Free Republic

Some Democrats are raising concerns that an ObamaCare tax trade-off taking shape in Congress this week could whet the appetite of other industries looking to chip away at the law. House and Senate leaders say they are inching closer to a year-end tax package - likely wrapped into the governing spending bill - that would pause both the healthcare law's "Cadillac tax" and its medical device tax for two years. Delaying the taxes would deliver a major win to labor groups and the medical device industry, respectively, after years of heavy lobbying against the provisions. And even as most supporters...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday called on the House to take up legislation to ban guns from terrorist suspects, and said Congress needs to take this step to fulfill its duty to protect all Americans from violence. "We cannot remain silent," the California Democrat said at a hearing of the Democrats' Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. "For us to honor the responsibilities that we have to protect and defend the American people, we must not only have moments of silence, we must have days of action." "To start, we can and must bring up the bipartisan Deny Firearms...

At a Capitol Hill press conference on Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blamed mass shootings on "incendiary language ... that make people think" it's okay to resolve conflict in a violent way. "I think we have to recognize that we have to create a climate in our country where violence is considered really wrong and that it isn't an option for conflict resolution and that it isn't something that shouldn't be avoided at all costs, and we shouldn't have incendiary language that creates a climate where people think this might be okay," she said. ...

Ten Senate Democrats flew to Paris on Friday morning to promote the climate change accord negotiations under way in France's capital city. The group, led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), is planning to participate in meetings and other events to help negotiators reach a deal and promote the United States's leadership in the process. "U.S. leadership has played a critical role in bringing us to this time in history and we will not walk away from this global opportunity," Cardin said in a statement released upon his arrival. "The Paris agreement will help create...

Congressional Democrats filed an extraordinary brief with the Supreme Court late Thursday urging the justices to overturn a lower court ruling and reinstate President Obama executive amnesty, arguing that the executive branch has a better handle on immigration than Capitol Hill. Led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, the 218 Democrats said Congress intended for Mr. Obama to have sweeping powers to grant proactive stays of deportation, work permits and Social Security numbers to the more than 11 million illegal immigrants estimated to be in the country. "The patterns of immigration are subject to...

Congress has no right to moments of silence for victims of gun violence unless lawmakers intend to take action to prevent it, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) charged Thursday. "Gun violence is a crisis of epidemic proportion in our nation," she said during a press briefing in the Capitol. "We've had far too many moments of silence on the floor of the House. And while it is right to respectfully acknowledge the losses, we can no longer remain silent. "What gives us the right to hold moments of silence when we do nothing to act upon the cause of...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) teed off Thursday on the Republicans' omnibus spending bill, saying the GOP's initial offer for funding the government constitutes a "Tea Party policy wish list" that "literally takes your breath away." "This is not an appropriations bill with a few policy riders," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. "This is a Tea Party policy wish list with an appropriations bill as an addendum to it. "This is not the way you - fulfill a budget that fulfills the needs of the American people." Pelosi and the Democrats wasted no time this week rejecting the...

Under the Affordable Care Act, young adults are allowed to stay on their parents' health insurance up to age 26. Since people generally like the idea of helping their own children avoid sickness and financial ruin, this has been one of the law's more popular features. But how exactly has the rule changed life for American twentysomethings? According to one new study, it seems to have given them a bit more leeway to bum around and find themselves - which is just about what you'd expect to happen when getting a job isn't a prerequisite for getting insurance. In a...

Troubling signs about the Affordable Care Act and the state of health care in the U.S. have bubbled up in the last few weeks. The administration's Obamacare enrollment projections for the coming year are down, the projected cost of premiums and out of pocket costs are up, nearly half of the insurance co-ops associated with the program are going out of business, and UnitedHealth Group, the nation's largest health insurer, said it may withdraw from the government marketplaces in 2017. Now comes a new survey by Gallup showing growing discontent with Obamacare and the U.S. health-care industry more generally after...

How dare the Obama administration bail out insurance companies with our money in order to hide ObamaCare's failures. Thursday, just hours after giant insurer UnitedHealthcare said it's losing money selling ObamaCare plans and will likely exit the health exchanges next year, the Obama administration quietly promised to bail out insurers for their losses - using your money. Nearly all insurers are bleeding red ink trying to sell the unworkable plans. Without a bailout, more insurers will abandon ObamaCare, pushing it closer to its demise. A bailout would benefit insurers and the Democratic Party, which is desperate to cover up the...

