Free Republic

From now on, it’s the Zip-a-dee-doo-dah House. The political world stopped for a moment when Speaker John Boehner broke into the jaunty old Disney tune — “My, oh my, what a wonderful day” — after a news conference in which he threw in the towel on the debt ceiling fight. He found himself trapped between the immovable object of Democrats determined that they’d never again let Republicans take the nation’s credit hostage and the irresistible force of a dysfunctional, crisis-addicted GOP majority of which he is the putative leader. Boehner decided to skip away in song. Feb. 11, 2014, was...

Speaker John A. Boehner sent a letter to President Barack Obama Wednesday seeking a “clear, unambiguous explanation” of how a strike on Syria fits into U.S. objectives and questioning the president’s legal authority to do so absent Congressional authorization. The Ohio Republican makes clear he believes the consultation with Congress so far has been insufficient, and it comes as numerous House members have signed on to a letter to Obama demanding Congressional authorization before strikes. “It is essential you address on what basis any use of force would be legally justified and how the justification comports with the exclusive authority...

Untouchable. That’s the treatment being given to the $23.6 billion being spent right now to implement Obamacare. This $23.6 billion is part of the $105.5 billion appropriated by the last Congress to fund Obamacare. The remainder (Think of it as post-dated checks for the other $81.9 billion.) automatically becomes available between now and FY2019. None of this is to be confused with an additional $115 billion authorized for additional appropriation to Obamacare—but which the current Congress is unlikely to provide. The most pressing question, however, is whether any of the current $23.6 billion will be rescinded as part of the...

Thanks to the irrepressible Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who is emerging as the most energetic and principled conservative leader of the 112th Congress, the Congressional Research Service published a report on Feb. 10 detailing how the Obama administration is planning to spend $105.5 billion that was put on an appropriations autopilot in the health care legislation the Democrat-majority Congress enacted last year. Unless the Republican-controlled House in this Congress can force President Obama to sign new legislation forbidding dispersal of this $105.5 billion, the administration will spend it to lay the basic foundations for a socialistic health care system in...

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Tuesday that he "should be" considered a member of the Tea Party movement. Boehner, speaking on a Cincinnati radio affiliate, said he is a "big believer" in what the Tea Party stands for, and is in touch often with leaders of the grassroots, conservative movement. "I should be," Boehner said on WLW radio when asked if he were a member of the Tea Party. "I don't know if I actually pay dues, but I'm a big believer in the Tea Party," he added. "I talk to Tea Party activists all over my district and...