Free Republic

“I am going to fight every single Republican politician that participated in this disgraceful disaster…” Mark Levin Show February 25.Audio

America’s highway system, once a symbol of freedom and mobility envied the world over, is crumbling physically and financially, the potentially disastrous consequence of a politically driven road-building binge. President Barack Obama, state transportation officials, civil engineers, road builders and business groups all say that the country needs to invest trillions of dollars in its infrastructure, yet there’s little consensus on how to finance it or what the most pressing needs are. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the country needs $14 billion in additional federal funds each year just to maintain highways and $50 billion more to improve them....

The smell of bacon was in the air Saturday as thousands converged on Iowa's capital city for an increasingly popular festival celebrating all things connected with the meat. Some people wore Viking hats and others walked around with makeshift snouts for the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival. The annual event featured more than 10,000 pounds of bacon served in unusual ways, such as chocolate-dipped bacon and bacon-flavored cupcakes and gelato. "I love bacon more than I love my job," said Katie Nordquist, who was dressed in a tuxedo T-shirt that looked like bacon Saturday for her first time at the festival.

An investigation is under way after batches of halal meat products sent to prisons were found to contain traces of pork DNA. Pies and pasties have been withdrawn from a number of prisons following the discovery by the Food Standards Agency. UK Justice Minister Jeremy Wright said the incident was absolutely unacceptable. Under Islamic law, Muslims are strictly forbidden to eat pork. The products had been distributed to a number of prisons in England, with no indication that the problem has affected prisoners north of the Border. Mr Wright said the incident was being investigated as a matter of urgency....

Presidents are usually so far removed from us that we never appreciate how they can impact our daily lives. Here is how Ronald Reagan touched two lives on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain: ours. BILL I grew up as an Air Force brat. In 1962 my father was stationed Newfoundland, Canada where I was born. By age 11, I had visited or lived in 19 states and traveled to six foreign countries. From 1971 to 1973, my family lived in Taiwan while my father flew combat missions in and out of Vietnam. I had the early experience of knowing...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three months after Superstorm Sandy ravaged coastal areas in much of the Northeast, Congress on Monday sent a $50.5 billion emergency relief measure for storm victims to President Barack Obama for his signature. "I commend Congress for giving families and businesses the help they deserve, and I will sign this bill into law as soon as it hits my desk," Obama said in a statement late Monday. Despite opposition from conservatives concerned about adding billions of dollars more to the nation's debt, the Senate cleared the long-delayed bill, 62-36, after House Republicans had stripped it earlier this...

Efforts to eliminate pork and offset spending from the Hurricane Sandy relief package failed ... ... Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) offered another amendment that added $33.7 billion ... the Frelinghuysen amendment. According to Patrick Louis Knudsen of the Heritage Foundation: One of the most stunning elements in the amendment is $16 billion for the Community Development Block Grant, a slush fund that states and localities can hand out pretty much anywhere they choose. The amendment contains several pages of language ostensibly aimed at restricting use of the funds, but also says they can be applied to “other eligible events in...

The House on Tuesday evening approved an amendment to a huge Hurricane Sandy relief bill that adds $33.7 billion to the bill, nearly tripling the size of the main bill. Members approved the amendment from Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) in a 228-192 vote. It was opposed by 190 Republicans, but 38 Republicans joined 190 Democrats in support and allowed it to pass. That vote put the House on a path to passing a $50.7 billion disaster aid bill early Tuesday evening. Along the way, the House also rejected several other amendments that would have shaved millions of dollars off the...

When President Obama’s autopen turned the fiscal cliff deal into law, Americans might have thought that the federal government had begun to walk down the road to a balanced budget. But the 157-page American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 is business-as-usual. The backroom deal, chiefly engineered by Vice President Biden, fed the special-interest well while leaving the federal budget in crisis. The final bill includes some $68 billion in favors over the next ten years. The fiscal irresponsibility continues unabated. A look at the energy provisions alone shows why. For starters, the cliff deal renewed the twenty-years-and-counting “temporary” tax credit...

Even as it runs ads thanking America for a $182 billion bailout, insurer AIG might join a lawsuit claiming that shareholders were unfairly hurt by the terms of the federal rescue that kept it out of bankruptcy four years ago.

