Free Republic

Activists Gather To Read Mayflower Compact, Sing Songs. About 100 people are expected at the Colorado Capitol Saturday afternoon to sing traditional Thanksgiving songs and to read historic documents from the nation's founding. The sing-along and reading are sponsored by Tea Party activists, who decry federal spending and call for a return to more limited government.

ACORN and its affiliates received $200,000 in Justice Department grants between 2002 and 2009, according a report issued today by the department's Inspector General. No DOJ grants went directly to ACORN, but a handful of grants were awarded either to ACORN affiliates or to other organizations that sub-contracted with ACORN. The report, requested by House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), also found a few instances of ACORN mismanagement of federally contracted work. For example, ACORN received a $20,000 sub-contract to do community outreach on crime prevention in New York. The organization that contracted with ACORN has not...

President Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus package has been a bonanza for D.C.-based special interest groups, like the National Council of La Raza, AARP and a fund for the Service Employees International Union. The NCLR snagged $156,620 in stimulus cash and the AARP benefited from a whopping $18,176,224 according to the government. The Washington Times found organizations cashing in on the stimulus include Georgetown University ($14,807,804), the Service Employees International Union Education and Support Fund ($265,136), the Lockheed Martin Aspen Systems Corp. ($1,866,582), the Urban Institute ($1,443,178), National Public Radio, Inc. ($50,000), the National Building Museum ($50,000), the Shakespeare Theatre...

We need to do something more dramatic, more radical to attempt to get the democrats to stop this destruction of our American system of government. I propose we set up a national strike day which will also include a boycott. So, we don't go to work on that day and we also do not buy anything at all that day. We have the greatest impact we possible can on the economy that day. If we can get enough people to do this, it will really shake up Washington and our state governments as well. It is the American people who...

President Obama says his health-care overhaul -- which squeaked through the House last night -- won't hurt a bit, but taxpayers are going to feel it in their wallet. The $1.2 trillion plan, which passed by a razor-thin 220 to 215, imposes new tax surcharges on Americans who fail to buy insurance as well as businesses that don't provide coverage to their employees. One Republican joined 219 Democrats in voting for the measure in the super-tight vote -- just barely more than the 218 members required to pass it. The legislation, which features a government-run insurance option for people who...

More than a month after a new fiscal year began Oct. 1, the House and Senate are still pressing to pass a group of bills to improve veterans’ benefits and health programs, rolling them together in “omnibus” legislative packets. The omnibus bills can then be shaped by final compromises between the two chambers and passed relatively quickly, often by voice vote, so lawmakers can move on to other business. Standing athwart those plans this month, however, is Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a family physician whose top goal as a lawmaker has been to slow the rising tide of debt caused,...

On March 12th of this year,the SHMOTUS. Joe Biden, told the American People that he was going to protect them from stupid uses of the $787 billion dollar stimulus money: So if this -- six months from now, if the verdict on this effort is that we've wasted the money, we built things that were unnecessary, or we've done things that are legal but make no sense, then, folks, don't look for any help from the federal government for a long while. They're going to make sure -- the folks in the House and in the Senate are going to...

Here is video of GOP Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on This Week with George Stephanopoulos today, where he said Democrats are getting nervous "over this increasing view that Congress is acting like a teenager with their parents' credit card, not worried about who's going to have to pay the bill." What a great way to say it! . . . (VIDEO)

When software firm MobilVox wanted to break into the lucrative world of defense contracting, it pursued an unmistakable strategy: It expanded operations from its Northern Virginia base in Rep. James P. Moran's congressional district to the southwestern Pennsylvania district of Rep. John P. Murtha. Working with two of the most powerful members of a House subcommittee that controls Pentagon spending, the company also hired lobbying firms that employed former top aides of both the Democratic lawmakers and Mr. Murtha's brother. Company executives and their lobbyists donated thousands of dollars to the two congressmen. Soon, money flowed the other way. Between...

