Free Republic

The Senate early Friday morning confirmed President Trump’s pick to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Liberal firebrand and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren slammed President Trump Cabinet picks Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) and Steven Mnuchin Wednesday in a series of tweets accusing Trump of neglecting his promise to "drain the swamp." The Democratic senator accused both Price and Mnuchin of lying during their hearings as nominees to lead the Health and Treasury departments, respectively. "This isn't a game Senate GOP. The safety of our economy and health of our people could be in the hands of two men who lied to the US Senate," Warren said. .@HHSGov nom Price lied to the Senate about a sweetheart...

Petulance not rewarded today Congratulations to Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee. They have achieved an almost impossible goal: They refused to show up and do their jobs, and yet they somehow managed to fail at not doing them. As a result, that nominations of Tom Price for Secretary of Health and Human Services and Steve Mnuchin for Secretary of the Treasury are on their way to the full Senate for likely confirmation. The Democrats’ gambit was boycott the Finance Committee votes on both nominees, thus preventing the Republican majority from taking a vote because the rules say there has...

Republicans muscled through committee approval of President Donald Trump's nominees for Treasury and Health on Wednesday, suspending a key Senate rule in the latest escalation of partisan tensions in Congress. Democrats boycotted a Finance Committee meeting and Republicans responded by temporarily scuttling a rule requiring at least one Democrat to be present for votes. The committee then approved Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., to become Health secretary and financier Steve Mnuchin to be Treasury secretary by a pair of 14-0 votes. Democrats had been demanding time to ask more questions about both nominees. Democrats say there were unresolved questions about both...

Senate Republicans took an extraordinary step Wednesday to move forward with two of President Donald Trump's top Cabinet nominees after confronting a boycott from Democrats across the aisle. Republican lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee -- the panel that oversees the nomination of Steve Mnuchin to be Treasury secretary and Rep. Tom Price to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services -- gathered for the second day in a row with Democrats on the committee refusing to show up. Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, pointing to the "extraordinary circumstances" of the meeting, allowed the Republicans...

Full out war between Democrats and the White House broke out today when Senate Democrats on Tuesday refused to attend a committee vote on two President Trump’s more controversial nominees, effectively delaying their consideration. Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee boycotted votes to advance Tom Price, Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, and Steven Mnuchin, his selection to head the Treasury Department. Since at least one democrat must be on present for the vote to be held, the move will effectively delay and potentially prevent the confirmation votes on Mnuchin and Price. The duo is...

Washington (CNN)Rep. Tom Price last year purchased shares in a medical device manufacturer days before introducing legislation that would have directly benefited the company, raising new ethics concerns for President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services secretary.Price bought between $1,001 to $15,000 worth of shares last March in Zimmer Biomet, according to House records reviewed by CNN.Less than a week after the transaction, the Georgia Republican congressman introduced the HIP Act, legislation that would have delayed until 2018 a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulation that industry analysts warned would significantly hurt Zimmer Biomet financially once fully...

Left without the power to filibuster, Democrats are settling on another strategy to derail President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees: Demand more information. It’s the same tactic that helped Democrats sink some nominees the last time they were in the minority, during the George W. Bush administration. But they may have dented their own cause by powering through President Obama’s picks and drawing a road map that Republicans will now employ to confirm Mr. Trump’s nominations. The first target for the strategy is Rep. Tom Price, the anti-Obamacare crusader whom Mr. Trump tapped to run the Department of Health and Human Services....

During the presidential campaign, Republican Donald Trump said he would not cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, but no matter. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the next Senate minority leader, on Tuesday warned that Republicans are “plotting a war on seniors.” The New York Democrat said he was “so disappointed” that Trump has nominated Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) to be his Health and Human Services secretary. “When it comes to issues like Medicare, the Affordable Care Act and Planned Parenthood, Congressman Price and the average American couldn’t be further apart,” Schumer told a news conference on Capitol Hill. …

President-elect Donald Trump’s choices for health secretary and administrator of the government’s largest health insurance programs have for years pursued a sharply conservative agenda that includes redefining Medicare, placing “personal responsibility” requirements on low-income recipients of Medicaid, or dismantling the Affordable Care Act. If adopted, this agenda could dramatically alter access to insurance and medical services for more than 100 million Americans covered through the two entitlement programs and the ACA. Trump has nominated Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and health consultant Seema Verma to run the HHS agency that oversees Medicare...

