Free Republic

A $626 billion Pentagon budget narrowly advanced in the Senate Friday morning but not before Washington’s political battles seemed to eclipse the real wars of Iraq and Afghanistan overseas. The whole Senate scene, played out in a post midnight session on a freezing night, dramatized how poisonous the atmosphere has become in the health care fight.

Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La) rejected the notion that determining the Constitutionality of pending legislation was part of her job. The Senator’s shucking of this responsibility came in response to a questioner asking her where in the US Constitution is there the authority for congress to force people to buy health insurance. “My job is to get all I can for my constituents,” Landrieu argued. “Unlike most of my peers, I got $300 million in added benefits for my constituents in exchange for my vote in favor of the health care bill. I’m not going to let myself be bothered by...

Health Care Shocker: Special Democratic Voting Counties Would Get Protected Medicare Benefits http://www.breitbart.tv/healthcare-shocker-special-democratic-voting-counties-would-get-protected-medicare-benefits/

Last year's budget deficit of 10 percent of the economy ($1.4 trillion) shattered the post-war record. Far from just a temporary result of the recession, current estimates show the budget deficit rising to nearly $2 trillion by 2019.[2] At that point, the debt would be nearly 100 percent of the economy.

Mark Tijssen, a major in the Canadian military, stands in front of a meat smoker containing the remains of a pig that could cost him thousands of dollars in fines. Tijssen's family home was raided by members of the Intelligence and Investigations Section of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ottawa Police last month while he was preparing a pizza dinner for children on a Friday night. Mark Tijssen's family has been slaughtering their own animals and handing that skill from father to son for at least three generations. But changes to Ontario's Food Safety Act has landed him and...

The cost of a new jobs bill Democrats hope to move early next year runs to nearly $300 billion when major proposals under serious consideration are added up. Lawmakers are calling for extending aid to the unemployed, infrastructure spending, a hiring tax credit and increased small business loans. A number of the jobs proposals backed by Democrats make up a $230 billion package proposed by Mark Zandi of Moody's Economy.com, who made a presentation to Senate Democrats Wednesday. The provisions supported by Zandi along with new spending on infrastructure, a favored approach of top House Democrats, would cost between $291...

Scientists in the Netherlands have created pig in a test tube. Debate has already started on whether it will save the world, or just throw vegetarians into a quandary. In the meantime, the researchers may be in line for a celebratory feast: They could be the new front-runners for a million-dollar prize offered by a major animal rights group. The research team, funded by a major sausage maker and the Dutch government, used cells from a live pig to grow pork muscle tissue in a Petri dish. After extracting cells called myoblasts from the muscle of a live pig, the...

The Congressional Budget Office late Monday said it estimates that the federal stimulus package sustained between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs in the third quarter, and raised gross domestic product by 1.2 to 3.2 percentage points higher than it would have been without the program.

The Democrats are at it again.With unemployment passing 10% the President's party is looking at fixing a problem the only way they know how, throw some money at it. Yes we are talking Porkulus II. The Democrats are working on a growing list of relief efforts, leaving for later how to pay for them, or whether even to bother. If you are looking at tax cuts to be part of the package, I wouldn't hold my breath. Here's an Idea maybe they have Charlie Rangel pay the taxes he forgot about and we can use that for a tax rebate....

Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh make deeply offensive comments on a near daily basis on their respective radio programs. Mostly, I don't feel the need to draw attention to them. But yesterday both men crossed into completely unacceptable territory. Followers of the health care debate will know that Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu is high on the list of moderate Democrats who may ultimately vote against the bill. On Saturday, she was the second last Senator to lend her vote to a motion to open debate on the bill. Part of her motivation to consent came form a concession she successfully...

All it took for Senator Mary Landrieu to vote to open debate on the Democrats' leviathan health care reform measure was a hundred million. Or was it $300 million, as Landrieu claims? That's $100 million in aid to Louisiana for disaster relief plus another $200 million for Medicaid or whatever else she could weasel. And whatever she's saying about being undecided on final passage, don't buy it. The only way she'll cart off the dough is if the bill passes. But while the senator is preening like a peacock about the fat she plans to ladle from the federal pork...

November 19, 2009 Politics as Usual? A Glenn Beck case study Today's Show Segment Video-6:15

Now that Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn) has indicated he may vote against the President’s health care legislation his Democratic colleagues in the Senate are contemplating how to persuade him to come back into line with the Democratic Party’s position on the issue. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) warned Lieberman that “bad things may happen to him if he can’t fully support the Democratic Party’s agenda. If he’s raising supposed ‘matters of conscience’ or placing his notion of duty to his constituents or the good of the nation ahead of loyalty to the Democratic Party, he should have to pay a price....

