Free Republic

CRUZ HITS TRUMP ON HEALTH CARE - AND HE'S KIND OF RIGHT - Locked in a close battle in Iowa, Ted Cruz is turning to health care in an attempt to separate himself from rival Donald Trump. A brutal ad airing in Iowa links "HillaryCare" and "ObamaCare" with "TrumpCare" - and uses Trump's own words against him. "Everybody's got to be covered, this is an un-Republican thing for me to say," the ad quotes Trump saying on 60 Minutes last fall. "[And] the government's gonna pay for it." Cruz pushed this message further on several Sunday shows. "A vote for...

SNIP “It is true that after George W. Bush nominated John Roberts, I supported his confirmation. That was a mistake and I regret that,” he said. But he insisted that he’d fought behind the scenes for a more reliable — and proven — conservative jurist, appellate judge Mike Luddig, for whom he had worked.

"As an individual, John Roberts is undoubtedly a principled conservative, as is the president who appointed him. He clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist, worked in the Reagan White House, and served as the principal deputy solicitor general in President George H.W. Bush's Justice Department. As a jurist, Judge Roberts' approach will be that of his entire career: carefully, faithfully applying the Constitution and legal precedent. He is a mainstream judge, respected across the ideological spectrum. Thus, he's earned praise from liberal icons such as Harvard Law Professor Larry Tribe, and Chicago Law Professor Cass Sunstein, as well as from Clinton...

Donald Trump went after Ted Cruz in an interview today, calling him "a total liar" for saying that Mr. Trump supports universal health care similar to ObamaCare. "Look, Ted Cruz is a total liar," Mr. Trump responded. "I am so against ObamaCare." Trump was then asked, "You say that Ted Cruz is a liar, but you have said that you want everyone to be covered on health care and the government's going to pay for it. How is that not ObamaCare?" "Well, that's true," Mr. Trump answered. "I want people taken care of. I have a heart. I want people...

In an interview this morning on This Week, Donald Trump cited his desire to "help people" as the reason he favors government-funded universal health coverage. Unlike Ted Cruz, Trump said, "I have a heart." "If somebody has no money and they're lying in the middle of the street and they're dying, I'm going to take care of that person," Trump said.

HUBBARD, Iowa — Senator Ted Cruz is often asked about doing away with President Obama’s health care law. He is rarely pressed by voters on what will replace it.

Family doctors have criticized the Government for seeking to "nationalize" general practice with plans to extend free GP care to all children. Speakers at the National Association of GPs conference called for a campaign of resistance to plans for a progressive extension of GP medical cards to all children. The Government plans to extend the scheme to children aged under 12 years later this year and to all children shortly after. Limerick GP Charlie Gavin said he signed the contract out of fear. "My fear was my practice would not continue, I had a letter from the Government saying they...

Sanders’ health plan EDITOR: I’m unfazed by Bernie Sanders’ admission that government-administered health care might raise my taxes. Under the current system, my husband and I pay $18,200 in annual premiums for the lowest level of catastrophic health insurance. If we require medical care, that could run us another $13,400 before our coverage kicks in, for a total annual liability of $31,600. I’m confident that by cutting the parasitic health insurers out of the equation, and by containing costs through bargaining and economies of scale, a Sanders administration could provide us all with Medicare-type coverage and put a lot of...

San Francisco police officers are being asked to combat racism in the ranks and take a pledge to turn in colleagues displaying intolerant behavior, such as slurs and jokes targeting people of color, gays and women. The pledge is part of a broader public relations campaign by the embattled police department to repair frayed relations with minority neighborhoods and community activists. The campaign comes amid growing tensions between police and black communities that are shaking up departments across the country and have led to the dismissal of top brass in some cities, including Chicago. Politically progressive San Francisco is not...

Briscoe Cain, the Texas legal counsel for Operation Rescue says Planned Parenthood invoices show that fetal tissue was being purchased for medical research Briscoe Cain, the Texas lawyer for Operation Rescue held a press conference on Thursday at the mega-Planned Parenthood in Houston. In a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas, Briscoe Cain (legal counsel for Operation Rescue) said, “The purpose of releasing these documents is to shed light on previously unseen evidence of criminal activity by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast and to publicly release for the first time financial documents exposing the practice of purchasing aborted fetal tissue by Texas...

