Free Republic

Scott Walker is running for president hardened by four years of fighting for fiscal pragmatism and public sector reform as governor of Wisconsin. Those bruising battles, and his victories in them, underscore nearly every position he has staked out on the road he hopes will take him to the White House. He touts legislative accomplishments in a blue state, his defeat of militantly hostile unions, and his reversal of the state's budget deficit. Walker slashed wasteful spending by forming a special commission tasked with rooting out abuse, and forced the state government to publish its expenditures online. Candidates often talk...

Rural states with a history of conservative leadership generally fare better than urban ones with a history of progressive leadership — but there are exceptions in this latest study by George Mason University, ranking the 50 states in terms of their governments’ financial health.The Mercatus Center, a pro-market think tank at George Mason, released this year’s version of “Ranking the States by Fiscal Condition,” a remarkably well-named look at how each of the 50 states is faring when it comes to stewardship of public funds.Alaska tops the rankings, with the Dakotas, Nebraska and Florida rounding out the top five.Illinois is...

Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz are suggesting there might be ways for states and cities to nullify the justices’ ruling. They’re wrong. The Supreme Court’s decision last week did make gay marriage legal nationwide. Unfortunately for social conservatives, it did not, however, make nullification legal around the nation. Nullification is the historical idea that states can ignore federal laws, or pass laws that supercede them. This concept has a long but not especially honorable pedigree in U.S. history. Its origins date back to antebellum America, where Southern states tried to nullify tariffs and Northern states tried to nullify fugitive-slave laws....

Ted Cruz has some unsolicited advice for the states not specifically named in last week’s Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage: Ignore it. “Those who are not parties to the suit are not bound by it,” the Texas Republican told NPR News’ Steve Inskeep in an interview published on Monday. Since only suits against the states of Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan and Kentucky were specifically considered in the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which was handed down last Friday, Cruz — a former Supreme Court clerk — believes that other states with gay marriage bans need not comply, absent a...

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that health insurance consumers can receive federal subsidies regardless of their state’s role in running their insurance market, fewer states may stay in the game.When the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, most people expected that each state would want to run its own health insurance marketplace. That never really happened, as many states opted to let the federal system, HealthCare.gov, do the work for them. Many of those states that did try running their own marketplaces are starting to think twice.Now, with the Supreme Court ensuring that every state’s consumers will have...

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), part of the Interior Department, will decide by September 30 whether to list the greater sage-grouse as an endangered or threatened species under the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA).The stakes are huge: Greater sage-grouse (or prairie chicken) habitat covers 165 million acres across 11 western states, but that is only half of what it used to be, the federal government says. At one time, the greater sage-grouse population likely numbered in the millions, but it is now estimated to be in the 200,000 to 500,000 range.The enormous sage grouse habitat also is home to...

Detroit Free Press columnist Brian Dickerson stated in a column that improving Michigan roads was key to improving the state’s economic future and that’s why it was so important to pass Proposal 1. But he lamented what he saw as the attitudes of voters toward the proposal: “It's the collective shrug of Michissippians who've begun to doubt their state will ever again compete with mega-states like New York and Ohio, or even up-and-comers like North Carolina and Tennessee.” ForTheRecord says: It’s not 2009 anymore. Michigan’s job growth percentage (10.6 percent) from June 2009 to March 2015 has exceeded New York...

Should government – primarily state and local government – be able to prevent someone from actually working in a field or profession after they have spent tens of thousands of dollars and perhaps many years on an education from an accredited college or university? Unfortunately, too many states and localities believe the answer to that question is “yes.” Their attitude is that unless government gives its seal of approval – and always for a fee, of course – then somehow trained, qualified and educated men and women are not fit to practice their craft. It’s time to dispel this myth.

A team of researchers at the Federal Reserve are pointing fingers at more than a handful of states they say are actively undermining the government's attempts to curb income inequality. According to a new paper, the federal tax code works to compress income inequality across the U.S., a problem that has been growing since 1980. The general idea is that high earners should be taxed at higher rates, allowing a good portion of that revenue to go into programs that help lower-income people. In contrast, some states have instituted "regressive" tax policies that offset federal taxes and widen the growing...

