Free Republic

The Senate on Tuesday voted to advance President Obama’s trade agenda, approving a measure to end debate on fast-track authority. The 60-37 motion sets up a vote on final passage on Wednesday. If the Senate approves fast-track or trade promotion authority (TPA), it would then be sent to Obama’s desk to become law. Fast-track authority would allow Obama to send trade deals to Congress for up-or-down votes. The White House wants the authority to conclude negotiations on a sweeping trans-Pacific trade deal. Thirteen Democrats backed fast-track in Tuesday’s vote, handing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) a major legislative victory....

Washington (CNN)—The first black Republican woman elected to Congress is returning $1,000 in donations from Earl Holt, the alleged white supremacist whose writings have reportedly inspired Charleston shooter Dylann Roof. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Mia Love said Monday that she would be returning the three donations Holt made to her campaign immediately, after being contacted by CNN. Love made history last November when Utah residents selected her as the first black Republican woman to serve in Congress. Holt, who is president Council of Conservative Citizens, donated thousands of dollars to Republican candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum...

Neil Peart, the drummer behind the band Rush, has made it known that, as a “bleeding-heart libertarian,” he encourages people to support Democrats. […] Rolling Stone notes that Peart's newfound beliefs appear to prioritize the “bleeding-heart” aspect over the “libertarian” one. Speaking of the libertarian-oriented Senator Rand Paul, a 2016 presidential candidate, Peart allegedly told Rolling Stone it is “very obvious” that Paul "hates women and brown people.” […] Peart, who recently became a United States citizen, told Rolling Stone, “For a person of my sensibility, you’re only left with the Democratic party.” …

Republicans would be happy to have any of the current six leading candidates as their nominee for president, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds, but their opinions of several of those politicians, mostly notably Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have cooled somewhat in the past two months. In April, about two-thirds of Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican Party said they'd feel positively about nominating Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) or Paul. A smaller majority said they'd be happy with former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, while just 42 percent said the same of former Florida...

Were it left to me, I’d probably retire the “clown car” analogy for the crowded 2016 Republican presidential contest. Like the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” line employed by those who sought to dismiss Hillary Clinton and the other contenders for the 2008 Democratic nomination, I think it diminishes the real competition that is going on—and the real distinctions between the candidates. But the “clown car” line is going to be amplified as Donald Trump grabs for the wheel. Trump’s candidacy begins as a punchline, and it’s hard to imagine how it will end as anything other than that....

The first “debate” between Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway and Republican gubernatorial nominee Matt Bevin Friday wasn’t an exchange of ideas, but rather a pair of broad speeches limited to 15 minutes with only Bevin, by virtue of speaking last, given an opportunity at rebuttal. The two shared the stage for the first time as their parties’ nominees at the Kentucky County Judge-Executive Association/Kentucky Magistrates and Commissioners Association Joint Summer Conference at the Galt House in Louisville. Their pre-lunch remarks drew about 300. Both Conway and Bevin did their best to present their visions for the state in the allotted...

None of the Republican presidential hopefuls have made any comments on the Charleston Shooting regarding race or gun control. The Democrats candidates on the other hand call for more gun control and criticize police brutality in black communities, appealing to both black and white voters. On the other hand, Republicans try to target the white community, especially from the Southern states who do not want enforced gun control laws. In fact Republicans have push a liberal agenda when it comes to gun control. The fact that none of the Republican candidates discussed race and gun control issues after the Charleston...

The White House shut down the rumor that President Obama had extended an invitation to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the finalization of the Iran Deal. "No invitation has been extended, though certainly we’d expect that there will be occasion for the two leaders to meet in Washington at some point going forward," an unnamed White House official told the Free Beacon in response to an inquiry. http://freebeacon.com/national-security/white-house-denies-obama-asked-to-meet-with-netanyahu/ WFB provides some context for its request for clarification: Reports surfaced earlier this week that Obama had invited Netanyahu to the White House for a mid-July meeting about Iran and the...

It’s no accident that Texas senator Ted Cruz sounds like a minister on the stump. His father, Rafael, is an evangelical pastor, after all. And as the Republican presidential candidate displayed before the faith-focused crowd at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference in Washington this week, his pastoral pedigree may be paying off. “The Word tells us,” Cruz said Wednesday afternoon, rounding back toward the podium like a preacher returning to the Bible during a sermon. “ ‘Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh the morning.’ And I’ll tell you this.” Cruz’s voice became more...

