Free Republic

Obamacare had problems even before it launched in 2014. Marketplace websites were glitchy during the open enrollment period, frustrating many would-be customers.Sweeping changes ushered in by the Affordable Care Act, the law creating Obamacare, all but guaranteed that premiums would increase—which they did by 23 percent in the program’s first year.Even so, public opinion swung in favor of Obamacare starting in 2017 and remains positive, according to KFF Health Tracking polls.More than 24 million people were insured through the program by 2025.And insurers learned to thrive under the new rules, more than doubling annual revenue to $1.1 trillion and consistently...

Last June when the United States targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities in a series of coordinated airstrikes with Israel, President Trump boasted that “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.” He said that on the day of the operation, which hit the enrichment facility at Fordow, buried under a mountain, as well as sites at Natanz and Isfahan.In the ensuing days and months, Trump repeated this claim, saying that Iran’s nuclear facilities and capabilities had been “obliterated.” In August he said, “We obliterated … the future nuclear capability of Iran.” In October he said, “Well, they don’t...

On Tuesday night, President Trump made his case for attacking Iran. #Perhaps we ought to ask ourselves if an attack on Iran is prudent or desirable.#In his address, Trump argued that Iran was in the process of developing intercontinental ballistic missiles to hit the United States. This assertion is farcical and risible. Iran simply has no ability to hit the United States, and even if it did, the doctrine of classical deterrence would come into play. The United States and the Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear-armed ICBMs targeted at each other for decades yet never engaged in direct conflict....

Researchers at the University of South Alabama (USA) want people to know that "Queer Animals Exist! It’s just biology." The Comparative Cognition and Communication (C3PO) Lab is a program of the USA Department of Psychology promoting queerness through research on "queer animals." “Our goal is to further destigmatize queerness through communication of scientific findings of animal researchers regarding queerness in the animal kingdom,” reads the lab’s resource page, which is available via its Instagram account. The C3PO lab, operating as its own research lab at USA, also has the stated goal: “understand our world and the animals we share it...

The talks are still alive. Just. Iranian and US diplomats, engaging indirectly through Omani intermediaries, have yet to make any substantive progress towards a framework of understanding that governs further talks – as Kafkaesque as that might sound – but they are talking, and that is the best that the diplomats can hope for right now. What separates Iran and America is a vast chasm between their respective red lines, and beyond that, the very substance of the talks themselves. The US is not willing to countenance an Iran that enriches uranium, has a ballistic missile programme and arms proxies...

He also believes the Bible is "pro-choice" because the Angel Gabriel "asked" Mary if she wanted to be the mother of Jesus. That's not accurate, at all, and borders on heresy. Here's what the Bible says about that encounter with Mary, from the Book of Luke, 1:28-35, 38 (emphasis added): The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with...

Euthanasia conjoined with organ harvesting just took a particularly disturbing turn in Spain, where a woman was euthanized and then had part of her face transplanted.... Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona has performed the world’s first face transplant with a donor who passed away from euthanasia. Around 100 medical professionals took part in the partial face transplant, a highly complex operation using neurovascular microsurgery techniques that lasted about 24 hours. In presenting the milestone procedure, the healthcare director, Maria José Abadías, highlighted the “extraordinary generosity of the donor,” ​the “collective effort” behind the operation and the “pride” of all...

There are reports this week that Cuba is now talking to the Trump administration about the future of the country. Despite those reports, Cuba seems to be publicly denying the talks are even happening. What's going on here? Here's President Trump yesterday saying "we're talking to the people from Cuba." Trump on Cuba:We’re talking to the people from the highest levels in Cuba. Let’s see what happens.I think we’re going to make a deal with Cuba. pic.twitter.com/R9PEQfKcnm— Clash Report (@clashreport) February 1, 2026There are reports today indicating Cuba has changed its tone toward the US compared to just a few...

Every Jewish child, even if he knows nothing else, knows one question: מַה נִּשְׁתַּנָּה, הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה מִכָּל הַלֵּילוֹת. That question comes from the Passover service, when a child asks those at the table, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” The answer, of course, is that Passover is the night on which we commemorate how God liberated the Jews from Egyptian slavery, a moment that led to the seminal Ten Commandments and the return to their land.AdvertisementIt is, in other words, an important question: Why is this one thing different from all other things? (For the non-Jewish among...

Somewhere out there in the great cosmos, Saul Alinsky is cackling with glee over the way Democrats are providing top cover for the commie radicals running roughshod over the rule of law in Minnesota. The latest elected official to earn Alinsky's approval, while also making a mockery of law and order, is Minnesota's Attorney General himself, Democrat Keith Ellison. Ellison, who is Muslim and the top law enforcement officer in the state, appeared Monday on Don Lemon's livestream to discuss the Sunday ambush of services at Cities Church in St. Paul by a horde of anti-ICE agitators. Lemon, it should...

