Free Republic

Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go,” President Obama said last week, flanked by uniformed firefighters and law-enforcement officers. “Tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find child care for their kids.” He went on: “Border Patrol agents will see their hours reduced. FBI agents will be furloughed.” Scared yet? In his Saturday radio address, the president made clear who was at fault for this impending Armageddon: “Are Republicans in Congress really willing to let these cuts fall on our kids’ schools and mental health care just to protect tax loopholes for corporate...

House Speaker John Boehner, in advance of President Obama's State of the Union address, said Tuesday that he doesn't think the president "has the guts" to seriously address the country's debt and deficit. The speaker aired his concerns during a breakfast outside his office on Capitol Hill with anchors and reporters covering Obama's address Tuesday night. He said he's pessimistic about the odds the president will tackle the country's long-term spending problem, which he sees as the biggest threat to America's future. "I don't think he has the guts to do it. He doesn't have the courage to take on...

There are myriad reasons for conservatives to oppose Jack Lew’s nomination for Treasury Secretary. The fact that Lew recently held a substantial, and entirely legal, investment based in the Cayman Islands is not one of them. But shouldn’t liberals be livid? Last year, the Obama campaign and its surrogates furiously accused Mitt Romney of “betting against America” through his financial portfolio, which included foreign holdings — including some in the Cayman Islands. This ad painting the Republican nominee as an unpatriotic hypocrite was memorably unsparing in its demagoguery:

Hillary Clinton has logged about a million diplomatic miles in the past four years, but her political odometer has been reset to factory zero as she exits the State Department Friday with the highest approval rating of any potential 2016 contender. Even as Clinton concluded her victory lap on her way out of office this week, there were signs that the 65-year-old former first lady is still afflicted by the same problem that hampered her during the up-and-down 2008 campaign: an inability to clearly define her leadership or governing philosophy. An instinctive team player who spent two decades working at...

Tea party activists looking to oust Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a GOP primary may get some help from an unlikely source: Democrats. Big Democratic donors, local liberal activists and a left-leaning super PAC in Kentucky are telling tea partiers that they are poised to throw financial and organizational support behind a right-wing candidate should one try to defeat the powerful GOP leader in a 2014 primary fight. -snip- Now, Paul is supporting McConnell’s reelection bid. And much to the chagrin of tea party activists looking for a McConnell primary challenger, Massie has emphatically said he won’t take on...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The end game at hand, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders made a final stab at compromise Friday to prevent a toxic blend of middle-class tax increases and spending cuts from taking effect at the turn of the new year. Success was far from guaranteed in an atmosphere of political mistrust — even on a slimmed-down deal that postponed hard decisions about spending cuts into 2013, and pessimism vied with optimism in a Capitol where lawmakers grumbled about the likelihood of spending the new year holiday in the Capitol.

At 12:54 a.m., on Saturday December 22, President Barack Obama and his family arrived at Kailua, a Hawaiian town on the island of Oahu. Almost five days later, Obama, leaving his wife and kids behind, departed the island to return to Washington, D.C. Obama’s vacation lasted a brief 118 hours, according to pool reports. -snip- On Christmas Eve, December 24, Obama departed his vacation home at 9:33 a.m., according to the pool report. He remained on the golf course until 3:15, p.m., spending about 5 and a half hours on the golf course. He again golfed that day with Bobby...

Vote coming up.

WASHINGTON — An independent inquiry into the attack on the United States diplomatic mission in Libya that killed four Americans on Sept. 11 sharply criticizes the State Department for a lack of seasoned security personnel and relying on untested local militias to safeguard the compound, Congressional and State Department officials said Tuesday night. The investigation into the attacks on the diplomatic mission and C.I.A. annex that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others also faulted State Department officials in Washington for ignoring requests from officials at the American Embassy in Tripoli for more guards and safety upgrades to the...

Senators appeared unconcerned Thursday by a White House threat to veto the defense policy bill they are considering on the floor, evidently confident they can get the legislation into a form that President Barack Obama would ultimately sign. The White House Office of Management and Budget announced that if the bill “in its present form” were passed, it would face a veto over restrictions on Guantánamo Bay detainees, the makeup of the armed forces, its support for certain weapons programs and other details. It was the second time the White House has threatened to veto the National Defense Authorization Act...

