Free Republic

New York (CNN)Former President Barack Obama said Wednesday there are no practical benefits to a bill Republicans are considering to replace the Affordable Care Act. Speaking in New York, Obama said the bill would increase costs and strip coverage from vulnerable Americans. "When I see people trying to undo that hard-won progress, for the 50th or 60th time, with bills that will raise costs, reduce coverage and roll back protections for older Americans and people with pre-existing conditions ... it is aggravating," Obama said during an event sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.Obama said it was essential to...

How many decisive rejections can a veteran national political figure experience at the hands of voters before that politician takes the hint and walks off into the sunset with some small measure of dignity still intact?Willard “Mitt” Romney seems intent on testing the limits of that proposition by floating the story with friends in the conservative media that he’s toying with the idea of running for the U.S. Senate seat of octogenarian Orrin Hatch of Utah, who is expected to announce his decision to decline a run for yet another term next year. Evidently, Romney’s last electoral humiliation—the embarrassing rout...

I will be in Huntsville, Alabama, on Saturday night to support Luther Strange for Senate. "Big Luther" is a great guy who gets things done!

Rep. Mo Brooks struck back against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Saturday, endorsing former judge Roy Moore over Sen. Luther Strange in the Alabama Senate special election 10 days before Election Day. Brooks, who finished third in round one of the Aug. 15 special GOP primary contest after sustaining million of dollars in political attacks from a super PAC connected to McConnell, made clear that his antipathy toward the Senate majority leader was a motivating factor behind his endorsement of Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. "The Strange/McConnell forces care not one twit about...

Senate Democrats are three seats shy of a majority and almost entirely on defense in the 2018 elections, making it all but impossible for them to retake the chamber next year. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen are privately refusing to rule out an improbable midterm victory, even though they must first defend 10 incumbents in states President Donald Trump won. Their insistence is primarily to keep donors invested and excited about next year’s Senate races, said a handful of top party operatives. But Democrats also want to be prepared to...

On Friday, October 10th, 2008, John McCain was giving a presentation at one of his rallies.  During this rally, an attendee stood up and asked a question about then candidate Senator Barack Obama.  LINK McCain responded at length admonishing her for the premise she had presented about Obama, when she said she feared an Obama presidency. During his presentation, he told her, the other attendees, and citizens around the nation that they had nothing to fear from an Obama presidency. It was essentially an endorsement.  Anyone aprehensive about an Obama presidency was told not to have any fear.  This was effectively...

We have been at war for far too long. Afghanistan is a war that cannot be won. We are not there because of 9/11. We are there to expand the empire and it should not be allowed to continue. So much money is being wasted and one senator has had enough. Kentucky’s Rand Paul sat on the floor of the Senate Monday night to protest the indefensible foreign policy pouring out of the last few administrations. Paul is the one real fiscal conservative in Washington who is opposed to our nation building and endless foreign wars. After 16 years in...

Senators want Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Department of Homeland Security to investigate "all acts of violence, intimidation and domestic terrorism" by white supremacists, white nationalists or associated groups and prevent them "from fomenting and facilitating additional violence." The resolution formally gained the backing of 57 senators, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), before it passed the Senate on Monday night.

Alternate headline: “Orrin Hatch must retire.� And there’s a fair chance that he will! He’s 83 and said in March that he’d be more inclined to step down if he could get a “really outstanding person� to run for his seat. When asked if he had anyone in mind, he said “Mitt Romney would be perfect.� That lit the fuse on RomneyWatch 2018, leading to reports that Romney was thinking about it and had even spoken to Mitch McConnell about running. But then in May the speculation seemed to fizzle: Hatch himself claimed that Romney told him he wouldn’t...

Rep. Dave Brat (R) is warning that the leadership in Congress is punting on tax-reform until 2018. With Republicans in complete control of all branches of government including Congress and the Presidency they have yet to pass any meaningful legislation. After a major flop on Obamacare repeal and replace the rumor is that in the Republican lead Senate 'that tax reform is not going to take place until next year, for some reason.' Rep. Dave Brat writes that, 'Senate leadership is hinting (or just flat-out stating) that they will craft a tax plan with Democrats in order to get to...

Rank-and-file senators are eyeing the annual defense bill the Senate will take up this week as a chance to challenge President Trump’s recent controversial moves on national security — but thus far, Republican leaders have resisted their efforts. Senators of both parties are drafting amendments that would step up sanctions against North Korea, roll back Trump’s order to ban transgender troops from the military and force Congress to vote within six months on a replacement authorization for use of military force, or AUMF, against extremist groups. Each of those initiatives grapples with an international crisis that Trump has tackled —...