My apologies to the late Sir Winston Churchill, minter of the the original words “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma” speaking of the now defunct Soviet Union. This is the only way I can describe what I feel the upcoming Sandy Relief bill has become. One would think, after the disaster left in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, that elected officials from both parties would show some respect for citizens who have suffered the hurricanes destruction. That would be far beyond a reasonable expectation it now appears. Neil Cavuto, of Fox News, recently interviewed New...

SNIP Hagel, however, has friends in Democratic lobbying circles. The powerful Washington D.C. organization known as the Podesta Group is reportedly asking defense contractors for financial support to run ads defending the Hagel nomination. Fox News White House Chief White House Correspondent Ed Henry reported on Friday: (2:15 in) "Sources confirm to Fox [that] Democratic super lobbyist Tony Podesta has been hired by a firm known as the Bipartisan Group to help mobilize support for Hagel. And defense contractors received calls this week urging them to be ready for a Hagel pick as soon as Monday, and asking them for...

John Boehner got some unexpected support today over his off-again, on-again approach to the Hurricane Sandy relief bill. Boehner has pledged to allow a vote on both bills, which probably saved his speakership, but not until after getting publicly blasted by fellow Republicans Chris Christie and Peter King. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a radio audience today that the ire was misdirected — and should have been aimed at legislators that exploited a crisis to fund their own hobby horses: Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who previously declined to slam House Speaker John Boehner over Congress’ stalled Hurricane Sandy aid,...

I said this after Hurricane Sandy and I'll say it again. Chris Christie has started to grow on me. And no, that's not meant as a joke. Christie's straight talk of late may be just more bullying by a master politician, but it sure does ring true to me. In a parched partisan landscape where every move is done for political gain - "It's why the American people hate Congress," he said - Christie's tell-it-like-it-is rhetoric serves as needed refreshment for the masses. In case you missed it, the enraged New Jersey governor went off on his fellow Republicans Wednesday...

Speaking at a campaign event on September 22, 2008: "I'll make our government open and transparent so that anyone can ensure that our business is the people's business. As Justice Louis Brandeis once said, sunlight is the greatest disinfectant. As President, I will make it impossible for Congressmen or lobbyists to slip pork-barrel projects or corporate welfare into laws when no one is looking because when I am president, meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public. No more secrecy."

House Speaker John Boehner made a U-turn on Wednesday to clear the way for approval of $60 billion in Superstorm Sandy relief by mid-January after drawing withering fire from fellow Republicans, including New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, for canceling an earlier vote. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives will now vote on Friday on a $9 billion down payment for storm-related aid to the National Flood Insurance program. Boehner also assured New York and New Jersey lawmakers that the House will take a second vote on January 15 on the $51 billion remainder of the Sandy package. "This procedure that was...

The “fiscal cliff” compromise has been heralded as a saving grace for middle class taxpayers, their families and the unemployed. But buried in the fine print of the 150-page deal are also some lesser-known New Year’s gifts to some of Washington’s favorite industries. SNIP The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget listed the so-called “tax extenders” as a “bad” part of the fiscal cliff deal because their cost is not offset, “setting a bad precedent for future extensions.” The mix of tax perks covering the next year, but with budget implications for the next two years includes everything from...

While the American people are being hit with new ObamaCare taxes, and the ObamaDeficit is climbing through the roof and will pass 20 trillion dollars before long, there’s always plenty of sweetheart deals and pork to be found. 1. Hollywood. Celebrities flocked to Obama and the industry poured millions into his campaign. Payday comes in the form of an extension of the Special Expensing Rules which allow Hollywood productions to deduct 15 to 20 million dollars. That’s pretty generous considering that companies that manufacture medical devices are being hit with a tax. But who really needs pacemakers anyway when you’ve...

...a massive omnibus land grab that Dingy Harry Reid vowed yesterday to bring up before the stretched-out lame-duck session ends. It’s green pork galore: “Reid’s staff sees a natural resources omnibus as a rare chance for members to bring something home to their districts and therefore worth the extra time needed to see such a large bill through to completion.”