Free Republic

Honest to God-- heard this dripped out of the radio news Fox news as "coming out of Congress"... this is a leak from Pelosi's next country breaking bunch of crap. There is NO "trust fund" for these thieving lawyers to "loan" from. Book entry LBJ accounting--- they have themselves ALREADY taken money from and left the IOU's as the "trust fund" in a file cabinet in West Virginia. Coupled with 22 plus million current workers NOT currently "contributing" to the fund as the system requires. So it is far less than the 2.5 working for each SS beneficiary... not to...

The agreement reached by President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China to effectively pause their trade war and work toward a pact appears to be aimed at giving the two leaders some political breathing room after an escalating fight has begun inflicting economic damage on both sides of the Pacific. The temporary truce, forged over a working dinner on Saturday night in Buenos Aires, does little to resolve the deep differences between the two nations and is more a political agreement than a substantive one. Both sides immediately positioned the cease-fire as a domestic victory while staking out areas...

Chinese state TV says agreement has been reached with the US not to impose any additional trade tariffs after 1 January and talks will go on. It made the announcement after US President Donald Trump met China's President Xi Jinping for the first time since a trade war erupted this year. Both a Trump adviser and Chinese media said earlier that talks after the G20 summit in Buenos Aires had gone well. At the summit earlier on Saturday, the G20 leaders agreed a joint declaration. The document notes divisions over trade but does not criticise protectionist activity...

Original headline-Report: Cost of Federal Regulation Reached $1.88 Trillion in 2014 U.S. debt exceeds the size of China’s economy The cost of federal regulation neared $2 trillion in 2014, according to a new report by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State, a report by Clyde Wayne Crews, CEI’s vice president for policy, also reveals that the U.S. debt now exceeds the size of China’s economy. “Federal regulation and intervention cost American consumers and businesses an estimated $1.88 trillion in 2014 in lost economic productivity and higher prices,” amounting to roughly...

GENEVA (AP) — The United States and Iran are working on a two-phase deal that clamps down on Tehran's nuclear program for at least a decade before providing it leeway over the remainder of the agreement to slowly ramp up activities that could be used to make weapons.

Blue Shield policy holders facing cancellation of their plans have been given the option to extend their coverage another three months. The company is canceling more than 100,000 policies because they do not conform to the federal Affordable Care Act. Blue Shield originally was going to stop the policies at the end of next month, but company spokesman Steve Shivinsky said people can now choose to keep their coverage through the end of March. "The Department of Insurance required that Blue Shield provide this option to subscribers and we were told that if we did not agree to this action, there was a possibility...

About 115,000 Californians whose individual health plans were set to expire at the end of the year will be given the option to extend their coverage though March 31. Those with individual plans issued by Blue Shield of California Life & Health Insurance Company will be allowed to retain their plans for an extra three months regardless of whether they purchased the coverage before the March 2010 passage of the federal health care law - the cutoff for "grandfathered" policies. Nearly 600,000 Californians who buy their own health insurance are bracing to pay more for new plans in large part...

Former presidential hopeful, Steve Forbes said he believes Republicans would be best served postponing “everything” before passing any laws to avoid the looming fiscal cliff. “Just say everything stays the same for another three months, six months because early next year it will be apparent that doing harm to this economy is not going to be a smart thing to do,” Forbes said in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV. “The president hopes to ram this through before the shakiness of the economy becomes evident to the voters.” …

McCarthy said no vote tonight half a minute ago via Echofon

A "mini-deal" to extend the debt ceiling for the short term may be the answer for Republican lawmakers and President Obama to reach an agreement on raising the debt ceiling before the Aug. 2 deadline to avoid a government default on its loans. President Bill Clinton offered up the suggestion during an interview Saturday night, and in the absence of any other agreement, at least one GOP lawmaker didn't outright dismiss it. "The problem with a mini-deal is we have a maxi problem. And these -- the big problems -- aren't going to go away if you cut a mini-deal....

Dec 17 (Reuters) - The House of Representatives voted on Friday to extend government funding through Dec. 21 to avoid a shutdown after lawmakers failed to agree on a long-term solution. The Senate also is expected to pass the measure, which would pay for government operations beyond Saturday night, when current funding expires. Lawmakers have failed to pass a budget for the current fiscal year, which started Oct. 1, and thus have extended last year's budget to fund the operation of everything from nuclear submarines to national parks. Senate Democrats had hoped to pass a detailed, $1.1 trillion spending bill...

One of the most important political issues that will be debated this year is how to prevent the inevitable insolvency of our Social Security system. Although it is difficult to know which "experts" to believe when it comes to applying a date to the event, the majority of credible sources I've managed to find expect the system to begin paying out more money annually than it takes in within the next 20 years, if things continue unchanged. Dorcas R. Hardy believes that Social Security will become insolvent by as early as 2018, and if this former S. S. Commissioner is...