Free Republic

A long-simmering feud between establishment Republicans and tea partyers is in full view again with Sen. John McCain accusing younger colleagues of using tactics that might tempt Democrats to change Senate rules that now protect the minority party. How to deal with the government’s debt and spending became the latest quarrel between the GOP’s 2008 presidential candidate and tea party champions such as Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah. …

House Speaker John A. Boehner on Thursday flatly ruled out chances of the House passing the Senate’s immigration bill, saying his chamber will debate its own bill instead. Mr. Boehner and his top GOP lieutenants issued a joint statement that seemed designed to tamp down some of the momentum behind the Senaate bill, which emerged from a Senate committee on a bipartisan 13-5 vote earlier this week, and to stake out a House GOP position

Many disillusioned Egyptians say things are worse than ever. Thugs often run the streets, crime rates have skyrocketed, and police feel they're outgunned faced with the flood of weapons filling Cairo's streets. Making matters worse, everything from utilities to gasoline is both more expensive and more difficult to acquire than it was before the Muslim Brotherhood.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) blasted the Senate on Tuesday, saying that they were using procedural tricks in order to raise the debt ceiling. In a joint statement with Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Cruz said that he would have no objection to sending the budget to conference if Democrats agreed to not use it as a back-door tool to raise taxes or the debt ceiling. They have not made such an agreement, so he exposed them. “The issue before this body is the debt ceiling and whether the Senate will be able to raise the debt...

At first I thought the IRS scandal was leaked to distract from the Benghazi scandal. But that didn’t make sense because the IRS scandal is a more obvious abuse of power than the White House lying about the murder of four Americans in Libya. Before I had resolved which scandal was distracting from which, we found out the Department of Justice was spying on The Associated Press —not to protect national security, but to prevent the AP from scooping the White House. Then, this week, it broke that the Department of Justice was also spying on Fox News for reasons...

WASHINGTON - A Senate panel voted Tuesday to provide weapons to rebels battling the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the first time lawmakers have endorsed the aggressive U.S. military step of arming the opposition. ... "The greatest humanitarian crisis in the world is unfolding in and around Syria," said Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), the committee chief. ". . . The United States must play a role in tipping the scales toward opposition groups and working to build a free and democratic Syria." Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the panel's top Republican, implicitly criticized the Obama administration as he...

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul went on a great rant during today's Senate subcommittee hearing on Apple's offshore tax practices, slamming his Congressional colleagues for even holding the hearing in the first place. "Frankly, I'm offended by the tone and tenor of this hearing," Paul said, laying into those who take issue with Apple's tax policies. "I'm offended by the spectacle of dragging in executives from an American company that is not doing anything illegal," he added. "If anyone should be on trial, it should be Congress." Apple CEO Tim Cook is testifying before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations this...

McCain warns Obama-Nixon comparisons are ‘overreaching’ Monday, May 20, 2013 PrintEmail Comments (37) By: Hillary Chabot U.S. Sen. John McCain bucked the party line coming from many of his fellow conservatives this morning, saying suggestions that compare the trio of scandals gripping the White House to Watergate are “overreaching.” “I think it’s overreaching. We need a full and complete investigation and then we will decide the dimensions of it,” said McCain while campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez in Dorchester. “It is terrible but we have to have a full investigation before we leap to conclusions.”

The title of a New York Times article by Raymond Hernandez reads, “Weiner’s Wife Didn’t Disclose Consulting Work She Did While Serving in State Dept.”. However, the headline for another story pops up in the eighth paragraph when a potentially very interesting claim is made. Take note of when Abedin allegedly stepped down as Deputy Chief of Staff for Hillary. Via NYT: "Ms. Abedin reached her new working arrangement in June 2012, when she returned from maternity leave, quietly leaving her position as deputy chief of staff and becoming a special government employee, which is essentially a consultant. A State...

Executive Summary Unlawful immigration and amnesty for current unlawful immigrants can pose large fiscal costs for U.S. taxpayers. Government provides four types of benefits and services that are relevant to this issue: Direct benefits. These include Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation.Means-tested welfare benefits. There are over 80 of these programs which, at a cost of nearly $900 billion per year, provide cash, food, housing, medical, and other services to roughly 100 million low-income Americans. Major programs include Medicaid, food stamps, the refundable Earned Income Tax Credit, public housing, Supplemental Security Income, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.Public...

