Free Republic

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s speech to hundreds of conservative activists on Friday amounted to a dare to other potential Republican candidates in 2016: Just try to get to the right of me. Just try it.Mr. Cruz called for abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, getting rid of the Common Core educational standards and repealing the Affordable Care Act. He defined himself as staunchly anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage and pro-Israel.“There are people in Washington who say Republicans to win have to abandon our values,” he said, as members of the audience shouted “No way!” and “It’s a lie!”While polls last year showed that last...

The New Hampshire Republican Party amended its platform this weekend with stricter abortion provisions, including support for "personhood," which defines life as beginning at conception.Personhood has become a hot-button issue in Senate races across the country this year, such as Colorado, where Democrats have successfully attacked Rep. Cory Gardner for having supported such a measure in the past.Now, the issue could spread to New Hampshire, following the state party's decision at its convention.The platform now states: "Support the pre-born child's fundamental right to life and personhood under the Fourteenth Amendment, and implement all Constitutional and legal protections."It added: "Support a...

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the masterminds behind Obamacare, has now explained that he wishes to die at age 75. In an article in The Atlantic, Emanuel writes, “Seventy-five. That’s how long I want to live: 75 years.” He explains that his daughters disagree; so do his brothers and his friends. But, he says, “I am sure of my position…here is a simple truth that many of us seem to resist: living too long is also a loss. It renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but

A new government report confirms what pro-life advocates have long feared: President Obama's health care reform law allows for taxpayer-funded abortions. In a report to Congress, the Government Accountability Office found 28 states with no laws restricting qualified health plans that limit abortion coverage. In Massachusetts, only two of the 111 state-approved plans comply with the historic Hyde Amendment, which prohibits abortion funding except in cases of rape or incest. Five states (Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont) don't offer any qualified plans that follow Hyde's precedent, in place since 1977. That directly contradicts the president's 2010 executive...

Potential complications await consumers as President Barack Obama’s health care law approaches its second open enrollment season, just two months away. Don’t expect a repeat of last year’s website meltdown, but the new sign-up period could expose underlying problems with the law itself that are less easily fixed than a computer system. Getting those who signed up this year enrolled again for 2015 won’t be as easy as it might seem. And the law’s interaction between insurance and taxes looks like a sure-fire formula for confusion. …

Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, who rose to prominence after her filibuster of Texas’ anti-abortion legislation, reveals in a new campaign memoir that she terminated two pregnancies for medical reasons in the 1990s, including one in which the fetus had developed a severe brain abnormality. In the book, “Forgetting to Be Afraid,” Davis writes that she had an abortion in 1996 after an exam revealed that the brain of the fetus had developed in complete separation on the right and left sides. She also describes ending an earlier ectopic pregnancy, in which an embryo implants outside the uterus. It...

Click all photos to enlarge… The Catholic Globe reported on an interesting competition in Iowa: Location was a huge factor for Mary’s Choice, a pro-life pregnancy resource center in Sioux City as it is next to Planned Parenthood, because it could be seen by those entering the facility. According to Sherill Glassmaker, director of Mary’s Choice, when Planned Parenthood erected a tall wooden wall, visibility of the pro-life center was impacted. “We had a sign on the side of our building and people would pull into Planned Parenthood. A lot of times people would call from the parking lot and...

Fox News is reporting that employer-provided health care plans may be a thing of the past. Former Obama health adviser Zeke Emanuel predicted that Obamacare will replace 80 percent of employer-provided health plans will disappear in 10 years. “It’s going to actually be better for people. They’ll have more choice,” Emanuel said. “Most people who work for an employer and get their coverage through an employer do not have choice.” …

Rep. John Fleming said Tuesday that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius should step down because her agency had three years to prepare for the debut of online insurance markets that have been plagued by computer glitches. Mr. Fleming, Louisiana Republican, said the new health care law is a “ship in search of an iceberg” that will harm the nation once it’s fully implemented, a claim that diverges from the White House’s insistence that online markets tied to the law will improve during a six-month open enrollment period that began Oct. 1. “The rest of it is going to...

Republicans lawmakers from Louisiana are insisting that the government shutdown will not impact the region's preparedness ahead of the expected landfall of Tropical Storm Karen on the Gulf Coast. The storm, which has maximum winds of 50 miles per hour according to the National Hurricane Center, is expected to slam the Gulf Coast late Saturday or early Sunday morning. Forecasters believe Karen could intensify to hurricane strength before then. That's led to questions about the government's preparedness for severe weather. According to The Times Picayune in New Orleans, at least 2,000 federal workers have been furloughed in the state, including...

