Free Republic

The pressure is on. Four years ago, I picked Barack Obama to win 353 electoral votes and, twice, I correctly tabbed George W. Bush as a winner, including a 2000 forecast he’d beat Al Gore by four electoral votes. Here is a preview of the road to Nov. 6: January: Texas Rep. Ron Paul edges Mitt Romney in Iowa caucuses, and fast-closing Texas Gov. Rick Perry nips Newt Gingrich for third. Romney rebounds to beat Paul in New Hampshire, but Perry edges former Massachusetts governor in South Carolina, driving Gingrich from the race, and also wins Florida. In his State...

The hard choice Democrats have given Republicans has paid off for the big-spenders again. Refusing to work together to cut spending, Democrats demanded that Republicans compromise with them to increase spending, or shut down the government. As a result, Congress rammed through a 1,000-page, trillion-dollar omnibus spending bill that lumped 9 different appropriations bills in a single package at the very last minute rather than debating, amending, and voting on these bills in a transparent manner. Spend more and pass this bill, the Democrats said, or force the government to close its doors. They said the same thing this past...

Last week, Senators Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and DeMint (R-S.C.) offered legislation which seeks to curb some of the more costly burdens placed on companies through the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Their bill, the Startup Expansion and Investment Act, targets Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley—a burdensome rule which has greatly increased regulatory compliance costs for many businesses. Rep. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.) introduced a companion bill in the House earlier this year (H.R. 2941). While implemented with the intention of securitizing and standardizing accounting measures of publicly traded companies, Section 404 has only led to increased costs for these entities, thus discouraging many small...

Fellow Conservatives: Many of you have contacted me to express your support for stronger voices within the Senate Republican leadership. You may be interested to know that Senate Republicans will vote tomorrow to elect a new Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) recently stepped down from leadership, setting off a mid-session shake up. As a result, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) -- a rock-solid conservative and SCF-endorsed candidate in 2010 -- has put his name forward as a candidate for Vice Chair. The Senate Conservatives Fund supported Ron Johnson last year and helped propel...

Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill are moving to block the International Monetary Fund from using U.S. money for European bailouts, as talks intensify across the pond over how to stanch the debt crisis. Some U.S. lawmakers want their concerns addressed as part of the feverish end-of-year budget talks. On the House and Senate side, lawmakers have introduced legislation to wall off U.S. taxpayer money from playing any role in averting a European meltdown. "It's time to stop the bailouts and start restoring fiscal discipline to our own economy," Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said in a statement, as he and 25...

James Madison, “The Father of the Constitution,” wrote: “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” Enabling governments to “control the governed” has always been easy, as tyranny has long been mankind’s default position: Virtually every regime in history has sought to increase its power. Obliging government to “control itself” has always been the hard part, and nations that value freedom have always tried to place limits on their...

Republicans draw attention to public pension gapsReuters – Thu, Dec 8, 2011 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in Congress on Thursday sought to shift attention back to public pension shortfalls, with estimates of the total deficit ranging from $600 billion up to $3 trillion. Leaders on a joint congressional committee on the economy are releasing a series of reports on states' struggles to cover the costs of pensions for future retirees. "States are already $3 trillion in the red, a crisis four times larger than the Wall Street bailout," said Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who released the report with...

With only five weeks until the Iowa caucuses, GOP candidates are scrambling to persuade undecided voters to choose them. To this end, one of the most important tools they have is the endorsement of other prominent conservatives. Three of the most influential figures in Republican politics have yet to announce who they will support. Here we speculate as to who might receive their nod of approval. • Sarah Palin: Though her power among right-leaning voters has eroded in the recent months, the former Alaska governor still delivers "a sizeable army of supporters" says the Telegraph. Her supporters include both tea...

The 2012 endorsement battle is starting to heat up, with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney sprinting to an early advantage. Over the weekend, Romney landed the backing of two of the top GOP elected officials in New Hampshire: Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Rep. Charlie Bass. But while these types of endorsements (known as “state-specific” on The Fix’s handy-dandy Endorsement Hierarchy) can help a candidate, they are rarely more than a single-day story. Meanwhile, the bigger endorsements — the sort that can say something broader about a candidate and genuinely help him or her over the long haul — are, largely,...

A group of Republican senators has proposed a plan to reform welfare — not so much because they expect it to succeed, but to make an important point: that the deficit supercommittee can meet its $1.2 trillion goal without raising taxes. “I think there’s kind of an acceptance that as long as there’s Democratic control of the Senate, we’re not going to pass anything good,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), one of the bill’s cosponsors. “Our point here is to show that there is a lot of money that we could save and deal with our deficit in a...