Senator John McCain, who famously defended his then presidential opponent Barack Obama against an islamaphobic supporter during a 2008 campaign rally, defended President Obama once again on ABC’s This Week Sunday, cautioning his Republicans colleagues to cool it with talk of impeaching the President over the Benghazi attacks and its aftermath. In response to Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) invoking the “I word,” McCain called for caution: “With all due respect, I think this is a serious issue,” McCain told guest host Martha Raddatz. “I will even give the president the benefit of the doubt on some of these things. We...

To: Ted Cruz Date: May 6, 2013 My dear friend, I feel like we’ve started off on the wrong foot. Although there have been many times this Congress that I’ve longed to feel your soft face pressed helplessly against my knuckles, a lifetime of service has taught me that, with effort, I can forgive almost any slight for the good of the country. Please consider this note an olive branch, and realize that any suggestions come from a place a friendship. (excerpt) --------------------------------------- From: Ted Cruz To: John McCain Date: May 7, 2013 Well, senator, I think it’s about time...

John McCain wants to unbundle cable and to stop broadcasters like CBS and Fox from moving their stations to pay TV. The Arizona senator right now on the Senate floor is introducing The TV Consumer Freedom Act of 2013 (read it here). The legislation is intended to “allow the consumer, the television viewer who subscribes to cable, to have à la carte capability. In other words, not required to buy a whole bunch of channels that that consumer may not want wish to subscribe to,” McCain said moments ago. The former GOP Presidential candidate also went after broadcasters like CBS...

American Action Network is pimping Marco Rubio and amnesty. They spent $300,000 television advertising campaign to “end de facto amnesty.” The ad will only run on Fox News. Of course, the amnesty bill supported by Rubio, McCain, Lindsey Graham and Democrat is de facto amnesty. Of course American Action Network doesn’t want you to believe that. They tout Marco Rubio in an ad called ‘disaster’ ad that’s been on (especially on Hannity) the last few days. Watch out for American Action Network. They may try and appear to be conservative, but they are nothing more than a progressive action group....

With each new revelation, what has always been obvious becomes more pronounced: the State Department’s self-proclaimed final word on the Benghazi Massacre, the risibly named “Accountability Review Board” investigation, is a fraud. Yet, like the rest of the Obama administration’s obstructive wagon-circling, the ARB’s report continues serving its intended purpose: to thwart efforts to hold administration officials accountable. Even on Fox News, which has been admirably dogged covering a scandal the Obamedia has done its best to bury, the refrain is heard: How could the ARB report be a whitewash when its investigation was run by such Washington eminences as...

Executive Summary Unlawful immigration and amnesty for current unlawful immigrants can pose large fiscal costs for U.S. taxpayers. Government provides four types of benefits and services that are relevant to this issue: Direct benefits. These include Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation. Means-tested welfare benefits. There are over 80 of these programs which, at a cost of nearly $900 billion per year, provide cash, food, housing, medical, and other services to roughly 100 million low-income Americans. Major programs include Medicaid, food stamps, the refundable Earned Income Tax Credit, public housing, Supplemental Security Income, and Temporary Assistance for Needy...

Amnesty, and particularly citizenship, for people who broke the law to get here is bad policy because it rewards law breakers and advantages them over law abiders. It’s also very costly, as a study released by the Heritage Foundation demonstrates, The Fiscal Cost of Unlawful Immigrants and Amnesty to the U.S. Taxpayer: Executive Summary Unlawful immigration and amnesty for current unlawful immigrants can pose large fiscal costs for U.S. taxpayers. Government provides four types of benefits and services that are relevant to this issue: Direct benefits. These include Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation. Means-tested welfare benefits. There...

There will almost certainly be an aspect of the National Rifle Association's convention — which opens today in Houston — that feels like a victory celebration. By organizing and agitating its members, the organization was able to kill a Senate compromise on background checks, steamrolling over an ineffectual Organizing For Action. But as discussion of reviving that deal heats up, the NRA may finally face a real roadblock: public opinion. Prior to the April 17th vote — which failed to end a Republican-led filibuster on a bipartisan compromise to expand background checks — there were certainly coordinated organizing efforts. Mayors...

Here they come: Migrants bound for the U.S. border ride on top of a train in Ixtepec, in Oaxaca, southern Mexico (AP).- For months, Stand With Arizona has been reporting (most recently here, here and here) on the massive increase in border crossings since Obama and the 'Gang of Eight' started promising amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. And I have been interviewed by two dozen media outlets from the Washington Post and L.A. Times to CNN and even FoxNews. Each time I begged them to report the truth about what border agents were telling me - that a tidal...

