Free Republic

Fifty-seven House Democrats have broken ranks with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer to vote with Republicans to fund parts of the government like veterans programs, national parks and the National Institutes of Health. Sixteen of those Democrats voted for all six targeted appropriations bills, introduced at the behest of House Speaker John Boehner, including measures to fund the National Guard and Reserve, NIH, national parks, the District of Columbia and two separate votes for veterans programs. (The House of Representatives voted twice to restore funding for veterans programs, once Oct. 1 and a second time Oct....

The House of Representatives tried but failed to pass three emergency funding bills Tuesday, amid much political finger pointing by both parties in the wake of the potentially drawn out stalemate over the budget.

Republicans say the GOP-controlled House intends to pass legislation to reopen portions of the government, including national parks and processing of claims at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The House would also allow the government of Washington, D.C. to use its own taxpayer funds to provide services like garbage pickup, as well as keep D.C. employees on the job.

Republicans dig in on Day One of shutdown with plan to pass mini government spending bills BY SUSAN FERRECHIO | OCTOBER 1, 2013 AT 4:33 PM On Day One of the government shutdown, some thought House Speaker John Boehner would begin to lighten the GOP's demand to defund the new health care law. But he is instead digging in. The House plans a Tuesday evening vote on three mini spending bills that would re-open some parts of the government, including national parks. It's a move aimed at putting pressure on Senate Democrats, who have so far rejected nearly every spending...

Two Democratic members of the House voted with Republicans Friday to defund Obamacare and fund the government until the end of the year: Utah Rep. Jim Matheson and North Carolina Rep. Mike McIntyre. Matheson is the sole Democratic member of the Utah delegation, a state that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney won with almost 73 percent of the vote. Matheson, on the other hand, eked out a win in 2012, beating former Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love in 2012 by fewer than 3,000 votes. Love has said she will challenge Matheson again in 2014. McIntyre’s race was even tighter: he...

House Republicans survived a key test vote Thursday on their plan to keep the government running while trying to halt the health care law, defying a veto threat from President Obama and inching closer to a shutdown showdown with Senate Democrats. Top Republicans say their party’s strategy is unlikely to succeed and not worth shutting down the government, but some rank-and-file lawmakers said they have to draw a line now and use the leverage of the spending bill to end the president’s signature achievement.

This Congress has been criticized for not passing many laws -- and praised for that in some quarters. And it's true that in quantitative terms its productivity has been low. A major case in point is transportation. Neither the Democratic-majority Senate nor the Republican-controlled House has passed a reauthorization of what was once known as the highway bill, which used to be done every five or six years. This failure can be ascribed in part to partisan warfare and to intra-party differences. But it's also due to the obsolescence of the federal funding scheme used since the Interstate Highway System...

Ex-congressman Jackson is eligible to receive $8,700 dollars per month in disability pay due to his bipolar condition and could receive a partial federal pension of $45,000 per year once he reaches 65. While on the city council, Sandi Jackson had automatic pension contributions of more than $50,000 withdrawn from her pay, even though she chose not to be a member of the city pension fund.

<p>Obamacare would keep running even in a government shutdown, a new congressional report suggests.</p> <p>The new health care law draws funding from sources that are not subject to the congressional budget process, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Also, the revenue collected under Obamacare is considered to be part of a category that ensures the "safety of human life or the protection of property," which makes it immune to government shutdowns, the report said.</p>

Paul needled him last night on Hannity’s show for taking a “gimme, gimme, gimme” attitude towards federal spending on Sandy relief. Here’s Christie needling him back by accusing Paul and his home state of Kentucky of being a couple of deadbeats: “I find it interesting that Sen. Paul is accusing us of having a ‘gimme, gimme, gimme’ attitude towards federal spending when in fact New Jersey is a donor state and we get 61 cents back on every dollar we send to Washington,” Christie said. “And interestingly, Kentucky gets $1.51 on every dollar they send to Washington. So if Sen....

