Free Republic

Lowering expectations for quick passage of an economic stimulus bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid rejected setting "some false deadline" for delivering legislation to President-elect Barack Obama in favor of a more deliberate approach that allows Congress to get the package right "the first time." Congressional leaders had hoped to hand Obama an economic assistance package immediately after he is sworn in Jan. 20, but that looks increasingly doubtful as the legislation grows in complexity and size. In separate interviews this morning, Reid (Nev.) and House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said the process could take six more...

DAYTONA BEACH -- In a cramped room, smaller than two walk-in closets, Jesus Valentin's two children jump from one bunk bed to the next trying to burn off energy. He and his fiancee, who is expecting their third child in August, have tried to make their room at the STAR Family Shelter more of a home by decorating with schoolwork from their 3- and 4-year-olds. But after seven months of eating with about 80 adults and children in the shelter, sharing common spaces such as the living room area and restrooms and showers, they are anxious to get into a...

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) - Tinley Park squatter living rent and mortgage free The problem with squatters is hitting home in an upscale Tinley Park Subdivision. On Mallow Street where homes sell for $350,000 or more, a woman has been living in a house rent and mortgage free for two years. “It's very frustrating, our property taxes are very high, I work nights to pay mine and to help support my family. And I just see her coming and going without a care in the world it's enormously frustrating,” said neighbor Patti Yara. And no one is more frustrated than...

The cluster of special federal tax benefits and subsidies for homeowners has long seemed politically untouchable. Those include deductions for mortgage interest, local property taxes and capital gains exclusions on up to $500,000 in sale profits. Is the Obama administration serious about beginning to limit at least some of these subsidies?

Obama Is Pushing Banks To Make More Home Loans To Borrowers With Poor Credit Brett LoGiuratoApril 3, 2013The Obama administration is readying a push to get banks to make more home loans available to individuals with weaker credit, The Washington Post's Zach Goldfarb reports. It's a push that walks a tightrope, since it is expected to help boost the continuing economic recovery immediately but risks opening up the shaky lending that led to the housing crash. Obama's plan would provide for more lending to individuals such as young people buying their first homes, as well as people whose credit has...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Yesterday at the end of the program -- the last half hour of the program -- I was watching TV. Obama did his White House ceremony raising the minimum wage for federal contractors. It just hit me. There he is giving away some more of other people's money, and it immediately hit me: How popular could I be if I could do that? How popular could I be and how unbeatable could I be if I were able to give away other people's money to anybody I wanted to, and if I focused on the downtrodden and...

As much as President Barack Obama wants your vote, he's not actually offering to pay your monthly bills. But thousands of Americans have been persuaded otherwise, falling victim to a fast-moving scam that claims to be part of an Obama administration program to help pay utility bills in the midst of a scorching summer. The scheme spread quickly across the nation in recent weeks with help from victims who unwittingly shared it on social media sites before realizing they had been conned out of personal information such as Social Security, credit card and checking account numbers. "No one knows who...

An article late last week in the San Diego Tribune offers up some very realistic, yet depressing advice about the current state of home ownership: Many homeowners would be best off if they simply stopped paying their mortgages. How so? The passage of the bailout bill meant that help for homeowners was assured. After all, politicians can't risk bailing out corporate America, while letting poor little homeowners lose their houses and be out on the streets. If you've got little to no equity in your house and find it a struggle to pay the mortgage, just stop paying. The government...

SPALDING COUNTY, Ga. — The Better Business Bureau and Georgia Power are warning people about a scam, promising that President Barack Obama will pay utility bills with a new federal grant. Channel 2's Tony Thomas spoke to a Griffin woman who fell for the scam. Loneiyce Washington even introduced her friends to what she thought was a legitimate offer. They ended up getting scammed, too. Washington said she thought Obama passed a law that provided credits to help her and others pay their utility bills, she told Thomas. Investigators said the scammers ask for people's Social Security numbers and bank...

