Free Republic

While Congress fiddles and the U.S. economy is left to burn, the citizens are the ones being asked to bear the full weight of this crisis. Now is not the time for business as usual, it is time for a post-pandemic reality. The old ways of red tape and kick-backs to favored groups and special interests must end now. A crisis of liquidity for individuals, small businesses, and Fortune 500 companies will soon send our economy into even further decline unless the federal government acts quickly and decisively. On Thursday, the Washington Times published my proposal for a Temporary Income...

Watching the hysterical reaction of the radical left—such as Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post—to Attorney General William Barr’s thoughtful, well-reasoned, important speech at the Federalist Society convention on the constitutional doctrine of the unitary executive is like history repeating itself. Liberals had the same overreaction to then-Attorney General Edwin Meese’s 1985 speech to the American Bar Association on the Constitution and originalism. Only someone as openly partisan and ill-informed as Marcus could possibly claim that a speech explaining the historical basis of the Founders’ views on the importance of a strong executive is “angrily partisan” and “scary.” So what...

President Trump’s judicial nominees have faced unprecedented opposition from the Senate in his first two-and-a-half years in office, records show, with Democratic senators voting against potential judges in higher numbers than at any point in American history. Trump’s nominees for the lower courts that feed cases -- and sometimes judges -- to the U.S. Supreme Court contend with far more ‘no’ votes and delay tactics than any past president’s, according to numbers compiled by the conservative Heritage Foundation. As the Senate moved last week to confirm 13 more of Trump’s district court nominees, Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blasted...

The Senate Judiciary Committee erupted with infighting Thursday as a top Republican lawmaker pushed legislation aimed at crafting new rules for asylum-seekers from Central American countries. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman of the committee, faced immediate accusations as he brought up the bill that he was violating Senate rules. In a dispute that quickly got personal, Ranking Member Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said the committee was one Democrat shy of having a quorum during a meeting last week and therefore could not advance the bill. “Why even have rules?” Feinstein asked rhetorically. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., backed her up,...

These days, obstruction by the Democrats grabs the biggest headlines when they prevent solutions to the biggest issues – immigration, Supreme Court appointments, infrastructure, and so on – but their obstruction is actually the most egregious when it’s at its most petty. Confirming U.S. ambassadors should be one of the least political things the U.S. Senate does. For most of the country’s history, the process was a mere formality – a president would pick people to serve as America’s chief representatives to countries around the world, and those nominees would almost always be confirmed by voice votes, with little if...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) filed a procedural motion Thursday to set up a rules change in the Senate next week that will speed up votes to confirm President Trump’s nominees to federal district courts and sub-Cabinet-level executive branch positions. McConnell filed cloture — a motion to cut off dilatory debate — on a motion to proceed to Senate Resolution 50, which would dramatically reduce the amount of time Trump’s nominees have to spend on the floor and let Republicans confirm more of his picks. The resolution would reduce the amount of floor time that must elapse between when...

Christine Braley Ford is already pushing for removal of the one-week time limit senators agreed to Friday on a new FBI investigation of her allegation that Judge Brett Kavanaugh sexually molested her 36 years ago at a high school party. Ford “welcomes this step in the process,” her attorney, Debra Katz, said in a statement. Katz added that Ford “no artificial limits as to time or scope should be imposed on this investigation.” If Ford refuses to change her position, it could blow up an informal deal worked out between Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary...

Full title: Senate Dems: We Must Not Hold Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearings Because of the Trump Investigation, Or Something Mitch McConnell and Chuck Grassley (and even Susan Collins ) have basically responded to this hackery with a polite versions of " pound sand ," but this attempted obstructionism by all ten Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats should be mind-focusing and instructive nevertheless. Following Chuck Schumer's cynical lead , Democrats on the panel -- all drawn from their party's left flank -- are pouncing on the Manafort and Cohen news to invent a justification to stymie the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the...

Full title: The left's obstruction of qualified Trump nominees is yet another front in the war against the presidentMore than a year and a half after the inauguration of Donald Trump’s presidency, the left continues to obstruct the confirmation of nominees to critical posts in both the executive and judicial branches. The unprecedented obstructionism denies leadership to executive branch departments and agencies and impedes the fair and swift administration of justice. It is also an abuse of the Senate’s constitutional obligation to provide “Advice and Consent” regarding presidential nominations of judges and key “Officers of the United States.” The Senate...

~snip~ Delay to defeat Democrats lack the votes to stop the nomination if no Republican senator breaks ranks, and some liberals urged a delay of the confirmation. During a noon conference call hosted by liberal activist groups, one tactician advocated a strategy of using Mr. Mueller’s Russia investigation as a reason to postpone a vote on Judge Kavanaugh, possibly until after November’s midterm elections. “We cannot rush this nomination,” said Leslie Proll, a civil rights lawyer who is advising the NAACP on judicial nominations. “There is a pending criminal investigation into the president. It would be irresponsible for the Senate...

