Free Republic

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) on Wednesday signaled an end to further Democrat shutdown shenanigans with a move to go back to what he called the "old-fashioned way" of funding the government. Speaking to members of the press, Thune said that the "path to a stronger, safer America" is getting funding bills passed through the traditional appropriations process "instead of continuing resolutions." The Schumer Shutdown, which brought chaos to American airports, cut funding to SNAP benefits, etc., ended after 43 days. 🚨NOW — Senator John Thune says government is going to operate the OLD—FASHIONED way!By passing appropriation bills instead...

For all the talk about artificial intelligence and quantum supremacy, the fate of civilizations still depends on breakfast. ChatGPT can’t grow corn. Empires rise on stomachs as much as on silicon. And America’s food system – long dismissed as safe and self-sufficient – has quietly become a front line in the US-China rivalry. We act as if lunch is inevitable, but Beijing knows that food is power. A new report from the America First Policy Institute should wake us up. Washington long treated agriculture as a post-political space where globalization could do no harm, and was therefore happy to let...

The USDA is “crunching numbers” as it considers potential relief for farmers from tariff-related losses, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen A. Vaden said Monday. President Donald Trump’s administration previously hinted that it might devote up to $12 billion to aid payments for farmers who were hurt by tariff policies this year, Politico reported in late October. “This department only woke back up on Thursday of last week,” Vaden said, referencing the Nov. 12 conclusion of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. “Lots of things changed during (the government shutdown),” including trade agreements with China, Southeast Asia, Pakistan, and...

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey publicly called for the removal of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, marking a rare open challenge to party leadership and setting off internal conflict within the Democratic Party. Booker made the remarks during a televised appearance, initiating what several lawmakers described as an unprecedented public break from standard intra-party practice. Booker’s comments signaled dissatisfaction with current leadership and represented a shift from the typical private discussions that accompany leadership disputes. He called for new leadership within the Senate Democratic caucus. The statement was delivered openly and immediately drew attention among Democratic lawmakers in Washington....

A left-wing group behind the massive "No Kings" protests targeting President Donald Trump and his administration launched its largest primary undertaking: targeting Senate Democrats who joined Republicans to reopen the government. "This is no longer about them - it’s about us. We’re done waiting for Democrats to find their spine," Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, said in a Monday press release. "We can’t afford a weak and cowardly Democratic Party... The protests are supported by dozens of left-wing and liberal groups, with Indivisible, the 50501 movement and the No Kings Organization, itself, identified as the top organizers...

The longest government shutdown in history is over, but appropriators still have a long way to go to get nine of the 12 necessary funding bills over the finish line by Jan. 31, 2026.The government reopened after 43 days, following the House’s passage, mostly along party lines, with six Democrats voting in favor and two Republicans voting against, of a legislative package that extended funding until the end of January and included three appropriations bills.However, with the new January deadline, appropriators are up against the clock, as both chambers must now agree on the nine remaining bills so they can...

oday is November 11; thank a veteran. On the menu today: The progressive grassroots insist that they’re madder than ever about Chuck Schumer, but there’s no sign of any coalescing around an alternative leader for Democrats in the Senate. Meanwhile the Democrats continue to chant “no more kings,” although it’s not the hereditary transfer of government power part that really bothers them. Everybody Hates Chuck, Part Two The big story as the week continues is the progressive grassroots’ apoplectic rage at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over how the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history is coming to a...

The government is open again, but only because Democrats finally admitted defeat. After orchestrating the longest shutdown in American history — 43 days of economic carnage and manufactured crisis — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) walked away with exactly what they deserved: nothing. No wins. No concessions. No extensions of the pandemic-era ObamaCare subsidies over which they had been holding the country hostage. Just a battered economy, furious constituents, and a party eating its own.House and Senate conservatives refused to blink, and Democrats had nowhere left to go.The wreckage they left behind...

The Democrats needed to re-open or they’d become irrelevant.Well, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history is finally over, and many of you are asking questions like, “Why would Sydney Sweeney make a movie where she plays a fat boxer? What was she thinking?” Also, “Why do women play with their hair when they like a guy?” And here’s another one: “You know how the screen just went dark in the last episode of ‘The Sopranos’? What the hell was that about? I mean, they’re paying the screenwriter good money. Shouldn’t he be able to come up with some kind...