The White House continues to bar average Americans from touring “The People House” but nevertheless lavishes spending on all sorts of special invitees – from diners at last week’s Iftar dinner breaking the Muslim fast to sports teams and foreign diplomats. Obama basketball 2Soon after the outcry over the cancellation of tours due to the sequester, the White House promised to see what could be done to allow some visits to resume. But nothing was done and no one can visit – unless President Obama finds you useful or amusing. Favored guest have poured in this month, even though Obama...

House members voted Tuesday to bar the use of federal funds to hire “atheist chaplains” at the Department of Defense after Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) reminded his colleagues that the concept didn’t make any sense. “It’s just total nonsense, the idea of having a chaplain who is an atheist,” Fleming told fellow House members. “When it comes to the idea of an atheist chaplain, which is an oxymoron—it’s self-contradictory—what you’re really doing is now saying that we’re going to replace the true chaplains with non-chaplain chaplains.” Speaking about the current DOD rules for chaplains on the House floor, Fleming said:...

Just how dangerous is it to your health to shack up with a Mexican hooker? That’s the question at the heart of a five-year, $3,029,663 study by researchers at the University of California San Diego funded by the National Institutes of Health. The five-year study is taking the first-ever look at the love lives – and sexually transmitted diseases – of 200 prostitutas mexicanas and their “non-commercial” male partners. Based on previous research, UCSD scientists have been able to determine conclusively that the “non-commercial male partners” of Mexican prostitutes are very likely to pick up and spread their partners’ sexually-transmitted...

Prepping for 'climate change' floods everywhere but in U.S.The Obama administration wants to spend as much $650 million to improve urban- and local-government service delivery, which includes the development of strategies to adapt to climate change and respond to natural disasters. The endeavor will target cities and towns around the globe – with the exception of those in the United States. Many coastal cities around the world are ill-prepared to deal with rising sea levels and extreme weather events that the administration expects from “climate change.”

People should understand the real reason we're here today. It's not "to help the poor," or because "Obamacare is the law," or because the reforms the House bill would supposedly require are so awesome. We are here because a politically powerful special interest stands to collect billions of dollars if this Legislature approves the Medicaid expansion — and it is willing do almost anything to make that happen. It's explained by the Medicaid expansion "1-2-3": 1. The medical services industry has become far more concentrated due to Obamacare, with a relative handful of big hospital corporations absorbing many formerly independent...

A Republican Senate gang of 10 are pushing Congress  to strip all funding from ObamaCare, even as Senate Dems, Thursday, struck down a separate effort to kill the law’s most controversial mandates. With Senator Cruz leading the charge, the Senators  assailed the White House’s sudden decision to delay until 2015 the employer mandate, which requires businesses with more than 50 full-time workers to provide health insurance or pay fines. Via The Washington Times: Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas introduced a bill with nine GOP co-sponsors to defund implementation of the Affordable Care Act, calling the 2010 law “a colossal mistake”...

NPR’s gleaming new headquarters building in the shadow of the Capitol in Washington has soaring ceilings, a 24-hour “wellness” center, an employee gym and a gourmet cafe staffed by a resident chef.

Yesterday El Rushbo reiterated a theme he's been presenting in connection with the amnesty bill ("immigration reform") being pushed through Congress. He's been noting that there are businesses out there perfectly happy with using taxpayers money to do business. While he's mentioned GE and its ties to the Obama Administration's "green energy" agenda, I think we can see another example of it playing out in the farm-food stamp legislation that failed in the House yesterday with 62 Republicans voting NO. Those 62 tend to be the more conservative members with notable execptions. Some of those Republicans called "conservative" from agri...

<p>More than 60 House Republicans defected and voted against the half-trillion-dollar bill, which sets funding for farm subsidies and other assistance as well as food stamps.</p> <p>The vote was 234-195 against the bill.</p>

The Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that the immigration bill currently being debated in the Senate would reduce the federal budget deficit by $875 billion over the first 20 years it becomes law. The CBO said in its official scoring of the bill that it would reduce the deficit by $175 billion in its first 10 years of existence. Over the next decade, it would provide an additional $700 billion in savings. .... Politics More: Congress Immigration Reform CBO CBO: Immigration Bill Will Reduce The Deficit Over The Next 20 Years Brett LoGiurato Jun. 18, 2013, 5:58 PM 489 6...