Free Republic

Democrats think they have Republicans on the run on healthcare, but maybe not if the GOP fights back. On Friday House Speaker Mike Johnson offered a better alternative to the Democratic proposal to extend pandemic-era subsidies for ObamaCare: Expanding insurance choices for employers and workers. How dare he. House Republicans plan to vote on their bill this week. The left’s chief criticism is that it doesn’t extend the sweetened ObamaCare subsidies, which expire on Dec. 31. “This so-called plan is the height of irresponsibility,” declared House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. But how is it irresponsible to increase healthcare options at...

America warns Europe that only one of them is truly fighting to reverse the West’s decline—and the clock is running out for the other to follow suit. Nothing bothers the European elite as much as American conservatives praising the European foundations of their shared, but threatened, Western civilization. Europeans especially resent having their social-welfare state system critiqued by upstart, crass Americans. Their pique only increases as they push back against the condescending American idea that the U.S. could possibly offer any constructive advice, much less help a more civilized Europe follow the “American model.” Americans, in turn, are worried that...

Ursula von der Leyen also said she has always had "a very good working relationship" with US presidentsBRUSSELS, December 12. /TASS/. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the US president should not interfere into democratic processes in the EU member countries. "It is not on us, when it comes to elections, to decide who the leader of the country will be, but on the people of this country <…> That’s the sovereignty of the voters, and this must be protected," the European Commission president told Politico in an interview. "Nobody else is supposed to interfere, without any question."...

The United States would suffer a devasting defeat and lose its biggest aircraft carrier if it tried to stop China invading Taiwan, according to a top secret Pentagon report. War games showed the U.S. would be overwhelmed by China's arsenal of around 600 hypersonic weapons, along with missiles and nuclear submarines. The grim assessment, revealed by the New York Times, confirmed the conclusions of previous war games, but it also highlighted wider concerns about the future direction of the U.S. military and its continued reliance on outdated methods. *** Ships like the $13 billion USS Gerald R. Ford - the...

Last month, I wrote about how Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) introduced a non-binding resolution, asking the House of Representatives to condemn socialism in the wake of New York City electing Zohran Mamdani as its next mayor. It was more theater than anything, but it was also a chance for the House to show the people of the United States — well, most of us anyway — that they stand in solidarity with us in wanting to keep socialism out of our country. It was the opportunity to show that they still support the American dream and values. Advertisement Only...

Sir Sadiq Khan has hit back at Donald Trump saying that “record numbers” of US citizens are moving to London to get away from the president’s administration. The US president branded Sir Sadiq a “disgusting mayor” who was “doing a terrible job” in an interview with Politico. The Mayor of London responded to the insults by saying: “I think the one part that President Trump has got right is that London is becoming a different place. We are the greatest city in the world. “I suspect that’s one of the reasons why we have record numbers of Americans coming here...

A new US National Security Strategy (NSS) has accused Europe of economic, political and cultural deterioration, sending shockwaves through Brussels but delighting the continent's populist parties. The controversial strategy, signed by US President Donald Trump, warns that Europe is on the brink of 'civilisational erasure' due to decades of decline, and condemns its practice of 'censorship' and 'mass migration' that will render the continent 'unrecognisable in 20 years or less'. The report crystallises in stark terms the growing fracture between the EU and its most important ally, the United States, threatening to torpedo a relationship that has defined global politics...

A podcast clip from earlier this year featuring Tim Walz and Gavin Newsom is going viral again, and for good reason: it’s pure comedy gold. The two Democratic governors sat down for an episode of This Is Gavin Newsom back in March, and during their 50-minute conversation, they briefly shared their thoughts on masculinity. Yes, masculinity. The irony already writes itself. Because real men sit and talk about masculinity all the time. In the now-viral clip, Walz claimed that the critics who come after him aren’t upset about policy differences or leadership failures. No, Walz said it’s because they “feel...

Country singer John Rich recounts a private dinner with the president, where Trump questioned why people at his rallies were booing vaccines, and how Sen. Lindsey Graham responded to his answer, during a Tomi Lahren interview.JOHN RICH: Being a conservative is not an interchangeable word with being a Republican. They are two different things, they really are. I mean, Lindsey Graham is not a conservative. Oh, I can't stand him. He's a warmonger. He's one of the most disgusting people I have ever had the displeasure of sitting across a table from. He called me a conspiracy theorist in front...

Anyone expecting tough questions from CBS’s Margaret Brennan to U.S. Representative Ilham Omar was sorely disappointed at the end of this week’s Face the Nation. Brennan instead provided a tour-de-force in media coddling, as Omar was the beneficiary of a kid-gloves interview that cast her as the victim of unfortunate events beyond her control. This coddling of Omar is, as was noted by our own Tim Graham, part of a broader pattern seeking both to shield Omar from her connections to the Somali welfare scam currently roiling the state of Minnesota and to Trumpwash the scandal by focusing on President...