State nullification is the idea that the states can and must refuse to enforce unconstitutional federal laws. Says Who? Says Thomas Jefferson, among other distinguished Americans. His draft of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 first introduced the word “nullification” into American political life, and follow-up resolutions in 1799 employed Jefferson’s formulation that “nullification…is the rightful remedy” when the federal government reaches beyond its constitutional powers. In the Virginia Resolutions of 1798, James Madison said the states were “duty bound to resist” when the federal government violated the Constitution. But Jefferson didn’t invent the idea. Federalist supporters of the Constitution...

Once I observed the map depicting “hostile,” “permissive” and “uncertain” states and locations, I was rather appalled that the hostile areas amazingly have a Republican majority and believe in the sanctity of the United States Constitution. When the federal government begins, even in practice, games or exercises, to consider any U.S. city or state in “hostile” control and trying to retake it, the message becomes extremely calloused and suspicious. Such labeling tends to make people who have grown leery of federal government overreach become suspicious of whether their big brother government anticipates certain states may start another civil war or...

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia reaffirmed his commitment to defending the Constitution while speaking to the Federalist Society in his home state of New Jersey on Friday. Scalia, the preeminent conservative firebrand of the court, told the audience it is the structure of the government under the Constitution and not the liberties guaranteed under the Bill of Rights that makes us free. As reported by The Daily Signal: “Every tin horn dictator in the world today, every president for life, has a Bill of Rights,” said Scalia, author of the 2012 book Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts. “That’s...

"States could force Catholic priests to perform same-sex ‘marriages’ or lose legal status: Justice Scalia" If the Supreme Court rules that same-sex “marriage” is a constitutional right, one justice has said that the government could force clergy of all denominations to perform gay “weddings” or lose the ability to officiate any state-sanctioned marriage. On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that will decide whether the Constitution forbids states from upholding marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Among the exchanges, Justice Antonin Scalia repeatedly noted that if the High...

Deciding which American state to live in isn’t easy. It’s like entering an all-you-can-eat casino buffet with the limitation of only being able to choose one food item. Before deciding where to live and buy a home it’s important to be informed, which is why Estately has compiled this map and list of what each state has more of per capita than any other. Some are good, some are bad, but all are unique to that specific state.

A little-noted provision of President Obama’s highway funding proposal would lift the federal prohibition against states imposing new tolls on existing interstate highways. The GROW AMERICA Act would eliminate restrictions held in place since the creation of the Federal Interstate System, according to a summary of the plan’s provisions, allowing states that receive permission from the Secretary of Transportation to toll existing Interstate highways “in order to make improvements or to manage congestion.” Since its creation in 1956, interstates have been funded primarily through fuel taxes, with tolls banned on all sections of highway built after that date, according to...

Pension funding is a hot topic in the political world. Retirees who have worked their entire lives end up retiring with very little to their name or have a very difficult time accessing their funds. These problems vary from state to state, with underfunded pensions accounting for the worst. Many states promise a certain amount for public employee retirement benefits, but don’t deliver in the end. According to this post from State Budget Solutions, last year’s unfunded pensions reached an all-time high of $4.7 trillion. This funding gap is affecting every state, but for some it hits harder than...

Republican presidential hopefuls are united in blasting President Obama for his chaotic enforcement of marijuana laws, but the unity quickly breaks down when they are asked how they would handle things if they were in the White House. Some have sent mixed signals, saying state decisions should be respected while questioning how Mr. Obama has respected those decisions. Others have refused to say how they would wield the federal bureaucracy against marijuana. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is one of the few potential candidates to take a firm stance, saying he would insist on following federal statutes that outlaw the drug....

Sell Stocks, facebook and twitter your friends. Cancel vacations in these states and reschedule to Indiana, Arkansas or any of the other 30 States that aren't boycotting Indiana that have RFRA laws.

It’s been taking place for nearly as long as I’ve been alive and I’m having a hard time recalling a single conversation with anyone who was an enthusiastic fan. The subject is daylight saving time, which crops up twice every year in nearly the entire nation, and is then promptly forgotten again once everyone gets their internal clocks mostly readjusted. But perhaps this is finally coming to an end as ten states debate dropping the practice, picking a time and sticking to it. States across the country are taking a dim view toward daylight saving time. And some say...

A city will pay me to live there? How is that possible, you may ask. Well, it's true. There are cities in the US that will actually pay you to live there. Might they always be your first choice for where you would live? Maybe, and maybe not. But getting paid to move and live in a community, if even for a short while can be quite an adventure, save you a ton of money and might even surprise you with how much you enjoy living in that city. Find out now: How much house can I afford? Here are...