Free Republic

The President’s economic agenda, the “Build Back Better” package being debated in Congress, would provide vital public investments in the nation’s physical and human infrastructure, as well as in our tattered safety net. These investments are long overdue—they were needed before the COVID-19 pandemic, and their necessity has been highlighted by the virus and the economic shock that came with it. Some, however, have invoked fears of inflation as a reason to not undertake these investments. This view is short-sighted. These are importantly supply side measures, increasing the ability of more Americans to participate productively in the economy, helping to...

When the same government agents who conducted warrantless searches of Americans' cell phones in order to nab every patriotic granny waving a flag near the Capitol on January 6 claim they have no way of tracking illegal aliens in the United State, they're lying. When the same national security surveillance State that censors Americans' online speech claims not to know how many illegal aliens are here, it is lying. When the same IRS that regularly targets conservatives for their political beliefs claims it can't track tens of millions of migrants working here illegally — or worse, stealing Americans' social security...

Senator Manchin’s comments this morning on FOX are at odds with his discussions this week with the President, with White House staff, and with his own public utterances. Weeks ago, Senator Manchin committed to the President, at his home in Wilmington, to support the Build Back Better framework that the President then subsequently announced. Senator Manchin pledged repeatedly to negotiate on finalizing that framework “in good faith.” On Tuesday of this week, Senator Manchin came to the White House and submitted—to the President, in person, directly—a written outline for a Build Back Better bill that was the same size and...

Senator Joe Manchin was right. In September, he suggested that Democrats “hit the pause button” on their massive spending plans. At that time, the Build Back Better bill was $3.5 trillion — an inflationary bomb just waiting to go off.Even after the Democrats cut the bill in half to $1.75 trillion, Manchin kept sounding the inflation alarm. He kept insisting that inflation wasn’t “transitory,” as Joe Biden still insists to this day. Manchin also asserted that it was fiscal madness to take on so much debt at this time.Manchin’s September op-ed in the Wall Street Journal summed up the danger.Those...

Where are the workers? On welfare, which now pays more than work for millions of Americans. A new study by the Foundation for Government Accountability shows that amid the pandemic, available welfare benefits have become so generous that it makes financial sense for many of the unemployed to stay home rather than work. President Joe Biden and Democrats are trying to extend this backward system in the Build Back Better Act. If they do, a generation of families will suffer on the economy’s sidelines. Employers are desperate to fill a near-record high 10.4 million open jobs, and as a result,...