Free Republic

All the right moves….. We can expect the national media to go bananas as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has taken a bold step in advancement of federalism with authorization and funding for the formation of a state militia known as the Florida State Guard During an event today in Pensacola Florida, the governor announced the creation of three new state-centric armories to support the new state guard units. One in the former airbase at Homestead, one in Gainesville and one in Malabar. As noted in the release, “The establishment of the Florida State Guard will further support those emergency response...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate blocked the National Defense Authorization Act on Monday amid objections from Republicans and some liberal Democrats, although lawmakers will keep working on the massive annual defense policy bill, which has become law for 60 straight years. The vote was 45-51, meaning the measure could not get the 60 "yes" votes needed to advance toward passage in the 100-member Senate. The NDAA, which normally passes with strong bipartisan support, is closely watched by a broad swath of industry and other interests as it determines everything from how many ships are bought to pay increases for soldiers...

Sweden’s first female prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, has resigned from office only hours after being voted in, Sweden’s official Twitter account announced Wednesday. The dramatic move came before Andersson was fully in office as she had not yet had counsel with the King, a spokesperson told CNN. Her resignation follows a budget defeat in parliament Wednesday, Sweden’s Twitter account added, with lawmakers supporting the opposition’s bill.

To quote Gomer Pyle USMC, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!” The humongous spending bill awaiting Joe Manchin to sign off on it will cost almost double what the CBO said it would. Why? Because spending programs in Washington DC never get cancelled, they only grow. The Committee For A Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the true cost of Build Back Better is $4.91 TRILLION, up from the stated $2.39 TRILLION. Once they assumed that the programs don’t sunset and get extended. According to their analysis, “We estimate the House Build Back Better Act includes roughly $2.4 trillion of spending and tax cuts...

So much for Biden’s claim that his signature Build Back Better legislation won’t cost a cent. The Congressional Budget Office scored the bill and showed an increase in the Federal deficit of $791,618 MILLION over the next five years. Here is the CBO’s spreadsheet. From The Wall Street Journal: “The sprawling bill calls for creating a universal prekindergarten program, capping child-care costs for many families, negotiating lower prescription drug prices and expanding tax credits for reducing carbon emissions, among other programs. In addition to expanding tax enforcement efforts at the Internal Revenue Service, the legislation raises taxes on some corporations...

At some point in the near future—whether a few days or a few weeks—the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) will release a complete score of the spending spree legislation Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and House leaders introduced on Nov. 3. The document will represent the first complete CBO analysis of any of the multi-trillion-dollar spending bills that Democrats have spent the fall writing, then re-writing. Two budgetary analyses suggest CBO could find the most recent version of the legislation increases the deficit. A Penn-Wharton analysis of the White House’s policy framework concluded it would spend $1.87 trillion over ten years while...

First, the good news. resident Joe Biden’s Veterans Administration (VA) budget request for Fiscal Year 2022 is $270 billion--a 10% increase over 2021 levels. Now, the bad news. Picking up where a failed Senate bill in 2019 left off, the budget’s language would amend Title 38 of the U.S. Code, a.k.a. Veterans’ Benefits, to limit veteran options on who may legally file disability and benefits claims on their behalf. It would hurt millions of veterans. Though well-intentioned, the last Congress introduced legislation which would criminalize providing such services without being accredited by the VA, thereby sharply reducing veteran claim options....

The new taxes and tax increases meant to pay for President Biden’s massive $1.75 trillion social spending bill would raise nearly $470 billion fewer than the White House claims — and won’t bring in enough to match the legislation’s total outlay, according to a new analysis from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. On Thursday, the Biden administration released the final framework of the Build Back Better package, along with how it expected to offset the cost of the measure. But while the White House estimated that the new and higher levies would raise $1.995 trillion, Wharton’s Budget...

Left-wing billionaire George Soros is throwing at least a million dollars behind an effort to stop the hiring of hundreds of new police officers in Austin, Texas, according to campaign finance documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. The Hungarian-born political activist gave $500,000 through the Soros-backed Open Society Policy Center to a political action committee in opposition to a ballot initiative that forces the city to employ two police officers per 1,000 residents. Soros’s donation, made on Oct. 12, is his second of the month and comes as Austin experiences a decades-high spike in violent crime. The city has...

