Free Republic

In a lengthy interview on Friday afternoon, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) exposed how House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise strengthened President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty with procedural trickery former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber would envy—and they did it all in the name of pushing a bill that they told Republicans would block Obama’s executive amnesty. What’s more is that a series of interviews and recent developments indicate that Boehner’s gambit here is placing several of his top lieutenants—including at least two committee chairmen—at political risk of serious primary challenges...

The health care revolution will not be televised despite what President Obama promised you two years ago. Obama has broken his campaign promises to make the health care debate a transparent process after saying he would do so on at least eight occasions during his 2008 White House run.

Although as House Speaker in 2010 Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) famously said of Obamacare, “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it,” today when asked whether she has read the 10,535 pages of Obamacare regulations published in the Federal Register, she wouldn’t answer. … Pelosi Chief of Staff Nadeam Elshami quickly blocked access to the leader as he and other staffers walked with her down the hallway. CNSNews.com: “Madam Leader, Hi. Penny Starr, CNS News. The Obama administration—” “We’ve gotta run,” Elshami said. “Thank you.” …

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) blasted the Senate's border security amendment to its immigration bill, touted as a breakthrough for the controversial legislation. Sessions alleged that it does not hire any new border agents until years after its presumed passage. Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and John Hoeven (R-ND) gave reassurances on Thursday that their amendment would enact tough border security provisions before any legalization of new immigrants could occur. Corker and Hoeven stated on Fox News Friday that their amendment would bring a “surge” to border security. The provisions of the amendment include 20,000 additional border patrol agents, 700 miles of...

Full text of S.744 at the link.

The Hoeven-Corker border security amendment to the Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform bill is finally out, and it is huge. Released in several parts, it totals 1,190 pages, amounting to a rewrite of large portions of the original bill. While much of the text of those 1,190 pages duplicates portions of the original legislation, there are entirely new passages and significant changes throughout — enough to keep anyone who cares about what is in the bill busy for quite a while. The problem is, they don’t have quite a while. The Senate will likely vote on the amendment on...

Caught between nervous Democrats and emboldened Republicans, President Barack Obama on Friday stepped up the sales pitch on his health care overhaul as the final elements of his top domestic achievement go into effect. With his legacy and the law’s success at stake, Obama said: “The law is here to stay.” Behind the scenes, the White House readied a campaign-style effort to get healthy young people to sign up for the insurance “exchanges” in order to keep premium costs from skyrocketing. On Capitol Hill, House Republicans are planning yet another vote to try to try to repeal the law. …...

NEW YORK — Small business owners may be experiencing sticker shock now that insurers are revealing the rates they want to charge under the new health care law.

The U.S. Senate voted 89-8 to approve legislation to avoid the fiscal cliff despite having only 3 minutes to read the 154-page bill and budget score. Multiple Senate sources have confirmed to CNSNews.com that senators received the bill at approximately 1:36 AM on Jan. 1, 2013—a mere three minutes before they voted to approve it at 1:39 AM. …

When the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass a Senate bill to avoid the fiscal cliff around 10:45 PM on Tuesday, it violated its pledge to allow three days for the public to read the legislation, a promise House Republicans made to voters before the 2010 elections. … In its Pledge to America document, House Republicans promised: “We will ensure that bills are debated and discussed in the public square by publishing the text online for at least three days before coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives. No more hiding legislative language from the minority...

Do you really know what's heading your way in the Obamacare bill? Here's a video that you really need to watch. Gives you the exact pages that these new rules appear. Want the government to have access to your bank account? What about your great new limit of $5,000.00 per individual per year of medical care. This is a very important video... watch it ... and pass it on.

After blasting the Senate last week for passing a 600-page bill no one had time to read, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced legislation that would force the Senate to give its members one day to read bills for every 20 pages they contain. "For goodness sakes, this is a 600-page bill. I got it this morning," Paul said Friday, just before the Senate approved a massive bill extending highway funding, federal flood insurance and low student loans rates. "Not one member of the Senate will read this bill before we vote on it," he added.

Today, the CBO released new projections from 2013 extending through 2022, and the results are as critics expected: the ten-year cost of the law's core provisions to expand health insurance coverage has now ballooned to $1.76 trillion. That's because we now have estimates for Obamacare's first nine years of full implementation, rather than the mere six when it was signed into law. Only next year will we get a true ten-year cost estimate, if the law isn't overturned by the Supreme Court or repealed by then. Given that in 2022, the last year available, the gross cost of the coverage...

Harry Reid just unveiled a pork-laden $1.1 trillion and 2,000-page omnibus spending bill this afternoon, and Senator Jim DeMint (R, S.C.) has offered an audacious response: he's going to force the Senate to actually read the bill before voting on it. “Democrats haven’t given Republicans or the American people time to read the bill, but I’ll join with other Republican colleagues to force them to read it on the Senate floor,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). Such a tactic is rarely employed, but any senator can force a full reading of legislation, which is usually skipped by unanimous consent. Fox...

Rep. John Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, reads what looks to be a Playboy magazine on a plane to DC. Well, at least the man has 'discriminating' taste! Here is the YouTube video.

Not that there's anything wrong with it, but some mild embarrassment for Michigan Rep. John Conyers, who was secretly caught reading Playboy on a plane. (Video via Detroit News and Sal Armuk) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ09sKVFI7k&feature=player_embedded

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D.-Fla.) is insisting that the new health care law she voted for last month does not mandate that individuals buy health insurance, despite language in the law that plainly says otherwise. At an April 5 town hall meeting in Fort Lauderdale (see video below), a constituent asked Wasserman Shultz where the Constitution authorized Congress to mandate that individuals buy health insurance. She responded that the new health care law did not require individuals to buy health insurance.

The Vote: Conned by the promise of an ephemeral executive order, the last holdouts cave and ObamaCare advances. It doesn't add a single doctor or hospital room, but needs 17,000 new IRS agents to enforce it. Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., spent months spelling out in minute detail how the Senate version of the health care overhaul permitted federal funding of abortion through its failure to expressly prohibit it. In the end, he cashed in his principles for an unenforceable executive order that is trumped by the Senate bill he voted to pass. An executive order is not the law of...

C-Span is forever. Back in 2005, then house minority leader, Nancy Pelosi stood up on the house floor complaining that the Republican leadership was being outrageous by not giving members of Congress three days to read a bill. She went on to say "I expect you know what you are voting on. Of Course that was then, this is now. Now, the hypocritical Ms. Pelosi expects congressmen to vote for what ever she tells them to vote on whether they have read it or not. Watch the video below from Naked Emperor News(if you cant see the video click here):

Not later than February 1, 2014, the Comptroller General shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report on . . . (ii) the availability of affordable health benefits plans, and (iii) the ability of individuals to maintain essential health benefits coverage . . . Not later than April 1, 2014, the appropriate committees of Congress shall report legislation implementing the recommendations contained in the report . . . [or] any member of the House of Representatives or the Senate, respectively, may introduce legislation implementing the recommendations contained in the proposal and such legislation shall be placed on the...