Free Republic

The path to the sweeping health care act signed by President Barack Obama Tuesday was long, convoluted and fractious. The product is massive and complicated. But the premise behind the Affordable Health Care for America Act is simple. As the president noted during the signing ceremony in the East Room at the White House: "Everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health." They should, and a nation as bountiful as ours should make sure that everybody does. The act signed Tuesday is imperfect, but it provides vital benefits to tens of millions of Americans. The bill...

What became quickly obvious while watching President Obama’s recent interview about healthcare reform with Bret Baier on FOX is that we’re still not getting straight answers about the proposed reforms — and this after a year of healthcare being the No. 1 priority at the Obama White House. On something even as elementary as making the exact legislation available to the public and to legislators in a timely manner prior to voting, we got more hype than candor from Mr. Obama. Said Obama, regarding the timing of the vote on restructuring one-sixth of the U.S. economy, “I hope it’s going...

The current American federal deficit (as of March 2010) is about $30,000 per person -- including children, the sick, crippled, homeless, and retired. For people who work, the deficit amounts to $60,000 each. Government debt grew by a sickening $5,000 per head last year (2009). And it's scheduled to grow by slightly more this year (2010). The current national debt ceiling is 14.3 trillion dollars, or one full year of America's income. Now this is an evil almost beyond compare. Whatever government "investments" this amount represents, and however many irresponsible Big Businesses were recently rescued by it, and however much...

The special relationship is over. We gave America years of unwavering support after September 11. And now we see how Barack Obama’s administration repays us. First, Obama declared that America was “neutral” over the sovereignty of the Falklands, ignoring the clear wishes of the islands’ population. And, second, his Assistant Secretary of State, Philip Crowley, snubbed Britain by failing to use their proper name and instead calling them the “Malvinas”. I don’t know where Obama learned about diplomacy, but his stinks. I’m normally pro-American, but Mr Obama’s seeming support for Argentinian aggressors, who have no legitimate claim over the Falklands,...

About 40 years ago, a social movement arose to destroy the establishment. The people we loosely call the New Left wanted to take on The Man, return power to the people, upend the elites and lead a revolution. Today, another social movement has arisen. The people we loosely call the Tea Partiers also want to destroy the establishment. They also want to take on The Man, return power to the people, upend the elites and lead a revolution. There are many differences between the New Left and the Tea Partiers. One was on the left, the other is on the...

Welfare State: A major newspaper looks at the data and finds that Americans have become more dependent on government than at any time since the Depression. Something's gone terribly wrong in our country. We Americans pride ourselves on our independence. Our nation's founding document even uses that in its title — the Declaration of Independence. But this spirit is fading with each new year, each new state and federal program, each new unkeepable promise made to a growing throng of citizens looking to government — not their own abilities, savvy, learning and hard work — to get by in life....

Get out the defibrillator quick: CNN is dying. What other conclusion can be drawn from the Nielsen ratings from February, which showed the once dominant news network finishing in fifth place for the first time ever- and now trailing CNBC and Headline News as well as its main competitors, FOX and MSNBC? The numbers are, as you can imagine, pretty stark. Wolf Blitzer's show, The Situation Room, was down 44% in total viewers in February. Campbell Brown, Larry King, and Anderson Cooper all posted their lowest ratings ever in February among total viewers, declining 50%, 55%, and 59%, respectively. The...

Last week, the House approved another increase in the national debt ceiling. This means the government can borrow $1.9 trillion more to stay afloat and avoid default. It has been little more than a year since the last debt limit increase, and graphs showing the debt limit over time show a steep, almost vertical trend. It is not likely to be very long before this new ceiling is met and the government is back on the brink between default and borrowing us further into oblivion. Congressional leaders and the administration acknowledge that the debt limit will need to be increased...

In his speech at a Denver fundraiser yesterday, President Obama repeated what has become a key talking point for Democrats -- that the Senate "doesn't get anything done" and the reason for that is that some Republicans, who "don't believe in government," are happy to block the administration's initiatives because blocking government initiatives is "consistent with their philosophy." Here's what the president said: Look, something you got to understand -- for those who don't believe in government, those who don't believe that we have obligations to each other, it's a lot easier task. If you can gum up the works,...

What is it with the hopelessly unfunny who share the last name Lopez? Just a few weeks ago Jennifer Lopez tried to get her Hollywood A-Ticket out or NowheresVille punched by calling Sarah Palin a "bitch." Which obviously makes sense on some level. The easiest way to enhance your resume with the Hollywood Frat Boys is to lash out at anything conservative -- especially our favorite self-made Governor and mother of five. But look at George Lopez; he's so desperate to be loved he's stealing jokes from ... J-Lo? And look at the left as a whole. They're so frustrated...

