Free Republic

he day the first minimum wage increase in 10 years was enacted, Democrats and Big Labor made it clear they would ask for another hike soon. On Tuesday, a 70 cent increase to the federal minimum wage went into effect. The minimum wage increase, passed by the Democrat-controlled Congress in May, will increase 70 cents twice more over the next two years, until it reaches $7.25 in 2009. To celebrate, labor activists held a rally on Capitol Hill to thank congressional Democrats for delivering the pay raise—and demanded more. “Even when we get to $7.25, it’s not enough. We have...

  If At First You Don’t Succeed –Cry, Cry Again July 26, 2007 The latest skirmish in the ongoing battle between American security and Muslim sensitivities finds Congressional Democrats looking for any way to deep-six ANY legislation that provides “liability protection for individuals who report suspicious behavior to law enforcement agencies”...otherwise known as “John Doe” or “Flying Imam” amendments. Would the Democrats really do that?  Would the Democrats really sacrifice the lives of the American public at the altar of political correctness?  Would the Democrats really play kissy-face with Muslim interest groups and trade your lives for their votes?  Would the Democrats...

Guess what? Prominent Democrats in Congress may soon pass a huge tax increase. This tax increase will affect all, not just Wall Street. Because what is proposed is almost unknown to the American people and unless you, the American people, learn about this tax increase and protest to high heaven, they will succeed. The proposed tax increase is H.R. 2834, a bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to treat income received by partners for performing investment management services as ordinary income received for the performance of services. It sounds innocent, but the truth is that since Harry...

Be Our Guest He's your son, riding a commuter train to work. Your daughter, taking the subway to go shopping downtown. Your grandparent, boarding an airplane at JFK en route to a family reunion. Your husband or wife, working anywhere in America. John Doe is you. Me. All of us. And he's in trouble. Yesterday, members of Congress met in conference to finalize provisions of the 9/11 security bill, which implements the final recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. But as of press time, the Democratic majority was using a technicality to block the so-called John Doe amendment from being included...

Senate Democrats last night beat back a Republican attempt to attach an anti-Fairness Doctrine bill as an amendment to education legislation. The doctrine, a former requirement that broadcasters present opposing points of view on political issues, was scrapped in 1987 by the Federal Communications Commission, which said the policy restricted journalistic freedom. The bill by Sen. Norm Coleman, Minnesota Republican, would prevent the FCC from reinstating the doctrine. "We live in an age of satellite radio, of broadband, of blogs, of Internet, of cable TV, of broadcast TV. There is no limitation on the ability of anyone from any political...

If Majority Leader Harry Reid can’t start pulling troops out of Iraq, he doesn’t want to start paying them any more either. After an amendment to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq within 120 days failed to receive the 60 votes needed to proceed, Reid set the entire defense authorization bill aside. By doing so, he shelved a 3.5 percent pay raise for all uniformed service personnel, $4 billion in equipment upgrades and a new program to treat traumatic brain injuries. To increase pressure on Republicans to support the measure, sponsored by Sen. Carl Levin (D.-Mich.) and Sen. Jack Reed...

"Is there not a moral obligation of the United States to make sure that the Iraqi people are safe before the U.S. withdraws?" ABC News' Jake Tapper asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday. As Mr. Tapper summarized the exchange, "I tried to get an answer... I did not succeed." Mr. Reid's response to this very reasonable question was to dodge here, dodge there, and never answer directly. He cited Iraqi opinion polls showing that 69 percent of Iraqis feel less safe because of the U.S. presence. He cited the war's cost of many billions and the 600 dead Americans...

In the national survey of 1,012 likely voters, taken July 12 through July 14, about 66 percent said Bush had done only a fair or poor job as president, with 34 percent ranking his performance as excellent or good. That is up slightly from his low of 30 percent in early March and in line with other national polls showing Bush's approval ratings lingering at or near historically low levels amid continued chaos and bloodshed in Iraq. But the marks for Congress, mired in gridlock over a series of partisan political battles after Democrats took power in the 2006 elections,...

