Free Republic

Don’t ever threaten the liberals’ imagined right to abort. It might just be unsafe. After the Trump administration proposed that health clinics such as Planned Parenthood could not accept federal funds and provide abortions, feminists and media figures raised an uproar. Planned Parenthood, the most recognized name in baby-killing, (with 321,384 abortions in the year 2016 alone), was faced with a choice: to stop providing abortions or stop accepting federal funding (in 2016, they received $543.7 million in federal funding). Comedian Sarah Silverman tweeted, “Time to expose all the abortions paid for by the hypocrite politicians that vote for this....

Despite continuous promises to the pro-life cause, Republican budgets still fund Planned Parenthood to the tune of over $500 million each year. Efforts to decertify the nation’s largest abortion-mill chain ran into stiff opposition during the ObamaCare repeal effort from Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, and Democrats torpedoed an attempt to include it in the budget agreement. The legislative path seems all but dead unless Republicans can win enough Senate seats to overcome a filibuster as well as hold onto the House in November — an outcome with odds on the order of having the Cleveland Browns win the...

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday the administration has no plans to launch another push for infrastructure spending legislation this year. "We're going to continue looking at ways to improve that nation's infrastructure, but in terms of a specific piece of legislation, I'm not aware that that will happen by the end of the year," Sanders said at the daily White House press briefing. There have been at least three serious attempts by the administration to spur congressional action on an infrastructure bill, seeing the package as an opportunity for bipartisanship.

A $43,000 soundproof telephone booth that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt put in his office has caused federal watchdogs to speak up loudly. On Monday, the General Accountability Office sent an eight-page letter to Senate lawmakers reporting that the booth violated federal spending law that caps the amount a presidential appointee can spend on upgrading their office at $5,000 without notifying the appropriations committees in the Senate and House beforehand. GAO General Counsel Thomas Armstrong also wrote that the purchase violated the Antideficiency Act, "because EPA obligated appropriated funds in a manner specifically prohibited by law.” The booth —...

While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA. Record clean Air & Water while saving USA Billions of Dollars. Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job!

For months, Democrats promised to use their leverage on government spending to protect young immigrants at risk for deportation after President Trump canceled the program. More recently, they have demanded Congress pass universal background checks for gun buyers in the wake of another deadly school shooting. Now, with Congress less than two weeks from a funding deadline, Democrats are showing little willingness to corner Republicans on those issues. Their lack of appetite to provoke another showdown represents a shift after two previous fights resulted in brief government shutdowns and risks alienating the party’s liberal base crucial in midterm elections. But...

The U.S. government has awarded a Montana-based company a contract worth more than $73 million to design and build replacement fencing along 20 miles (32 kilometers) of the U.S.-Mexico border in southern New Mexico, officials confirmed Wednesday. Existing vehicle barriers west of the Santa Teresa port of entry will be replaced with taller bollard-style barriers.

Last week, Congress passed an outline of the 2019 budget. This week, President Trump rolled out his own budget plan, which would fill in some of the spending details. While most proposals in President Trump’s newly released 2019 budget are unlikely to become law, the fiscal framework does show the White House’s priorities for government over the coming year. And those apparently don’t include support for older adults, younger people with disabilities, or their families. For example, the Trump budget would: * Restructure the Medicare drug benefit to reduce costs for some beneficiaries but raise them for others. * Reduce...

If you’re reading The Hill, chances are you’ve heard the scary statistics or doomsday predictions about government spending. Or you’re heard it from the Congressional Budget office or Congressional Research Service or CBS, or you’ve heard it from House Speaker Paul Ryan or Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. In short, there is no shortage of professionals sounding the alarm over spending. If you’re like me, each time you’ve heard those, you’ve wondered, “How is that possible?” or “How did we get here?” or “If that were true, Congress wouldn’t be getting away with it.” Well, it’s...