The real 2008 federal budget deficit was $5.1 trillion, not the $455 billion previously reported by the Congressional Budget Office, according to the 2008 Financial Report of the United States Government released by the U.S. Department of Treasury, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports. The difference between the $455 billion "official" budget deficit numbers and the $5.1 trillion budget deficit based on data reported in the 2008 financial report is that the official budget deficit is calculated on a cash basis, where all tax receipts, including Social Security tax receipts, are used to pay government liabilities as they occur. The calculations...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States must live within its means once its economy recovers if it is to preserve global confidence in the U.S. dollar's status, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Friday. The comments came as the Obama administration reported a record U.S. budget deficit for the fiscal year ended September of $1.4 trillion. At 10 percent of gross domestic product, it was the biggest U.S. fiscal shortfall since World War Two.

As expected, the deficit for 2009 hit a record $1.4 trillion in 2009, according to the White House's official fiscal figures. The deficit for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 was officially $1.417 trillion, more than triple the 2008 deficit of $455 billion. The red ink flowed largely because of the recession's impact on tax receipts and on government attempts to salvage the economy. Money generated from taxes fell from $2.5 trillion in 2008 to $2.1 trillion in 2009. Outlays increased from nearly $3 trillion to $3.5 trillion. Obama administration officials acknowledged that the 2009 deficit and expected deficits...

The federal budget deficit tripled to a record $1.4 trillion for the 2009 fiscal year that ended last week, congressional analysts said Wednesday. The Congressional Budget Office estimate, while expected, is bad news for the White House and its allies in Congress as they press ahead with health care overhaul legislation that could cost $900 billion over the next decade. The unprecedented flood of red ink flows from several factors, including a big drop in tax revenues due to the recession, $245 billion in emergency spending on the Wall Street bailout and the takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and...

Providers are reducing staffing and services and increasing rates, and hospitals are closing or facing bankruptcy. And the Obama administration wants to extend medical insurance to the uninsured. What they won't face is the role immigration has played in driving up the number of uninsured and the rising cost of health care for native-born Amereicans. Here is some substantiated research data: *Between 1989 and 2007, immmigrants and their U.S.- born children accounted for 71% of the increase in the uninsured. *Approximately 65% of illegal aliens in the U.S. are uninsured. *In many hospitals, as much as two-thirds of total operating...

GADHAFI CHILDREN $200,000 EACH FROM YOUR MONEY Alan Note: Any wonder why oil BILLIONAIRE Libyan Leader praised Oba-Hussein to the skies and wished him to be in office for the rest of his life? Well, Moslem-Marxist Oba-Hussein gave $400,000 from taxpayer money to his two children! Reason enough? The Libyan Daddy could spend this in a blink of an eye and not notice but in our terrible economy, when money for Americans is in short supply, when support for the freedom demonstrators in Iran could be promoted with this kind of money, OBAMA gives it to the children of an...

The Bush-era deficits were bad. I know. I spent eight years complaining about the president’s lack of fiscal responsibly (here and here for instance). I even wrote that Republicans during Bush’s time in office made French socialists look like Reagan. However, President Obama's new projected deficits are truly frightening. And the worse part: we haven’t seen it all yet. Based on Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data, the following chart shows a projection of deficit numbers for each year until fiscal 2018. Each color represents the difference between the projected deficits at different points in time. The purple bars represent the...

Contrary to what the Left and their media minions told Americans in 2005 when President George W. Bush wanted to reform Social Security, the nation's largest entitlement program is now projected to run deficits for at least the next two years. In an article on the subject published Sunday, the Associated Press mysteriously hid the seriousness of this revelation while never once mentioning the Republican push to solve this problem four years ago, or that Democrats in January 2006 -- including Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) -- actually applauded the death of the previous year's reform efforts.

A start-up automotive company backed by former Vice President Al Gore has been loaned more than half a billion dollars by the federal government. According to The Wall Street Journal, Fisker Automotive Inc. has received $529 million in taxpayer money. The loan was intended to help Fikser produce a hybrid sports car to be sold in Finland.

"These signs are simply for political self-interest, and it's high time we stop using stimulus dollars to fund them, and instead use these dollars for their intended purpose of creating economic activity," he said in a written statement. The cost of the signs vary from state to state. For example, a "Good Morning America" report calculated the cost at $500 in Maryland and New Hampshire to $3,000 in New Jersey. Gregg estimated the total cost at anywhere from $6 million to $20 million. Even so, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., opposed the amendment, saying the signs help keep the public informed...

