Free Republic

Perry: Don't blame Texas for the failure of ObamaCare Updated: Wednesday, November 6 2013, 09:32 PM CST DALLAS, Texas -- President Barack Obama stopped by the Lone Star State Wednesday. He spoke to volunteers in Dallas about the Affordable Care Act, encouraging Texas to participate in the federal health insurance marketplace created under the law."I know that sometimes this task is especially challenging here in the great Lone Star State," Obama said to laughter. "But I think all of you understand that there's no state that actually needs this more than Texas."Perry shot back, accusing Obama in a statement of...

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said it’s OK if people are losing “crappy, junk policies” because of Obamacare and pitched for a government-run option in the wake of the problematic start for the exchange. “When we were debating this way back when and trying to figure out how to do all this, a lot of us on the liberal side said, “Well, OK, we’ll give something to the states. We`ll let the states set up their own exchanges.” Many conservatives wanted to do that. So, we made that agreement. We thought that would be a good idea. So we put it...

This is the type of restraint that is expected of armed citizens.   From The Advocate Messenger of Kentucky: A self-described “gun advocate,” Smith never had to fire on Collins. He said he didn’t want to harm the man but had determined he was not going to be a victim. “People have asked why I didn’t shoot him. I didn’t feel threatened,” Smith said. A county sheriff then gives this appropriate by not  commonly published comment: Smith “acted appropriately by arming himself, met the gentleman and told him to stay where he was until officers arrived,” Elliott said.  The perpetrator escaped...

The labor movement appears likely to dodge a key tax under ObamaCare less than two months after the White House refused to make union plans eligible for subsidies. The Obama administration indicated last week it will propose exempting certain self-insured, self-administered insurance plans from two of the healthcare law's three-year reinsurance fees. The policies that would escape the fees include the multi-employer or "Taft Hartley" plans that are commonly held by union members. The disclosure, buried in rules released by the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department, would give unions some of the relief they have sought from ObamaCare. "We...

Saudi Arabia has invested in Pakistani nuclear weapons projects, and believes it could obtain atomic bombs at will, a variety of sources have told BBC Newsnight. ... Earlier this year, a senior Nato decision maker told me that he had seen intelligence reporting that nuclear weapons made in Pakistan on behalf of Saudi Arabia are now sitting ready for delivery. Last month Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, told a conference in Sweden that if Iran got the bomb, "the Saudis will not wait one month. They already paid for the bomb, they will go to Pakistan...

Americans who face higher ­insurance costs under President Obama’s health-care law are angrily complaining about “sticker shock,” threatening to become a new political force opposing the law even as the White House struggles to convince other consumers that they will benefit from it. The growing backlash involves people whose plans are being discontinued because the policies don’t meet the law’s more-stringent standards. They’re finding that many alternative policies come with higher premiums and deductibles. After receiving a letter from her insurer that her plan was being discontinued, Deborah Persico, a 58-year-old lawyer in the District, found a comparable plan on...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wants President Barack Obama to know that he should “take his broken promises tour elsewhere,” according to a statement his office released Wednesday, just hours before Obama is supposed to speak in the Lone Star State. “President Obama’s trip to Texas brings nothing with it but broken promises,” the freshman Republican senator said in the statement. “He promised that Americans could keep their health care plans. We were told premiums would go down, that jobs would be created. And we now know these are all false promises.” Cruz’s comments come as the president visits Dallas to...

... The Federal Reserve is the most important economic planning agency in the world. It's charged with promoting full employment, stabilizing prices, and overseeing the financial sector. So the new chair's theoretical views, management style, and personality quirks could affect trillions of dollars of economic activity. Is it wise to hand such extraordinary power to an elite cadre of economists and bureaucrats? The pretenses of top-down planning have been debunked by history. Throughout the last century, every nation that adopted central planning had its economy flounder. Even at the microeconomic level, the limits of top-down planning are increasingly obvious.

(WASHINGTON) -- Sen. Ted Cruz pushed back Wednesday at N.J. Gov. Chris Christie’s suggestion that America is “angry with the dysfunction in Washington,” an implicit criticism of the Tea Party-driven government shutdown. Cruz offered tepid praise for Christie, who cruised to a second term Tuesday night, but suggested that conservatives are craving a leader who will not back down or compromise. “I think it is terrific that he is brash, that he is outspoken, and that he won his race,” Cruz told ABC News at the Capitol. “But I think we need more leaders in Washington with the courage to...

