Free Republic

The 1,665-page spending bill the Republican-controlled Congress is planning to pass this week includes multiple measures that seemingly demonstrate a commitment to securing the border — in Libya, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. It does not include the $1.4 billion President Donald Trump requested to begin building the wall he promised to build along the U.S.-Mexico border. But, the bill makes clear, Jordan's border must be secured. The section that appropriates money for the "Global War on Terrorism" provides: "That these funds may be used to support the Government of Jordan, in such amounts as the Secretary of...

Q: Did Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson find over $500 billion in accounting errors while auditing HUD’s financial statements?A: No. The errors were discovered and published by HUD’s independent inspector general before Carson became secretary.FULL QUESTION Is it true that Dr. Ben Carson has found a half trillion dollar error from the Obama administration since he has taken office?FULL ANSWER Readers have repeatedly asked us if Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson initiated an audit of HUD’s financial statements and found more than $500 billion in accounting errors made by the Obama administration.That may be...

Note: When things are so bad that the establishment RINOs, who made caving on spending bills an art form, are admitting the Republican Party got rolled by Democrats on a spending bill, something really needs to change. RINO Senator Lindsey Graham, CR 33%, appearing on CNN Tuesday morning with Kate Bolduan, said that the GOP got their clocks cleaned by Democrats in negotiating the temporary spending bill, the so-called “Omnibus” that avoids a temporary government shutdown until September when a new budget is promised. “I don’t know if I’m going to vote for the bill they’re going to present to...

Democrats think they have set the stage to block President Trump’s legislative priorities for years to come by winning major concessions in a spending bill to keep the government open. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) secured nearly $5 billion in new domestic spending by exploiting disagreements between Trump and GOP lawmakers over spending priorities. Democrats’ lopsided victory on the five-month deal, which is likely to be approved this week, means it will be very difficult — if not impossible — for the GOP to exert its will in future budget negotiations,...

President Trump is ready to give up on Congress — or maybe he already has. And we can totally see why he wants to just shut it down and start all over again. Democrats are united against him, Republicans seem hopelessly divided, and Trump's top priorities are no closer to being law than when he was running for president. To wit: There's no question Democrats won this week's budget showdown, and it was mostly Trump's priorities that got left on the cutting floor when congressional leaders were making a deal. House Speaker Paul Ryan said he shared President Trump’s “frustration,”...

President Trump on Tuesday called for a "good shutdown" in September to fix the "mess” in government. "The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there! We … either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%. Our country needs a good "shutdown" in September to fix mess!" he wrote in a series of tweets.

Democrats believe they have set the stage to block President Trump’s legislative priorities for years to come by winning major concessions in a spending bill to keep the government open. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) secured nearly $5 billion in new domestic spending by exploiting disagreements between President Trump and GOP lawmakers over spending priorities. Democrats’ lopsided victory on the five-month deal, which is likely to be approved this week, means it will be very difficult — if not impossible — for the GOP to exert its will in future budget...

All of you FReepers and conservatives out there listening to smug media reports about Schumer and the Dems popping champagne corks over the Continuing Resolution (CR) need to remember who you are dealing with again. As Rush likes to say, do not doubt me. Trump is the Jason Vorhees of business, and now politics. He didn't get to the pinnacle of success by selling himself and his supporters out for short-term gain as so many politicians do. Rather, this is what in military terms is called a tactical retreat. In a tactical retreat, you cut your losses and regroup. This...

A deal has been reached on a $1 trillion-plus bill to fund the government for the final five months of this fiscal year, an agreement that is likely to avert a government shutdown. Congressional negotiators had been working through the weekend to hash out the last remaining complications in a bill to fund the government before the agreement was announced Sunday night. After President Donald Trump backed down on funding for the construction of a border wall, some additional sticking points remained, including health benefits for coal miners, funding for Puerto Rico and an additional $30 billion for defense, delaying...

Monday on CNN’s “New Day,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the vice chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said that he foresees some conservatives coming out against a proposed government spending bill set to come out later this week. “I mean, look, money goes to Planned Parenthood as you said,” Jordan said to host Chris Cuomo. “Money continues to go to sanctuary cities but no money for the border wall. I think you’re going to see a lot of conservatives be against this plan this week.”