As of 11-6-09 The signed stimulus contracts for non-government business is at $32,511,586,374.70 (Billion). One third of this amount is for pharmaceuticals preparation manufacturers $11,285,033,973.18 (Billion) Base and All Options Value From the TAS Recovery chart on the site link.

Ron Paul vindicated once again, globalists loose their lunch. Rock on Dr Paul! Bring it

Interactive map and links to earmark spending by state.

The hits just keep on coming, while you wait in line, Gitmo detainees will have their vaccines delivered,...these are the fools running our country...(Story here)

TUSCALOOSA | The Tuscaloosa City Council Finance Committee voted to move ahead with an $8.5 million bond issue rather than waiting a year as Mayor Walt Maddox recommended. The committee's vote is a recommendation to the full City Council, but a straw ballot of council members, who were all present at the committee meeting, indicated that a majority favors the bond issue. On a 20-year repayment schedule, the bond issue would cost the city about $650,000 a year in debt service. The council had asked Maddox for a recommended list of projects. The estimated total and the annual debt service...

The government's economic stimulus spending has already had its biggest impact and probably won't contribute to significant growth next year, a top White House adviser said Thursday. Christina Romer, the chair of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, said the initial jolt of the $787 billion stimulus expanded the economy in the second and third quarters of this year. But she said the remaining spending will simply keep the economy from slipping. "By mid-2010," she said, "fiscal stimulus will likely be contributing little to further growth." That assessment underscored the fragility of an economic recovery marked by stubbornly high...

Below are some suggestions for lawmakers and judges to bring about a more just country: Intolerance-Justice should be based on each case and circumstance involving current law and precedent. The idiotic case of six-year-old Zachary Christie is akin to the type of lack of foresight that has parents throughout the land scratching their heads. Zachary had NO CLUE he was committing a crime with a nonflexible sentence of 45 days in a reform school. His crime? As a proud new Cub Scout, he brought a multifaceted eating and tool utensil to his school to show his little friends. Conclusion? When...

7 promises that then candidate Obama has already broken. We hope that all the people of the ObamaNation are happy with their president.

The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have taken a small but significant step to eliminate – well, almost – one of the most outrageous congressional behaviors in defense legislation. For years, these committees have raided the Pentagon’s critical Operation and Maintenance accounts to offset the cost of earmarks (pork) they add to their bills. A major part of the O&M budget pays for training, weapons maintenance, food, fuel, spare parts, and all the other things troops need when they go to war. Even though O&M spending is the budgetary embodiment of “Support Our Troops,” and even though research on these raids...

The Congressional Pig Book is Citizens Against Government Waste's annual compilation of the pork-barrel projects in the federal budget. The 2009 Pig Book identified 10,160 projects at a cost of $19.6 billion in the 12 Appropriations Acts for fiscal 2009...Search all 10,160 projects by keyword, member, state, party or appropriations bill.

What? Not only has the Democrat president dragged his feet for weeks on end deciding whether to send reinforcements to support the 17,000 men and women of the arms forces that he chose to send to Afghanistan. His hand picked General, General McChrysal has called for 10,000 to 40,000 troops, not to win the war but just to maintain status quo which is a travesty. Now unbelievably Democrats are stealing troop funds meant for guns and ammo. How in the world is this happening and is this how Democrats govern? Apparently so! $2.6 billion dollars is what Democrats have so...

WASHINGTON – Gov. Rick Perry has hammered Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison time and again as a Washington-style big spender. He decries the $2.6 billion that she slipped "secretly" into the last two annual budgets. But he doesn't know the half of it. By Hutchison's own accounting, she has steered $8.7 billion to Texas in the last five years. And as Congress finalizes the 2010 budget, the haul will probably exceed $10 billion – a staggering sum that has never been tallied before. It ranks her among the most successful earmarkers in congressional history. How that plays in the GOP gubernatorial...

A follow-up to my post last weekend about what a disgraceful, denialist crank this guy is. Let me go in chronological order, as there’s so much here that’s either dumb or dishonest that I’ll overlook something if I don’t. 1. Who are the mysterious “neocons” who forced poor Barack Obama to disclose the secret Qom site, which Paul would have you believe he didn’t want to do even though he’s been preparing to do it for months? Or have I misunderstood and he’s actually suggesting that Obama’s been duped and that there’s no secret Qom site at all, even though...