Yesterday, I noted Sen. John McCain’s recent comments, where he lamented: “There are times these days when I feel that I have more in common on foreign policy with President Obama than I do with some in my own party.” Today, my bloggingheads colleague Bill Scher ups the ante, positing the theory that a Rand Paul nomination for president might cause the McCains of the world to jump on the Hillary bandwagon. From his column at The Week, Scher asks: Where might the “new Republican internationalists” go if Paul wins this intra-party battle? Considering that likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton...

<p>And by executive decree, President Obama officially flings open our borders. He steadfastly refuses to uphold his oath to faithfully execute the Office of President, and to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Instead he ignores the constitution, ignores the laws he chooses, and refuses to secure our nation or secure our borders. He now proudly announces to the world and even advertises in Spanish in Mexico that Mexicans illegally crossing the U.S. border will not be apprehended once they're safely away from the border and, in fact, are then free to apply for foodstamps and other government freebies and the agencies they apply to are not even allowed to ask about their legal status, nor will they be reported or deported.</p>

It was largely overshadowed by the Boston bombing, but on April 18, Sen. John McCain gave what might have been an important speech at the Center for a New American Security. It was clearly aimed at rhetorically pushing back at the non-interventionist Rand Paul wing of the GOP, but at the end of the speech, McCain took things to a new level: ”[T]here are times these days,” he said, “when I feel that I have more in common on foreign policy with President Obama than I do with some in my own party.”

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: This is A.J., San Francisco.  A.J., thank you for holding.  Great to have out program.  Hello. CALLER:  Yes, I had a question Rush.  On your Friday show you took a call and you said that if the GOP passes the immigration law, it's the end of the GOP, they'd be dead.  On yesterday's show you took a call from somebody and you said that Marco Rubio is a true conservative, basically we should still support him. So my question to you is, how can we support somebody who is sponsoring a bill that will kill the GOP?...

"We’ve had probably five or six lunches with a bunch of Republican senators standing and looking at Rand and Mike and me and yelling at us at the top of their lungs. I mean really upset. And they said, ‘Look, why did you do this? As a result of this I go home and constituents are yelling at me that I gotta stand on principal.” I’m really not making that up. I don’t even bother to argue with them… But, here was their argument. They said, ‘Before you did this the politics on this were all great. The Dems were...

Sentator Cruz recent remarks

I would like to start (IMMEDIATELY) the process to dispose of Rhino John McFrain McCain. I need to know the documents necessary to start that process (IMMEDIATELY - not tomorrow but TODAY). I need to know who to start the process with, Documents necessary and anyone who would be able to start a web site just to get signatures and get the ball rolling. JonGaltSr (Freeper since 1995 (or manybe it was 1996). Thanks

The Talk Shows April 28th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): en. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Reps. Peter King, R-N.Y., Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Joaquin Castro, D-Texas. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.THIS WEEK (ABC): Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md. STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): en. Dan Coats, R-Ind.; Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Bennie...

Vice President Joe Biden joined Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) at a forum hosted by the McCain Institute in Arizona Friday, where the pair discussed the recently defeated gun-control measure. Biden told the crowd that last year’s massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., has changed American attitudes about guns, even though the Senate rejected legislation to expand background checks on gun purchases. “Newtown was, to sort of use that old cliche, the straw that that broke the camel’s back,” Biden said, according to the Arizona Republic. “There was a fundamental change, in my opinion, in public attitudes about guns....

Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Scott Brown joined John McCain in denouncing the congresswoman's Muslim witch hunt Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, a rising star in the party and a potential vice-presidential pick for Mitt Romney, said this morning that he disagreed with Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann’s baseless call to investigate Muslim Brotherhood infiltration in the U.S. government. Appearing on NPR’s Diane Rehm show, Rubio was asked by a caller if he would join Republican Sen. John McCain’s strong condemnation of the anti-Muslim witch hunt on the Senate floor yesterday. While Rubio said he doesn’t personally know Huma Abedin, a...

Goodlatte’s power irks the Senate’s Gang, since he isn’t making a path to legalization for illegal immigrants a priority. “We can’t do individual bills,” Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York said this week, when asked about Goodlatte’s strategy. “The idea of doing separate bills is just not going to work.” Goodlatte shrugs off that criticism. In fact, he says, the Senate’s push to lead their proposal with a path-to-legalization component has dampened the House’s enthusiasm for pursuing a larger package. “When the president and others put down a mandate saying, ‘This has to be in there,’ you have to worry...

