Free Republic

Cynthia Chaffee’s Manhattan apartment would likely go for more than $5,000 a month if the landlord charged market price. But Chaffee pays thousands less thanks to the city’s long-standing rent stabilization rules—regulations that will expire this year if lawmakers don’t act. The 63-year-old paid $300 a month when she moved into the one-bedroom space in 1978. To Chaffee, the rules governing how much she and more than 2 million other New York City residents pay in rent protect the city’s diversity and character. […] The laws governing the rent paid by Chaffee and more than 2 million other New York...

The repeal of ObamaCare is the priority of the Republican party, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said on Sunday. “There will be a vote on repeal. The president, in the White House, will veto that,” he said of the symbolic gesture offered by GOP lawmakers still unsatisfied with the healthcare legislation. However, Barrasso told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” that there would also be other bills that strike at other parts of the Affordable Care Act – some of which have gained bipartisan support – including a repeal of the medical device tax and the employer mandate. There is...

Republicans on and off Capitol Hill are rallying behind using a rarely-deployed budget tool next year to dismantle ObamaCare. But the issue of how to use “budget reconciliation” has divided Republicans, with some calling for it to be implemented to overhaul the tax code or to push through major energy reforms. The tool is useful because it could allow newly-empowered Senate Republicans to pass legislation with a 51-vote simple majority rather than the usual 60, greatly increasing the chances of moving legislation to President Obama’s desk. And while Obama is certain to veto anything that tries to roll back his...

The 17th amendment has created a “winner take all” mentality in the nation’s capital, and the resulting bitterness that grips partisan Washington today is one direct result of its passage. “Interest groups understand that to impose one’s will on 300,000,000 Americans, one must influence one president, the selection of 5 supreme court justices, 51 (or 60) senators, and 218 representatives, a total of 275 individuals who live primarily in physical isolation, far away from those they govern,” says the Campaign to Restore Federalism.

Few Americans who entered polling booths for the Nov. 4 election and pulled the lever for their favorite candidate for Senate realize that for most of American history, senators were chosen by the state legislatures. It wasn’t until 1913 that the 17thAmendment was passed, granting American voters the constitutional right of directly electing their senators.While this important amendment may seem innocuous, the reality is that few other changes to our Constitution have had the same detrimental effect on our nation than this single, nearly forgotten alteration.The passage of the 17th Amendment was driven largely by the populist movement of the...

$200 monthly subsidy x 48M uninsured = $115.2 billion/year I don't want the government to pay that, but it's cheaper than Obamacare...  And everybody would be covered- that would have probably got you most of a policy before this clueless regime wreaked havoc upon our health care system by nationalizing 1/6 of the US economy, anyway. Now, Obamacare = 130 billion $/year -a bit more- AND the CBO itself says this will only be covering 13M new people, leaving 35M still uninsured (!) That's not very good, is it? So not only does Obamacare not even come close to obtaining it's own...

Obamacare was never created to give people quality and affordable healthcare; it was designed to create a single payer system, socialized medicine, allowing government complete access to and control of your life! And if that's not offensive to each and every American, your freedoms, what is? The reason Obama refuses to drop the individual mandate is because he knows a huge majority of Americans will not want Obamacare if given the choice. Why? Because it's complete and unadulterated crap! They pick and choose your doctors, your premiums are anything but affordable and death panels will decide if your loved ones...

"The IRS last month posted drafts of its new forms for the 2014 tax year. These should by no means be considered complete – Congress can often keep meddling with the tax code deep into December – but looking at the draft 1040 can remind us of the changes ahead. Here are four lines from the 2014 1040 that reflect changes....... Line 61 – “Health care: individual responsibility (see instructions):” This is the much-talked-about individual mandate. The fee for not having health insurance in 2014 is 1% of your yearly income or $95, whichever is higher. The payment amount will...

1900s In early 1912, Arizona and New Mexico were added to the Union as the forty seventh and forty eighth states. A series of unexpected events and mood swings in public opinion resulted in the federal government robbing the states in balance of power by the ratification of the 16th & 17th Amendments the following year in 1913. The 16th amendment introducing a personal graduated income tax took over three years to be ratified, but the 17th amendment allowing Senators to be elected by popular vote took less than eleven months. By April of 2013, Congress, the President and all...

t’s a movement that’s been building in recent years: efforts by states to reclaim their constitutional authority by declaring Washington’s health care laws, gun control or other restrictions simply don’t apply within their boundaries. After all, the Constitution stipulates that, except for a couple of dozen specific issues such as national defense, the powers in the U.S. rest with the states. Now a new lawsuit contends states can regain their authority by returning to the practice of having state legislatures elect U.S. senators, as the Constitution originally required. The case is being brought by author, columnist, commentator and activist Devvy...