A myth that President Obama is giving people money to pay their bills has prompted thousands of people across the country to try to pay for utilities, phone service and loans using bogus bank routing numbers. United Way of Cleveland's 2-1-1 changed its answering machine Monday to say rumors of the Obama program were false after fielding dozens of calls. Later that day, a United Way employee was on an RTA bus when a rider stood up and announced to fellow passengers that Obama was paying people's bills. The rider told people they could use the red numbers on the...

Text from attendee of Obama Rally in Florida: “I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know, if I help he is going to help me.”

This lady, Peggy Joseph, thinks Barack Obama will pay for her gas, mortgage, and who knows what else.

Teenagers who work enjoy numerous benefits. As Ron Lieber argues in his new book, “The Opposite of Spoiled,” they learn how to appropriately handle bosses, co-workers, and money, and they might learn something about what they’re good at. Lieber’s message is timely, because working teenagers are rapidly disappearing. Data from the Current Population Survey show that the share of 16- to 19-year-olds who were neither working nor looking for work each March has risen around 15 percent since the late 1990s. Part of that is due to lower demand for their labor, but the trend was strong even before the...

RUSH: It is amazing, folks. It's once again amazing how we were blatantly lied to in January and February about the unemployment numbers and the overall economy. Blatantly lied to. And we're being blatantly lied to about whatever or not is happening in this Iranian deal to boot. JOHNNY DONOVAN: And now, from sunny south Florida, it's Open Line Friday! RUSH: And, of course, the piece de resistance, we are being lied to about what's happening in Indiana. Every day, every day we have to devote time here to straightening out the lies that are told by the Democrat Party...

In the seventh year of Barack Obama's administration, the economy is still getting failing grades that have been the hallmark of his trouble-filled presidency. While he continues to go about the country telling voters that his policies are working, this week's dreary economic data tell a far different story. The bleak headlines in the nation's major newspapers tell the story in its bluntest terms. "Stocks fall on disappointing economic data," said USA Today. "U.S. stocks fall on weak economic data," blares The Wall Street Journal, with this subhead: "Private payrolls rise less than expected in March, adding to concerns about...

The number of Americans 16 years and older who did not participate in the labor force—meaning they neither had a job nor actively sought one in the last four weeks—rose from 92,898,000 in February to 93,175,000 in March, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is the first time the number of Americans out of the labor force has exceeded 93 million. Also from February to March, the labor force participation rate dropped from 62.8 percent to 62.7 percent, matching a 37-year low. Five times in the last twelve months, the participation rate has been...

Just as AAPL stock hits record highs and single-handedly rescues Q4 earnings from the doldrums, it appears President Obama is bringing his own brand of 'middle-class-economics' Robin-Hood-iness to crush the 'wealth generating' machine that has served America's 1% so well for so long. As AP reports, The White House plans a six-year half a trillion dollar public works program financed with a one-time mandatory tax on profits that U.S. companies have amassed overseas. Under current law, profits only face federal taxes if they are returned, or repatriated, to the US; but Obama's new deal would set a tax on...

In an odd coincidence, the last two election cycles have seen a drastic, unexpected drop in the unemployment rate immediately before the election. And in 2012 and 2010, the unemployment rate increased the month or the next after the election. Just as big a coincidence, both 2014 and 2012 saw the drop come in September, but reported in October, the best time to report supposed good news on the economy.

Advantage, Democrats — unless the 248,000 new jobs in September suddenly force Republicans to go on the offensive. I will explain in a second what the Republicans’ next move could be. But first, you may have read that the Labor Department on Friday, in its last jobs report before the mid-term elections, revealed that job growth and the unemployment rate both improved nicely in September — in fact, better than I expected. That’s going to make the Republican battle to take over the Senate a lot harder because issue No. 1 with Americans is the economy. Jobs = votes. In...

In an odd coincidence, the last two election cycles have seen a drastic, unexpected drop in the unemployment rate immediately before the election. And in 2012 and 2010, the unemployment rate increased the month or the next after the election. Just as big a coincidence, both 2014 and 2012 saw the drop come in September, but reported in October, the best time to report supposed good news on the economy. This comes on the heels of this election cycle's surprise news that the unemployment rate decreased .2% to 5.9%., a mere two months after the unemployment rose to 6.2%. For...