Free Republic

Tune in this morning at 11a.m. Eastern for the live feed of Perry's “Cut, Balance and Grow” announcement. Includes flat tax reform plan. Live feed from: http://www.rickperry.org linked here. (Also see Bill O'Reilly interview Governor Perry on his plan tonight on Fox)

Gov. Rick Perry signed the Strong America Now pledge which binds him to tackling wasteful spending in Washington by implementing the waste elimination process Lean Six Sigma. The pledge was signed at the fourth annual Kaufmann Family Barbecue where Perry was the special guest. Perry is the eighth presidential candidate to sign the pledge, but the first who has also signed Lean Six Sigma legislation. Perry signed a Texas state bill, which formed a pilot program to improve efficiencies and quality of operations while reducing costs, as well as adopt a structured approach for identifying the wasteful use of state...

Despite Rick Perry's last-minute decision to bow out of Sen. Jim DeMint's First Principles Forum, he still got a boost here Monday with the endorsement of freshman South Carolina Rep. Mick Mulvaney. Mulvaney, a member of the House Budget Committee and the Joint Economic Committee, said at the close of the forum that he is joining Perry's campaign as an economic adviser, effectively immediately - even though he backed Mitt Romney in the last presidential race. But what moved Mulvaney into Perry's camp was the candidate's request for his ideas. Mulvaney said Perry liked what Mulvaney and his House colleagues...

Sarah Palin criticizes Boehner for trying to reinvent the wheel and not sticking with Cut, Cap, and Balance which is why he is having trouble getting enough votes to pass his current plan. But she also criticizes Obama for scaring the American people with this crisis mentality and says he doesn’t understand that we have a spending problem in this country, which prompts her to reiterate: “It’s the spending stupid!” "That's the hypocrisy that I guess is inherit in this politics as usual from these Washington DC characters, they say one thing as candidates and they get elected and do...

Real Clear Politics Reports: "...[W]'re going to have a vote tomorrow. I'm not going to wait until Saturday. We're going to have a vote tomorrow. I feel confident that this legislation will be disposed of one way or the other...." Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) said on the Senate floor. Reid said he would allow debate of the bill that passed in the House earlier this week. A vote is scheduled for Friday. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/07/21/harry_reid_cap_cap_and_balance_worst_piece_of_legislation_ever.html Sen. Jim DeMint has a list of 22 Democratic or Independant Senators who have expressed support for a balanced budget. These folks need to get A LOT...

Florida GOP Congressman Allen West this afternoon dispatched a scathing personal email to Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, calling her "vile, unprofessional ,and despicable," "a coward," "characterless," and "not a Lady," and demanding that she "shut the heck up." Wasserman-Schultz, in whose neighboring South Florida district West lives, provoked his tirade with remarks after he left the House floor today, in which she responded -- without naming him -- to the Tea Party freshman's support for "Cut, Cap, and Balance" legislation to raise the debt ceiling.

With White House negotiations stalled and an Aug. 2 deadline looming, House Republicans will bring an alternative solution to rein in spending while raising the U.S.’s borrowing authority to the floor next week in a bid to break the debt-ceiling deadlock that threatens the U.S.’s credit and could spark a spreading fiscal calamity. -snip- The new plan isn’t new, exactly. Known as Cut, Cap and Balance, the three-pronged proposal would cut some $2.4 trillion from the federal budget, fulfilling Republican promises not to vote to raise the debt limit through 2012 unless they secure commensurate spending cuts. It would establish...