Free Republic

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut confirmed to CNN on Thursday morning that raising the federal age to purchase AR-15 style semiautomatic rifles to 21 is off the table in Senate gun-control talks. Murphy, the Democrat leading the negotiations in conjunction with Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, framed the shift as one of the compromises that will be needed to get at least 10 Republican votes, given the obstacle of the filibuster. The compromise, Murphy explained, would be adding "additional scrutiny" to 18 to 21-year-olds looking to buy a weapon such like the AR-15, though he stopped short at specifying...

Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that a federal law raising the age to buy guns to 21 was a “no-brainer” following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX. Kinzinger said, “I think raising the purchase of a gun purchase to 21 is a no-brainer. If you look at the Parkland shooting, Buffalo, this shooting, these are people under the age of 21. We know that the human brain develops and matures a lot between the ages of 18 and 21. We raised without really so much of a blink, the age of...

CLAIM: Raising the cap on the amount of state and local taxes, known as the SALT cap, that can be deducted from income for federal tax purposes would benefit lower-income Americans. “Those with lower incomes would be able to fully write-off state and local taxes,” Whitehouse press secretary Jen Psaki said in a press conference Thursday. VERDICT: False. No low-income taxpayers will benefit from raising the cap on state and local tax deductions.

President Biden is set to deliver his plan for raising taxes on higher-earning Americans — while also ramping up IRS enforcement against them — in a bid to level “the playing field” for those in lower income brackets. In delivering his tax-the-rich outline Thursday afternoon, Biden is expected to talk about “leveling the playing field in our economy to bring down costs and ensure that the backbone of the country, the middle class, can finally get a break,” an official told NBC News. “He’ll underscore that we’ve reached an inflection point where we have to choose whether or not we’re...

Americans must believe in Donald Trump, because just after the first presidential debate, Trump raised millions of dollars for his campaign. According to The Hill, Trump’s campaign raised $18 million in less than 24 hours after that debate. “As a result of Donald Trump’s huge debate win last night, we had a massive fundraising day, bringing in more than $18 million,” Trump finance chairman Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.http://conservativetribune.com/trump-camp-shatters-records/  

<p>Fast food fans, we've got some bad news. Wholesale prices on a bunch of your favorite food products have seen sharp increases this year. Among those, beef and avocados are through the roof, hitting burrito-makers doubly hard.</p> <p>Because of huge price increases for beef and avocados, Chipotle is raising menu prices for the first time in three years. It's a reality that a lot of restaurants are facing due to rising food prices.</p>

OSLO (Reuters) - A thawing Antarctic glacier that is the biggest contributor to rising sea levels is likely to continue shrinking for decades, even without an extra spur from global warming, a study showed on Thursday. Scientists said the Pine Island Glacier, which carries more water to the sea than the Rhine River, also thinned 8,000 years ago at rates comparable to the present, in a melt that lasted for decades, perhaps for centuries. "Our findings reveal that Pine Island Glacier has experienced rapid thinning at least once in the past, and that, once set in motion, rapid ice sheet...

"The New York State Legislature needs to Raise the Age of criminal responsibility, and they need to do it this year," demands the subheadline on MSNBC.com's landing page this afternoon for a story headlined, "Stop charging kids as adults." The column, co-authored by former NAACP president Ben Jealous and actress Rosario Dawson, promotes a push by the Citizens Committee for Children of New York [CCCNY] to change Empire State law so that minors aged 16 years old cannot be charged as adults. Jealous and Dawson don't disclose to what age they believe the age of criminal responsibility should be raised,...

A new analysis of the American Freshman Survey, which has accumulated data for the past 47 years from 9 million young adults, reveals that college students are more likely than ever to call themselves gifted and driven to succeed, even though their test scores and time spent studying are decreasing. Psychologist Jean Twenge, the lead author of the analysis, is also the author of a study showing that the tendency toward narcissism in students is up 30 percent in the last thirty-odd years. This data is not unexpected. I have been writing a great deal over the past few years...

They won the campaign handily and even had $14.2 million to spare, but the Obama-Biden campaign is still raising money, this time off the president's comments about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut. In email from chief campaign advisor David Axelrod that urges supporters to watch President Obama's moving address to the community of Newtown, there are two links that open a page with a video player featuring the president's speech and two donate buttons asking for $15-$1,000 for his campaign. "The next chapter begins today. Stand with President Obama for the next four years," headlines the donation...