This past weekend, Michael Dorgan of Fox News devoted an episode to Minnesota's "Little Mogadishu,"America's largest Somali community. The rapidly expanding Muslim population in Minneapolis has become a focus of intense national debate over immigration and welfare fraud. Dorgan observes how the Somalian population is reshaping the state’s historically Scandinavian, Christian cultural landscape. President Donald Trump blasted Somali Minnesotans as welfare abusers who have been raiding state coffers for years. Says President Trump, "I hear they ripped off -- Somalians ripped off that state for billions of dollars, billions every year... They contribute nothing," Trump said, amid news that some...

Diagnosis rates of autism among children have more than tripled over the past 15 years. One reason, which Minnesota’s welfare scandal lays bare with shocking details, is Medicaid fraud and abuse. Medicaid pays healthcare providers big bucks to diagnose and treat children with autism—sometimes tens of thousands of dollars a month for a single child. Yet states rarely verify that kids who are diagnosed actually meet the medical criteria for the disorder or that they get appropriate treatment from qualified specialists. The result: Children covered by Medicaid or the government-run Children’s Health Insurance Program are 2.5 times as likely as...

A border abandoned and laws ignored have turned public frustration into a sweeping backlash that now threatens even legal immigration. It is hard now even for Democrats to defend illegal immigration, given that the Biden administration allowed in more than 10 million entrants. Among them were an estimated 500,000 criminals. No one believes that was wise or should ever be repeated. Worse, the message went out that there would be few, if any, deportations and no real ICE kinetic activity beyond the border. The world’s poor, sick, both law-abiding and criminal, young and old, understood that anyone could now enter...

On the evening of November 11, 2025, University College London provided a lecture theatre and official student-society imprimatur for an event at which Dr. Samar Maqusi, a former fixed-term researcher at UCL and previously employed by the UNRWA for Palestine Refugees, delivered the opening lecture in a five-part series entitled “Palestine: From Existence to Resistance”, organized by the university’s recognized Justice in Palestine Society. From the very beginning, there was no hesitation or pretense. On the contrary, the darkest prejudices of the past were brought to life. The lecturer was undaunted. In the course of her talk, “The Birth of...

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino on Thursday brushed off questions about his past claims of a cover up in the case of who planted pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican national committee offices a day before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. When Fox News’s Sean Hannity reminded his former colleague of his past social media comments, Bongino said the FBI was “pretty comfortable we have our guy.” “Listen I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions,” the former political commentator continued. “That’s clear. And one day I will be back in that space, but that’s not...

When President Donald Trump suspended the refugee program on day one of his current administration, thousands of people around the world who had been so close to a new life in America found themselves abandoned. Many had already sold possessions or ended leases in preparation for travel. They had submitted reams of documents supporting their cases, been interviewed by U.S. officials and in many cases already had tickets to fly to America. As part of Trump’s crackdown on both legal and illegal migration, the Republican president has upended the decades-old refugee program that has served as a beacon for those...

EU leaders warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a closed-door call that the United States might betray both Ukraine and Europe by conceding territory without firm security guarantees, Spiegel reported on Dec. 4. According to the outlet, European heads of state and government expressed deep mistrust toward Washington’s role in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Spiegel published what it claims is a transcript of the call — involving German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, several other European leaders, and Zelenskyy — in which the Americans were portrayed as unreliable. “There is a possibility that the United States...

Hostility toward the US president is somewhat lower in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, and PortugalPARIS, December 4. /TASS/. Almost one in two EU citizens surveyed perceive US President Donald Trump as "Europe’s enemy," according to the results of a poll of 9,500 residents in nine EU countries conducted in late November and published in the French magazine Le Grand Continent. "According to the latest figures, Trump is largely perceived as Europe’s enemy. On average, 48% of EU citizens surveyed see him this way, while 10% consider him a friend [of Europe] and 40% view him as ‘neither friend nor foe,’"...

Newsom readies a presidential run while presiding over a state buckling under sky-high costs, mass exodus, and crumbling basics—leaving little to brag about beyond attacking Trump. As California Governor Gavin Newsom gears up to run for president, what in the world will he run on? Californians know that Newsom will not boast, “I will do for America what I have done to California!” Why not? Count the reasons. California’s astronomical gas prices and taxes remain the highest in the continental U.S. Ditto the state’s trifecta of the highest electricity rates, the costliest home prices, and the fourth-highest home insurance costs....

Tuesday is a big day for Tennessee, and for the closely divided US House of Representatives. Democrats have been vowing to turn red states blue, and last month’s elections gave them some hopeful signs, thanks largely to revved-up urban voters. This week a special election in Tennessee’s 7th District, pitting GOP military veteran Matt Van Epps against far-left candidate Aftyn Behn, will show them just how far their base can take them. Going by conventional wisdom, this should be a walkover for Van Epps: The district leans Republican by 10 percentage points, and Van Epps’ policy positions echo those of...