Sarah Palin may very well be the worst presidential candidate in the history of U.S. elections. It’s not because she’s a Conservative and I’m a Liberal. It’s because she’s plain unqualified to manage a game of “Civilization IV,” much less the political affairs of the office of the president. It is a mystery to me, to be honest, why she has so many supporters, because anyone with a vocabulary larger than the words “you” and “betcha” understands she rivals former President George W. Bush in literacy. For those of us that don’t watch Fox News, this was illustrated perfectly at...

Is anyone really surprised to discover the same state government that has mismanaged itself into a $20 billion budget deficit this year also managed to fritter away $75 million on new furniture, vehicles and other discretionary items last year while claiming to be even more impoverished? Sacramento's government culture seems to view spending other peoples' money as some kind of bureaucrat's birthright. A parade of state workers testified this week before an Assembly committee to explain why even as the state was groping with ways to close last year's $60 billion deficit, and even in the face of executive orders...

How does this president handle a crisis? Thus far, the answer is not at all encouraging. The current crisis is the election in Massachusetts of Scott Brown, now the forty-first Republican senator. His arrival in Washington has sent Democrats into panic mode--fearful that they too will be swallowed by a seething electorate--and caused many of them to flee in the other direction from health care reform. In short, Barack Obama faces a moment where his presidency just might collapse or, rather, risks heading into a wilderness where it would accomplish next to none of its ambitious goals. For generations, health...

Vinny Gambini: "I think ... I get ... the point." Judge Chamberlain Haller:" No, I don't think you do." — Dialogue from "My Cousin Vinny." Did President Obama get the point? With their ballots, the people of Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts have told him in no uncertain terms they are deeply dissatisfied with him and members of Congress. To them and a solid majority of Americans, "Washington" is shorthand for all that's wrong with America. The people are fed up with the rancor, partisanship, gridlock, empty promises and childishness that have stained their government. They are alarmed by D.C.'s...

Conservatives have been very critical of the Golden Globe-winning film "Avatar" for its mystical melange of trite leftist themes. But what they have missed is that the essential conflict in the story is a battle over property rights. "Avatar," written and directed by James Cameron and set in 2154, is the story of young American Jake Sully, who joins a military mission to the distant moon Pandora, which has a supply of an expensive and almost impossible to obtain mineral (thus its name, "unobtainium"). Living among the tall, blue natives in the form of an "avatar" -- a lab-created body...

An interesting phenomenon has been occuring in various newspaper "Letters to the Editor" pages. A woman with the same name has had letters published in no fewer than 9 newspapers praising Obama while using various city and location residences. Now it's one thing if the person(s) name was something like John Brown, Steve Smith, Amy Jones or any other number of common name combination. However the name being used is Ellie Light. This may seem like much about nothing except for one small thing. The only Ellie Light that FReepers were able to locate by Lexis-Nexis or internet searches were...

In the final days of a year dominated by repeated — and mostly unheeded — calls for full disclosure on the part of Wall Street banks, pharmaceutical companies, the N.F.L. and any number of other organizations, transparency arrived out of the blue from an unlikely quarter if ever there was one: the Freemasons. Thanks go not to Dan Brown, whose latest novel, “The Lost Symbol,” focuses on the notoriously mysterious fraternal order, but to Tom Sturgeon, a career law-enforcement officer, who was installed as Right Worshipful Grand Master for Pennsylvania on Dec. 28. His ceremony, in a break with centuries-old...

The Strategy for Victory Op-Ed by Col. Frank Ryan, USMC (ret), Veteran, Operations Enduring & Iraqi Freedom Our Nation is once again being terrorized by extremist groups intent upon making a statement or inflicting damage to our way of life. Many are not convinced that there is or should be a war against terror. The very phrase is now politically incorrect. The reality of what is going on today is far different than you may have read in the press or heard in the media. Having served in Iraq, I can assure you that Iraq is NOT Vietnam and Afghanistan...

Station editorial about our political correctness and administration failures.

The congressional pork barrel comes before public safety While a terrorist was plotting to kill Americans over the Christmas holidays, what was the Federal Aviation Administration doing? Why, spending $5 million on a three-week-long Christmas party, of course. A series of seminars in Atlanta officially were aimed at training managers on a new air-traffic-controller contract but degenerated into one big bash. According to ABC News, the seminars didn't even cover half of the 100 new provisions in a contract that went into effect two months ago.