President Barack Obama will raise money in early October with a Missouri businessman whose company benefited from a $107 million federal tax credit to develop a wind power facility in his state. Tom Carnahan, a scion of Missouri’s most prominent Democratic political family, is listed on Obama’s campaign website as a host of a $25,000-per-person fundraiser to be held in St. Louis on October 4. His energy development firm, Wind Capital Group, was helped by a sizable credit authorized in the stimulus, for an energy project in northwest Missouri.

This is from a speech Obama made in 2006: The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. Over the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion.That is “trillion” with a “T.” That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says Republican leaders have privately assured the Obama administration that Congress will raise the government's borrowing limit in time to prevent an unprecedented default on the nation's debt. But a top Republican quickly pushed back Sunday and said there was no guarantee the GOP would agree to increase the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling without further controls on federal spending. Geithner told ABC's "This Week" and NBC's "Meet the Press" that Republicans told President Barack Obama in a White House meeting last Wednesday that they will go along with a higher limit.

In a rare departure from this year's intense political posturing over the soaring budget deficit, House leaders of both parties recently signaled that they are prepared to tackle a leading long-term liability — Social Security — by raising the retirement age. Politicians often talk in generalities about cutting the deficit, but discussing specifics about how Congress may curb the growth of the biggest and most popular programs such as Social Security and defense is controversial and usually taboo in an election year.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will hold a fundraiser for Rep. Michele Bachmann next month, the Minnesota Republican’s campaign announced Thursday. Palin will co-host the April 7 fundraiser with Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Minnesota GOP Reps. John Kline and Erik Paulsen. Donors to Bachmann’s reelection campaign can give more to attend a private reception with Palin prior to a dinner at the Minneapolis Hilton.

We’ve been here before. The government mandates more fuel-efficient vehicles across the board, yet the American public continues to gravitate toward what’s big and powerful. Barring this era of greater responsibility and restraint, which might pass like a fleeting fancy with the recession, why not pick the bigger or more powerful car, we say? A lot of things are different this time around, though. Perhaps most remarkably, quite a few executives of automakers and major auto-supplier companies are voicing out in favor of higher fuel taxes—of more rigorous regulation of what types of vehicles can be built and sold—as a...

AIKEN, S.C. (AP) The South Carolina congressman who gained national attention for shouting "you lie" at President Obama during a speech to Congress will attend a Republican rally in Aiken. The Aiken Standard reports the Saturday rally will be held at the Republican Party headquarters in Aiken. Some have called the event a fundraiser and a show of support for Wilson. Aiken County Councilman Scott Singer called the rally awkward. He said he didn't want the rally to appear to support of Wilson's outburst. Wilson's shout at the president came after Obama said that extending health care to all Americans...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15, 2009 – Operation Gratitude, a troop-support group, is joining forces with Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and thousands of volunteers from across the country on Jan. 19’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday to assemble care kits for servicemembers deployed overseas. The effort, called "A Day of Service for Our Military," allows for people to show their support and express their appreciation to those in the military, organizers said. “We are thrilled to partner in this event, as this is a great way to introduce more Americans to the great work of Operation Gratitude and...

WASHINGTON -- Democrat Barack Obama raised $22 million in May for his presidential campaign, his weakest fund-raising month this year, and ended the month with $43 million cash on hand, the campaign reported Friday. Though Mr. Obama has been the fund-raising leader in the presidential contest, his May totals are just slightly above Republican rival John McCain's fund raising for the month. Overall, Mr. Obama has raised more than $287 million during the past 17 months, while Mr. McCain has raised a total of $115 million. Mr. Obama, who is bypassing the public financing system in the general election, reported...

WASHINGTON (Reuters Life!) - Middle-income families can expect to spend $204,060 on feeding, housing and schooling a child born in 2007 until his or her 18th birthday, the U.S. government reported on Monday. Child care and education costs will represent a larger share of costs for raising the '07 baby through adulthood than they have in the past, the Agriculture Department said in an annual study on child-rearing costs. "The cost of providing food decreased from 24 percent to 17 percent of total child-rearing costs, while child care and education expenses increased from 2 percent to 12 percent," the department...