Free Republic

@RepNancyMace Washington’s war machine has spent decades sending our sons and daughters into endless conflicts in the Middle East, with no clear exit strategy, all to serve the interests of powerful politicians. We will not stand for it. We will not sacrifice American lives for the same failed foreign policies. The war machine may be willing to give the lives of your sons and daughters for the price of oil, but we are not.

Low-cost alternatives to the multimillion-dollar missiles the U.S. is using in its war against Iran are still years away, key Pentagon officials said Tuesday, leaving the military reliant on high-cost munitions that are increasingly in short supply. The U.S.-Israel campaign against Iran has burned through complex weapons that cannot be replaced quickly or affordably enough to maintain the Pentagon’s usual stockpiles. Military officials said at a Senate Armed Services Committee briefing that cheaper munitions are on the long-term horizon, but the U.S. industrial base still needs time to scale up to the Defense Department’s increasing needs. Expanding the American industrial...

Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., has introduced a detailed concurrent budget resolution known as the "Six Penny Plan" that lays out a clear, decade-long roadmap to end chronic federal deficits, achieve surpluses, and begin reducing the national debt. Paul's plan, announced late 2025, sets firm, enforceable spending and revenue targets for fiscal years 2026 through 2035 without raising taxes beyond current projections. "It balances in five years" Paul told Just The News. "But it's important to know that it has to be every bit. It's 6% of the entire budget. It doesn't work on just the discretionary budget." The U.S. national...

WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Linda McMahon is sending a letter to 43 million Americans with student loans — about 9 million of whom are in default — to notify them that the Treasury Department is taking over debt collection, The Post has learned. The letter describes the transfer of responsibilities as a way to protect taxpayers by improving the efficiency of the collection process — after loan repayments were paused through much of the Biden administration, with borrowers protected from delinquency through September 2024. “For too long, Americans have shouldered the consequences of poor leadership and persistent mismanagement of our...

@Acyn Boebert: I am so tired of spending money elsewhere. I am tired of the industrial war complex getting all of our hard earned tax dollars. I have folks in Colorado who can't afford to live. We need America first policies right now.

WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - The ​Pentagon has ‌asked the White House ​to ​approve a more ⁠than $200 ​billion request ​to the U.S. Congress to ​fund ​the war in ‌Iran, ⁠the Washington Post reported ​on ​Wednesday, ⁠citing a senior ​administration ​official.

WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - The ​Pentagon has ‌asked the White House ​to ​approve a more ⁠than $200 ​billion request ​to the U.S. Congress to ​fund ​the war in ‌Iran, ⁠the Washington Post reported ​on ​Wednesday, ⁠citing a senior ​administration ​official.

The US Department of the Treasury completed a record $14.7 billion debt buyback operation on March 10, 2026 with settlement on March 11, 2026. This marks the largest single Treasury buyback in history. The operation targeted nominal coupon securities maturing between April 15, 2026, and February 29, 2028. The Treasury had announced a maximum par amount of $15 billion to be redeemed, but accepted $14.697 billion in par value from offers totaling nearly $41 billion submitted by participants. This buyback is part of the Treasury’s regular debt management strategy, which includes: Improving liquidity in the massive US Treasury market over...

https://x.com/jayblackisfunny/status/2031479216647094640Jay Black@jayblackisfunny5hPete Hegseth spent $100,000 on a piano, $2 million on Alaskan King Crab, $7 million on lobster tail, $15 million on steak, $120,000 on ice cream machines, and $12,000 on fruit basket stands… JUST IN SEPTEMBER! (But, tell me again how Somali day care centers are the problem.)@amuse@amuse36m@grok did Pete by a $100K piano? $2M on crabs? $15M on steaks? $120K on ice cream? And $12K on fruit? All in September?Grok@grok35mNo, Secretary Hegseth didn't personally buy these. Per OpenTheBooks analysis of DoD data, these were Pentagon-wide contracts in Sept 2025 (end of fiscal year "use-it-or-lose-it" spending spike to $93B...

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) announced legislation on Monday to eliminate federal income taxes on the first $75,000 of income. The ‘Keep Your Pay Act’ would raise the standard deduction to $75,000 for married couples filing jointly, with proportional amounts for single filers and heads of household. The measure would cut federal income tax on the median American family by an estimated 85%. “New Jerseyans are working harder than ever, but they’re struggling to get by because they’re facing out-of-control costs and an economy that is stacked against them — so we need big ideas to start making the American...