It was a bit lost in the hubbub over rules and credentials fights, but the platform committee at the Idaho Republican Party convention in Moscow today voted to remove one of the most controversial planks in the party’s platform: The one calling for repeal of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would have the effect of doing away with direct election of U.S. senators and instead letting state legislatures choose senators. “I was the one who made the motion,” said Rep. Brandon Hixon, R-Caldwell, a delegate from Canyon County. “It passed the committee. Now it will go to...

 SEE: The GOP Establishment Wants to Run on Fixing -- Not Repealing – Obamacare ”In David Jolly's campaign, he didn't say "repeal" Obamacare. He said "fix" it. But the Republicans are taking this thing to, " No, no, no, no! He said to fix it." The Republican establishment obviously has a campaign game plan involving Obamacare, and it does not include repealing it, folks. The Republican establishment apparently doesn't want to campaign on repealing it. They want to campaign on fixing it.” What Rush Limbaugh may have missed and has been obvious to me from the very beginning is, when...

Self-shackled with a tremendously unpopular overhaul of American medicine that they passed without a single Republican vote, Democrats are now clinging to the hope that voters will offer them a chance to “fix” what they have wrought. For three major reasons, however, that hope is likely to prove futile. One, Democrats have shown no genuine interest in fixing Obamacare. Their talk about fixing it is merely that: a talking point. Two, they have no ideas for fixing it (aside from adding another metal to the list of government-dictated insurance options). Three, and most important, Obamacare isn’t fixable. Like a...

The economic case against the minimum wage exists, and has been made by me and others often enough. But there’s another, even stronger case against the rule. That is the humanitarian case. And until that case, too, receives consideration, the debate will always be a lopsided one. Consider the current employment culture. Sit down with an employment officer at the company where you hope to work, and something feels strange. After a while, you realize what it is: The party on the other side of the desk is not a company executive, it is Jacqueline Berrien, the head of the...

There are plenty of reasons Republicans can't get their opposition to the health care law straight. More and more, I think Republicans are in for a health care crack-up. After four years of promising to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, without specifying what they would replace it with, GOP leaders find themselves under increasing pressure to put up or shut up. And yet their own internal policy divisions will result either in a failure to unite around a plan, which could diminish their chances of taking the Senate in November, or in a plan that not all Republicans like, which could...

Is THE REPEAL 16 COLALITION really trying to end taxes calculated from incomes?  As stated at repeal 16.org, “The Coalition to Repeal the 16th Amendment (Repeal 16) is comprised of a broad range of individuals and organizations including the Tea Party Patriots, Americans For Fair Taxation, Americans for Limited Government, Competitive Governance Action and Free Market America.” According to REPEAL 16 ORG, its stated goal is to “end our corrupting tax system and the oppressive IRS”. They go on to ask “What is the Repeal 16 Bill?” And they answer the question as follows: ”Congressman Jim Bridenstine has introduced a bill...

The Internal Revenue Service this week will publish a final rule requiring Obamacare health insurance exchanges to hand over key personal data to the IRS, which will use the information to implement the tax aspects of the controversial health care law. The IRS rule covers health exchanges that sell insurance to individuals, and it takes effect this year. That means people enrolled in an Obamacare exchange this year will have their information given to the IRS as soon as it’s needed for tax purposes. Information to be handed over from Obamacare exchanges includes names, addresses, taxpayer identification numbers, insurance premium...

INDIANAPOLIS | Hoosiers never again would vote in a primary election for U.S. Senate candidates if the decision were up to Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller. Zoeller is among a growing number of state's rights conservatives who favor a so-called "soft repeal" of the 17th Amendment that would empower members of the General Assembly, instead of voters, to nominate each party's U.S. Senate candidates. Voters still would have the final say on who represents Indiana in the Senate. But Zoeller, a Republican, believes giving the General Assembly's control of selecting candidates could revive the idea that U.S. senators are ambassadors...

Ramesh is kind enough to cite a recent piece of mine for Forbes, describing it as a continuation of my “lonely campaign to get conservatives to drop the idea of ‘repealing and replacing’ Obamacare and instead to embrace reforming it.” But it’s only lonely if by lonely he means “shared by a large plurality of the electorate.” Let me cite the data. A Pew Research poll asked whether or not politicians should “make the law work as well as possible,” or “make it fail.” The “work” side won 30–19 overall, and 36–19 among independents. (“Make it fail” won among...

For years, we’ve heard Republicans claim that they want to “repeal and replace” Obamacare with a better set of reforms. (What those reforms would exactly be, nobody can say for sure.) But there was always one critical problem with the “repeal and replace” plan: it stands no chance of passage until at least 2017. By then, as many as 35 million people could be on Obamacare-sponsored coverage. A few Republican leaders have had the temerity to acknowledge this fact—and that’s a good thing. By committing to repeal, Republicans damage their chances in 2016 Most pundits are focused on the likelihood...