Free Republic

Liberal House Democrats are fighting tooth and nail against President Obama over the fate of an enormous year-end government spending bill. With just hours to go before a scheduled government shutdown, the Democrats launched a lobbying blitz to counter calls made by Obama and other White House officials urging passage of the bill. Leading the charge was Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, who is up in arms over the face that Obama has agreed to accept a GOP rider to undo parts of the 2010 Wall Street reform law as part of...

The House narrowly approved a vital spending bill Thursday night despite deep misgivings among liberals and conservatives alike, sending the measure to the Senate as a funding deadline looms. The bill passed on a 219-206 vote, following an intense lobbying effort by House Republican leaders and the White House. Current government funding technically runs out at midnight Thursday, and lawmakers still are expected to move a stopgap measure to buy time as the Senate considers the main $1.1 trillion spending package. That debate could last through the weekend and potentially into Monday. Passage in the House followed hours of urgent...

The Obama administration made a last-ditch attempt on Thursday to drum up Democratic support to salvage a faltering $1.1 trillion spending bill, just hours ahead of a midnight U.S. government shutdown deadline. Administration officials from President Barack Obama down to staff at the Department of Education were phoning Democrats in the House of Representatives to ask them to set aside objections to a financial provision and pass the measure to fund most of the government through September.

<p>Congressional leaders unveiled a massive $1.01 trillion spending bill Tuesday night that will keep most of the federal government funded through September.</p> <p>The legislation is expected to pass in the coming days and will allow the new Republican- controlled Congress to clear the decks of lingering spending issues, while setting the stage for a prolonged fight with President Obama over immigration policy.</p>

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional negotiators resolved policy disputes to reach a deal for a $1.1 trillion spending bill on Tuesday but still expected to need a stop-gap extension to avoid a U.S. government shutdown at midnight on Thursday. House of Representatives Republicans were preparing to pass a short-term funding extension of one to two days to allow the Senate more time to clear procedural hurdles that could drag final passage past the deadline. The snags added some drama to a spending bill that appeared to be cruising toward passage, despite demands from conservative Republicans to withhold spending from President Barack...

The goal is to have the massive measure ready by late Monday

Few Americans who entered polling booths for the Nov. 4 election and pulled the lever for their favorite candidate for Senate realize that for most of American history, senators were chosen by the state legislatures. It wasn’t until 1913 that the 17thAmendment was passed, granting American voters the constitutional right of directly electing their senators.While this important amendment may seem innocuous, the reality is that few other changes to our Constitution have had the same detrimental effect on our nation than this single, nearly forgotten alteration.The passage of the 17th Amendment was driven largely by the populist movement of the...

At the height of the Pontiac School District’s overspending crisis, its deficit reached $51.7 million in 2013. House Democratic Leader Tim Greimel put out a press release in January 2013 with a headline: “Republican Budget Cuts Lead To Lack of Toilet Paper in Pontiac Schools.” Pontiac Education Association Union President Aimee McKeever said the district was poor and not receiving as much money as surrounding districts. But neither claim was accurate. The Pontiac School District is in the news this week after it stated its deficit has been reduced for the first time in the seven consecutive years it has...

This is a call to action: STOP Congress from passing an Omnibus Spending Bill through September of 2015, instead they need to pass a clean CR through January 2015, then they'll at least have the tools to fight Obama's lawlessness through defunding his "executive actions" on Amnesty, Obamacare, and whatever else. CAPITAL HILL SWITCH BOARD (Please use this): (202) 224-3121

The AP story says, “Minnesota's legislative auditor says the state Department of Human Services has failed to adequately verify the eligibility of people who enroll in public health care programs through the state's health insurance exchange MNsure. In a report released Wednesday, the Office of the Legislative Auditor says it found many instances where department paid for Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare benefits for people who weren't eligible because their incomes were too high or didn't qualify for other reasons. It says the department also charged incorrect MinnesotaCare premium rates.” It’s hard to put into words how shocked I am. The...

State revenue forecasters said Monday that the state can expect hundreds of millions of budget dollars less than previously thought to fund schools, social programs and highway projects. The consensus revenue estimating group lowered the official projections it made in April by $205 million. If accurate, the revised forecast means that Gov. Sam Brownback and legislators will have to raise taxes or make deep cuts in spending during the remaining seven months of the budget year to avoid a $278 million deficit. Additional cuts will be necessary to prevent a $435 million deficit in the next budget year, the analysts...