US debt contracts for first time in decades GARETH COSTA, The West Australian September 26, 2009, 4:08 pm A number like $US122 billion ($140 billion) appears insignificant when related to the trillion dollar problems in the US economy, but when it represents the first contraction of gross US debt in decades the implication for global recovery is daunting. Total US debt, that includes bond debt issued for the bailout packages, fell in the second quarter of this year after continuing to expand right through the global financial crisis, according to data released by the US Federal Reserve Board. US federal,...

The House approved a 30-day stop-gap spending bill Friday designed to keep the government operating through October and buy more time for the cash-strapped Postal Service to meet a $5.4 billion payment due next week for its retirees’ health benefits. Adopted 217-190, the measure allows the Postal Service to pay only $1.4 billion on Sept. 30 and effectively amortize the remaining $4 billion after 2017. With $32 billion in the fund, the agency insists it is still able to meet its obligations, but the issue has been handled with such a political sleight-of-hand that conservatives worry it could come back...

After getting complaints from Congress─and an inquiry from NEWSWEEK─the State Department backed away Thursday from awarding foreign-aid funds to two foundations headed by the children of Libyan dictator Muammar Kaddafi.

John Murtha who has turned congressional earmarks into an art-form has directed two-hundred million of your tax dollars to the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport. The Airport has so many pictures of the Congressman you would think that it was a monument to the pork-meister. Even that wouldn't be so bad if the airport was actually used, but Murtha Airport gets a total of THREE commercial flights a day, from Johnstown to Washington DC. This tribute to John Murtha is literally the airport to nowhere. Last week Senate Republican introduced,and the Democrats voted voted down an amendment by Senator DeMint...

From a political standpoint it makes little difference whether the trillions of dollars in "stimulus" spending and big-business bailouts approved by Washington in the past year have a significant effect on the economy. When the economy starts growing again and creating jobs, as it will eventually, the White House will claim credit. That's politics. Even now the White House is claiming that stimulus spending created or "saved" as many as 1.1 million jobs and added 2.3% to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). By these measures, with another $40 trillion to $50 trillion in stimulus spending, we might double America's...

The House voted Thursday to deny federal money to the community-organizing group Acorn after a video emerged in which employees of the group gave advice to two conservative activists posing as a prostitute and a pimp who said they wanted buy a house in Baltimore and start a brothel. Republicans added the prohibition to a Democratic bill on college lending by a bipartisan vote of 345-75, showing that Acorn, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, was increasingly seen by Democrats as a political liability. “Acorn has violated serious federal laws, and today the House voted to ensure that...

After five undercover videos highlighting scathingly illegal activities from community organizer, ACORN, the House of Representatives voted yesterday to de-fund ACORN, 345-75. Amazingly, considering the seriousness of the corruption that was uncovered by the BIGGOVERNMENT.COM videos, there are still 75 representatives in the House that voted to continue funding ACORN with taxpayer dollars.

September 17, 2009 Roll call number 284 (Amendment number S.Amdt.2410) in the Senate Question On the Amendment (DeMint Amdt. No. 2410 ) Amendment purpose To limit the use of funds for the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport.

DeMint to Force Vote to End Taxpayer Subsidies for Murtha ‘Air-Pork’Airport received $200 million in tax dollars, averages only 20 passengers and 3 flights dailySeptember 16, 2009 - Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), chairman of the Senate Steering Committee and Ranking Member of the Aviation Subcommittee, announced he will offer an amendment to end taxpayer subsidies for the John Murtha Airport, a little used 650-acre facility in Johnstown, Pennsylvania that has received at least $200 million in taxpayer funding. U.S. Congressman John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania), who the airport was named after, has personally directed $150 million...

President says independent panel of doctors, ethicists, and scientists needed to make "difficult" choices Barack Obama's health care speech of Wednesday September 9 accused his opponents of lying, "plain and simple," when they said his health care plan included "death panels" that would cut off health care to senior citizens, chronically ill people, and other forms of Lebensunwertes Leben ("life unworthy of life"). House Bill 3200 does not, contrary to various allegations on blogs and talk radio, call for the establishment of such panels. Barack Obama, on the other hand, did, and Sarah Palin's allegation about "death panels" is therefore...

