Free Republic

Had they called it “Obamasurance”, which it is, instead of Obamacare, which it never has been, it may never have become law in the first place. And voters today would be fully aware of the type of end run the Republicans are trying to employ to save that which is most profitable to them and nothing else. With Democrats the name they put on legislation is never accidental. “Affordable”? “Care”? Right. Under FDR they named “Social Security” and it really wasn’t. Under LBJ they gave us “Medicare”, and that wasn’t either. “Civil Rights” is one of the most profaned terms...

That will just make it easier for Trump to win re-election. The other day, Bill Kristol, sounding like a spokesman for the ACLU, decried the theism of Donald Trump. “In America the president doesn’t tell us who or what or whether to worship,” he harrumphed on Twitter after Trump merely said that Americans worship God above government. To these Americans, the Dems lift up their middle finger and declare them “intolerant.” This gives Trump an enormous political advantage. With very little effort, he can pick off uneasy religious voters in the center while pulling down almost all of them on...

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) made it clear on Thursday what would happen if President Donald Trump fires his attorney general, Jeff Sessions. “If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay,” he told CNN. Graham also said he is looking to introduce legislation next week that would block the firing of special counsels without a judicial review. Rumors have been swirling around Capitol Hill this week that Trump is looking to dispose of Sessions and Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed to investigate Russia’s election interference, and any potential links between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign....

HOW ARE THE CR TOP 25 RINOS CALCULATED? The top 25 politicians in Conservative Review’s Top 25 RINOs (Republican in name only) are determined by CR editors using a points system. A politician who receives a first-place vote is assigned 25 points, second-place votes receive 24 points, and so on.

Democrats waived the point of order, so only 50 votes are needed, not 60. They are that convinced that it will fail.

Praising Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), now battling brain cancer, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday said McCain is thinking beyond the health care bill. “You know, I love the man,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) told a news conference on Tuesday, after the Senate vote on a motion to proceed to a health care bill that is open to amendments. “He's a great man," Schumer said of McCain. "We've been close friends. He even said to me when I called him this weekend, ‘Let's get immigration reform done,’ so he's thinking of the future. As you know, he and I worked on...

Multiple Republican senators broke with President Trump on Wednesday after he announced on Twitter than transgender troops would be banned from serving in the military. In separate statements, GOP Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Richard Shelby (Ala.), and Orrin Hatch (Utah) all criticized Trump for his decision that Obama-era rules allowing transgender troops to serve would be reversed. McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, ripped the call and said that Trump shouldn't be making policy announcements via tweet. “The President’s tweet this morning regarding transgender Americans in the military is yet another example of why major...

For seven years the Republican Party has promised to repeal Obamacare. For seven years it campaigned for our votes and our support with that promise. And yet, even though it controls Congress and the White House, Obamacare is still the law of the land. As it now stands, the Senate does not have the votes to rid the nation of the scourge to our health care system known as Obamacare. The question is, why? Are the liberal Republicans who control the Senate liars, backstabbers or just incompetent? “Many conservatives are justifiably frustrated with the obstinance of their more liberal colleagues,...

Conservatives all over social media are concerned that perhaps people like Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Paul Ryan, and the usual pack of Democrat-leaning Republicans simply don’t want President Trump to lead any victories–big or small–during his tenure. Forget the Leftists going after President Trump–what could be more diabolical than for members of his own own party to purposely cause chaos in the White House, and to block any/all successes, large or small? Because that’s certainly what seems to be happening. After all, Donald Trump is the ultimate “outsider”, perhaps the cause of extreme resentment for these very unpopular career politicians,...

<p>OKLAHOMA CITY — Democrats have swept special elections for a state House vacancy from the Tulsa area and a state Senate vacancy from Oklahoma City, both vacated by Republicans who resigned.</p> <p>In House District 75, which includes portions of east Tulsa and north Broken Arrow, unofficial results show voters picked Democrat Karen Gaddis over Republican Tressa Nunley on Tuesday. Both were vying to replace former Republican state Rep. Dan Kirby, who resigned this year after two former legislative assistants accused him of sexual harassment. Kirby has admitted he used poor judgment but denied harassing legislative aides.</p>

Two senior Republican U.S. senators criticized Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday for saying that Russia may have the "right approach" on Syria and for what they called his lack of focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan. "His statements about Syria really disturb me. No, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin does not have it right when it comes to Syria," Senator Lindsey Graham said. In separate television interviews, Graham and Senator John McCain, prominent Republican foreign policy voices, took aim at Tillerson's remarks last week that Russia may have "got the right approach" and the United States the wrong approach to...

