Free Republic

A month ago Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned conservatives about rumors of John Boehner’s Final Cave. Watch it below: “If it is correct that the Speaker, before he resigns, has cut a deal with Nancy Pelosi to fund the Obama Administration for the rest of its tenure, to fund Obamacare, to fund executive amnesty, to fund Planned Parenthood, to fund implementation of its Iran deal. And then presumably to land at a cushy K-Street job…” – Ted Cruz If new reports out of Washington are right, Cruz was correct almost a month ago to the day, and Boehner is set...

Establishment Republican candidate for Speaker of the House Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan is so confident that he will be elected Speaker that he is measuring the curtains in the Speaker’s plush suite of offices in the Capitol and allegedly is already hiring staff. According to The Washington Post’s Robert Costa, in “Paul Ryan taps GOP power broker David Hoppe for top job” Ryan has hired lobbyist David Hoppe as Chief of Staff for the Speaker’s office. Amnesty supportersOne of the objections of conservatives had to the way Speaker John Boehner ran his office was the blatant revolving door between Boehner’s...

Senior White House officials and congressional leaders are nearing a deal to raise the debt limit and set the budget for the next two years, say sources familiar with the talks. The agreement is not yet final as negotiators still need to settle a dispute over controversial policy riders, but congressional leaders hope to announce something Monday evening, according to a Senate source. The deal would cover the 2016 and 2017 budget years. White House budget director Shaun Donovan and legislative affairs director Katie Beirne Fallon are hammering out the package with staff representing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.),...

Pacific trade ministers have reached a deal on the most sweeping trade liberalization pact in a generation that will cut trade barriers and set common standards for 12 countries, an official familiar with the talks said on Monday. Leaders from a dozen Pacific Rim nations are poised to announce the pact later on Monday. The deal could reshape industries and influence everything from the price of cheese to the cost of cancer treatments. The Trans-Pacific Partnership would affect 40 percent of the world economy and would stand as a legacy-defining achievement for U.S. President Barack Obama, if it is ratified...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker John Boehner says he's determined to clean up some of the mess of a politically gridlocked Congress in his final month before his successor takes over. The Ohio Republican says a spending bill to keep the government running will pass and there will be no shutdown when money runs out at midnight Wednesday. Beyond that, he said on CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday he expects "I might have a little more cooperation from some around town to try to get as much finished as possible." "I don't want to leave my successor a dirty barn," he...

This report should make Donald Trump supporters angry! While taxpayers are often funding political debates, the Republican Party has the ultimate say over its own events. And while the GOP is supposed to stand for the principles of the Founding Fathers, it can be manipulated by the political establishment which can’t stand Trump’s conservative views. The real reason why the GOP is focusing on Trump’s threat to run as a 3rd party candidate is it would give them grounds to boot him from future debates. The Republican Party, to protect its interests, is probably willing to boot the front-runner candidate....

Chief Obamatrade proponent House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) 60% admitted during Congressional testimony on Wednesday evening that despite tons of claims from him and other Obamatrade supporters to the contrary, the process is highly secretive. He also made a gaffe in his House Rules Committee testimony on par with former Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) ’s push to pass Obamacare, in which she said infamously said: “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” “It’s declassified and made public once it’s agreed to,” Ryan said of Obamatrade...

The Obama administration released its spring regulatory agenda Friday, including its costliest regulation to date, just as Americans are getting ready to celebrate the long Memorial Day weekend. The Spring 2015 Unified Agenda and Regulatory Plan includes more than 2,300 regulations that are in a variety of phases and also includes the administration's plans for implementing the various regulations going forward, The Daily Caller is reporting. This is not the first time the Obama administration has released its regulatory agenda right before a major holiday, when such things might go unnoticed. In 2014, the fall regulatory agenda was released right...

GREENLAND, N.H. – Sen. Ted Cruz continued his two-day presidential campaign swing through New Hampshire on Saturday morning with a speech to the Seacoast Republican Women.. . .Before entering the room, Cruz expanded on an allegation he aired Friday, that GOP leaders had cut off his access to campaign donations as retribution for his role in the 16-day government shutdown in October 2013.“In 2013 we got quite a bit of money from DC PACs, and when the defund fight happened that dropped to almost zero,” Cruz said, asked to clarify the allegation he aired Friday.Who does he blame?“It was leadership,”...