President Donald Trump met Friday afternoon with CEOs of major defense industry companies at the White House as the war against Iran ended its first full week.After the meeting, Trump said in a social media post that “we discussed Production and Production Schedules” and “they have agreed to quadruple Production of the ‘Exquisite Class’ Weaponry in that we want to reach, as rapidly as possible, the highest levels of quantity.”Trump did not explain what he meant by “Exquisite Class Weaponry.” The term is used in the defense industry to describe one-of-a-kind technology or systems.Trump said the meeting included CEOs of...

I have argued that the current economic environment has a lot of eerie parallels to 2007. We have extremely high asset valuations, the economy is loaded up with debt, and monetary policy has taken a similar trajectory, with easy money blowing up these bubbles. We even have characters like Larry Kudlow talking up the economy just like they did in 2007. I'm not the only one who sees these concerning parallels. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently said elevated asset prices and an increasingly competitive banking environment, pushing more credit, remind him of the pre-2008 financial crisis years. "My own...

Many Americans were skeptical of Elon Musk’s grandiose claims that DOGE would take a “chainsaw” to federal spending. One “tax nerd” was so skeptical he decided to “bet his life savings” on Musk’s promises being a flop — and it paid off big time, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. Musk has seen his approval rating descend as he has taken a more publicly active role politically, plus ongoing criticism and litigation over his management of his social media platform X and support for far-right politics in Europe. He jumped into his work with the Department of...

“China is dumping US Treasuries to get out of the dollar.” This claim has been circulating the mainstream feeds lately, with the narrative that the “end of the dollar is near,” or “the US will lose its funding base” and the “bond yields will surge.” But are those claims valid? Such is what we will explore in more detail.Let’s start with the chart that has everyone concerned. As shown, China’s holdings of US Treasury bonds have fallen from nearly $1.2 trillion to $600 billion, or a 50% decline. On the surface, you can certainly understand the reasons for concern, as...

The latest social financing figures from China show an economy that is increasingly relying on government debt while private demand for credit remains weak. The strength of the Chinese technology sector and its exporting companies gives enough room for leverage. However, behind the weak private sector credit demand lies an evident economic slowdown that the Chinese government acknowledges, challenging consumption patterns, a significant overcapacity problem, and the depth of the housing crisis.The current economic model, focused on delivering 5% real economic growth, requires larger doses of debt to achieve smaller increments of growth, especially productive sector growth. The government has...

President Trump kicked off a campaign rally in Georgia with a fiery defense of his tariff policy, arguing he has the “right,” as president, to set them. The Supreme Court could rule as soon as Friday on the legality of Trump’s tariff agenda. “I have to wait for this decision. I’ve been waiting forever, forever, and the language is clear that I have the right to do it as President, I have the right to put tariffs on for national security,” Trump said. He argued the tariffs against countries like China and Canada were targeting nations that have “ripped us...

Their revolution could soon be coming to an end. January 3, 2026. Caracas. 2:47 AM. The helicopters had come in low over the Caribbean, running dark. The Delta Force operators on board were well-rehearsed. By 3:29 AM, it was over. Thirty-two Cuban bodyguards lay dead in the compound. Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were in flex cuffs, hustled onto a transport aircraft bound for New York. At Mar-a-Lago, President Trump watched the operation unfold in real time with his national security team. It was January 3—exactly 36 years to the day since American forces had extracted military dictator Manuel...

The Trump administration has made no secret of its desire to push the monetary easing pedal to the metal, even as the engine is already near the red line. They intend to push the system as hard as possible today and worry about the consequences later. One reason may be to inflate the stock market ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. There are several indicators that the Trump administration intends to run it hot in 2026. The first — and most important — is that Trump will likely succeed in consolidating control over the Federal Reserve. Jerome Powell’s term as...

In Greek mythology, Cassandra was granted the power to see the future, but cursed so that no one would believe her. She warned of disaster repeatedly, only to be ignored until tragedy struck. Today, the United States has its own modern-day Cassandras, and once again our warnings are being dismissed. Knowledgeable experts have cautioned that our nation’s fiscal path is unsustainable. Federal budget documents themselves have repeatedly sounded the alarm. Credit rating agencies have raised increasingly serious concerns. Despite these warnings, Washington continues to behave as though time is unlimited and there are no consequences to continuing to ignore the...

What to know about the partial government shutdown:President Trump signed a massive funding bill to end the partial government shutdown on Tuesday, bringing an end to the standoff after four days with a new fight over immigration on the horizon.The House voted earlier in the day to approve the package by a vote of 217 to 214, with 21 Republicans and 21 Democrats crossing the aisle. Getting the bill across the finish line presented some challenges earlier in the day for Speaker Mike Johnson, who ultimately convinced a handful of GOP holdouts to advance the measure for a final vote.The...