As Luther Strange continues to fail to gain any traction on the campaign trail in his home state of Alabama in the final weeks before the GOP primary runoff, he picked up about the worst endorsement one can get in the Yellowhammer State on Wednesday. The globalist, open borders U.S. Chamber of Commerce threw its weight behind Strange’s flailing campaign with less than three weeks to go until the Sept. 26 runoff, as the GOP frontrunner conservative former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice Roy Moore maintains and extends his commanding lead.

Senate Democrats came dangerously close to crossing a constitutional line regarding religious faith during an inquisition of one of President Trump's nominees for the federal court. Senators grilled federal judicial nominee Amy Barrett -- demanding to know how her faith would influence her decisions from the bench. Barrett is a professor at Notre Dame Law School and a devout Catholic. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), expressed grave concerns that Barrett is a Catholic in good standing. "When you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you, and that's of concern when you come to...

A bipartisan group of senators plans to introduce a resolution that "[rejects] white nationalists, white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups" and send the document to President Trump's desk, per Politico. The sponsors: Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and Republican Sens. Cory Gardner and Johnny Isakson The mechanism: The Senate often takes up symbolic resolutions — honoring people on their birthdays, for example — that don't reach the president's desk. However, the senators behind this one have chosen to style it as a joint resolution, meaning it will require Trump's signature. Why it matters:...

In a video message posted to his Twitter account, former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore says it is time to end the federal government’s involvement in education and allow parents to take the lead in how best to educate their children. “Education has always been in the purview of the parent,” explains Moore, who is running against establishment GOP candidate Luther Strange in Alabama’s U.S. Senate primary runoff for the seat vacated by now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “They know best how to educate their children,” he continues. “The states have various forms of education, but the federal government has...

Monday in an op-ed posted on his website, former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) endorsed former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore in the U.S. Senate special election GOP primary runoff set for September 26 in the Yellowhammer State. Moore faces Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL), who was appointed earlier this year by-then Gov. Robert Bentley (R-AL). That was not something that went unnoticed by Huckabee. “I have good friends in Alabama whose support is split between Senator Luther Strange, who was ‘strangely’ appointed to the post by disgraced Governor Robert Bentley who made the appointment just as he was shown...

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas rebuffed requests from Trump Administration envoy Jared Kushner that his government stop using the foreign aid money the US has been sending him to pay bounties to terrorists for killing Jews. "The agreement we negotiated with President Obama attached no conditions on how we can use this money," Abbas said. "It is an insult that Mr. Trump would send his Jew son-in-law to try to renege on this prior arrangement. As Muslims, it is our religious obligation to kill the Jews and retake the land they stole from Allah. The demand that we cease fulfilling this...

Kid Rock teased a potential U.S. Senate run on Thursday, tweeting that '[t]he 2018 Political Revolution is nearing.' The musician, who was born Robert Ritchie and lives in suburban Detroit, has already said on social media that a website touting his Senate candidacy against Democrat Debbie Stabenow is real. He said in July that he would make a 'major announcement in the near future.' Ritchie wrote on a Kid Rock for US Senate website that '[t]he democrats are "shattin’ in their pantaloons" right now…and rightfully so!' 'We will be scheduling a press conference in the next 6 weeks or so...

Senate sleazebag Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has declared restricting voting to only Americans as an exercise in racism. Everything that protects America from conquest, such as immigration laws, vetting of refugees and voter IDs is racist to corrupt Chuck. Obviously feeling a threat to the Democrats’ system of voter fraud that is the foundation of every election they win, the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared that Democrats will attempt to use a “must-pass” bill to dissolve President Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission if he doesn’t end it ‘voluntarily.”

After receiving President Trump's first pardon, Joe Arpaio's plans have gone from possible prison to book-writing, speeches and potentially another run for office in Arizona, with Sen. Jeff Flake's seat one opportunity he is eyeing. The former Maricopa County sheriff told the Washington Examiner he's upset at negative reaction to the Friday pardon, and that he feels Republican politicians are insufficiently supportive of the president, who he calls a great man. "I could run for mayor, I could run for legislator, I could run for Senate," Arpaio said Monday. One particular race, however, is likely to gain significant attention: the...