In firm control of the federal government, President Donald Trump and his Republican Party have so far failed to deliver on core campaign promises on health care, taxes and infrastructure. But in New York’s Trump Tower café, the Gentry family blames Congress, not the president. Like many Trump voters across America, the Alabama couple, vacationing last week with their three children, says they are deeply frustrated with the president’s GOP allies, faulting them for derailing Trump’s plans. As the family of five lunched in Trump Tower, Sheila Gentry offered a pointed message to those concerned with the GOP’s ability to...

Wednesday on MSNBC, political correspondent Kasie Hunt said Republicans on Capitol Hill were getting frustrated with President Donald Trump because he is not helping them with “their big priorities.” Hunt said, “Well, I think, look, the Republicans on Capitol Hill all the way along have had a lot of trouble grappling with President Trump. They didn’t think he was ever going to be president of the United States. A lot of them have a lot of—there are a lot of words that I could not say on television that Republicans will use when they describe Donald Trump in private conversations.”...

Trump did not obstruct a valid FBI investigation; he demanded the exposure of a false one. The “collusion” narrative was a fraud, plain and simple. We know that now. Hopefully, it won’t take another six months to grasp a second plain and simple truth: Collusion’s successor, the “obstruction” narrative, is a perversion. The Left loves narrative. The ever-expanding story manipulates time, space, and detail to fit a thematic framework. Political narrative has some surface appeal, but it is deeply flawed. It obscures plain and simple truth. So let’s stick with the plain and simple: The essence of obstruction is to...

As of April, there were 74,531,002 people enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program as of April, according to the latest data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That is up 16,705,235 in the 49 states that reported their Medicaid/CHIP enrollment numbers for both the July-to-September period of 2013 (the last quarter before the Obamacare exchanges opened) and this April. The 74,531,002 enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP as of April includes the numbers for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In the 49 states that reported both before the Obamacare exchanges opened in 2013 and...

WASHINGTON - Exxon Mobil Corp. and other large oil companies are backing a carbon tax proposal put forward earlier this year by a group of former Republican leaders including James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state and a Houston attorney. The Climate Leadership Coalition, a group that includes Baker, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and former Secretary of State George Shultz, announced a list of "founding members" Tuesday that includes Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell, Total, General Motors and Johnson & Johnson. "We support @TheCLCouncil as a founding member and are working to support its policy development process," Exxon...

With Democrats accusing the administration of sabotaging the health law, two GOP committee chairmen urge the president to continue payments to insurers that could shore up the insurance market. With Democrats accusing the administration of sabotaging the health law, two GOP committee chairmen urge the president to continue payments to insurers that could shore up the insurance market.

House GOP leaders are warning their rank-and-file members of the potential for heavy midterm losses next year that could cost Republicans their majority. The warning Tuesday was aimed at encouraging lawmakers to stay focused and not be “chasing all the different other shiny objects” — according to Republican Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina. It comes a week ahead of a special election in Georgia, where Democrats are spending heavily to contest what should be a safe Republican seat. …

AUSTIN — Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on Monday put the 5-year-old federal investigation into his relationship with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff behind him and turned his attention to an impending trial on Texas ethics issues. DeLay said federal prosecutors told his attorneys last week that he had been "cleared" of any criminal violations in their investigation of Abramoff. The formerRepublican lawmaker, who represented Sugar Land from 1984 to 2006, also said he is ready for up to three days of pre-trial hearings slated to start Aug. 24 in Austin on a state money-laundering charge related to campaign...

Senate Republican leaders outlined a “very liberal” ObamaCare replacement bill during their weekly lunch with their members on Tuesday, sources said. “The moderates are very happy,” an aide to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), one of the Senate’s most conservative members, told The Post. “It was a very liberal bill.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters that the upper chamber is “getting very close to having a proposal to whip and to take to the floor” on health care. His comments came after the leaders met with President Trump at the White House to discuss health care reform. According...