Free Republic

A senior Republican official is urging Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to resign from his job as the Republican leader of the Senate. “Mitch is a good and honorable guy, but the base is leaving our party,” Roger Villere, the chairman of the Louisiana GOP... “I’ve worked for 12 years as chairman to build this party, and I just don’t want to see it all go down the drain because the [leaders] aren’t willing to fight for what we believe… Our base is demanding we do something or they’re going to leave us,” said Villare, who also holds a position...

Pope Francis’ unexpected and unscheduled visit to the Little Sisters of the Poor, a convent of elderly nuns fighting ObamaCare’s contraception mandate in the courts, is a clear message shot across the Obama administration’s bow that such religious persecution is not acceptable, backing up the American Catholic Church’s mantra: we will not comply While the lamestream media focuses on the Pope’s seeming alignment on issues such as climate change and immigration reform, the chattering class ignores this ongoing battle over religious liberty.

If Ted Cruz is ever going to break through in the Republican presidential primary, the time is now. Cruz has been the workmanlike conservative of the GOP field: a strong fundraiser but no Jeb Bush, well-liked by the activist right yet unable, so far, to generate the kind of breakout moments that have vaulted his anti-establishment rivals out of the single-digit doldrums. But Cruz’s supporters see the showdown in Congress over Planned Parenthood and the budget — which kicks into high gear this week and could stretch into the winter, on the cusp of voting in early states — as...

Last night, Donald Trump sat down with Scott Pelley on ’60 Minutes’ and made a gloriously confused barrage of promises and wishcasting about taxes, Social Security, ISIL, trade, and immigration. There’s a lot in there, but for my money his most laughable comments were about repealing Obamacare. Here’s the key section: Scott Pelley: What’s your plan for Obamacare?Donald Trump: Obamacare’s going to be repealed and replaced. Obamacare is a disaster if you look at what’s going on with premiums where they’re up 40, 50, 55 percent.Scott Pelley: How do you fix it?Donald Trump: There’s many different ways, by the...

Pope Francis said on Monday government officials have a “human right” to refuse to discharge a duty, such as issuing marriage licenses to homosexuals, if they feel it violates their conscience.

Last week, House Speaker John Boehner decided to retire rather than chance being ousted by his own colleagues. Despite this lucky break, the congressional GOP has little chance of winning back disenchanted Republican voters unless it also shows Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell the door. Continued Republican control of the Senate is on the line. A brand-new poll reveals that 72 percent of Republican primary voters are dissatisfied with McConnell and Boehner. Only 2 percent of those polled were “very satisfied” with the party’s two congressional leaders, who the majority believe have accomplished essentially nothing. The situation is actually...

Chuck Todd, the liberal host of NBC's "Meet the Press" asked Republican Carly Fiorina on Sunday if Republicans should "force a government shutdown" over federal funding of Planned Parenthood. "I believe if the president of the United States and Democrats are willing to stand up and defend what is roughly a $500 million to $600 million line item in the budget -- if they are willing to stand up and defend this practice (harvesting baby parts) and shut down the government over it, then let them explain it to the American people," Fiorina responded. "You think Republican leaders in Congress...

President Obama late Sunday predicted marriage equality probably won’t be an issue in the 2016 presidential race, saying the U.S. has “come too far” since the 2004 campaign. "Tonight we live in an America where 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' is something that 'don't exist,' " he said to cheers and applause at the beginning of his remarks to a Democratic National Committee LGBT gala in New York, according to a reporter traveling with the president. The president told the audience that cynics who said change is “too messy” have been proven wrong time after time. Obama also said that 2016...

September 16, 2015 Congressman Jim Jordan Chairman, House Freedom Caucus 1524 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 HAND DELIVERED Dear Jim: When the House Freedom Caucus formed in January, I fervently hoped that it would provide responsible and effective leadership to advance conservative principles in the House of Representatives. I know that every member of the HFC sincerely supports these principles, but as I have expressed on many occasions during our meetings, I believe the tactics the HFC has employed have repeatedly undermined the House’s ability to advance them. Allow me to review a few examples. On February 27th,...

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)9% refused to acknowledge the controversial series of undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood doctors negotiating prices for fetal tissue are real. Pelosi said, “I don’t stipulate that these videos are real. And the fact is — and fact is that the research that is being criticized there is research that has been supported. now. I haven’t seen — I’ve seen some news reports of it, but I also know that it’s not real and you can create any reality that you want.” She continued, “And I think...