Republicans will raise the government’s borrowing limit without threatening a default, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell guaranteed Sunday, placating the markets but potentially surrendering the party’s leverage as Congress gears up for another debt showdown. The current debt-ceiling holiday, to which Congress agreed a year ago, expires Sunday, starting the clock on debate and sending the Treasury Department scrambling to tap into its “extraordinary measures” to keep from breaching the limit. Budget analysts say Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has about seven months of spare room, meaning a deal would have to be reached by October or November. Mr. McConnell, Kentucky...

As my colleague streiff wrote a while ago, (alleged) Republican Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner just pushed through a “clean” bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security and funded Barack Obama’s plan to grant amnesty to millions of illegals. Boehner has once again flipped the bird to the conservative base and shown his cowardice in the face of the Democrat meanies who threaten to throw a fit about a shutdown. John Boehner must go. He must be replaced as House Speaker. He does not represent the interests of the majority of Americans who voted for a Republican...

AG Nominee Loretta Lynch Survives Judiciary Committee — with Republican Help RYAN LOVELACE February 26, 2015 Attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch survived a Judiciary Committee vote with help from the GOP earlier today. Lynch’s nomination made it out of the committee on a 12-8 vote, with pivotal support from three Republicans: Senators Orrin Hatch of Utah, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Jeff Flake of Arizona. Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley opposed Lynch’s nomination, but added that he expects she will still be confirmed. Grassley cited Lynch’s apparent unwillingness to act independently as his primary cause for concern.

Now that a federal judge has held Obama's illegal executive amnesty unconstitutional, perhaps U.S. senators will remember that they swore to uphold the Constitution, too. Back when they needed our votes before the last election, Republicans were hairy-chested warriors, vowing to block Obama's unconstitutional "executive amnesty" -- if only voters gave them a Senate majority. The resulting Republican landslide suggested some opposition to amnesty. Heading into the election, college professor Dave Brat took out the sitting House majority leader and amnesty supporter Eric Cantor in a primary, despite being outspent 40-1. It was the greatest upset in history since the...

After answering a brief survey of 3 questions I was asked an open ended question of what the Republican leaders should do. All I said was that the Republicans need to get new leaders who will stand up to Obama and it appeared to me that Speaker Boehner was a drunk. Click.

This weekend, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) is gathering a majority of the 2016 GOP presidential hopefuls at the Iowa Freedom Summit, where the likes of Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and many more will come to kiss King’s ring and attempt to build up a base in Iowa for their upcoming campaigns. (SNIP) Carson does advise that if immigrants “are wise, they will arrange with their employer before they leave to immediately offer them a legal job as soon as their application is received” — another indication that he has no idea how long backlogs can take or what...

If you took the over on 19 votes, you won! There were 25 defectors on the Speaker, a number tantalizingly close to the 29 they needed. But then, that makes sense:

Last month Republicans won a wave election picking up a dozen seats in the House and nine seats in the Senate. Last week the Republicans ignored the will of the voters and voted in favor of President Obama’s budget initiatives. The country is overwhelmingly opposed to Obamacare, so the Republicans fully funded it without making any changes. The country is overwhelmingly opposed to amnesty, in particular the country is opposed to amnesty created by the executive branch alone. Rather than refuse to fund the President’s amnesty power grab, the Republicans are funding it completely. They’re even spending a billion dollars...

Many people are understandably dismayed by the the Supreme Court's refusal to hear several gay marriage cases effectively codifying gay marriage in several states. While it is certainly disappointing, it isn't really unexpected. I hate to break this news to you, especially if you are one of these people who think that this country, a country founded with limited government, separation of powers, and federalism, is still recoverable by normal means, it isn't. The U.S. as we knew it and understood it is gone and it isn't coming back, at least not by regular constitutional means. Nope. Federalism, limited government,...

I know a lot of people are giddy at the prospect of Republicans taking the Senate this November, but that’s becoming less and less likely. It’s not because Democrats are rallying around a particular mission or set of candidates; it’s because Republicans and conservatives aren’t. It seems like I’m always writing on issues no one wants to hear are mistakes, such as messaging or social issues. But I don’t care. These things have to be said. If these columns are received like a gaseous cousin on a long car trip through the desert, so be it. Crack a window… If...

Republicans on K street are helping members of their party shift their stance on gay rights issues. Kathryn Lehman, a top GOP lobbyist and partner at Holland and Knight carries a list of 40 to 50 Republican offices in the House and Senate she visits on behalf of Freedom to Marry, a group that backs same-sex marriage. "The issue is losing its toxicity from a Republican perspective," she said, mentioning that the list was a fraction of that size when she first took on Freedom to Marry as a client in 2011. Lehman... helped to write the Defense of Marriage...