Free Republic

The conservative Club For Growth released its annual scorecard for 2013 on Monday, bestowing two Republican U.S. senators — Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah — and four GOP congressmen with 100 percent ratings for their voting records “based on issues relating to limited government and economic growth.”The four congressmen with perfect ratings for 2013 are Republican Reps. Matt Salmon, Trent Franks and David Schweikert of Arizona and Tom McClintock of California. Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan got a 99 percent rating in 2013 “but because of rounding has a 100 percent LifeScore,” the group said.“2013 saw...

“Washington is never going to fix itself,” said former Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), explaining why he intends to spend the next few years trying to “cheat history” by helping to organize the nation’s first-ever Convention of the States. The purpose of the convention will be to rein-in a federal “leviathan” that he says has overstepped its constitutional bounds. Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, two-thirds of the state legislatures can call a convention to propose amendments to the Constitution that limit the scope and jurisdiction of the federal government. Alaska, Florida and Georgia passed Article V resolutions last year....

At the start of the last Congress, John Cornyn wrote an editorial titled “Partial Government Shutdown May Be Needed to Restore Fiscal Sanity.” He’s singing a different tune today. “I’ve evolved,” the Texas Republican and newly minted Senate majority whip said in an interview last week with CQ Roll Call. For starters, the memory of the 2013 shutdown over Obamacare instigated by his fellow Texas senator, Ted Cruz, remains fresh. “Part of wisdom is to learn from your experiences, and I think we learned the hard way that shutdowns are not well received by the American people,” Cornyn said. “And...

On his way out of the door, his final day as a U.S. Senator, Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) released a blistering oversight report that finds the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) isn’t “successfully executing any of its five main missions.” Coburn’s criticisms include, but also predate, the Obama administration. Among the key findings: · DHS spent $50 billion over the past eleven years on counterterrorism programs but cannot demonstrate if the nation is more secure as a result. · 700 miles of the Southern border remain unsecured. · DHS is not effectively administering or enforcing the nation’s immigration laws. Only...

When politics becomes personal it can lose perspective.In an interview that was broadcast last night on 60 Minutes, retiring Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn proclaimed, “I’m proud of our country for electing Barack Obama.” Senator Coburn is to be admired for his years as a watchdog on the spending habits of Congress and bureaucrats in the federal government. While I was certainly well aware of Coburn’s friendship with Obama, which developed when they were in the Senate, I am nevertheless disappointed to hear that he is proud this country elected Barack Obama to the White House. Senator Coburn might very...

Here in Oklahoma, the news that Senator Tom Coburn will be retiring early from his second term has still not entirely settled in with most folks. For ten years we awoke each day knowing that our state’s voice in Washington would be one of principled reason and absolute integrity. It’s not that our other senator, Jim Inhofe, or our House members, like Tom Cole and Frank Lucas, are lacking. They are all solid conservatives, as is former congressman James Lankford, whom we elected in November to replace Coburn in the Senate. But as conservatives across the nation have recognized for...

There's no official Sen. Ted Cruz presidential team — yet. But the Texas Republican is already surrounding himself with key strategists and advisers that could make his transparent White House ambitions a reality. The tea party firebrand relies on a small circle of advisers to inform his views and amplify his ultraconservative message. The inner circle breaks down into two groups: his chief advisers in the Senate office, and the chiefs of his nationally-focused political operation, which he beefed up in the summer of 2014 by hiring a crop of seasoned Republican campaign operatives. These are the key players that...

This ain’t your daddy’s libertarian. More to the point, this ain’t his daddy’s libertarian.First he went after Ted Cruz for trying to characterize him as a dove, now this. By the end of the year, he and McCain will be holding joint filibusters on the Senate floor demanding that America build the biggest nuclear bomb evah. Rand Paul, hawk? In the current budget, the Obama Administration called for the elimination of the Tomahawk missile. This missile protects our troops and allows us to avoid much direct person-to-person combat. Our navy has depended heavily on them…Nobody wants to cut spending, including...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is a tea party stalwart.   Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., narrowly defeated a tea party opponent in the Republican Senate primary this year.   Ted Cruz has a perfect 100 percent rating from the American Conservative Union.   Pat Roberts has an 84 percent rating from the ACU.   Yet this week Cruz will be in Kansas campaigning for Roberts in an election that is crucial for GOP hopes of retaking the Senate. The reason is simple. Fox News quotes Cruz explaining, “Roberts stood by my side in the fight to defund Obamacare, and he...

WICHITA, Kan. — Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) waded into the Kansas Senate race Thursday, touting beleaguered Republican incumbent Pat Roberts as the contest’s only true conservative. The conservative hero's support is crucial as Roberts tries to energize his campaign and ward off a challenge from well-funded independent Greg Orman in a race that could jeopardize the GOP's hopes of winning Senate control. Cruz vouched for Roberts despite raising money earlier in the cycle for the Madison Project, a conservative group that supported Roberts’s primary challenger Milton Wolf. Wolf has not yet endorsed Roberts in the general election....

