Free Republic

Americans were rightfully outraged when they learned that members of Congress had used taxpayer dollars to pay settlement claims to alleged victims of sexual harassment.They were even more outraged when they saw the numbers. The secret payouts for harassment claims, of which there have been more than 200, amounted to more than $17 million. There's no telling so far how much of that money went to silence sexual assault accusers.Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is seeking to release the names of lawmakers who used this "hush fund." She's a co-sponsor of the Congressional Accountability and Hush Fund Elimination Act, which would...

WASHINGTON — An active-duty service member was to undergo gender transition surgery Tuesday in the first such procedure approved under a waiver allowing the Pentagon to pay for the operation, according to a Defense Department document. The patient is an infantry soldier who identifies as a woman, according to a source close to the service member. She got her Combat Infantry Badge in Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan in 2003, the source said. Vice Admiral Raquel Bono, head of the Defense Health Agency, which provides medical care to active-duty personnel, approved the waiver request for the surgery Monday, defense officials said....

The U.S. National Park Service almost spent nearly $100,000 of taxpayer dollars to honor the Black Panther Party, a group whose leadership killed law enforcement officers, and a group that the FBI acknowledged wanted to use violence and guerilla tactics to overthrow the United States Government.

The Fraternal Order of Police, the largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers with over 330,000 members, sent a letter to President Donald Trump last week expressing “outrage and shock” that the National Park Service would fund a project honoring the legacy of the Black Panther Party. “Mr. President, as far as we are concerned the only meaning they brought to any lives was grief to the families of their victims,” wrote Chuck Canterbury, the national president of the Fraternal Order of Police. “According to our research, members of this militant anti-American group murdered 16 law enforcement officers over the...

Real per capita federal spending has increased more than sevenfold since fiscal 1941, which concluded on June 30 of that year -- or about five months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. In fiscal 1941, real per capita federal spending was approximately $1,718. In fiscal 2017, which concluded at the end of September, it was about $12,239. Back in 1941, at the beginning of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's unprecedented third presidential term, the federal government spent $13,653,000,000, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget. Although that was a massive increase from the $4,598,000,000 the federal government had spent...

The Navajo Housing Authority (NHA) brags on its website that it is "the largest Indian housing authority in the country", managing 8,500 housing units across Navajo nation in the southwestern American states of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. The NHA is also probably the most wasteful and scandal-ridden governmental entity in the United States today. Multiple media reports, governmental audits, and one investigation by the Office of Senator John McCain (R – Ariz.) describe an agency that has received over $1.6 billion from the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program, while delivering projects over-budget,...

Despite all of the left media complaints about how the GOP “hates science” and is slashing important funding, the Senate recently approved a two billion dollar increase in the budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). And given all the diseases running rampant, expanding work on cancer treatments and other advances, that’s probably a fair expenditure, right? That bump represents a 6% increase and brings their budget up to $36.1B. So what will they be doing with this newfound taxpayer largess? Are they finally on the trail of a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease? Sadly no, but they will be...

The House late Wednesday voted to block federal transportation and housing funding from cities and states that choose not to cooperate with federal officials on immigration. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., brought up his language as an amendment to a minibus spending bill and proposed attaching it to part of the bill that deals with transportation and housing funding. It was the latest Republican attack on so-called sanctuary cities, which reject federal demands to cooperate when it comes to detaining and tracking illegal immigrants.

President Donald Trump met with Congressional leaders at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the many pressing issues facing Washington, D.C., in September. But instead of planning to pass any long-term funding, the president appeared willing to punt his big agenda items to December and focus on passing Hurricane relief funding. Trump met with House Speaker Paul Ryan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. In a joint statement after the meeting, Pelosi and Schumer signaled that Trump had made a deal.

(CNN) President Donald Trump bucked his own party Wednesday and sided with Democrats to support a deal that would ensure passage of disaster relief funding as well as raising the debt ceiling and continuing to fund the government into December.

Text of a Letter from the President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:) I am transmitting an alternative plan for pay increases for civilian Federal employees covered by the General Schedule and certain other pay systems in January 2018. Title 5, United States Code, authorizes me to implement alternative pay plans for pay increases for civilian Federal employees covered by the General Schedule and certain other pay systems if, because of "national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare," I view the adjustments that...

