Free Republic

Obama has danced away trillions of dollars to the tune of wealth redistribution. Now we must pay the piper. When Carter played this game he brought double digit inflation upon America along with 20% loan rates. America had to pay the interest on its debt at these higher rates. That set up a loop that almost destroyed the USA economy. Regan turned that disaster around. The Obama disaster will dwarf Carter's debacle. As interest rates payed upon the trillions we owe rises, we fall. Inflation will explode to the sound of trillions of dollars being printed by the Federal Reserve....

Here's some pressure for lawmakers: If they don't reach agreement on extending soon-to-expire Bush-era tax cuts, nearly all their constituents back home will get big tax increases. A typical family of four with a household income of $50,000 a year would have to pay $2,900 more in taxes in 2011, according to a new analysis by Deloitte Tax LLP, a tax consulting firm. The same family making $100,000 a year would see its taxes rise by $4,500. Wealthier families face even bigger tax hikes. A family of four making $500,000 a year would pay $10,800 more in taxes. The same...

What a great idea! With voters rising up to wrest control of Congress away from Democrats in large part because of overspending and regulatory overreach as well as a failing economy, Barack Obama has decided that the next few weeks on Capitol Hill should be dedicated to more ad hoc spending: Despite coming under daily assault from Republicans over spending, the Obama administration is pushing a $20 billion-plus pre-election shopping list on its Democratic allies in Congress as they prepare must-pass legislation to prevent a government shutdown next month. Republicans are protesting the spending requests, which include $1.9 billion for...

(Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday there is "no justification" for extending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, saying the nation cannot afford the price tag. Democrats largely back President Barack Obama's plan to extend lower taxes for middle and lower income groups only, but a small minority favor renewing tax cuts for all Americans, including the wealthiest three percent. Republicans are insisting that high-income people be included in any tax-cut extensions. The lower tax rates date to the Republican administration of President George W. Bush.

Congressmen Weiner and Waxman Set Gold Hearing

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the delegate representing Washington D.C. in the House, called a lobbyist earlier this month and, after not reaching him, left a revealing voice mail. Her voice message notes that the lobbyist had contributed to other members of the Transportation and Infrastructure committee that Ms. Norton is a senior member of and drops hints that she has the power to give or deny favors. "We particularly, uh, need, uh, contributions, particularly those of us who have the seniority and chairmanships and are in a position to raise the funds," she tells the lobbyist. She then details her role...

“When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both.” So wrote James Dale Davidson. This is what our government has been doing in an unprecedented scale for the past four years since Liberal Democrats took over both the US Senate and House of Representatives. Bashers of Conservatives seem not to know this. People seem to forget it was the Democrat Senate and House majorities, along with eight Republican Senate defectors that voted for the Bank bailout known as TARP in 2008. Yet the Liberal media keeps saying it was Bush’s and the Republicans fault. Well it was partly...

43.6 Million Americans Living In Poverty Is The Highest Number Ever Recorded Joe Weisenthal Sep. 16, 2010, 10:31 AM This was expected, but it still hits you in the gut. Poverty in America has hit the highest level the Census has ever recorded, according to a new report out today. Image: Census[snip]

The “extend and pretend” approach of the Treasury Department, through HAMP, has reached its end, and foreclosures are surging higher than ever. Lenders took back more homes in August than in any month since the start of the U.S. mortgage crisis. The increase in home repossessions came even as the number of properties entering the foreclosure process slowed for the seventh month in a row, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday. In all, banks repossessed 95,364 properties last month, up 3 percent from July and an increase of 25 percent from August 2009, RealtyTrac said. August makes the ninth...

WASHINGTON -- The number of people living in poverty has climbed to 14.3 percent of Americans, with the ranks of working-age poor reaching the highest level since at least 1965. The Census Bureau says that about 43.6 million people, or 1 in 7, were in poverty last year. That's up from 39.8 million, or 13.2 percent, in 2008. The number of people lacking health insurance rose from 46.3 million to 50.7 million, due mostly to the loss of employer-provided health insurance during the recession. Congress passed a health overhaul earlier this year to extend coverage to more people. The statistics...

Just heard the news alert on Fox. Moderator: please await article from their website.