CLEVELAND — In the operating room at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Brian Fitzsimons has long relied on a decades-old drug to prevent hemorrhages in patients undergoing open-heart surgery. The drug, aminocaproic acid, is widely used, cheap and safe. “It never hurt,” he said. “It only helps.” Then manufacturing issues caused a national shortage. “We essentially did military-style triage,” said Dr. Fitzsimons, an anesthesiologist, restricting the limited supply to patients at the highest risk of bleeding complications. Those who do not get the once-standard treatment at the clinic, the nation’s largest cardiac center, are not told. “The patient is asleep,” he...

By now, not even CNBC's cheerleading permabulls can deny that the US is in a manufacturing recession: in fact, it is so bad that even the staunchest defenders of Keynesian dogma admit what we said in late 2014, namely that crashing oil is bad for the economy. And yet, the "services" part of the US economy continues to hum right along, leading to such surprising outcomes as a stronger than expected print in Personal Consumption Expenditures. How can this be? Simple: one look at the chart below should explain not only how the "services" half of the US economy...

"As far as single payer, it works in Canada, it works incredibly well in Scotland." "I would press for universal healthcare. ... I would put forward a comprehensive health care program and fund it with an increase in corporate taxes." "We must have universal healthcare." "I hate the concept of it, but on a humanitarian basis, you have to [take in Syrian refugees]" "I support the ban on assault weapons and I also support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun." "I hate the concept of guns." "The Republicans walk the NRA line and refuse even limited restrictions."...

Most uninsured Americans are sitting on the sidelines as sign-up season under the federal health law comes to a close, according to a new poll that signals the nation's historic gains in coverage are slowing. The survey released Thursday by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation finds that: -- Only 15 percent of the uninsured know this year's open enrollment deadline, which is Sunday. -- More than 7 in 10 say they have not tried to figure out if they qualify for the two main coverage expansions in the law, Medicaid and subsidized private health insurance. -- Only 1 in 100...

Sunday is the deadline to sign up for health insurance, or else pay a fine. That fine has gone up, causing even more financial stress on the uninsured and those who choose to opt out of health insurance. "I just cannot afford it in any way, shape, or form right now," 27-year-old Seth Valkonen said when talking about health insurance. Valkonen chooses to be uninsured by paying a one time fine for not having coverage instead of a monthly premium. "The penalty is cheaper than the overall total for the entire year," he said, Already on a tight budget, this...

The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is raising questions about the involvement of Microsoft in the Iowa Caucuses, now just five days away, and has built a independent system to check the official results. For the first time this year, Microsoft partnered with the Iowa Democratic and Republican Parties to provide a technology platform with which the parties will run their caucuses. The software giant created separate mobile apps for each party, which officials at hundreds of caucuses across the state will use to report out results from individual precincts to party headquarters for tabulation. The arrangement has...

The Budget: When President Obama released his first budget plan in 2009, he called it a “New Era of Responsibility.” What he produced was irresponsibility on a historic scale.

Tuesday, the White House unveiled a plan to overhaul retirement savings that is eerily similar to ObamaCare in at least three fundamental ways. Introduced as a “Fact Sheet” on WhiteHouse.gov, Pres. Obama’s plan to revamp retirement savings mimics his controversial healthcare law: Individual participation is required, not optional, There’s an employer mandate, State-run marketplaces are created The employer mandate would require employers to “automatically enroll their workers in an IRA” – with, or without, their consent – making employee participation compulsory:

Average Subsidy Cost Increasing Because of how far enrollment was below initial projections, I wrote the following on November 19: “While the aggregate subsidy amount will go down, the average subsidy amount will likely increase because of higher than expected premiums and a higher percentage of the subsidized enrollees having lower income and thus qualifying for larger subsidies than CBO anticipated.” According to CBO, this will likely be the case in 2016.