Marchers gathered in front of the East L.A. Sheriff's Station Wednesday morning to protest against what they consider racial profiling in regard to illegal drivers. Protesers are upset that until a new law goes into effect in January 2015, granting undocumented immigrants driver's licenses, those drivers could still be fined and have their vehicles impounded. Human rights advocates and California immigrants at Wednesday's protest called for L.A. County to stop impounding vehicles. Governor Jerry Brown signed the new law, known as AB60, on October 3. It will also make drivers eligible for insurance and training for written and driving tests...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wants President Barack Obama to know that he should “take his broken promises tour elsewhere,” according to a statement his office released Wednesday, just hours before Obama is supposed to speak in the Lone Star State. “President Obama’s trip to Texas brings nothing with it but broken promises,” the freshman Republican senator said in the statement. “He promised that Americans could keep their health care plans. We were told premiums would go down, that jobs would be created. And we now know these are all false promises.” Cruz’s comments come as the president visits Dallas to...

President Obama spoke in Dallas, Texas tonight to promote Obamacare in Ted Cruz‘s backyard. Obama defended the health care law from critics, pushed for Texas to embrace portions of the law as other Republican-run state have, and insisted that “We’re on the right side of history” in the health care fight. He acknowledged how “challenging” the fight has been so far, and argued that if Texas were to embrace Obamacare, a million people in the state would automatically get health insurance and wouldn’t have to go through the glitchy website to do it. Obama also took a shot at what...

Tea Party favorite Ken Cuccinelli, abandoned by the Republican establishment as too "extreme" to win in Virginia, crushed Democrat Terry McAuliffe among independent voters by 9 percentage points, 47%-38%. The key to McAuliffe's victory was that the Democrat--assisted by the ruthless data-mining operation that fueled Barack Obama's 2012 re-election--turned out his party's base, while conservative voters were divided. Cuccinelli's winning margin among independent voters was only slightly lower than Mitt Romney's 12-point margin in 2012. Romney also lost the state, however, after failing to bring conservative voters to the polls and mounting a lackluster a get-out-the-vote operation that was badly...

President Obama swiped at Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on his home turf Wednesday night, telling supporters at a pair of fundraisers in Dallas that Republicans had pursued a “radical” and “destructive position” during last month’s government shutdown. The president warned “good and decent Republicans” were being overrun by radical elements within their party. “Right now there’s a group that – and a few of them are from Texas – who just aren’t willing to do the hard work and compromise necessary to move the country forward,” the president said. The president added that he was interested in getting the GOP...

Communication breakdown:Jay Carney has trouble in the press pool ---snip-- At a WH press conference, ABC’s Jon Karl posed questions about the Presidents statement that you could still enroll in Obamacare through the phone lines or by snail mail. As it turns out both of those options have to go through the website in order to complete enrollment. And when Jon Karl called Carney out on the fact that both he and the President said that you would only have to be on the phone for 25 mins to enroll a single person, Carney attempted to deflect by making fun...

US First Lady Michelle Obama danced to Bollywood tunes alongside Indian-American children during Diwali celebrations in the East Room of the White House. Michelle got the festivities going in the State Dining Room by lighting the "diya" [a traditional lamp] during the Hindu festival of lights. Welcoming the guests, the US first lady said: "We've celebrated this holiday here at the White House every year since [President] Barack (Obama) took office. And there's a reason why we've done that." She added: "When we say that we want to make the White House the 'people's house,' we mean all people. We...

Was listening to Savage, I know he is not that popular in certain places here on the board and a thought stuck me... All of the fools in NYC who voted for DeBlasio... They are nothing more than modern day version of Esau. They are slowly selling out their "Birthright" of freedom for a cheap bowl of porridge that tastes good today and fill their bellies today, but tomorrow will have been crapped out and begin to stink up the place as the chains are places upon their wrists and ankles. These fools have sold out their freedom for a...

Which Thanksgiving foods are you most excited to eat? Turkey Stuffing Gravy Mashed Potatoes Pie Vegetable side dishes and casseroles Other, I'll explain in the comments

President Obama is “not concerned” about political fallout from the Affordable Care Act because he’s confident that the law will ultimately be politically beneficial to his allies, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday not long after the president finished meeting with a group of worried Senate Democrats. Obama is focused on delivering on the law’s promises and is “not concerned about the politics of that,” Carney told reporters traveling with the president to Dallas, where he will thank volunteers helping inform communities about the law before speaking at two fundraisers for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. But it's...