Some Democrats said they don’t have to wait for President Trump to pick a Supreme Court nominee — they’re voting “No” regardless of who he names. Sen. Bob Casey became the latest one, saying Monday that the entire process the president has followed was “corrupt” because he was working from a list he wrote with the help of the conservative Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society. Mr. Casey, Pennsylvania Democrat, said both of those groups have ties to corporations and he rejected anything that had their input. “Any judge on this list is fruit of a corrupt process straight from the...

WASHINGTON -- Imagine the horror of learning you have a terminal illness for which science has not yet come up with a treatment. Now imagine receiving the same diagnosis, and then learning a promising new treatment exists that could save your life -- but you can't get access to it thanks to governmental obstacles. That is the nightmare that befell Andrea Sloan, an Austin lobbyist who gave up her job at a high-priced law firm to advocate for victims of domestic violence. In 2007, Sloan was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and for more than six years tried every Food and...

On Sunday's Meet the Press, Chuck Todd grilled both Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer about Neil Gorsuch's confirmation hearing, the nuclear option, and filibustering. In the course of the conversation, Schumer's real motivation for wanting to stick to the 60-vote rule was revealed. Back on February 1st, Schumer insisted he merely wanted a fair process: "We Democrats will insist on a rigorous but fair process....It was a bar met by each of [former President] Obama’s nominations. Each received 60 votes. And most importantly, it’s the right thing to do.” On February 7, he wrote that opposing a "nuclear option"...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that even though Democrats don't have the votes to stop President Trump's cabinet nominees, their strategy is working by being able to highlight how bad they are. "When you get millions of calls and demonstrations and a nominee is exposed for being who they are, it's going to have a profound and positive effect, even if she gains office," Schumer said on Capitol Hill today after the confirmation of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on a tiebreaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence. "So we're very happy with the results and...

Sen. Jeff Sessions survived his first test floor vote Thursday, putting him on the path to win confirmation as the next attorney general.

Federal immigration officers refused to let an armed team of agents into their office to detain the accused conspirator in December’s San Bernardino terrorist attack, government officials acknowledged Tuesday, exposing an embarrassing lack of communication within the Department of Homeland Security. Those who ran the legal immigration benefits office in San Bernardino refused to let a team from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement enter to detain and hold Enrique Marquez so the FBI could interview him later, Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said. It turned out Mr. Marquez didn’t show for the meeting at the...

For those keeping score, over the last few months, Senate Democrats have used the filibuster -- which they railed against and eroded while in the majority -- to block a bill to pay our troops, to prevent any vote on President Obama's reckless Iran deal, to hold up funding for the VA, and to obstruct legislation helping victims of human trafficking because it didn't spend taxpayer dollars on abortions. (One can only hope the NRSC is keeping track of these votes for future attack ads).  Harry's crew is angling to add another notch in their obstructionist belt, with Reid vowing to filibuster a post-Paris bill designed to beef up...

I was interested to read the article from The Sun News on Thursday about the last-minute delay of the permit to pave International Drive. This project will take thousands of cars off of the gridlock of Highway 501, and relieve congestion in Carolina Forest. On the day before we were to receive the permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, the Coastal Conservation League filed an appeal. It seems they want the road to be redesigned to include multiple bear crossings, at a cost of millions of dollars to the taxpayers of Horry County. That’s millions of scarce taxpayer dollars...

Three cheers for right-wing obstructionism. Can we have more, please, and louder? This week's unanimous Supreme Court ruling on President Obama's illegal recess appointments is a double smackdown. First, it's a rebuke against arrogant White House power-grabbers who thought they could act with absolute impunity and interminable immunity. Second, the ruling is a reproach of all the establishment pushovers on Capitol Hill who put comity above constitutional principle. In a nutshell: The high court determined that Obama lawlessly exceeded his executive authority when he foisted three members onto the National Labor Relations Board in 2012, during what Democrats declared was...

Vice President Joe Biden, speaking in Minneapolis, Minn., Tuesday credited the Obama administration with the creation of “200,000 brand new good paying jobs.” Biden blamed “Republican obstructionism” for “slowing down” the Obama administration’s economic progress and said GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his allies “sound like squealing pigs” when they object to Democratic efforts to pass “the toughest Wall Street regulations in history.” “In spite of that, in spite of Governor Romney’s insistence to let Detroit go bankrupt, we rescued the automobile industry, saved a million