Free Republic

During my time in Congress, I regularly introduced legislation forbidding organizations that perform abortions from receiving federal funding. The U.S. Government should not force taxpayers to subsidize an activity they believe is murder. Thus, while I was horrified by the recently released videos showing Planned Parenthood officials casually discussing selling the organs of aborted babies, I am glad that the reaction to these videos has renewed efforts to end federal funding of abortion. My experience in Congress does not leave me optimistic that federal funding of Planned Parenthood will be ended this year, however. This is not just because the...

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush says he “misspoke” on Tuesday when he questioned the level of federal funding for women’s health services. “With regards to women’s health funding broadly, I misspoke, as there are countless community health centers, rural clinics, and other women’s health organizations that need to be fully funded. They provide critical services to all, but particularly low-income women who don’t have the access they need,” Bush said in a statement released by his campaign. Bush quickly came under fire on social media for his initial remarks about women’s health funding, with Hillary Clinton calling them “absolutely, unequivocally...

The chief executive of the Heritage Action for America super-PAC said on Sunday that conservative voters are weary of the Republican political establishment. Michael Needham argued that the GOP is alienating its base by ignoring its concerns. “Most Republican voters hate their party, and that’s what needs to be addressed,” Needham told host Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.” “People are sick of this,” he said of the political process. “It’s a game.” Needham charged that GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump is gaining traction with Americans because he is a political outsider. Trump’s freedom from Republican leadership, he added, is...

Jeb Bush suggested on Tuesday that Donald J. Trump’s strategy, as he rides to the top of polls, was to “prey” on the “fear and angst” of the American electorate, and Mr. Bush reiterated his view that many illegal border crossings by migrant parents were “an act of love.” During an interview with the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Mr. Bush was asked about Mr. Trump’s surging political fortunes before the first major Republican presidential debate on Thursday. Mr. Trump’s “harsh tone is wrong,” Mr. Bush said. Many Americans are alienated and angry, he said, adding, “They see America moving...

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) sought Tuesday to quash a growing speculation that Republicans would shut down the government over Planned Parenthood. "We're not going to go there," he said. "I wish there was some way to convince all of you guys that there will be no government shutdown." Cornyn's comments come after a group of House Republicans said they will not back a spending bill that doesn't also defund Planned Parenthood, sparking new talk of a potential shutdown. The administration said last week that President Obama would veto any spending bill that defunded the healthcare provider, but Cornyn downplayed that...

Wonkish and mealy-mouthed, Jeb needs to start riling up his supporters—before Donald Trump wins them all over. To hear Jeb Bush tell it, he’s right where he wants to be, the “joyful tortoise” in the race who doesn’t want to say “outrageous things that turns people off to the conservative message.” At the Koch Brothers’ GOP donor convocation in Dana Point, Calif., over the weekend, Bush waxed confident about the campaign strategy he’s following, including the $120 million war chest he’s spent six months amassing. “I mean, this is a long haul,” Bush said. But many GOP voters don’t seem...

House Speaker Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) had been planning to call up on the House floor last week a measure from Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) that would have removed him as Speaker of the House if it succeeded—intending to embarrass Meadows—but abandoned the plan after his entire leadership structure learned that they did not have the votes to re-elect him as Speaker before the August recess. “[House Majority Leader Kevin] McCarthy was making phone calls—he was whipping it—and so was [House Majority Whip] Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA),” a senior conservative movement leader who’s had many personal and direct discussions with...

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — The United States must acknowledge a "painful, complicated" history of racial discrimination that still affects many minorities, Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio said Monday between campaign speeches in South Carolina. Rubio told reporters that "decades and decades of discriminatory practices" have yielded a lack of economic opportunity for many minorities and sour relationships between law enforcement and minority communities, particularly African-Americans. "It's important for us to confront these issues because we can't fulfill our promise as a nation if we have a significant percentage of the population feeling as if the American dream is out of...

Has Donald Trump made his first serious boo-boo of the campaign? For weeks, the media have trumpeted the supposed death of the Trump campaign. First, they claimed, Trump’s campaign imploded on launch thanks to his comments about illegal immigration. Then they claimed that Trump was finished because of his slap at Senator Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)43% ’s (R-AZ) war service. But neither of those comments alienated Trump’s base – he’s maintained his seven point lead over Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in the 2016 presidential polls, with no other candidate breaking double-digits in the polls. In fact, his original comments about...