It’s a darned good thing that Austan Goolsbee is “young, energetic, and looks good on TV,” because otherwise this would look a lot like Jimmy Carter’s “Malaise” speech. Chris Wallace tries to get Goolsbee to discuss what kind of changes have been made to White House economic forecasts in 2010, while Goolsbee wants to talk about how difficult it was … in 2007, in Europe, or anywhere else than the US after almost two years of the Obama administration policies. The big takeaway is that Goolsbee and the White House expect no appreciable decline in the unemployment rate for the...

CLICK ON ABOVE LINK FOR COMPLETE EXPLANATION AND CHARTS HERE's A SUMMARY : * 45 million Americans were living in poverty in 2009 * 2009 saw the largest single year increase in the U.S. poverty rate since the U.S. government began calculating poverty figures back in 1959 * The U.S. poverty rate is now the third worst among the developed nations tracked by the OECD * Household participation in the food stamp program has increased 20.28% since last year * The number of Americans on food stamps surpassed 41 million for the first time ever in June * As of...

September 10, 2010 A little election reminder: Congress has not passed a 2011 budget Monte Kuligowski Byron York has a great piece out that highlights the awkward position of congressional Democrats who voted for ObamaCare. With the midterm elections fast approaching, the once-celebratory Democrats are now silent about their "historic" achievement. Healthcare "reform" was so urgent and important that no one had time to read its two thousand pages, much less have honest debate before C-SPAN cameras as Obama promised. Reading it alone would have taken "two days and two lawyers to find out what it means" and they simply...

The wealthiest members of Congress grew richer in 2009 even as the economy struggled to recover from a deep recession. The 50 wealthiest lawmakers were worth almost $1.4 billion in 2009, about $85.1 million more than 12 months earlier, according to The Hill’s annual review of lawmakers’ financial disclosure forms. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) tops the list for the second year in a row. His minimum net worth was $188.6 million at the end of 2009, up by more than $20 million from 2008, according to his financial disclosure form. While the economy struggled through a recession during much of...

Nancy Pelosi had some choice words for the American public yesterday: Shut up. If you’ve got an opinion about the N.Y. mosque controversy, better keep it to yourself or you could end up under investigation in the House Star Chamber. Pelosi says she wants to know how opposition to the mosque is being “ginned up.” She wants to know who’s funding this anger. She wants to know what the hell is wrong with the 61 percent of Americans who evidently disagree with her views. (Her disingenuous view being that this is a “zoning issue” only and all the national controversy...

WASHINGTON (AP) - American taxpayers will pay the imam behind plans for a mosque near the Manhattan site of the Sept. 11 attacks $3,000 in fees for a three-nation outreach trip to the Middle East that will cost roughly $16,000, the State Department said Wednesday. The department said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf will get a daily $200 honorarium for the 15-day tour to Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which is intended to promote religious tolerance. Airfare is included, as well as the standard federal government per diem for expenses and lodging in each of the cities he will...

Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) today called for an investigation of those opposing the mosque being planned for construction a block away from the site of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York City that toppled the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center complex in lower Manhatten and killed nearly 3000 people.Speaking to reporters in San Francisco, Pelosi at first deferred to New Yorkers on the mosque, calling it an "urban development question" for them to decide."I think everybody respects the right of people in our country to express their religious beliefs on...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Homebuilder confidence dropped for the third straight month in August as the struggling economy and a flood of cheap foreclosed properties kept people from buying new homes. The National Association of Home Builders said its monthly index of builders' sentiment about the housing market fell to 13, the lowest reading since March 2009. The index is adjusted for seasonal factors. Readings below 50 indicate negative sentiment about the market. The last time the index was above 50 was in April 2006.

The left has collapsed. Its political support has collapsed. Public opinion polls point to a historic repudiation of the president and the Democratic party this fall, something on the order of a 60-seat Republican gain in the House. The GOP has an outside shot at taking the Senate as well. Its claim to intellectual integrity has collapsed. Paul Krugman, Ivy League professor, New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate (the holy trinity of the liberal establishment), has humiliated himself with a startlingly dishonest attack on Paul Ryan's budget proposal. Krugman, called out by Ryan, rebuked by honest analysts and unwilling...