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul called Thursday for a “fair and flat tax” that would “blow up” the nation’s tax code, offering a proposal his campaign said would cut taxes by $2 trillion over the next decade. The first-term senator from Kentucky released the outline of a plan to institute a 14.5 percent income tax rate on all individuals, as well as a tax of the same rate on all business revenue. It was among the first major policy proposals released by Paul’s presidential campaign, although he did not make the full plan available for review. […] In a column...

The senator from Kentucky continues to takes the road less traveled through the GOP primaries.Sen. Rand Paul took a risk Thursday. Speaking to an audience of religious conservatives in the wake of a racially charged shooting in South Carolina, Paul delicately suggested that Republicans might want to start focusing on other parts of the Bill of Rights than the Second Amendment. "Everybody is for the Second Amendment. All 55 candidates running for president are for the Second Amendment—on our side," Paul told the crowd. "But the thing is that a lot of young people, that might not be their primary...

Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the funding arm of the political network backed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, wants a lot more hard information from the crowded field of presidential contenders before deciding what to do with its considerable resources. The group is pressing every 2016 candidate to detail on the record their plans for economic growth, deficit reduction, entitlement reform, criminal justice and even foreign policy. The tax-exempt entity, a key node in a constellation of conservative entities that aims to spend $889 million before the next White House election, distributed a detailed survey Thursday to...

One America News Network, a credible source for 24/7 national and international news, announced today the results from its 90 day online One America News Network 2016 GOP Presidential Candidate Straw Poll. The results show strong numbers for Senator Ted Cruz, the first GOP candidate to announce, leading the pack just breaking the 30% mark at 30.4%. Senator Rand Paul comes in second with a strong 24.2% showing. Governor Scott Walker rounds out the top three with 9.6%. Rounding out the top five are Dr. Ben Carson at 6.6% and Senator Marco Rubio at 6.1% running neck and neck. Governor...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Talk radio host Hugh Hewitt declared that right now, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is the frontrunner to be the Republican nominee for president and would decimate Hillary Clinton in a debate on Wednesday’s “Huff Post Live.”Hewitt began by stating that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has “the lowest ceiling, but the highest floor” of the GOP candidates, before talking about his advice to Hillary Clinton regarding the different Republican candidates. He said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is Clinton’s “worst nightmare,” and that Hillary should avoid debating Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) if he’s the nominee because “he’ll kill you. He’ll take your...

Don't know if the link will work for you since it's probably behind a pay for usage wall. In summary, Rand Paul, in a Wall Street Journal Opinion tomorrow, will propose a complete rework of the federal tax code. Quote: "My tax plan would blow up the tax code and start over. In consultation with some of the top tax experts in the country, including the Heritage Foundation’s Stephen Moore, former presidential candidate Steve Forbes and Reagan economist Arthur Laffer, I devised a 21st-century tax code that would establish a 14.5% flat-rate tax applied equally to all personal income, including...

PHILADELPHIA — Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, running for president on a platform of keeping the government out of people’s business, took a deep breath when asked at a recent stop in Philadelphia whether he’d make addressing abortion a part of his campaign. “I didn’t run for office because of the social issues,” Paul answered. “It wasn’t what got me to leave my practice. I ran for office mainly because I became concerned that we’re going to destroy the country with debt.”(continued)

The light at the end of the tunnel is little over a year away with the 2016 Presidential Elections taking centre place in the political calendar next year. The field has swelled so dramatically over the last three months that the GOP candidates look more like different acts in a circus program than potential Presidential nominees. There is one candidate that has emerged as the only realistic choice for President from this potential ‘democalypse’ as Jon Stewart likes to call it and her name is Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner on both sides of the candidate’s circus...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-06-16/the-odds-on-republican-2016-contenders

Senate GOP leaders are worried about Ted Cruz's health care hijinks. Maybe they should worry about their own? Oh dear, the poor Responsible Senate Republicans. Their showboating junior colleagues in the Senate who are running for president, like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, are going to make the would-be process of “fixing” Obamacare in the event of a King v. Burwell decision striking down premium subsidies very difficult. The Responsible, Senior, Statesmanlike Senate Republicans understand that you can’t just pull the plug on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act overnight without risking political blowback from its beneficiaries. Eliminating Obamacare...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)93% is calling on Republicans in the House—and the grassroots nationwide—to oppose efforts by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)58% to revive Obamatrade via a tax increase hidden inside the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) portion of the deal. Paul said when asked to react to an article from Breitbart News from late Sunday evening exposing the tax increase in the deal: "You know typically to pass these kinds of things, the establishment will try to buy off Democrats by sprinkling money so they have some money in there. To get the money, under...