Here is the Vatican translation of the Pope's address to victims of sexual abuse by the clergy, who he met with early this morning at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia. Following his address, the Pope met privately with each of the individuals present at the meeting. * * * My dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, I am grateful for this opportunity to meet you. I am blessed by your presence. Thank you for coming here today. Words cannot fully express my sorrow for the abuse you suffered. You are precious children of God who should always expect our...

Planned Parenthood supporters and Code Pink activists showed up at a Carly Fiorina event in Iowa yesterday at a tailgate before a Hawkeyes game. They screamed insults and threw condoms at her. They are furious that she brought up their baby harvesting practices at the last debate. Carly was asked about a female protester she had a confrontation with. “ She came on and said she was concerned about women’s health and as a cancer survivor I said, I was too. And, she said she was concerned about women’s rights and I said I was too. I said you ought...

Carly Fiorina on Sunday defended her assertion that an undercover sting video shows Planned Parenthood officials keeping a “fully formed fetus” alive “to harvest its brain.” At the second Republican presidential debate earlier this month, one of Fiorina’s strongest moments came when she described a gruesome scene from one of the controversial undercover videos. "A fully-formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says, 'We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain’,” Fiorina said at the time. Fiorina’s description of the scene, and her supporting super-PAC’s subsequent use of it in an campaign...

Syracuse, N.Y. -- A company that has enrolled more Onondaga County residents in private Obamacare health plans than any other insurer is going out of business. The state has ordered Health Republic of New York to stop writing new insurance policies because regulators expect the company to become financially insolvent. Existing individual Health Republic policies will remain in effect through Dec. 31, according to the state Department of Financial Services. Health Republic customers will be able to sign up with another insurer for 2016 coverage when open enrollment begins Nov. 1. Health Republic enrolled 4,066 Central New Yorkers in its...

The abrupt resignation of House Speaker John Boehner shows that “the crazies have taken over the party,” Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said Friday. “I think it signals the crazies have taken over the party, taken over to the party that you can remove a speaker of the House who’s second in line to be president, a constitutional officer in the middle of his term with no allegations of impropriety, a person who’s honest and doing his job. This has never happened before in our country,” King said in an interview on CNN. “He could have stayed on.” King praised Boehner,...

**SNIP** According to Whitehouse.gov, an official website of the Obamacare administration, the ACA “reduces health care costs,” in part, “by … cracking down on waste, fraud, and abuse.” A new government audit of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) management of contracts made with eight companies that helped to build the Healthcare.gov website, shows the 20 contracts “most critical to the website’s operation” – worth roughly $600 million in total – were incredibly mismanaged. According to the report, millions were wasted in cost overruns, shoddy practices, and poor business practices. John Tozzi of Bloomberg Business reports the primary...

Cuba has got to be one of the most revolutionary places on the planet -- if you're naïve enough to believe the official slogans, street signs and the rest of the prolefeed on display in the Castros' crumbling little police state. The old Soviet Union used to be heavy on talk of revolution, too, though most Russians came to realize it was only talk. In the grim, gray reality, Russia was anything but revolutionary. When that evil empire collapsed, so did the empty slogans about revolution, the workers' state and all the rest. Official lies may hold up for a...

Could the failed Obamacare exchanges have been merely an excuse to direct payola to safely Democratic states? Based on a new report from the Government Accountability Office, and the actions of acting head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Studies (CMS) Andrew Slavitt, the answer may well be yes. Let’s start with the report. Americans for Tax Reform summarized its findings: In all likelihood, officials were aware of the issues facing these states before exchanges launched. According to GAO, CMS conducted reviews on 15 state-based exchanges in August and September of 2013. Even though these tests found multiple issues...

The surging candidate’s remarks on Planned Parenthood drew Steinem’s ire. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem blasted Carly Fiorina in a post on her Facebook page, saying the presidential hopeful’s commentary on Planned Parenthood at the Republican debate last week “was a 100 percent lie.” “I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama to watch these tapes,” Fiorina railed during the debate. “Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.” Fiorina was referring to a series of “sting” videos produced by the Center for Medical...

Today, speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC, Senator Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) ripped into the leadership of outgoing Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (R-OH). “Yesterday, John Boehner was Speaker of the House,” Cruz said. “Ya’ll come to town and somehow that changes.” Cruz added that the crowd should come to DC more often. But Boehner’s exit also sets up a major choice for Cruz – and a potential moment of strength. Boehner reportedly intends to ram through a budget deal with the help of Democrats in order to forestall a potential government shutdown over funding...