This is a little funny.  Back in 2015 we originally shared an easy peasy way to pay for the border wall by charging a 4% remittance fee on wire transfers to Mexico.  With more than $25 billion (2015) in Western Union transfers, more than Mexico’s entire oil and energy sector combined, a 4% U.S. surcharge on remittances creates $1 billion revenue annually. The U.S. Treasury already has a similar process in place for Cuban Remittances and Western Union compliance affidavits.  The remittances to Mexico have now jumped to $27 billion in 2016.  Making the remittance fee even more feasible.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is promising billions to help Texas rebuild from Harvey-caused epic flooding, but his Republican allies in the House are looking at cutting almost $1 billion from disaster accounts to help finance the president’s border wall. The pending reduction to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief account is part of a massive spending bill that the House is scheduled to consider next week when lawmakers return from their August recess. The $876 million cut, which is included in the 1,305-page measure’s homeland security section, pays for roughly half the cost of Trump’s down payment...

Justice Department Admits New "Sanctuary Cities" Policy Will Impose Additional Costs On Local Law Enforcement WASHINGTON—Fifty-three members of the United States House and Senate are calling out Attorney General Jeff Sessions for holding critical violence prevention funds used by American cities hostage to the Trump Administration’s extreme immigration agenda. The Department of Justice has placed new and onerous conditions on local law enforcement’s access to federal funding through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne-JAG) program, forcing cities to choose between redirecting already scarce resources from local policing efforts to enforcing federal immigration laws. The lawmakers are demanding an explanation,...

Medicare’s trust fund will run out of money in just over 10 years, according to a new report from the program’s trustees. Once that happens, the federal government won’t collect enough in payroll taxes to cover beneficiaries’ hospital bills. Congress could hike taxes to cover the shortfall. Or it could ration care to save money. Or it could modernize and restructure Medicare — by giving beneficiaries means-tested vouchers to buy private insurance. Doing so would protect taxpayers now, preserve the program for future generations and even provide higher-quality care to seniors. Medicare‘s spending isn’t sustainable. Congress can stave off massive...

I requested that Mitch M & Paul R tie the Debt Ceiling legislation into the popular V.A. Bill (which just passed) for easy approval. They…— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2017 …didn't do it so now we have a big deal with Dems holding them up (as usual) on Debt Ceiling approval. Could have been so easy-now a mess!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2017 Answer: Half-true! According to a Wall Street Journal story from mid-July, the White House was indeed looking to stitch a debt-ceiling hike onto the popular, must-pass VA reform bill as a way of...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday congressional leaders could have avoided a legislative "mess" if they had heeded his advice on raising the U.S. debt ceiling, renewing criticism of fellow Republicans whose support he needs to advance his policy agenda. Trump said he had advised Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan to link passage of legislation raising the debt ceiling to a measure on veterans affairs that he signed on Aug. 12. "I requested that Mitch M & Paul R tie the Debt Ceiling legislation into the popular V.A. Bill (which...

President Donald Trump criticized Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan as Congress faces another round of debt ceiling politics. Trump revealed that he requested both leaders to put the debt ceiling legislation into the Veterans Affairs Bill so that it would pass easily, but said they didn’t listen. “They didn’t do it so now we have a big deal with Dems holding them up (as usual) on Debt Ceiling approval,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Could have been so easy-now a mess!” McConnell said in a speech on Monday that there was “zero chance” that Congress...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says there is “zero chance” Congress will allow the country to default on its debts by voting to not increase the borrowing limit. McConnell’s comments came Monday during a joint appearance in his home state of Kentucky with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. It was one of McConnell’s first public appearances since President Donald Trump publicly criticized him for failing to pass a repeal and replacement of former President Barack Obama’s health care law. McConnell did not mention Trump in his remarks, and he did not take questions from reporters after the event. But in...

<p>WASHINGTON — The Secret Service can no longer pay hundreds of agents it needs to carry out an expanded protective mission – in large part due to the sheer size of President Trump's family and efforts necessary to secure their multiple residences up and down the East Coast.</p>