Free Republic

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates' scathing assessment of President Obama's handling of the Afghanistan war pales in comparison to what he thinks about Congress. In Gates' memoir, "Duty," which hit the bookstores on Tuesday, the former Pentagon boss puts his poison pen to the work of skewering what he calls an "incompetent" and "egotistical" institution.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation doesn't plan to file criminal charges over the Internal Revenue Service's heightened scrutiny of conservative groups, according to law-enforcement officials, a move that likely will only intensify debate over the politically charged scandal. The officials said investigators didn't find the kind of political bias or "enemy hunting" that would amount to a violation of criminal law. Instead, what emerged during the probe was evidence of a mismanaged bureaucracy...

Pelosi to Reporter: It’s Not Obamacare, It’s The Affordable Care Act BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff January 9, 2014 4:45 pm House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) retorted to a reporter’s question about slipping support for Obamacare at her Thursday press conference that it was called the “Affordable Care Act.”Pelosi has referred to the law previously as Obamacare, although she also told Meet the Press host David Gregory she’d “always” called it the Affordable Care Act during a contentious November interview.Full exchange:Q: The three “Obamacare” bills on the floor tomorrow in the House, some Democrats have indicated they might...

<p>On Friday a producer and former CBS reporter named Itay Hod put up a Facebook post intended to out Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock. The tabloid media, for years, has played a game with the young Republican—wink-wink stories about his photoshoot for a men's health magazine, the sexy celebrities he follows on Twitter, stuff like that.</p>

A new study of how criminals vote found that most convicts register Democratic, a key reason in why liberal lawmakers and governors are eager for them to get back into the voting booth after their release. “Democrats would benefit from additional ex-felon participation,” said the authoritative study in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

DNC sends email defending Obama from impeachment possibility Posted By Patrick Howley On 7:11 PM 12/28/2013 In | No Comments The Democratic National Committee (DNC) sent out a paranoid email Saturday evening urging supporters to vote for Democrats so that Republicans can’t impeach President Obama. The email, subject line “Impeachment,” was sent to Obama for America supporters, imploring them to contribute to the DNC’s 2014 efforts. “What do these people all have in common?,” the email asked, featuring quotes from Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Rep. Kerry Bentivolio of Michigan, and Rep. Blake Farenthold...

Congress has itself to blame for its low ratings among the American people. Policymaking is all about choices; it is the calculus of weighing costs and benefits and the distribution of those costs and benefits. In theory, there are lots of policies that can make everyone better off, but they can only be accomplished by redistributing the gains of the policy.

While certain Democrats remain undaunted in their insistence that the whole lot of ‘em are totally, absolutely, unequivocally going to be running on ObamaCare in 2014 and using it “as an advantage,” other Democrats are clearly feeling a little more… well, daunted. CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO When Sen. Landrieu learned that individuals who liked their health insurance could no longer keep it, despite the President’s promise, she wrote legislation to insure that the promise was kept. As a result, the President issued guidance allowing states and insurance companies to renew individual health plans for another year. Dang. This...

The late, great Milton Friedman used to say, there's no such thing as a free lunch. The ancient Romans had another pointed saying: "Quod erat demonstrandum," meaning, roughly, remember now what I told you, doofus? To put it another way, is there room for surprise in the report that high deductibles may contribute to making Obamacare something less than the divine blessing its authors meant it to be? For all the comforting promises out of D.C., relayed to the general public with profound sweetness, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Someone always pays. To believe otherwise is a)...

This Dec. 3 interview with local television — just wow....Even the New York Times has at least come up with a weasely explanation for the false promise. Reid is simply insisting that it's true....

The health care revolution will not be televised despite what President Obama promised you two years ago. Obama has broken his campaign promises to make the health care debate a transparent process after saying he would do so on at least eight occasions during his 2008 White House run.