Facing a tough midterm election, Democrats put aside some of their remaining scruples about the new age of unlimited campaign spending and courted unions and hedge-fund billionaires for big checks to try to salvage a Senate majority. They spent a lot of money. But not enough. This year, in a reversal of 2012, the big-money Democratic donors watched their investments return little on election night Tuesday. Although Republicans outspent them overall, Democrats got beaten even in states like Colorado and North Carolina where they spent the same or even a little more than Republicans. "We just saw a national tsunami,"...

While stopping short of going “full Krugman,” Michigan Radio suggests a “silver lining” regarding the state of Michigan’s roads: In our recent conversation with MSU economist Charlie Ballard, he reminded us that we're going to pay for road repairs one way or another. Maybe higher taxes or, in Ballard's case, paying now, with blown tires and bent rims. But, is there some kind of silver lining to the crummy roads? Maybe for local repair shops? The spending certainly helps the local repair shop, but at the expense of the overall economy. The idea that simply spending money is good without...

The Citizens Research Council of Michigan has joined the growing number of analysts to explain that state funding for public schools has not been reduced in the past four years, despite persistent and erroneous claims by teachers unions and Democratic politicians. These claims have been a prominent theme in the current race for governor. On Oct. 16, the non-partisan organization founded in 1916 released a report that asked and answered the key question: “Is school funding up or down compared to four years ago? Here the answer is an unequivocal ‘up.’” The CRC, which claims to be “the state’s oldest...

Actual Table of Contents 1. Paid Vacations for Bureaucrats Gone Wild 2. Swedish Massages for Rascally Rabbits 3. Army Creates Free First-Person Shooter the Intelligence Community Worries Could Train Terrorists 4. Mountain Lions on a Treadmill 5. Anti-Terror Grant Buys State-of-the-Art SWAT Equipment for Safest Small Town in America 6. OPM Pays Contractor To “Flush” Security Clearance Investigations “like a dead goldfish” 7. Spouses Stab Voodoo Dolls More Often When “Hungry”, Study Reveals ($331K spent) 8. Scientists Hope Gambling Monkeys Unlock Secrets of Free Will ($171K spent) 9. Subsidies for Sports Stadiums Leave Taxpayers Holding the Bill 10. Teen...

If you take to Twitter to express your views on a hot-button issue, does the government have an interest in deciding whether you are spreading "misinformation"? If you tweet your support for a candidate in the November elections, should taxpayer money be used to monitor your speech and evaluate your "partisanship"? My guess is that most Americans would answer those questions with a resounding no. But the federal government seems to disagree. The National Science Foundation, a federal agency whose mission is to "promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity and welfare; and to secure the...

It is difficult to decide which is the more infuriating – those who persist in advancing a lie or those who stubbornly ignore the possible means of combating it. The State of Michigan is spending more state tax dollars on K-12 education than the $6,844 per pupil it was spending the final budget year of former Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s administration. At the beginning of this year it was spending $7,545 per pupil. Beginning Oct. 1, that amount was increased again by $50 to $175 per pupil, with the lowest funded school districts receiving the largest boosts. As students of propaganda...

More than a dozen lucky rabbits were given Swedish massages four times a day, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers, as part of a study to figure out whether massage can help recovery times after strenuous exercise — a practice Sen. Tom Coburn says makes a mockery of federal spending. The rabbit massages are one of the hundred wasteful products Mr. Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, identified in his latest edition of the Wastebook, an annual compendium of the ridiculous and outrageous items in government spending, which he is releasing on Wednesday. Other highlights included the National Science Foundation paying academics to teach...

American officials have spent billions of tax dollars "setting up projects or programs that the Afghans cannot or will not sustain once international forces" leave Afghanistan, according to a government watchdog. "Afghanistan is a case study in projects and programs set up without considering" whether they can be continued, said John Sopko, Special Inspector-General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Sopko's comments came in a speech Friday to a meeting of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University. The problem is the sheer magnitude of the reconstruction effort, which is bigger than any ever before undertaken by the U.S. "Last year, the...

On November 4th, 2014 (early voting starts October 20), Texans will have the opportunity to vote on one proposed amendment to the state’s constitution. Hardhatters offers our views on Proposition 1. Prop 1 (HJR 1)Ballot: "The constitutional amendment providing for the use and dedication of certain money transferred to the state highway fund to assist in the completion of transportation construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation projects, not to include toll roads."Summary: Proposition 1 will require the Texas Comptroller to transfer 50% of oil and gas tax revenues away from the economic stabilization fund (Rainy Day Fund) to the State Highway Fund....