Biden's plan is 'putting America on the wrong path': Rep. McCarthy Oct. 10, 2021 - 11:28 - House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy warns the Democrats' $5 trillion bill will 'transform America' to look like a 'socialist government.' ___ "It has more than a 100 billion dollar for amnesty for 10 million people who came to this country illegally."

U.S. Senate leaders have agreed to raise the Treasury Department's borrowing authority until early December, averting a potential debt default later this month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Thursday. "We have reached agreement to extend the debt ceiling through early December and it's our hope we can get this done as soon as today," Schumer said referring to a vote on passage of the legislation. A Senate aide, who asked not to be identified, said the deal calls for a debt limit increase of $480 billion from the current $28.4 trillion. If approved by the Senate and House...

"The rich put cream on their berries; the rich drive shiny black cars." - (from the Broadway musical "Carnival!") The Pandora Papers, "an expose of the financial secrets and offshore dealings of dozens of heads of state, public officials and politicians," writes CNN, could not have come at a better time for congressional "progressives" who are seeking to win over enough Democrats to pass the massive Biden-Pelosi $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill, which is loaded with enough pork to infect the nation with financial trichinosis. The Pandora Papers, released by The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Sunday, is not...

Sen. Joe Manchin, a centrist Democrat who is blocking a massive social welfare spending passage, said he would consider raising the cost of the measure from his proclaimed limit of $1.5 trillion to as high as $2.2 trillion in order to reach a compromise that can satisfy party lawmakers in both chambers. Manchin told reporters in the Capitol he won’t rule out a measure that costs between $1.9 trillion and $2.2 trillion, which is the range President Joe Biden recommended to House Democrats in a closed-door session last week. Last week, Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, announced he would...

Imagine you are a Honduran. If you make the average Honduran per capita income of $2,405.70 a year, and suddenly learn from a relative up in el norte that Joe Biden is handing out $3,600 a year to anyone in the U.S., legally present or not, for nothing more than having kids, what would you do?According to the Washington Free Beacon:President Joe Biden’s budget includes a provision that provides billions of dollars in cash to illegal aliens with children....Families, regardless of their legal status, would be eligible to receive checks of $3,600 per year per child. The Democratic bill would...

How does Congress cut a $3.5 trillion spending bill down to $1.5 trillion? By using gimmicks to hide its true cost. That is the approach that congressional Democrats are brazenly employing to make their spending bonanza appear smaller than it is. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) openly discussed their use of budget gimmicks over the weekend when she told CNN that “our idea now is to look at how you make them funded for a little bit of a shorter time.” Progressives have been abusing these gimmicks from the start. They began with a reconciliation proposal that would cost nearly $5...

Hindsight is always 20/20, but even used car dealers know there is almost no appreciation on a car once you drive it off the lot — a lesson Papua New Guinea is learning the hard way. Papua New Guinea — which is one of the poorest nations in Southeast Asia, with an average GDP per capita of $2,613 — dropped a mind-boggling $5.6 million on a fleet of luxury cars to impress regional leaders during a 2018 conference. Nearly three years later, the country admits the shallow purchase was a “terrible mistake” and is trying to recoup its losses by...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi set a deadline of October 31 for lawmakers to pass President Joe Biden's $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package after delaying the vote on the legislation for a third time. In a letter to fellow Democrats on Saturday, Pelosi (D-Calif.) said 'more time was needed to reach our goal of passing both bills' after party leaders scrambled for the past two days to try and secure votes. Pelosi aims to pass the legislation by the end of the month when the 30-day reauthorization of federal highway programs — among other extensions...

The United States Postal Service projects that it will have a $160 billion loss over the coming decade, so it needs to boost revenue and cut costs. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy thinks he has the answer: offer slower service. That's right, DeJoy's blueprint for making the USPS solvent includes cutting costs by slowing mail delivery for millions of Americans coupled with hoped-for increased revenues from postage rate hikes, CBS News reported. However, critics have been quick to point out that this will likely discourage people from using the Post Office. What's happening? Starting Friday, DeJoy said, the postal service will...

There was a time not very long ago when political parties never would have entertained the idea of jamming through any massive, generational reform without some form of buy-in from the other party. Today, Democrats argue that the filibuster’s imaginary threat of “minority rule” has compelled them to use (really, abuse) the budgetary reconciliation process to jam through their entire agenda in the most expensive bill in American history. In the days before the Affordable Care Act fight forever changed the Senate, nearly every major post-war reform bill easily passed the 60-vote threshold: The Civil Rights Act got 73 votes...

Join together with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.