Nancy Pelosi’s proud of Obamacare. Debbie Wasserman Schultz thinks it’s wonderful. Democratic strategists are scared. **SNIP** “We’re trying to deny what everyone knows is happening,” a Democratic polling veteran told Politico. “Anybody who is halfway intelligent knows this is a big … problem for us. It’s impossible not to see. We can try to hide our heads in the sand and pretend it’s not a problem, but it is.” If the past is prologue, that pollster’s right. In the 2010 mid-terms, the last time Americans went to the polls without President Obama on the ballot, Democrats were washed out of...

It appears one Democrat member of Congress has decided to drop the mask and reveal who he really is. Unbelievably, Charlie Rangel told NY1 that “President Obama should drop the charade of democracy and rule directly through executive orders.” I mean, why not? After all, Rep. Rangel’s own relationship with following laws is fuzzy at best, given his problems with tax evasion.

"This is history and the future and progress," she stated emphatically, "It stands right there as Social Security, Medicare, affordable health care, as a right, not a privilege for the few, but a right for the many." She was speaking Tuesday at an event sponsored by BuzzFeed. Pelosi acknowledged she was "really disappointed" that the technology behind the website failed, but said she was excited to see the program fully implemented. "You can imagine coming from Northern California what I think of that," she said, referring to Silicon Valley. "But none the less, it will work and the policy is...

Gillibrand admitted to Martha Raddatz today on This Week, “We all knew,” Obama was not being honest when he told Americans they could keep their insurance. Raddatz: Do you feel misled by Obama? Gillibrand: He should have been more specific… Raddatz: So were you misled? http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/11/wow-ny-senator-admits-we-all-knew-obama-was-lying-about-o-care-video/ Gillibrand: No, we all knew. The whole point of the plan is to cover things people need.

Obama has apologized for claiming "if you like your health plan you can keep it," but Democrats to his left are standing their ground. Nancy Pelosi was unrepentant at a press conference on Friday, Politico reports. She said Obama had no need to apologize because his claim was "absolutely" precise. "There's nothing in the Affordable Care Act that says that your insurance company should cancel you," she told reporters. "That's not what the Affordable Care Act is about. It simply didn't happen."

Citing the Heath and Human Services website, a report posted Wednesday at the Freedom Outpost says that under Obamacare, government agents can engage in "home health visits" for those in certain “high-risk” categories. Those categories include: • Families where mom is not yet 21; • Families where someone is a tobacco user; • Families where children have low student achievement, developmental delays, or disabilities, and • Families with individuals who are serving or formerly served in the armed forces, including such families that have members of the armed forces who have had multiple deployments outside the United States.

Why do a vast majority of the American public continue to fall for the constant lies coming out of Washington?What is it that they just don’t see?Time and time again the rug is pulled out from under them and they still fall for the same old “bait and switch”.Politicians know it and now they have no qualms about continuing the lies even after we know they are lies! I remember a time when at least they tried to cover it up, (Richard Nixon), or they came clean after they were caught, (Bill Clinton).Today however, they fabricate a lie in order...

**SNIP** Lautenberg died in June after nearly three decades in the U.S. Senate. Many people would agree that he is owed a debt of gratitude but not everybody agrees that his widow Bonnie should receive $174,000, funded by taxpayers. Lautenberg was worth nearly $60-million. “I don’t think it’s right. I mean most us can’t afford death benefits like that. You know we would be happy to have a little bit saved just to bury ourselves,” Wayne resident Carol Dabaghian said. The payoff was buried in the government shutdown bill. It is a death benefit that is almost always approved and...

**SNIP** Smith said the inauguration of the Obamacare exchanges reveals that many health insurance plans throughout the nation will include abortion on demand—even late term abortions. Smith recalled that in October 2009, President Obama said in a speech to a joint session of Congress that, “under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortion… .” A week after the Obamacare rollout, many are now discovering that—contrary to solemn promises made by the President himself—Obamacare violates the Hyde Amendment by funding plans that include abortion. “The new law requires premium payers to be assessed an abortion surcharge every...