The President and Congress agreed to a spending bill to get the government through to September. President Chuck Schumer said: This agreement is a good agreement for the American people and takes the threat of a government shutdown off the table,” said... Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). “The bill ensures taxpayer dollars aren’t used to fund an ineffective border wall, excludes poison pill riders and increases investments in programs that the middle class relies on, like medical research, education and infrastructure.” Since Republicans lost the presidency and the Congress in the last election, it is no surprise that this spending bill...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., has introduced bipartisan legislation to boost national security and alleviate the shortage of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and Border Patrol agents along the border. The bill will provide the Commissioner of CBP with discretionary authority to expedite the hiring of existing law enforcement officers and veterans who meet CBP background checks and experience standards. "Fully staffing our CBP officers at our ports of entry and Border Patrol agents between the ports of entry is vital for security and economic growth of our communities and nation,” said McSally, Chairwoman of the...

TEL AVIV – The Trump administration is gearing up for major cuts in U.S. foreign aid across the world with the notable exception of the Palestinian territories, which will receive increased funding, State Department documents obtained by Foreign Policy magazine show. The documents, part of an internal budget proposal for 2018, seem to confirm the State Department and USAID’s 28 percent budget cut announced in March. While many countries will suffer from major cutbacks or else have aid cancelled entirely, funds to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip will see an increase of 4.6 percent for the 2018 fiscal...

Republican lawmakers, making good on President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall along the southern U.S. border, may use Democrats’ past votes and statements on the issue against them. In 2006, under the George W. Bush administration, Congress passed a bill called the Secure Fence Act, which mandated double-layer fencing from San Diego to the southern tip of Texas. In 2007, through the appropriations process, the language was amended to certify 700 miles of fencing to be required, at the discretion of the Department of Homeland Security. Twenty-six Senate Democrats voted for the measure, including Chuck Schumer, Dianne...

President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans who control Congress face their first major budget test next week, with the threat of a U.S. government shutdown potentially hinging on his proposed Mexican border wall as well as Obamacare funding.With Republicans controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, keeping the federal government operating is a basic test of their ability to govern, but their task could become even more complicated if they insist on using the spending legislation to bring about contentious policy changes.Not only must Republicans overcome intraparty ideological divisions that stopped major healthcare legislation last month, but...

The White House proposed a $5.7 billion budget for EPA in fiscal 2018. That’s a 31 percent cut from 2017 numbers. A 31 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget would force it to eliminate at least 50 individual programs and nearly 4,000 full-time equivalents in 2018, according to internal EPA documents that describe funding levels and policy decisions that support the President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget request.

On April 5, The New York Times published an op-ed by retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal headlined "Save PBS. It Makes Us Safer." McChrystal now runs a big lobbying firm, so that may be why he cares so much -- he's a gun for hire. So how does the general think PBS makes us safer? And from what are we safer? The answer: commercialism. Parents like his son and daughter-in-law "are busy in the morning and busy at night," he says. "They want to protect their children from over-commercialized content." This argument is bizarre -- actually, let's call it what...

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said Thursday that the days of gym memberships being paid for by the American taxpayer are over. . . . "Well, the gym memberships ended yesterday, it was quite something to hear about that," Pruitt said. He said the agency is investigating the matter, saying "it was the previous administration that granted those gym memberships," which "were rather expensive."

While many of the targeted federal agencies have offices outside Washington, Trump's dream budget would hit the region disproportionately, with tens of thousands of jobs at risk. The cuts would be felt throughout the city, with fewer people riding the already-beleaguered Metro subway or eating at restaurants. It would also hurt Washington's already-shaky market for office space. Economist Stephen Fuller of George Mason University, who has studied the regional economy for decades, estimated 20,000-24,000 federal employees and 10,000 federal contractors would lose their jobs under Trump's proposal. That equates to 5 percent of federal workers in the region. With those...

Dr. Ben Carson has discovered over $500 billion (that's with a 'B') in errors and accounting mistakes during his audit of the Obama administration’s Housing and Urban Development budget. One of Dr. Carson’s first orders after being confirmed as the Secretary of HUD was a thorough audit of the agency, which has been accused of fraud and over-budgeted projects throughout the entire Obama administration. What did the auditors find? Over $520 billion in budgetary mistakes and clerical errors.