Fellow Conservatives: Despite bipartisan promises to cut spending after the 2010 elections, Washington politicians are still voting to make the government even bigger and more expensive than ever. Don't believe me? Even though the federal government is nearly $15 trillion in debt, it's spending at record-high levels. Federal spending has gone up 5 percent in the first nine months of this year alone. Just two weeks ago, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate passed three new spending bills to increase 2012 funding above 2011 funding levels. The bills will increase spending for the Department of Agriculture by $6.4 billion; for...

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Some presidential debates feature moderator questions, audience questions or even online questions, but at Saturday night's GOP debate in South Carolina, the pair of Republican U.S. senators from the Palmetto State will join the questioning. Sen. Jim DeMint, a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations and Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Committee on Armed Services, will each ask questions at the debate. Organizers of the debate at Wofford College in Spartanburg are calling it the "Commander-in-Chief Debate" because it will focus on foreign relations and national security issues. Graham is a member of the...

Republican Senate candidate Don Stenberg on Tuesday got the endorsement he wanted. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, sometimes described as a kingmaker for candidates seeking conservative support, said Stenberg was "a lifelong conservative with the principles, integrity and courage needed to stand up to the big spenders in both political parties in Washington." Stenberg is "not only the strongest conservative in the race, but we also believe he's the most electable," DeMint said in a statement issued through his Senate Conservatives Fund website.

No, it’s not a joke. President Obama really is imposing a special new tax on Christmas trees. And while the policy seems a ludicrous political misstep – and possibly an unconstitutional one at that – in truth, the Obama Christmas Tree Tax is much worse than that. The $2 million the Obama Administration expects the tax to raise will not reduce the deficit or cover needed government services. Instead, it will serve as a marketing slush fund for the Christmas tree industry. The money will set up a brand new government agency called (no, seriously) the Christmas Tree Promotion Board....

My colleague Marc Thiessen breaks some news in reporting that Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) will not be endorsing a Republican presidential candidate in the primary. This is a surprising but understandable recognition (as Bill Kristol did in his own way) that there is no viable not-Romney in the race. Anyone who expected he might endorse Mitt Romney hasn’t been paying much attention to either the GOP race or DeMint’s role in the Tea Party movement. When DeMint did offer supportive words for Romney, he was beset by angry activists and soon backed off. DeMint is not about to sacrifice his...

Sen. Jim DeMint is trying to stop the federal government from banning a popular over-the-counter asthma inhaler, introducing an amendment that would yank funding for the ban set to go into effect in January. The Food and Drug Administration rule would take off the shelves the epinephrine asthma inhaler known as Primatene Mist. The product is currently the only FDA-approved over-the-counter inhaler and is being banned because it uses something called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as a propellant -- the substance is considered harmful to the ozone layer.

South Carolina Republican U.S. Senator Jim DeMint downplayed speculation that he is preparing to endorse Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, saying reports were little more than “fabrication.” “That story is a fabrication made up of anonymous sources that obviously have no clue what Senator DeMint is thinking,” DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton said. “He has said over and over again that he is not leaning toward any candidate yet and may end up not endorsing in the presidential race.”

Rumors are swirling that South Carolina Senator and staunch conservative Jim DeMint may endorse Mitt Romney for President. From Roll Call: Mitt Romney is the favorite to receive Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-S.C.) much-sought-after endorsement in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, according to knowledgeable GOP sources. DeMint, who endorsed the former Massachusetts governor in 2008, made clear in an interview late last week that he has made no decisions on whom he will support in the 2012 primary. But Republican operatives familiar with the DeMint-Romney relationship and privy to the conservative Senator's private assessment of the GOP field believe...

Herman Cain named Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) as potential running mates should he secure the Republican presidential nomination for the 2012 election. Speaking Thursday on "The Steve Gill Show," Cain outlined the qualities he would like in a running mate, and then, unprovoked, offered specific names. “There are some people in Congress that are very, very good, that I respect and admire and that I would love to have on my team,” Cain said. “Whether that would be in a V.P. slot or in a key Cabinet slot … I’ll give you a name —...

Sen. Mike Lee's bold, outspoken conservatism isn't sitting well with many of his more senior Republican colleagues in a chamber where even the staunchest of rivals tend to refer to each other as "my good friend." The freshman Utah Republican's willingness to offer opinionated advice on policy and political strategy during closed-door Conference meetings has irked Members accustomed to Senate tradition, which values the input of tenured Members and expects the newly elected to maintain a deferential profile. Lee ousted Sen. Bob Bennett last year in a GOP primary, a factor that might have contributed to the tension. "He's not...