Conservatives lambaste Republican leaders over Planned Parenthood, Export-Import Bank Jon Ward Senior Political Correspondent ‎July‎ ‎29‎, ‎2015 Conservative grassroots anger at Republican leadership in Congress and in the presidential contest has crescendoed in recent days, and the outrage on the right is forcing the GOP to respond. The unrest came to a climax on Monday when conservatives tuning back into the political discussion after the weekend saw that on Sunday, the Senate had failed to take up a bill to eliminate taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. Meanwhile on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had forced through an amendment...

The Jeb Bush experiment continues to be fascinating to watch. As you may recall, Bush said not long ago that a GOP presidential candidate needs to be prepared to lose the primary in order to win the general election — implicitly suggesting that he will not fall victim to the dynamic that claimed Mitt Romney. Here’s the latest example of Jeb Bush employing that strategy: He audaciously suggested that as a general matter, GOP primary voters are hostile to compromise. The New York Times reports on a Bush appearance in Orlando, Florida: “We need men and women of good will...

Remember that picture of Chris Matthews looking upset at the announcement of a Republican sweep in the midterm elections?There he was — arms crossed, frowning intensly — looking at the results like a man who just lost a lot of money at a game of cards.It was gleefully shared around by Republicans and conservatives rejoicing in the fact that Congress was now back in the hands of the GOP, with the hope that President Obama’s agenda would finally be put in reverse.If only Matthews and those same Republicans could see what would happen in the GOP-controlled Senate on July 26.The...

Repeat after Jeb Bush: He is not angry. Not even a tiny bit. Florida’s Republican former governor is happy — joyful even. And campaigning throughout Orlando Monday the merriest of presidential candidates reminded supporters over and over again that he is nothing like some of his churlish counterparts in the GOP primary. “Here’s the deal: I don’t have anger in my heart,” he told about 200 people at a community center in Maitland Monday evening. “We shouldn’t be scolding people. We shouldn’t be saying outrageous things that turns people off to the conservative message.” “I’m not a grievance candidate,” he...

Jeb Bush implored his Republican presidential rivals Monday to reject the "crazy message of hate" that he sees at play in the campaign and cast himself as a "committed conservative," but not an "angry" one, in remarks rooted in Donald Trump's inflammatory rhetoric and the backlash that followed. As conservatives, he said in a speech to pastors, "if we act with our heart, people will rise." Afterward, Bush gave his call for political civility a harder edge in a raucous rally where he urged other GOP contenders to quit scolding each other. "We have to campaign with joy in our...

Speaker of the House John Boehner was brought to tears while discussing the future of America’s youth in an emotional, new interview. Boehner invited David Feherty — host of The Golf Channel’s “Feherty” — to Capitol Hill, and man oh man, it looks like Boehner’s office could use a little dusting. Read more: [http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/27/emotional-john-boehner-brought-to-tears-in-new-interview-video/#ixzz3h8Vg8sFn](http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/27/emotional-john-boehner-brought-to-tears-in-new-interview-video/#ixzz3h8Vg8sFn)

RINO Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham will participate in the Voter’s First Forum in New Hampshire on August 3rd along with 11 other GOP candidates. But Donald Trump will not attend the event after the organizers published a brutal hit piece on the GOP front-runner.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, delivered a brutal speech bashing his own party’s leadership’s failures on the Senate floor on Friday morning after Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) moved forward with a plot to reauthorize the Export Import Bank. In the speech, Cruz says—calling him out personally—McConnell lied to the entire Republican conference. Cruz’s speech stemmed from how McConnell—despite telling the entire GOP conference there was no such secret deal with the Democrats during the Obamatrade process to later bring up Ex-Im reauthorization—actually did cut a deal with Democrats, specifically Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA). “Today...

Calling on his party to embrace diversity, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush declared Thursday that Republicans will never win the presidency if they don't campaign in "every nook and cranny" of the country - especially in Hispanic and African-American communities. "I'm running to draw people toward our cause rather than push them away," Bush said during a town hall-style meeting in New Hampshire. "Our message has to be uplifting, positive, hopeful, rather than negative (and) divisive." Speaking to a predominantly white audience in northern New Hampshire, Bush said Republicans must campaign in Latino communities. He delivered a brief line in...

While Jeb Bush focuses his time on the first primary and caucus states, he’s raising a great deal of his money from big cities like Dallas, Houston and Miami, and traditional Democratic coastal power centers like Washington and New York.

Thursday on CNN, Republican presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Donald Trump’s recent controversial comments on illegal immigrants are going to “kill” the Republican Party.