MM: Well, it’s certainly true that they could get what they have claimed for years they wanted to do by doing nothing. They could get a big Defense cut, and they could get a massive tax increase. But of course, they don’t want to get a tax increase on everybody, only on the top two rates. Also, do they really think it would be good for the economy for all of this to kick in? I tell you, I think the fundamental observation I would make about all of this right now, whether it’s this totally unserious proposal from the...

Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) on Wednesday became the latest GOP senator to raise questions about Susan Rice. After an almost two-hour meeting with the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Collins said she's unconvinced by Rice's explanation of her role after the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya. “I continue to be troubled by the fact that the UN ambassador decided to play what was essentially a political role at the height of a contentious presidential election ... by agreeing to go on the Sunday shows to present the administration's position,” the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee said.

A rift has emerged between Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) over the timing of a deficit-reduction deal, which they discussed at the White House Friday. The disagreement stems from a battle for leverage. Democrats want to strike an agreement now, when their political capital is at a high point following the election. They feel their position is further strengthened by the pending expiration of the Bush tax cuts and scheduled cuts to defense spending.

There can be unseemly exposure of the mind as well as of the body, as the progressive mind is exposed in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a creature of the labyrinthine Dodd-Frank legislation. Judicial dismantling of the CFPB would affirm the rule of law and CongressÂ’s constitutional role. The CFPBÂ’s director, Richard Cordray, was installed by one of Barack ObamaÂ’s spurious recess appointmentswhen the Senate was not in recess. Vitiating the SenateÂ’s power to advise and consent to presidential appointments is congruent with the CFPBÂ’s general lawlessness. The CFPB nullifies CongressÂ’s power to use the power of the purse...

CHICAGO - Americans interested in getting the national debt crisis under control likely will have to endure cuts to popular programs like defense, Social Security - and the nationalized health insurance program known as Obamacare. Speaking in stark terms and folksy language, the duo laid out the dire reality of the situation to 4,000 investors at the Charles Schwab Impact conference Thursday. "Who the hell is kidding who on what this is going to cost?" Simpson, the former Wyoming senator, said of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka "Obamacare." "We haven't found any constituency yet who wants to...

The Obama campaign recently found itself in a little hot water after it was caught asking for an off-the-record interview from the Des Moines Register — the largest newspaper in Iowa. Normally, the Register publishes its interviews with presidential candidates, but in this case, it agreed to an off-the-record conversation with President Obama. Afterwards, however, it revealed the situation in an editorial, which led to an embarrassing moment for the campaign. In response, the Obama campaign allowed the Register to publish the interview, as is custom.

Maryland voters are poised to approve same-sex marriage at the ballot box next month, a potential watershed moment in the history of a right that has been granted by courts and state legislatures but never by a popular vote, a new Washington Post poll has found. Maryland voters favor upholding the state’s gay marriage law by a nine-point margin, according to the poll, which could end a streak of defeats in more than 30 states and provide further evidence of the country’s evolution on the controversial topic. Recent surveys have also shown leads in Maine and Washington state, where voters...

JEFFERSON CITY • Missouri’s College of the Ozarks has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a provision of the Affordable Care Act that would require its employee health plan to cover abortion services and certain types of contraception, including the morning-after pill. Leaders of the Presbyterian liberal arts college located near Branson say the mandate violates the school’s institutional religious beliefs. “The mandate chills the college's religious exercise by exposing the college to substantial fines for its religious beliefs and exercise of those beliefs,” the lawsuit states. “The mandate's required provision of insurance coverage for education and counseling concerning elective abortions...

(CNN) – A new survey indicates President Barack Obama moved up four points following the Democratic National Convention last week, and now has a six point advantage over his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

Republicans will face far better odds of retaking the Senate, if they can make a state like Hawaii competitive. A new round of polling from the business-friendly U.S Chamber of Commerce suggests President Barack Obama’s home state might actually be in play.