A Democrat representative appears to have revealed the party’s next plot to sow chaos in DC and stall President Donald Trump’s agenda. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), who represents South Boston in Congress, told CNN’s Omar Jimenez on Friday that the party could be eyeing a second attempt at shutting down the government when the short-term continuing resolution expires in January. “Democrat Rep. Stephen Lynch says he is “furious” that the government reopened and suggests the Democrats will shut down the government again in January,” RNC Research wrote on X in a post accompanying the CNN clip. “I’m, I’m, I’m furious...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jessica Sweet spent the federal government shutdown cutting back. To make ends meet, the Social Security claims specialist drank only one coffee a day, skipped meals, cut down on groceries and deferred paying some household bills. She racked up spending on her credit card buying gas to get to work. With the longest shutdown ever coming to a close, Sweet and hundreds of thousands of other federal workers who missed paychecks will soon get some relief. But many are left feeling that their livelihoods served as political pawns in the fight between recalcitrant lawmakers in Washington and...

The House on Wednesday passed a funding bill that will end the government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, by a margin of 222-209. President Donald Trump is scheduled to sign the bill later Wednesday. The legislation will fund the government through Jan. 30 and provide funding for some government agencies for the remainder of the fiscal year.

At first blush, the deal that paved the way to end the government shutdown this week looked exactly like the kind of feeble outcome many Democrats have come to expect from their leaders in Washington. After waging a 40-day fight to protect Americans’ access to health care — one they framed as existential — their side folded after eight defectors struck a deal that would allow President Trump and Republicans to reopen the government this week without doing anything about health coverage or costs, enraging all corners of the party. But even some of the Democrats most outraged by the...

The collapse of Chuck Schumer’s shutdown gambit, when seven fellow Democrats and one independent broke ranks with him, serves as a humiliating bookend to the longest government closure ever. It also simultaneously highlights one of President Trump’s most sweeping and crucial Washington victories over his most toxic opponents.Ever since his first election in 2016, Trump has been thwarted, tormented, impeached and mocked by Schumer and Democratic former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.And now he has turned the tables on them in devastating fashion, with Schumer likely to be dethroned as Senate minority leader and Pelosi packing her money bags to leave...

snip The agreement includes a “minibus” of three appropriations bills, which will fund some parts of the government through next fall. The rest of the government will be funded through Jan. 30. The deal includes funding of the food assistance program known as SNAP for the rest of the fiscal year through September 2026, meaning families will be fed and food stamps can’t be used as leverage in any funding fight in the coming months. The group of eight also got some wins for federal workers, who have been under siege since Trump’s inauguration, facing aggressive Department of Government Efficiency...

Flyers could face travel Armageddon over the weekend if the government doesn’t reopen by then, Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy cautioned Tuesday. More than 10% of flights could be delayed nationally, Duffy warned – adding that some airlines may even decide to ground their fleets altogether. “You may find airlines that stop flying. Full stop,” Duffy said. And last weekend’s travel delays – which saw thousands of flights cancelled and scores more delayed – would be “tiddlywinks” compared to what could happen this weekend if the government isn’t open again, Duffy said. “It is going to radically slow down,” the secretary...

For the record, Chuck Schumer voted against the motion to proceed on a government-reopening measure that is likely to bring his eight-plus years as Senate democratic leader to an end, probably sooner rather than later. But that doesn’t seem to matter. Democrats angry over the abrupt abandonment of a Senate filibuster that seemed to be working in the party’s favor are blaming Schumer, either because they believe he quietly encouraged the eight Democrats who defected, or because he couldn’t keep them in line. The denunciations of the deal are coming in so fast that it’s hard to keep track of...

The longest government shutdown in modern American history is about to end, after a handful of Democratic senators this weekend decided to provide Republicans enough votes to pass a short-term funding plan that would keep the government running until the end of January 2026. While there’s not much for Democrats to write home about in this deal, it’s also not clear that they could have ever really won the showdown — or any of the concessions they were originally making. Moreover, the deal doesn’t put the issue to bed so much as it kicks the can down the road for...

Barring some unnecessary Republican crash-out — always a high possibility! — this partial federal government “shutdown” was destined to end with Democrat leaders finally leveling with their own angry voters to say, Yeah, we got nothing, and I don’t have any good answers for you right now.And that’s more or less what’s happening now that another five Senate Democrats have broken ranks with the party Sunday to start the reopening process, which is set to include funding for food stamps and “key” government agencies, plus backpay for furloughed federal workers. That’s it. Unless you count the handshake agreement that the...

Paul and the Kentucky Hemp Association say McConnell’s language banning the sale of hemp-derived products that include more than .4 milligrams of THC per container will destroy the entire hemp and CBD industry — in a blow to farmers, businesses and consumers. McConnell says his provision targets “intoxicating THC products” that were made legal in the 2018 Farm Bill that launched the hemp industry, closing what’s often been referred to as its “loophole.” He says that would crack down on synthetic products with intoxicating amounts of THC — the psychoactive component in cannabis plants — while preserving non-intoxicating CBD and...