Times are tough out in the country and the world, but on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are poised to give their own budgets significant increases.While the unemployment rate continues to rise and President Obama made a big deal of giving most federal workers only a 2 percent raise this year, lawmakers play by a different set of rules.In the House of Representatives, Congressmen’s “representational allowances and expenses” are set to get an 8.4 percent kick up over last year. The full Congressional budget – part of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill that will get a final Senate vote at 4:30 –...

WASHINGTON — The Nevada Cancer Institute, in Las Vegas, may not have a national reputation as a clinic or a research facility. But it does have the ear of its state’s senior senator, Harry Reid, the Democratic leader. And that is why the four-year-old institute could reap a big gain in federal reimbursements as part of the health care overhaul. Thanks to Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Cancer Institute could benefit from the health bill. After months of noisy public debates over big policy ideas like universal coverage and a public insurance option, the health care legislation is getting down...

John Murtha who has turned congressional earmarks into an art-form has directed two-hundred million of your tax dollars to the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport. The Airport has so many pictures of the Congressman you would think that it was a monument to the pork-meister. Even that wouldn't be so bad if the airport was actually used, but Murtha Airport gets a total of THREE commercial flights a day, from Johnstown to Washington DC. This tribute to John Murtha is literally the airport to nowhere. Last week Senate Republican introduced,and the Democrats voted voted down an amendment by Senator DeMint...

September 17, 2009 Roll call number 284 (Amendment number S.Amdt.2410) in the Senate Question On the Amendment (DeMint Amdt. No. 2410 ) Amendment purpose To limit the use of funds for the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport.

In the next 16 days, Congress will spend more than $3 trillion in taxpayer money. To cover these programs, some Americans will be working up to three hours of each day. Vast amounts of that money will be spent in the form of earmarks, specially designated pet projects that members of Congress use to bring federal funds back to their home states. Since 44 congressmen make no earmarks at all, that means the rest are doing more than their share. For example, in the House, just 4 percent of members took home 32 percent of all the bacon -- and...

A California solar company will get a huge boost from the government today. Vice President Joe Biden is expected to announce more than half a billion dollars in federal loan guarantees.

One night last August, John Murtha, the U.S. Representative from PennsylvaniaÂ’s Twelfth Congressional District, paid a visit to the LBK Game Ranch, a private hunting camp in the hills above his home city of Johnstown. About 60 people had gathered in the ranchÂ’s lodge--a luxury five-bedroom log cabin decorated with deer antlers and flat-screen televisions--to raise money for his 2008 campaign. There were two odd things about the event. One was that the host was a former drug dealer. Bill Kuchera, a stocky man with a balding pate and a bristle-brush mustache, had run a bar near Johnstown in the...

Initial Round of Cash Assistance for Wind, Solar Projects in Eight States Will Create Jobs, Increase DevelopmentWASHINGTON– Marking a major milestone in the effort to spur private sector investments in clean energy and create new jobs for America's workers, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced $502 million in the first round of awards from an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) program that provides cash assistance to energy production companies in place of earned tax credits. The new funding creates additional upfront capital, enabling companies to create jobs and begin construction that may have...

Sunning lazily this week on the rocky shores of Martha's Vineyard, President Obama is in a terrible pickle. He has flushed billions of taxpayers' hard-earned dollars down the toilet "stimulating" the economy, acquiring insolvent car companies, and buying up clunkers that are immediately rendered inoperable by the feds -- an apparent government specialty. Launched from obscurity on the stiff winds of antiwar fervor, Obama now owns an intractable war in Afghanistan that will require years of enormous financial commitment, unshakable patience and unbending determination -- all things that were once in such long supply for the Iraq war. And now...

Syracuse, NY - An economic stimulus grant for sex research at Syracuse University has won the attention of Republican critics in Washington. The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $219,000 stimulus grant for psychology professor Michael Carey to study the "hookups" of 500 freshmen women. The project description says there appears to be an increase in hookups, defined as sexual encounters between adolescent partners who have no expectation of romantic commitment. But there is little scientific investigation of it. The research will measure the prevalence of hookups in the first year of college and explore the mental and physical...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain is refusing to consider raising taxes to reduce the ballooning deficit. McCain was asked on ABC's "This Week" whether he would make a similar pledge as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to do whatever it takes to bring down the deficit over the long run, such as raising taxes. The Arizona Republican said "no."