I know some were asking the same question: why would White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles sit down with Vanity Fair for this candid interview? She offered brutal assessments of some of the Trump administration’s top figures, from JD Vance to Pam Bondi; Wiles was no-holds-barred. For starters, you need to talk to the media, even if you hate them. President Trump does this daily. Second, it once again highlighted that even when you cooperate, and they all did, the mainstream press will still cook you. It’s why many have flocked to other sources of information. You can’t trust...

President Donald Trump doubled down on a statement he issued on social media in response to actor-director Rob Reiner’s death, pointing out that he “wasn’t a fan of his at all.”While taking questions from the press on Monday, Trump was asked about a Truth Social post he made in which he stated Reiner had a “crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.” Trump’s post came after the news broke that Reiner — who directed The Princess Bride, and When Harry Met Sally, and his wife, Michele, were found dead inside their Brentwood home.“Mr. President, a number of Republicans have denounced...

At least one Republican senator has said that the U.S. government cannot afford a Trump administration proposal to send out $2,000 tariff-derived rebate payments. “If we’re bringing in revenue through the tariffs, that ought to be applied to reduce the deficit, not just to make cash payments to Americans,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo on Monday. Bartiromo then told him: “It sounds like you would vote ‘no’ in terms of $2,000 checks going to individuals.” He added that “we can’t afford it” and that he wishes the U.S. government was “in a position to return the...

What’s clear is that the 2024 election was not the final boss. It didn’t destroy wokeism. You have to picture the spider in The Lord of the Rings, Shelob, crawling back into her cave after being stabbed by Samwise. Is she injured? Yes. Dead? No. She will probably be back to kill you. Republicans and pundits and podcasters will come up with all sorts of reasons for the latest losses (including blaming the Jews), but it comes down to fundamentals. Ground game. Optics. And of course, “It’s the economy, stupid!” The GOP has no ground game in part because it...

Contrary to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s claim, most of the Obamacare subsidies are not expiring, for good or for ill.Into the debate on extending the Biden administration’s Covid subsidies for health coverage stepped Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. In an X post Monday evening, Greene claimed that “when the tax credits expire this year my own adult children’s insurance premiums for 2026 are going to DOUBLE, along with all the wonderful families and hard-working people in my district.” She went on to repeat the claim that premiums would “DOUBLE” — with all caps in the original — two other times in...

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. Daniel became CEO of the David Horowitz Freedom Center in 2025. PM Keir Starmer in the UK, Macron in France and other Western leaders who decided to recognize an Islamic terrorist state inside Israel have tried to pretend that they aren’t recognizing Hamas or helping Hamas.However, Hamas leaders have made it clear again and again that they are and that it’s the result of Oct 7.“The powerful blow that was delivered to Israel on...

Last December, Jesse Singal wrote a post for the Free Press titled "Bluesky Has a Death Threat Problem." It was basically Singal's story about what happened when he joined Bluesky.On December 6, I made my first post on Bluesky—which was actually launched by Twitter in 2019, before becoming an independent company two years later. As I soon found out, it is an exceptionally angry place. And in part because of a widespread culture of impunity when it comes to violent threats among some of its users, it comes across as a potentially dangerous one—in a way X, or Twitter, never...

The Department of Justice has removed a study showing that white supremacist and far-right violence “continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism” in the United States. The study, which was conducted by the National Institute of Justice and hosted on a DOJ website was available there at least until September 12, 2025, according to an archive of the page saved by the Wayback Machine. Daniel Malmer, a PhD student studying online extremism at UNC-Chapel Hill, first noticed the paper was deleted. “The Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs is currently reviewing its websites and...

I investigate the evidence confirming that Tyler Robinson's room mate, who authorities believe was actually his romantic partner, is trans ANDY NGO SEP 13, 2025 I can report that the roommate — and suspected romantic partner — of the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk is confirmed as trans. On Friday, Daily Mail first identified the partner as 22-year-old Lance S. Twiggs. Twiggs lived with accused assassin Tyler Robinson in an apartment in St. George, Utah, about four hours from Utah Valley University, where Kirk was murdered. Twiggs’ social media history remains online, and I have reviewed it to confirm...

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine from Virginia, in a hearing on Wednesday, told the room: The notion that rights don't come from laws, and don't come from the government, but come from the Creator... That's what the Iranian government believes... So the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.