This morning, I received the following email, which is currently being circulated around the internet: Congressman John Fleming (Louisiana physician) has proposed an amendment that would require congressmen and senators to take the same healthcare plan they force on us (under proposed legislation they are curiously exempt). Congressman Fleming is encouraging people to go on his Website and sign his petition at: http://fleming.house.gov/index.html. Please urge as many people as you can to do the same! If Congress forces this on the American people, the Congressmen should have to accept the same level of health care for themselves and their families.

Why did Congress exempt themselves from being included in the healthcare they want for the rest of Americans? Maybe it's because Congress members don't want themselves and their families to be at the mercy of bureaucrats about whether they can receive quality of life treatments, or even treatments for their very life or death; rationing; long lines; or when they become senior citizens, be forced to have counseling every five years, or more often if they are sick, regarding alternatives for end of life care. Rep. John Fleming, (the 2007 Louisiana family physician of the year), put forth a bill,...

Health Reform: If Democrats in Washington think their health care reform with a public option is a good thing, why have they exempted themselves from it? Why isn't what's good for their constituents good for them?During ABC's June 24 infomercial for government-run health care broadcast from the White House, President Obama was asked if he and his family would abide by the restrictions and limitations that came with his proposed reforms. In what Ed Morrissey at HotAir.com called "Obama's Michael Dukakis moment," President Obama refused to make such a pledge and confessed that if "it's my family member, if it's...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There are 65 prominent people who might run for president in 2016. The Democratic and Republican fields contrast sharply. Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner, while there is no front-runner on the Republican side. Twenty-three Democrats have been mentioned as a candidate or are eyeing a bid, according to an analysis by The Hill. The GOP side has 42. Most of the people on this list won’t run, and some have adamantly claimed that they’re not interested. But many politicians have changed their minds on seeking the White House. Before mounting his 2008 bid, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he...

More than 2,000 more Coloradans had their health insurance plans cancelled as a result of the Affordable Care Act, according to a letter from the state regulatory agency to state Senate Republicans.Following a dust-up earlier this year between Colorado Democratic Sen. Mark Udall and the Division of Insurance, Republicans have requested regular updates on policies that are cancelled because they don’t conform to Obamacare or because companies are getting out of the individual insurance market.Udall disputed the original number of nearly a quarter million cancellations in the immediate wake of Obamacare’s rollout in late 2013, arguing that almost all of...

Obamacare plans have shrunk payments to physicians so much that some doctors say they won’t be able to afford to accept Obamacare coverage, NPR reports. Many of the eight million sign-ups in Obamacare exchanges nationwide already face more limited choices for physicians and hospitals than those in the private insurance market. But with low physician reimbursement rates, the problem could get even worse. For a typical quick patient visit, Dr. Doug Gerard, a Connecticut internist, told NPR a private insurer would pay $100 while Medicare would pay around $80. But Obamacare plans are more likely to pay closer to $80,...

Former Democratic congressman Barney Frank has some tough words for President Barack Obama about his handling of Obamacare. "The rollout was so bad, and I was appalled -- I don't understand how the president could have sat there and not been checking on that on a weekly basis," Frank tells the Huffington Post in a recent interview. "But frankly, he should never have said as much as he did, that if you like your current health care plan, you can keep it. That wasn't true. And you shouldn't lie to people. And they just lied to people."

Many of you probably heard about the “Halbig” decision, in which a federal court struck a blow against Obamacare by ruling that the IRS was wrong to arbitrarily grant subsidies for health insurance policies purchased through a federal exchange. And why did the judges rule against the IRS? Well, for the simple reason that the Obamacare legislation specifically says that subsidies are only available for policies purchased through exchanges set up by state governments. My Cato colleague Michael Cannon explains: The PPACA authorizes the IRS to issue health-insurance tax credits only to taxpayers who purchase coverage “through an Exchange established...

53% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Obamacare, up 8% since last month. This is the largest unfavorable opinion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the survey’s four year history, a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds. Only 37% of people actually have a favorable opinion of the law. Obamacare lost favorability with women, whites, and those in the low and middle income brackets, along with other groups—including Democrats. …

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg evolved this summer from a mere figure of authority into a liberal celebrity when she authored the dissenting opinion in the Hobby Lobby case. Ginsburg’s dissent, which has been ubiquitously dubbed “scathing” and/or “blistering” in the press, prompted the left to craft a cult of personality around her. Liberal outlets dubbed her “Notorious R.B.G.,” whiny folk artists converted her opinion into a terrible but nevertheless widely shared song, and The New Republic laughably dubbed Ginsburg “the most popular woman on the internet.” Take that, Kate Upton.All this hero worship was entirely unearned, but...