This is a great dish to serve for Sunday dinner! The trick - start on Saturday night...

It seems every election we are promised by both parties to get earmarks (pork) under control. They always promise to be better than previous legislatures were, but they always seem to increase their wasteful spending. So how does your Nevada congressional members rank for fiscal year 2009, and how much pork barrel spending were they responsible for? From best to worst as far as pork is concerned:

The cost of earmarks increased this year despite lawmakers' claims they're working to reduce pork-barrel spending. Earmarks, which are inserted in appropriations bills by members in order to fund specific projects, added up to $19.9 billion in 2009, according to an analysis by the Taxpayers for Common Sense and Center for Responsive Politics. Earmarks in 2008 spending bills were worth $18.3 billion. Earmark critics have said that the practice increases pork-barrel spending and takes funds away from national priorities. "At a minimum, earmarks granted to lawmakers' friends and supporters merit scrutiny and indicate potential conflicts of interest," said Sheila Krumholz,...

Congress plans to spend $550 million to buy eight jets, a substantial upgrade to the fleet used by federal officials at a time when lawmakers have criticized the use of corporate jets by companies receiving taxpayer funds. The purchases will help accommodate growing travel demand by congressional officials. The planes augment a fleet of about two dozen passenger jets maintained by the Air Force for lawmakers, administration officials and military chiefs to fly on government trips in the U.S. and abroad. The congressional shopping list goes beyond what the Air Force had initially requested as part of its annual...

He just now said there was no prok or earmark spending in the $787B stimulus bill.

Certifiable: What with president Obama's 48th birthday coming up Tuesday, the debate continues. Was he born in the U.S. - or not?

ELKHART COUNTY — Dairy farmers across the country are being milked dry by rising production costs and falling prices. On Friday, the federal government unveiled a new plan aimed at providing "immediate relief." But, will it work? And, what will it mean for you at the grocery store? The U.S. Department of Agriculture plan will raise the price paid at commodity markets for milk and cheddar cheese. Administrators call it a "dairy price support program." Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack says it will help the dairy industry weather "one of it's worst crises in decades." The price paid by dairy...

The Democratic-controlled House is poised to give the Pentagon dozens of new ships, planes, helicopters and armored vehicles that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says the military does not need to fund next year, acting in many cases in response to defense industry pressures and campaign contributions under an approach he has decried as "business as usual" and vowed to help end. The unwanted equipment in a military spending bill expected to come to a vote on the House floor Thursday or Friday has a price tag of at least $6.9 billion. The White House has said that some but...

Message from Mayor Carlos Alvarez Miami-Dade County is looking for ways to spur the economy, create jobs and invest in our future. Everything we do is about improving the quality of life for our residents. To us, recovery and reinvestment are not just "buzz" words. They are our mantra and our creed as we work to make the best possible use of stimulus dollars, and emerge from this economic downturn better and stronger. Learn what Miami-Dade County is doing with the help of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

SYRACUSE NY--President Barack Obama claims that the federal stimulus program is designed to create or save jobs. But at least one government official now says that's not how projects are chosen..... Sally Rockey, an acting deputy director at the National Institutes of Health, has admitted that the agency does not choose projects based on the jobs they would create: The National Institutes of Health, the country's top research agency, is awarding recovery money to projects proposed long before the recession. With $8 billion extra dollars to spend on research, agency officials went back to the list of projects that had...

Sometimes, federal pork is just that - pork. Internet newsman Matt Drudge drew squeals of anger from President Obama's agriculture chief on Monday after his Drudge Report Web site revealed the feds spent millions of stimulus dollars on piglet-sized pork products. One contract, listed on the government's recovery.gov Web site, indicated that federal bean counters had spent $1.19 million for "2 pound frozen ham sliced." An additional $16.7 million contract was earmarked simply for "canned pork." But Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack insisted Monday that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contracts were all, er, kosher, and dismissed Drudge's take as...

The Washington Post reports that the F-22 amendment in the senate defense spending bill was voted down 58-40. Many have called this pork, and I’m inclined to agree with them. However, I’m confused by a few things, namely that taking the Obama administration’s stimulus logic full circle seems to justify the F-22 program. There are tons of stimulus projects that create less jobs and are of dubious merit. For an aviation related example look at the small airports that receive million of dollars and serve minuscule communities. I’m positive that the F-22 program would “save or create” far more jobs...