By picking Georgia Rep. Tom Price as his point man on healthcare, Donald Trump calmed conservatives who have been concerned about the president-elect’s commitment to overturning ­ObamaCare. Trump’s announcement on Tuesday that he wanted Price to be secretary of Health and Human Services suggests the president-elect is serious about repealing ­ObamaCare.

As Cortney relayed last night as the news was breaking, President-Elect Donald Trump has selected Rep. Tom Price, MD -- a Georgia Republican -- to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services. This is exceptionally good news, representing perhaps Trump's strongest pick to date. On the heels of hapless, Obamacare-tainted HHS chiefs Kathleen Sebelius and Sylvia Burwell, Price will be a breath of fresh air, if confirmed.  Conservatives should celebrate and support his nomination for three principal reasons: (1) Price hasn't merely been a vocal Obamacare critic, as many news accounts are describing him. He has, of course, forcefully objected to...

As a congressman, Georgia Republican Tom Price has been thwarted in his hopes to repeal the Affordable Care Act and transform Medicare into a voucher-like program for future participants. Now, as President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Price will wield great power as Trump’s top health policy adviser and preside, Republicans hope, over the dismantlement of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. Price, 62, carries himself with a surgeon’s confidence and possesses deep knowledge of health policy. He is one of very few Republicans to actually propose a replacement for Obamacare, and...

President-elect Donald Trump has selected Georgia Rep. Tom Price, a leading critic of President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care law, to head the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a person familiar with the decision. If confirmed by the Senate, Price will play a central role in Republican efforts to repeal and replace the current health care law. Trump has pledged to move quickly on overhauling the landmark measure, but has been vague about what he hopes to see in a replacement bill. …

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump has selected Representative Tom Price, a six-term Republican congressman from Georgia who has led opposition to the Affordable Care Act, to be secretary of health and human services, according to a transition team official. Mr. Price, an orthopedic surgeon, has been a severe critic of the health law, saying it interferes with the ability of patients and doctors to make medical decisions. And he says that events have borne out his warnings. “Premiums have gone up, not down,” Mr. Price said recently. “Many Americans lost the health coverage they were told time and time...

The top exec at an oil trading company thinks the era of crude trading at over $100 a barrel might never return, and the stuff could remain between $40 and $60 for as long as the next 10 years. "You have to believe that there is a possibility that you will not necessarily go back above $100, you know, ever," Ian Taylor, Chief Executive Officer of Vitol Group BV, told Bloomberg. His company is the world's largest independent oil trader. Instead of any significant increase or decrease, the exec believes crude could hit $45 to $50 a barrel in the...

The Russian economy's heavy reliance on energy, plus Western sanctions imposed because of Moscow's role in the Ukraine conflict, have left the country in its worst financial position since the depths of the global financial crisis eight years ago...About half of Russia's annual budget relies on revenues from its prodigious production of oil and gas,...

<p>Turkish police were Monday hunting a man who sprayed a teahouse in the northwest of the country with bullets after he took umbrage for being charged "double" for a glass of traditional tea.</p> <p>A fight erupted between the man and the owner of the teahouse in Kocaeli province near Istanbul when he was asked to pay two Turkish liras (about 65 US cents) for a glass of tea -- usually sold for half that price at teahouses across the country.</p>

When Gravity Payment's CEO Dan Price announced on April 13 that he would raise the minimum wage of his staff to $70,000 a year, the story went beyond viral: it took the media, especially the part of it which has been obsessing with income and wealth inequality which in the aftermath of Piketty would be most of it, by meteoric storm. Not only that, but the soon to be lionized young chief executive doubled down on this story of "purest of corporate nobility" by announcing he would cut his own compensation of $1.1 million to offset the cost.

Rep. Steve Scalise told supporters in a conference call Sunday evening that he has the votes to win the race for majority leader, according to sources on the call.The Louisiana Republican, currently the majority whip, sent an email to supporters Sunday saying he had a "big announcement." Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is considering moving back the election, a move that would give conservatives time to find someone to oppose Scalise and Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), who is also running for the post.