Much of the money given to General Motors and Chrysler to prevent them from collapsing will never be recovered, according to a report released Wednesday by the Congressional Oversight Panel.

A White House panel of independent space experts says NASA's return-to-the-moon plan just won't fly....However, President Barack Obama's expert panel said any plan to go beyond low-Earth orbit was "not viable" with current spending....

At the end of fiscal 2008, which came on September 30 of last year, the American national debt stood at $9.6 trillion. That sum is, perhaps, quite beyond the imagining of most people. It is, after all, 250 million times the average per capita income. Even the total fortunes of the entire Forbes 400 list add up to less than 15 percent of it. To use a journalistic measure that dates back to the late 18th century—when the British national debt had become a major political issue in that country—if you laid 9.6 trillion silver dollars end to end, they...

Senate Will Soon Consider Abortion Funding in DC, for Federal Employees Washington, DC -- The campaign to stop the massive expansion of taxpayer-funding of abortions through the health care bills isn't the only abortion debate that will take place in Congress as lawmakers return from their August break. They will also consider funding abortions in the nation's capital and for federal employees. Full story and action alert at: http://www.Lifenews.com/nat5433.html

"Based on the $3.25 billion [in federal stimulus money] already allocated," The New York Times reports, "the city estimates that 30,776 jobs will be created by early 2011." That's a little more than $100,000 per job, a bargain compared to Obama administration estimates indicating that the cost per job "saved or created" will be more than twice that high nationwide. It's rather surprising that jobs would be so much cheaper in New York City, where everything else is more expensive. It gets better. Last month New York Gov. David Paterson said $33.1 million for highway and bridge repair in the...

The latest tally of stimulus spending can be found here. Go to the link and on the upper right will be a listing: *American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Report* The link will be an excel sheet that can be sorted and columns deleted once saved on your computer for easy research. Updated as of 8/28/2009 So far- Stimulus Spending is at: $$18,862,930,793.91 This week's spend was: $998,797,988.94

Ten years ago, Washington was worried about the budget outlook, and there were forecasts of dire outcomes. And so it is today. Skip to next paragraph The difference is the nature of the worries. Alan Greenspan, then the Federal Reserve chairman, talked about the dangers of a shortage of Treasury securities as the $5 trillion surplus forecast for the next decade enabled the national debt to be paid down. This week we were warned of a $9 trillion deficit over the next 10 years. “The last time people got really excited about a 10-year budget outlook, they were hysterically wrong...

A tax policy expert says President Obama has reneged on his promise to keep his economic "stimulus" plan transparent and free of earmarks. The Associated Press reports that Senators Max Baucus (D-Montana) and John Tester (D-Montana) persuaded the Obama administration to award $15 million in federal stimulus money to a Montana checkpoint along the Canadian border that serves only three people a day. A similar checkpoint in North Dakota, which serves about 73 people a day, is also getting $15 million for renovations. Meanwhile, a border checkpoint in Laredo, Texas -- which serves more than 55,000 travelers and 4,200 trucks...

Virginia Slims used to run an ad campaign called, "You've come a long way, baby." The ads for the women's-marketed cigarette brand ran on the theme that it was hip and modern for women to smoke. But the hidden subtext of the campaign was, "Look how far you've come: now you can die a nasty preternatural death of cancer just like the men." In a lot of ways, Barack Obama is the new "You've come a long way, baby" poster boy. He was marketed as the historic first black president in American history - but now that we've come this...

The U.S. budget deficit will exceed $1.5 trillion both this year and next year, the White House Office of Management and Budget projected Tuesday in its Mid-Session Review. Both the OMB and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which issued a separate report Tuesday, estimated that the U.S. unemployment rate would average about 10 percent next year. The budget deficit for fiscal 2010, which begins Oct. 1, is projected to total $1.502 trillion, nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars higher than the White House forecast in May, when it released its detailed 2010 budget. In 2011, the projected deficit...