Sen. John McCain on Friday pleaded with business leaders to rally behind the immigration reform bill that he negotiated as part of the Senate’s Gang of Eight. Speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's immigration reform summit, McCain (R-Ariz.) said the bill needs the full-throated support of industry to make it to President Obama’s desk. “We need your help. We need you to inform the people you represent. We need their active support, not just passive,” McCain said. “We need all of you, we need all of the people you represent to be actively engaged in the community.” Business groups...

In comments made on April 25, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) both said they were saddened gun control didn't pass on April 17 but assured reporters the measures would be brought up for another vote some time this year. "I think we will bring the bill back before the end of the year... lots of Senators who thought it was safe to vote against it [on April 17] because of the intensity [pro-gun groups] are not so sure anymore," Schumer said. Schumer said the intensity for gun control has increased since the failed vote for gun control...

"...Confronted with his lie on Wednesday night's debate, McCain blustered and filibustered in a manner reminiscent of Captain Queeg in "The Caine Mutiny," when he was caught in a lie during a navy inquiry. When confronted with any of his misdeeds, Senator McCain tends to fall back on his record as a war hero in Vietnam. Let's talk sense. Benedict Arnold was a war hero but that did not exempt him from condemnation for his later betrayal. Being a war hero is not a lifetime get-out-of-jail-free card. And becoming President of the United States is not a matter of rewarding...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Thursday accused the Obama administration of being overly cautious in analyzing intelligence about the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria, saying he feared the White House was looking for excuses not to get involved. “I’m worried that the president and the administration will use the caveats as an excuse to not act right away or to not act at all,” he told Fox News. “The president clearly stated that it was a red line and that it couldn’t be crossed without the United States taking vigorous action.”

There are times when the words "never" and "always" are the only ones that work. In my case, "never" is becoming the word I must use to describe how I feel about certain candidates for high office. For example, I voted four times for a Bush and once for a McCain — something I will never do again. In 1988, it was Bush the elder over Michael Dukakis. In 1992, I resisted the temptation to punish President "Read-My-Lips" by casting my ballot for Ross Perot, knowing that a vote for the pintsized Texas screwball would simply be handing the presidency...

It's just as simple as that folks, if we do not secure our borders, we have no country. It's absolutely madness not to secure our nation, not to secure our borders especially during war time!! The president is defying the constitution, defying the law and defying we the people by not enforcing the law!! He's a traitor! The BOSTON MASSACRE is a direct result of his TREASON!! The senators and congressmen who go along with his treason are also TRAITORS!! NO!! Do not open our borders!! Flush the 800 page treasonous open borders declaration!! Do not reward the law breakers...

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday the U.S. intelligence community believes the Syrian regime used the chemical weapon sarin, a revelation that immediately raised the question of whether a "red line" had been crossed in the country's civil war. Hagel confirmed the intelligence assessment, which was detailed in a letter to select members of Congress, while speaking to reporters on a visit to Abu Dhabi. The administration swiftly released those letters, which said U.S. intelligence determined with varying degrees of confidence that "the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin."...

The two lead negotiators in the Senate’s Gang of Eight said on Thursday that they believe their immigration reform bill will not just have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate — but majority support from both parties. “I think it is doable,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the bill cannot slip by with 60 votes because the House would feel less pressure to take it up. Others in the negotiating group have said they think the bill could win at least 70 Senate votes. But...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had a warm meeting with Obama for America Organizing for Action volunteers in Arizona, as the senator and the members of President Obama’s former campaign apparatus thanked each other for their alliance in support of Obama’s desired gun legislation. “The speakers commended Senator McCain for showing leadership on this issue, and made it clear that we’re still hopeful that, with his help and support, we will get a bipartisan law to protect our country and our local community,” OFA’s Erin Kelly wrote in a blog post today. “We were shocked and excited to see Senator McCain...

I Have Seen Shameful Things By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | April 22nd, 2013 at 04:30 AM | 30 I am an immigration squish. There are jobs Americans won’t do at the existing price point. We have a real need in this country for unskilled workers who will pick domestic crops and do jobs Americans will not do for a low wage. I know a number of people who came here illegally who are harder workers than me, who love this country, and who just want a job. More specifically, I know a number of illegal immigrants — a few of...