Some people have called for a balanced budget amendment to our Constitution as a means of reining in a big-spending Congress. That's a misguided vision, for the simple reason that in any real economic sense, as opposed to an accounting sense, the federal budget is always balanced. The value of what we produced in 2017 -- our gross domestic product -- totaled about $19 trillion. If the Congress spent $4 trillion of the $19 trillion that we produced, unless you believe in Santa Claus, you know that Congress must force us to spend $4 trillion less privately. Taxing us is...

(CNSNews.com) - Federal spending for the fourth Monday in January set a record of $16,596,000,000 for that day in January even though the federal government was shut down, according to the Daily Treasury Statement. The House of Representatives did not pass the current short-term continuing resolution to fund the government and end the latest shutdown until 6:09 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday. That was after the close of the business day in Washington, D.C., which made Monday the one federal-government business day effected by the lastest shut down. (The other two days of the shut down were a Saturday and...

WH doctor declares Trump in 'excellent' health, mentally fit for office 00:4000:48 WH doctor declares Trump in 'excellent' health, mentally fit for office TheHill.com Autoplay: On | Off The House on Thursday night approved a stopgap measure to keep the government open less than 36 hours before a possible shutdown, shifting the drama to a Senate where Democrats are threatening to block the GOP bill. The final vote was 230-197, with six Democrats voting for the measure and 11 Republicans voting against it. The Senate is expected to vote on a procedural motion later Thursday to take up the House...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill to fund government operations through Feb. 16 and avoid agency shutdowns this weekend when existing money expires.

GOP may increase IRS’s budget © Getty Images Republicans are weighing whether to increase the IRS’s funding so that the agency has more money to implement the new tax-cut law. GOP lawmakers were highly critical of the agency during the Obama administration, but now want to make sure that their signature legislative achievement is carried out effectively. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday that the administration is talking to Congress about providing the IRS with more money for implementation purposes. And GOP lawmakers have expressed an openness to a funding increase.

WOW!

The Trump administration has shut down a $13 billion federal spending plan to rebuild an Amtrak project between New York and New Jersey. According to a letter obtained by Crain’s New York Business, the administration called the deal proposed by former President Barack Obama — which would have been half paid for by the federal government — “non-existent.” “Your letter also references a non-existent '50/50' agreement between [the Department of Transportation], New York, and New Jersey. There is no such agreement," wrote Federal Transit Administration deputy administrator K. Jane Williams in a Friday letter. “We consider it unhelpful to reference...

Scientific studies used by the Obama administration to help justify tough environmental regulations are coming under intensifying scrutiny, with critics questioning their merit as the Trump EPA reverses or delays some of those rules. In one case, agencies determined the research used to prop up a ban on a particular pesticide was questionable. On another front, the Environmental Protection Agency never complied with a congressional subpoena for the data used to justify most Obama administration air quality rules. “EPA regulations are based on secret data developed in the 1990s,” Steve Milloy, who served on President Trump’s EPA transition team, told...

A recent news item involving UFOs has caught the public’s attention. A Navy pilot’s gun camera shows an unknown aerial object above the ocean near San Diego. It was performing aerial maneuvers not known to be possible by any U.S. technology. The pilot’s description of the object included the sensational phrase, "I can tell you, I think it was not from this world." The government’s interest in this sort of sighting is that there may be a national defense issue involved. If the reported objects are from a potentially hostile nation, let’s say China or Russia, then of course they...

Republicans this week managed to pass critical short-term spending bills without requiring any help from Democrats, an achievement that GOP lawmakers said will give them new leverage as they head into major spending negotiations next year. “The Democrats now know we can put up the votes if we need to,” Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, told the Washington Examiner. “So they can either play in the wilderness or sit down at the table like adults.” Past spending battles have often required compromise with House Democrats because the GOP could not round up enough support from conservative lawmakers seeking spending reductions or...

he House passed a short-term spending measure Thursday to avert a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday, and quickly voted on a separate $81 billion disaster relief bill to aid victims of recent hurricanes and wildfires. The Senate is expected to vote Thursday evening on the stopgap, which passed the House 231-188 and will push back delicate decisions on spending, immigration, health care and national security until Jan. 17.