It wasn't very long ago that President Obama would jeer at Republicans for the many congressional votes they had taken to amend or repeal his healthcare law. But, much though he loves to jeer - his shameful and unpresidential fit of pique about GOP concerns on terrorists camouflaged as refugees, was a recent example - the president may soon beg them for a few more such votes. Because as its sixth birthday approaches, his health insurance law is in critical condition. The latest bad Obamacare news came on Thursday, when America's largest insurer had to tell Wall Street that it...

Some 250 patients receiving treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center are facing a crisis because they signed up with the only ObamaCare insurer in New York that provides coverage at the world-renowned hospital - and the insurer is going bust. Now the patients either have to find new insurers and doctors or pay higher out-of-pocket costs for extended care at Sloan. State regulators are removing Health Republic Insurance of New York from the ObamaCare exchange as of Nov. 30 because the company is gushing red ink - losing more than $130 million in 18 months.

The moment when you realize how we've all been had...

**SNIP** Obamacare's employer mandate, which requires companies to provide affordable health insurance to their workers or pay fines, will take full effect next year. Currently, only firms with 100 or more workers had to comply with the rule. But starting Jan. 1, 2016, businesses with 50 or more full-time workers will have to furnish coverage for at least 95 percent of their employees. This mandate will cost companies dearly. It requires them to cover employees' adult children up to age 26. What's more, an employee's share of the premium can't amount to more than 9.5 percent of his or her...

It really is stunning how open the republican leadership in both the House and Senate are with their disdain for the base of their own party. Reports now surfacing that the GOPe has entered negotiations with Nancy Pelosi to support Paul Ryan. According to Roll Call the Democrats are willing to elect Ryan if the GOPe promise to give them comprehensive immigration reform and amnesty legislation. Representative Steve King warns of the political bloodbath which would follow such a deal. As Rep. Paul Ryan’s history of working for open borders has come under increasing scrutiny, conservative lawmakers have begun to...

You may recall that we recently talked about a sad day in the City by the Bay when it was announced that San Francisco’s last remaining gun shop would close its doors at the end of this month. After living through one wave of regulations after another they finally learned that they would be forced to videotape every transaction which took place in the store and proactively turn those videos over to the local police each week even if there wasn’t a hint of an allegation that the customers had done anything wrong. That was, as the store manager...

Washington corrupts, and Congressman Stephen Fincher is proof... It would be an understatement to say Fincher has come to terms with boondoggles and special interests. Fincher, once an opponent of the Export-Import Bank —a federal agency that subsidizes foreign buyers of U.S.-made goods — now is trying to undermine his party's leadership by teaming up with Nancy Pelosi and her party in order to reauthorize Ex-Im Bank.... Fincher has raised a quarter-million for his re-election, according to his most recent campaign finance filing...... More than 99 percent of the money powering Fincher's re-election bid comes from political action committees (almost...

Newt Gingrich said he would consider taking up the Speaker’s gavel again if called upon to by House Republicans. The former Speaker initially denied any interest in a return to Congress, but when pressed in an interview with radio show host Sean Hannity on Thursday, admitted he would consider it if he had the votes.

On the Wonder of the Word of God Msgr. Charles Pope • October 1, 2015 • The first reading at Mass today (Thursday of the 26th week of the year) from Nehemiah 8 is a wonderful meditation on the glory and wonder of the Word of God; it deserves our attention.The background of the text is that Israel had been conquered by the Babylonians (in 587 B.C.) and the survivors of that war were led into exile in Babylon. After 80 years the Persians conquered the Babylonians and Cyrus, the king of Persia, permitted the Jews to return to the...

Several hours after posting a news story with several errors, including in the headline—about a CNSNews.com reporter asking Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a question about human life—The Washington Post fixed the errors in the story by reporter Kelsey Snell but only noted one “correction” at the story’s end in the changed copy. On Thursday, Oct. 1, CNSNews.com reporter Sam Dorman attended Pelosi’s weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol and asked her, “In reference to funding for Planned Parenthood, is an unborn baby with a human heart and a human liver a human being?” […] In Kelsey Snell’s story posted...