The Senate approved a continuing resolution for the budget which included a provision authorizing President Obama to arm and train Syrian rebels for the purpose of combating Islamic State terrorists. The legislation passed 78-22. Of the 22 Senators that voted no, here are the 12 Republicans that voted against the provision: John Barrasso (WY) Tom Coburn (OK) Michael Crapo (ID) Ted Cruz (TX) Mike Enzi (WY) Dean Heller (NV) Mike Lee (UT) Jim Moran (KS) Rand Paul (KY) James Risch (ID) Pat Roberts (KS) Jeff Sessions (AL)

<p>Sen. Tom Coburn said Tuesday he opposes President Barack Obama's request for $3.7 billion in emergency funding to address the influx of unaccompanied minors across the southwest border.</p> <p>"That's $60,000 per child we will spend, in emergency money," the Oklahoma Republican said on CNN's "Crossfire."</p>

fter Ben Sasse's primary win in Nebraska's GOP Senate primary last month, it seemed like former conservative Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon was next. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT), all of whom had backed Sasse, campaigned for Shannon, helping him erase a 35-point deficit in the GOP Oklahoma Senate primary against Rep. James Lankford (R-OK). Shannon had the wind at his back and Lankford, the 5th-ranking member of House GOP leadership, seemed vulnerable in a state that has not elected someone from Oklahoma City to the Senate since 1960. But Lankford's...

Remember these sixteen names when they run for office again. The sixteen Republicans who voted to proceed were Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), Susan Collins (Maine). Bob Corker (Tenn.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Dean Heller (Nev.), John Hoeven (N.D.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), John McCain (Ariz.), Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.). List courtesy The Hill.com. As reported by RedState yesterday, this bill would allow doctors to add a person’s name to the national database currently used for background checks, and list them as...

Here is exhibit A of why we don’t trust current Senate leadership to do the right thing if they were to win back the majority; they refuse to block new spending when in the minority. Last week, House leadership decided to pass the “doc fix” bill (H.R. 4302) by voice vote. This bill reimburses healthcare providers for the scheduled 24 percent cut in payments for services rendered to Medicare patients. The bill extends the payments through next March. It also continues some new programs created under Obamacare. They used a hodgepodge of tenuous offsets spread out mainly over the next...

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz threw his support behind T.W. Shannon in Oklahoma's GOP senate primary, The Hill reported. Shannon is a former state House Speaker. This was the first primary endorsement made by Cruz, who has a strong following among tea party-aligned Republicans. The endorsement allows him to honor his pledge not to back insurgents in primaries involving Senate GOP colleagues, The Washington Post reported. Shannon is in an open primary. A special election in November will fill the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn two years before his term ends in 2016. Cruz plans to attend...

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell now has an endorsement to go with his gun. The National Rifle Association's political action committee announced Friday it has endorsed McConnell in the May 20 Republican primary. McConnell made headlines last month when he appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference waving a rifle over his head. The rifle was a lifetime achievement award McConnell presented to U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. In a news release, NRA Political Victory Fund chairman Chris Cox called McConnell a true champion of the Second Amendment. Likely Democratic nominee Alison Lundergan Grimes mocked McConnell, saying he was holding...

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is battling cancer and will retire at the end of his term.... When Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., pointed out that the majority of cancer centers in the country aren´t covered under Obamacare while arguing that the law´s problems go beyond early website issues, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., dismissed the critique as too "in the weeds." Coburn, a medical doctor battling cancer, panned the coverage offered to cancer patients. "Nineteen of the cancer centers in this country, only five are covered under Obamacare," he told the Washington Examiner Tuesday, a data point he

New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman is questioning Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn’s claim that Obamacare caused him to lose his cancer specialist. “It’s a garbage story, it really is,” said Krugman in a back-and-forth with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on CNN after the State of the Union on Tuesday. Coburn, who announced earlier this month that he’ll resign from office at the end of the year as he battles his fourth bout with cancer, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that his oncologist was no longer covered under his health care plan.

The special-election primary to replace resigning Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn is tightening after an advertising blitz benefiting Republican state Speaker T.W. Shannon. A poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies on behalf of Oklahomans for a Conservative Future, an outside group backing Shannon, found the state speaker cutting into the early GOP primary lead of Rep. James Lankford. Lankford, who is the favorite to fill the remaining two years of Coburn’s term, led with 37 percent, followed by Shannon with 28 percent and former state Sen. Randy Brogdon with 7 percent. A half dozen candidates are running to replace Coburn, a...