In designing a federal grant program, one can opt for very general eligibility criteria, to provide certain flexibility, but strictly limit the funding to ensure the grant is narrowly applied. One could, alternatively, detail very specific eligibility criteria, with less restrictions on funding, to ensure grants get where they are intended. Applying very general criteria with loose restrictions on funding, however, is a recipe for potential fraud. This is the exact problem with the proposal dubbed "MarcoPhones." Last week, Breitbart News' Matt Boyle reported that the 844-page immigration proposal included a grant program providing satellite phones to people living in...

As some Newtown families, props being used by the very gun grabbers who have set up the kinds of gun-free shooting galleries in which their children were slain, held hands and prayed for more than 60 votes (having been flown in at taxpayer expense to lobby our representatives to take away our natural rights), it occurred to me that, with 16 Republicans voting that a debate on amending an unalienable right is perfectly in keeping with the Constitution, the Republican party then and there died. Went t*ts up. Ceased to be. If John McCain and Lindsay Graham and Lamar Alexander...

John McCain & Lindsey Graham Want You to Know Boston Bombings Won’t Slow Immigration Reform By Becket Adams | Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Friday released a statement saying that despite the week's events with the Boston Marathon bombing, it won't deter or slow their efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Here's their statement, released before the capture of 19-year-old suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: In the wake of this week's terrorist attack in Boston, some have already suggested that the circumstances of this terrible tragedy are justification for delaying or stopping entirely the effort for comprehensive immigration...

Several Republican lawmakers are calling for the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings to be tried as an enemy combatant, rather than as an ordinary criminal. “It is clear the events we have seen over the past few days in Boston were an attempt to kill American citizens and terrorize a major American city,” read a Saturday statement from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.). “The accused perpetrators of these acts were not common criminals attempting to profit from a criminal enterprise, but terrorists trying to injure, maim, and kill...

Sen. John McCain came to the defense of President Barack Obama Thursday, saying he understands the anger and emotion the president displayed when he denounced those who voted against a universal background check amendment as part of a larger Senate gun-control measure. McCain told CNN he sympathized with Obama's description of the vote on Wednesday as a “shameful” day in Washington because lawmakers failed to pass the legislation that grew out of the tragic December massacre of 20 schoolchildren and six educators in Newtown, Conn. “I understand how the president felt very strongly,” McCain said. “He was in Newtown. He...

Dear Friends, President Obama wanted three things on gun control -- to ban assault weapons, limit magazine sizes, and expand background checks. Fortunately, he lost on all three. I’ve always been confident if the Senate debated the Second Amendment, the Second Amendment would win. Yesterday, the Senate took up, debated, and voted on gun violence legislation. I am very pleased we had this debate, and was always ready and willing to vote in support of what I believe. Here’s how I voted yesterday: Voted Against the Manchin-Toomey Background Check Amendment (Failed 54-46, required 60 votes) No matter how well-intentioned, the...

The Senate's bipartisan "Gang of Eight" oozed confidence on Thursday that they could deliver on their promise to pass the most significant immigration bill in a generation. Organizers gathered over 20 leaders from business, labor, religious and civil rights groups in order to display broad support for their plan. In an unlikely pairing, renowned anti-tax activist Grover Norquist stood alongside AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, the leader of the nation's largest labor coalition. Senators from both parties yukked it up with jokes throughout the hour-long affair. "We'll oppose only those amendments that are intended to prevent a comprehensive solution from passing,"...

If there were any doubts that the oft-used term ‘comprehensive immigration reform' is a stalking-horse for amnesty, a new Senate proposal should dispel them. The measure, touted as a way to fix our ‘broken' immigration system, will do the opposite. Not only will it demean U.S. citizenship and rule of law, it also likely will produce adverse economic effects. The main feature of the 844-page bill is that it would allow millions of illegal immigrants to apply for legal residency and eventual citizenship. Significantly, the bill bears a strong union influence. And labor officials aren't bashful about it. Ana Avendano,...

Rep. Steve King, one of the most vocal proponents in Congress for strict immigration enforcement, called on his colleagues to slow down on moving ahead with plans to overhaul the system in the aftermath of the Boston bombing. In an interview with The National Review, a conservative publication, King, a Republican from Iowa, said the reports that investigators were talking to a Saudi college student should prompt lawmakers to put a greater national security focus on immigration reform. The effort by King, as well as some conservative groups, to tie the bombing to immigration drew a rebuke by his fellow...