Free Republic

Budget: What is the federal government’s most important function these days? Based on the Obama budget released today, it’s not defense, or roads, or education, or the environment. It’s cutting checks.

All federal and State officials take an oath to support the federal Constitution (Art. VI, clause 3). When people in Congress appropriate funds for objects not listed in the Constitution [Art. I]; and when State officials accept federal funds for objects not listed, they violate their oath to support the Constitution. According to the PEW Report, federal funds provided an average of 30% of the States’ revenue for FY 2013. Look up your State HERE. Were those federal funds used to implement unconstitutional federal programs in your State? Power over education, medical care, agriculture, state and local law enforcement, environment,...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Sanford, Maine. David, great to have you, sir. Hi. CALLER: Nice to talk to Rush. I hope I don't leave anything on the table, but I want to just start with I was with you in 2007. I knew who Barack Obama was. I don't know why the American people didn't figure it out. Now, as far as this budget bill goes, the Republican Party, every one of them who voted for this bill should be primaried. And the first one we should take out is Paul Ryan, 'cause I saw him on one of his shows...

Vote is underway - everyone is ready to get out of town. http://www.c-span.org/video/?402296-1/us-senate-morning-business&live&live

On Friday, the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill sailed through the House by a vote of 316-113. Ninety-five Republicans split with House GOP leadership to vote against the spending bill. Another 150 Republicans supported it, while just 18 Democrats opposed the legislation. Here is the full list of the Republicans who voted against the spending bill (see the complete roll call vote here): Abraham Amash Amodei Babin Barletta Black Blackburn Blum Brat Bridenstine Brooks (AL) Buck Byrne Clawson (FL) Crawford DeSantis DesJarlais Duncan (SC) Duncan (TN) Emmer (MN) Farenthold Fleming Forbes Fortenberry Franks (AZ) Garrett Gibbs Gohmert Goodlatte Gosar Gowdy...

Paul Anthony Gosar is an American Republican politician and member of the United States House of Representatives from Arizona since 2011, representing Arizona's 4th congressional district. Yesterday, Gosar took to his Facebook page to expose the reality of the massive Omnibus Spending Bill... and who is to blame... Why I Am Voting NO on the Massive Omnibus Spending Bill: Once again I find myself shaking my head at the wasteful spending in DC and a flawed process that drops thousands of pages of text on us with 48 hours to "read" and understand. I wish I could put all the...

Rep. Paul Ryan 's first major legislative achievement is a total and complete sell-out of the American people masquerading as an appropriations bill. Too harsh, you say? Let the programs, the spending, and the implications speak for themselves.

While markets hone in on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy hints, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan sees a bigger economic irritant—government spending. On Wednesday, Greenspan decried a rise in entitlement costs, which he contended have pressured the U.S. economy. "To me the discussion today shouldn't even be on monetary policy it should be on how do we constrain this extraordinary rise in entitlements," he said in a CNBC "Closing Bell" interview, calling the trend "extremely dangerous." Social expenditures in the U.S. were 19.2 percent of gross domestic product last year, up from 15.5 percent in 2005, according to data from...

House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that this week's fatal Amtrak crash wasn't caused by a lack of federal funds and mocked a reporter for even asking about it. "Are you really going to ask such a stupid question?" he said at a news conference as a reporter started to ask about Democratic complaints that the government shortchanges the railroad.

Big government rests upon myths, and the people who support it necessarily believe things about politics and society — and themselves — that simply aren’t true. This week, a new report from the Government Accountability Office shows just who benefits from federal crop insurance subsidies: big businesses, billionaires, and the like. It’s not primarily the “little guy” or “the small family farm” of American agrarian mythology. It’s the people for whom progressives usually seethe with hatred. Those on the left must either oppose their “progressive” programs or get over their alleged opposition to “the rich.” “Liberals,” “progressives” and other political...

In spite of the Friday night passage of an eleventh hour, one-week stopgap spending bill to continue funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the department posted a lapse-of-funding notice and shut-down procedures on its website apparently intended if the last minute efforts failed. While the notice is not listed on the home page, the blog, or the list of DHS publications, it was originally posted around nine o'clock Friday night and remained at this link as of the time of publication of this article:

Breaking: They voted it down

Republicans in Congress would shoulder the blame for a shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security if they are unable to enact a new spending bill to keep the agency running, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. The survey finds that 53% of Americans would blame the Republicans in Congress if the department must shut down, while 30% would blame President Barack Obama. Another 13% say both deserve the blame. If a spending bill is not passed by Feb. 28, the agency's funding will run out. ...

Late Monday night, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen issued a preliminary injunction on every aspect of Obama’s November 20, 2014 executive amnesty pending the outcome of the lawsuit brought by 26 states against the Department of Homeland Security. This ruling makes the decision of Senate Democrats to filibuster a clean funding bill – one that funds all lawful aspects of the department – even more indefensible. Republicans should now go for the kill. The ruling itself was not on the underlying merits of the case, rather on the need to grant temporary relief in the likelihood that the states win...

WASHINGTON — Spending for the Department of Homeland Security hangs in the balance as Congress fights over immigration matters in the agency's annual funding bill. Without action by Feb. 27, the department's budget will shut off. To hear Democrats and many Republicans tell it, the result would be unacceptable risks to U.S. security at a time of grave threats worldwide. In reality, though, most people will see little change if the department's money flow is halted, and some of the warnings of doom are as exaggerated as they are striking. "There are ghoulish, grim predators out there who would love...

Debt is about more than just money. It's about the end of expectations and the death of hope In a speech at the Department of Homeland Security, Obama declared that he wants to “replace mindless austerity with smart investments that strengthen America”. Those “smart” investments scattered across a gargantuan $4 trillion budget include a $500 million Green Climate Fund for the Third World and $105 million to help the government build better websites. Obama is fond of putting the word “smart” in front of stupid ideas to make them seem less stupid. The $4 trillion budget is actually as stupid...

NEW YORK, January 6 (C-Fam) A group of U.S. senators is urging President Obama to fund the UN’s controversial population agency despite its ties to abortion and coercive population control programs, and its new push for countries to legalize prostitution. “We are disappointed that despite UNFPA’s critical work around the world, a number of misperceptions about the organization persist,” wrote Senator Barbara Boxer and 21 of her Democratic colleagues. “UNFPA does not promote abortion as a method of family planning and does not condone coercion in family planning, coercive abortion or forced sterilizations,” according to the senators, each an ardent...

With so many high-profile, headline-grabbing issues facing the incoming Congress, lawmakers might be tempted to ignore one of the most persistent problems in Washington: overspending.How bad is it? In 2014, federal spending reached $3.5 trillion, and the one-year deficit was $486 billion. And these huge numbers represent “a small and temporary improvement in the nation’s fiscal situation,” a recent report by The Heritage Foundation notes.But as the authors point out, that doesn’t mean we’re on the right track. Far from it. A serious effort to cut spending -- not just trim a bit here and there -- is needed.“Without further...

Our interview with former U.S. senator, under secretary of state during the Reagan administration, and federal judge James Buckley (brother of William F.).

Updated 2:30 p.m. | Unsure whether they have the votes to pass a trillion-dollar federal spending package, House GOP leaders on Thursday afternoon delayed a final vote on the “cromnibus.” They did so with mere hours to go until the government is set to run out of funding, and just before the House was scheduled to vote. GOP leaders called a recess to floor proceedings, with a GOP leadership aide confirming “no conference meeting [is] planned at this time.” The aide said “leadership teams are still talking to their respective members,” and noted, “We still plan to vote this afternoon.”...