The nation would be forced to borrow more than $9 trillion to support President Obama's initiatives and other federal programs over the next decade, the White House said Tuesday, a sharp increase in projected deficits that provided fresh ammunition to critics of the president's sweeping proposal to expand health coverage to the uninsured. In their traditional summertime budget review, administration officials acknowledged that they relied on overly optimistic assumptions about the economy when they forecast in March that Obama's budget plans would generate deficits of $7.1 trillion over the next 10 years. After factoring in the severity of the recession...

Tuesday’s sharply upgraded forecasts for growth in US national debt over the ext decade could hardly have come at a worse time for Barack Obama. Shortly after he was elected last November, the president let it be known he preferred the “big bang” approach to domestic reforms. As Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff put it, you should “never allow a crisis to go to waste”. In other words, the financial meltdown was seen as an opportunity for Mr Obama to enact as many of his key reforms, including healthcare, within the first year of taking office.

Millions of stimulous dollars spent on sex studies, including effect of meth on rats having sex

The New York Post features our own John Hinderaker's column "Bam's $2 trillion Friday surprise." John's column takes off from the Obama administration's leaked announcement last Friday that it will revise its projection of the federal budget deficit over the next 10 years from $7 trillion to $9 trillion: "That $2 trillion upward revision will put the White House's numbers in line with the $9.1 trillion deficit that the Congressional Budget Office projected in June. Back then, the administration criticized CBO's analysis; now it's admitting that CBO was right after all." John adds:

The Obama administration is bracing for a political backlash on Tuesday when it issues national debt numbers showing federal debt rising by $9,000bn over the next decade – significantly higher than the forecast it made earlier this year. The revision, which will add $2,000bn (€1,400bn, £1,200bn) to the White House’s initial projection made in February, comes amid growing public jitters about the scale of US nat­ional debt, with one recent opinion poll showing Americans giving higher priority to reducing deficits than to reviving the economy.

A $300 million cash-for-clunkers-type federal program to boost sales of energy-efficient home appliances provides a glimmer of hope for beleaguered makers of washing machines and dishwashers, but it's probably not enough to lift companies such as Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR - News) and Electrolux out of the worst down cycle in the sector's history. Beginning late this fall, the program authorizes rebates of $50 to $200 for purchases of high-efficiency household appliances. The money is part of the broader economic stimulus bill passed earlier this year. Program details will vary by state, and the Energy Dept. has set a deadline of Oct....

"Obama’s Spending Plans Will Nearly Double the National Debt--White House Leaked the News Late on Friday" Monday, August 24, 2009 SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) - In news leaked late Friday to the Reuters news agency, the White House conceded that the national debt will increase by $9 trillion over the next ten years, nearly doubling a national debt that now stands at $11.67 trillion." SNIPPET: "The good news that the White House leaked to Reuters late on Friday is that it is now projecting that this year’s deficit will be $1.58 trillion, down from the $1.84 trillion it earlier estimated. At $1.58...

Let's do a little math. 'Cash for Clunkers' was support to run for 52 weeks and spend $1billion. It went broke in about 3 weeks and they had to allocate $2billion more. This is an example of how well government plans and estimates costs. Now for the REAL kicker. Cash for clunkers helped sell about 475,000 new cars. At a MAX rebate of $4500 each, thats $2,056,500,000 ($2 billion) So..WHERE IS THAT 3RD BILLION? $1 BILLION DOLLARS was lost in the bureacracy. That's right, the government SPENT $1BILLION to give away $2billion. And we have yet to hear about the...

It's standard operating procedure in D.C. When a politician has bad or embarrassing news to report, they wait until as late as possible on Friday and release said news. That's exactly what happened yesterday. The Obama administration will raise its 10-year budget deficit projection to approximately $9 trillion from $7.108 trillion in a report next week, a senior administration official told Reuters on Friday.

In a NY Times Op Ed this week, the financial guru of gurus, Warren Buffett warned of the dangers of the Federal Deficit: The United States economy is now out of the emergency room and appears to be on a slow path to recovery. But enormous dosages of monetary medicine continue to be administered and, before long, we will need to deal with their side effects. For now, most of those effects are invisible and could indeed remain latent for a long time. Still, their threat may be as ominous as that posed by the financial crisis itself. ...no one...