Stockman thanked fellow Tea Partier Rep. Tom Graves — and not the man ostensibly sitting atop the GOP’s top perch. “[Americans] want to defund ObamaCare and keep the government open. Thank you to Tom Graves and others who worked to make this happen,” Stockman said in a press release blasted out to national media. “Republicans should listen to the...

Until now, the only House Republicans pushing for a government shutdown and debt crisis were a few dozen on the radical right, the ones Senator, Harry Reid, the majority leader, referred to as “the anarchists.” On Wednesday, however, the full Republican caucus, leadership and all, joined the anarchy movement, announcing plans to demand the defunding of health care reform as the price for keeping the government open past Sept. 30. The decision means that a government shutdown next month is now much more likely. In the past, shutdown threats were averted because Republican leaders were willing to negotiate on spending...

WASHINGTON — House Republicans united Wednesday around a plan to use the threat of a government shutdown as leverage to repeal President Obama's healthcare law, confident the American people are on their side. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) yielded to his right flank by agreeing to attach the healthcare law repeal to a must-pass bill to keep the government funded past Sept. 30. A vote is expected Friday on a bill that would allow the government to stay open for the next few months. The measure is all but certain to pass the Republican-led House, but faces rejection in...

Mark Levin delivered a fantastic monologue coming out of the gate today on Obamacare and the fact that Republicans have finally been forced by the American people to try and defund it. Listen:

House Republican leadership will attempt to pass a government-funding bill with language that defunds Obamacare, according to senior aides. The bill, called a continuing resolution, will likely come to the House floor late this week, roughly two weeks before funding for the federal government expires on Oct. 1. The attempt to defund Obamacare, which has almost no chance of being enacted into law, signals that Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy felt the need to take a sharp turn to the right in order to pass a government funding bill through the House. The...

The movement to defund Obamacare has reached a critical moment. According to news reports, House Republicans are deciding this morning whether they will use a government funding bill to stop the unfair, unaffordable, and unworkable health care law. With less than two weeks until the government takeover of health care, it’s time for Republicans and Democrats to put aside party politics and do right by the American people: Stop Obamacare before it’s too late.

I have been interested in the political atmosphere of our country since my preteen years. It has been particularly interesting to observe the political shenanigans adopted by many of those wishing to obtain or maintain power. Fortunately, there have also been many who were truly interested in serving the people who put them in office. Looking at one’s life, voting record and words can provide significant insight into which of the aforementioned categories a political figure fits. In the 1960s, John F. Kennedy wrote a book titled “Profiles In Courage,” which was very inspiring, as he examined the lives of...

Republican Rep. Tom Graves’ budget plan to defund Obamacare while avoiding a government shutdown is rapidly gaining House support, but President Obama’s advocacy group Organizing for Action (OFA) is still using claims that Republicans want a shutdown in its fundraising pitch. Graves’ Stability, Security, and Fairness Resolution now has 70 House cosponsors after 11 more lawmakers cosponsored Tuesday. The continuing resolution proposal for fiscal year 2014 actually avoids a government shutdown and funds all facets of the federal government, with the exception of spending related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Graves introduced the plan last Thursday. “There...

Grassroots conservatives who want to stop ObamaCare are making their voices heard. There is evidence that their elected representatives are starting to listen, and it is good. When Congress left Washington for its August recess, the voices demanding action to prevent American taxpayers from paying for ObamaCare – described by its chief Senate author, Democrat Senator Max Baucus as a ‘train wreck’ – were faint and few. Senator Mike Lee drafted a letter calling on the Senate to fund everything in the upcoming Continuing Resolution (CR), except ObamaCare. Every Republican in the Senate is on the record calling for defunding,...

House GOP leaders are looking to reverse course and agree to tea party demands to try to use a vote this week on a must-pass temporary government funding bill to block implementation of President Barack Obama’s new health care law. …

Nearly 7 out of 10 voters are concerned about their personal health care under the Affordable Care Act and a majority wants to take the health care system back to 2009, according to the latest Fox News national poll. The poll, released Tuesday, finds that 68 percent of voters are concerned about their health care under the new system. That includes 43 percent “very” concerned and another 25 percent “somewhat” concerned. The number feeling concerned is more than twice that of those who are unworried (31 percent). Even a 56-percent majority of Democrats feels concerned (31 percent “very” concerned). By...

National Journal: “By going after one GOP ‘faction’ and appealing to the other, Obama is seeking leverage in a tactical dispute that has vexed Republicans all summer. … In seeking to further divide the camps, Obama is hoping to avert a government shutdown while also achieving some Democratic policy aims, such as rollbacks of the sequester-induced spending cuts that Obama on Monday said were hurting economic growth.” The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board has some tough words for Republicans who want to bring the government to the brink of a shutdown over Obamacare funding. "Some Republicans think they are...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz took to Twitter Tuesday morning for a brief chat emphasizing the importance of upholding the U.S. Constitution and abiding by its guidelines to holding elected officials accountable. Tagging the occasion as a #ConstitutionDay Q&A , Cruz answered questions from Twitter users about the effects of the Affordable Care Act — which Cruz has been outspoken about repealing — on constitutional freedoms and civil liberties. Many of the questions echoed Cruz’s sentiment about the act, calling into question both President Barack Obama’s and Congress’s leadership and how they are allowed to “circumvent” the Constitution. Here are some...

New York Times columnist David Brooks argued on PBS' "NewsHour" Friday night that "Sen. Ted Cruz and similar legislators" are obstructionists who care more about undermining the Republican establishment than advancing legislation. Note that I didn't use "conservative" to modify "columnist" or "David Brooks," though the Times and other mainstream media outlets routinely bill Brooks as conservative. Featuring a left-leaning moderate and depicting him as a conservative is a clever technique the liberal media employ to discredit conservative ideas. Not to mention any names, but we see this technique in practice daily on NBC's deranged stepchild, MSNBC, where a former...

First things first, let’s stipulate that if there’s a government shutdown at the end of the month — and I continue to doubt there will be — it will happen because House Speaker John Boehner chooses to precipitate one. He can always partner with Democrats to pass a temporary, uncontroversial government spending bill if he wants to, because almost all Democrats will vote for it, and there are still a few dozen Republicans in the House who are both sane and unintimidated by the threat of a primary challenge from the right. Whatever happens is his decision. The latest doomed-to-fail...

Can't post Bloomberg text, but it claims Boehner says if the Republicans don't fund ObamaCare then they lose the house in 2014. That's idiocy and exactly backwards. If they DO fund ObamaCommieCare, they get voted out!! Tax paying Americans do not want this unconstitutional communist POS!! http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-09-17/republicans-weigh-defunding-health-law-avoiding-shutdown

For the last few weeks, House Speaker John Boehner has been trying to find a way to convince his caucus to vote for a bill that keeps the government open after Sept. 30 without picking a fight over Obamacare. But a minority of his caucus has been insisting on defunding Obamacare, egged on by outside conservative groups and a handful of far-right Republican Senators, most importantly Ted Cruz (Texas). This has been pretty annoying for a lot of House Republican members and staff. Jonathan Strong and Andrew Stiles of National Review got an anecdote out of a closed Republican Study...