Ratcheting up the stakes in the wake of the GOP's successful blocking of a vote on Iraq withdrawal just moments ago, Harry Reid just announced on the Senate floor that he won't allow a vote on the entire Defense Authorization bill until the Senate GOP drops its filibustering of votes on Iraq. The move is significant because it could hold up the funding of the Pentagon's fiscal 2008 priorities until the standoff is resolved. It comes only moments after the Republican filibuster succeeded in preventing a vote on the Reed-Levin amendment, which would have mandated withdrawal by April 2008. Reid...

The new Democratic Congress has finally found a government agency whose budget It wants to cut: an obscure Labor Department office that monitors the compliance of unions with federal law. In the past six years, the Office of Labor Management Standards, or OLMS, has helped secure the convictions of 775 corrupt union officials and court-ordered restitution to union members of over $70 million in dues. The House is set to vote Thursday on a proposal to chop 20% from the OLMS budget. Every other Labor Department enforcement agency is due for a budget increase, and overall the Congress has added...

WASHINGTON -- In the heat of their successful campaign last year to retake the House and Senate, Democrats made voters promise after promise. They promised to end the war in Iraq. They promised to expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. They promised to lower prescription drug prices for seniors and raise the minimum wage. But six months after taking over Congress, Democrats find they have accomplished little of their agenda. Perhaps not coincidentally, Congress' job approval rating has reached a dramatic low, tumbling 13 points since February to 24 percent, according to the Gallup Poll. Republicans, damaged by...

WASHINGTON — Democrats pledged to take Congress in a new direction when it won control in November 2006, but less than six months after taking the reins, Americans aren't pleased with the results, giving lawmakers an all-time low public confidence rating. In a Gallup poll released Thursday, only 14 percent of Americans have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in Congress, a Gallup poll reports. The poll shows an all-time lowest confidence rating and one of the lowest ratings for any institution in 30 years. The lowest confidence rating for Congress was 18 percent during 1991 to...

May 17, 2007, 6:02 a.m. Politicians Set Their PricesThe Democratic Congress seems intent on reviving the worst ideas of our past. By Carrie Lukas Apparently some lessons we must relearn. One might assume our disastrous economic flirtation with socialism in the 1970s — never mind the sorry record of command-and-control economics in the former Soviet bloc — would have buried the concept of government wage- and price-controls for at least a generation. Yet this Congress appears intent on resurrecting the worst policies of the past. Price controls have superficial appeal. The average gas-price rose more than 10 percent last...

On Dec. 5, Newsweek magazine touted an interview with then-incoming House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes as an "exclusive." "In a surprise twist in the debate over Iraq," the story began, Mr. Reyes "said he wants to see an increase of 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops as part of a 'stepped up effort to dismantle the militias.' " "We have to consider the need for additional troops to be in Iraq, to take out the militias and stabilize Iraq," the Texas Democrat said to the surprise of many, "I would say 20,000 to 30,000." Then came...

Democrats will return to power in Congress with a lengthy list of expensive priorities and a pledge to pay for them. Some budget experts say the dual goals don't add up. Democratic leaders have endorsed an ambitious agenda that includes fortifying the military, improving homeland security, helping veterans, making college more affordable, establishing energy independence and boosting private savings rates. Annual tab: at least $79 billion, according to the National Taxpayers Union, a group opposed to higher taxes. They also want to protect 20 million upper middle-income taxpayers from the alternative minimum tax. It was originally designed to ensure the...

Unions spent more than $100 million getting out the vote, knocked on millions of doors and delivered Election Day support to Democrats running for the House by a more than 2-to-1 ratio. Now organized labor is spelling out what it wants from the new Democratic Congress. The priorities include raising the minimum wage, expanding health care and improving pension protections. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney sees the elections as a "mandate for a union agenda." Likewise, says Bill Samuel, legislative director for the AFL-CIO, "we have an opportunity to push our agenda... The AFL-CIO executive council is scheduled to meet Tuesday...