Free Republic

Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) has come under fire for suggesting President Trump’s immigration crackdown will leave Vermonters without “anyone around to wipe our a–es.” The congresswoman made the outrageous claim — which she herself called “crude” — during a town hall in Newport, Vt., last week, in response to a question about US immigration policy. “Our economy is completely bound up in immigration and migrant labor,” Balint told her constituents. “We have to come to a place in Congress where it is no longer a political issue, but we see it as an existential issue for the country.” “If we...

CBO projects $3T added to debt from bill that tackles tax policy, border security, healthcare reforms President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" is projected to increase the debt by $3 trillion, with interest, or $5 trillion if made permanent, according to estimates. An estimate of the House-passed bill by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects it would add more than $2.4 trillion to primary deficits before interest over 10 years, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a nonprofit public policy organization. As of Wednesday, the national debt, which measures what the U.S. owes its creditors,...

President Donald Trump shared on Wednesday that he wants the debt limit “scrapped,” which Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has also called for. Trump issued a statement on Truth Social Wednesday afternoon. “I am very pleased to announce that, after all of these years, I agree with Senator Elizabeth Warren on SOMETHING. The Debt Limit should be entirely scrapped to prevent an Economic catastrophe,” he wrote. “It is too devastating to be put in the hands of political people that may want to use it despite the horrendous effect it could have on our Country and, indirectly, even the World,” he...

Wednesday on MSNBC’s “The Weeknight,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) said that President Donald Trump had been “flagrantly violating” the law with cuts to government through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DeLauro said, “Elon Musk knew nothing about impoundment or about the appropriations process. And I categorize empowerment as stealing, they are stealing these funds. and the president knows even less about those two issues.” She continued, “It’s in the Constitution, the Constitution in Article I Section 9, Clause 7, says that the power of the purse resides in the in the Congress, and there is no inherent authority that...

The U.S. Army met its annual recruiting target of 61,000 in the first week of June, four months ahead of the scheduled Sept. 30 deadline, after putting in place new initiatives to boost recruitment. It marks a stunning turnaround for a service that failed to meet its recruiting goals in 2022 and 2023 and struggled in the years since to meet its annual targets. "The U.S. Army has successfully met its fiscal year 2025 recruiting goals for active duty, signing contracts with more than 61,000 future Soldiers -- a full four months before the end of the fiscal year," the...

Afghanistan Myanmar (Burma) Chad Republic of the Congo Equatorial Guinea Eritrea; Haiti Iran Libya Somalia Sudan Yemen

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D) is seemingly threatening to unmask Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, many of whom work undercover operations, saying Democrats will expose their identities “no matter what it takes.” During a press conference this week, Jeffries claimed that Democrats would seek out the identities of ICE agents who work to enforce federal immigration law by locating, arresting, and deporting illegal aliens — often violent, convicted criminals. “Every single ICE agent who is engaged in this aggressive overreach and are trying to hide their identities from the American people will be unsuccessful in doing that,” Jeffries...

I just finished speaking, by telephone, with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia. The call lasted approximately one hour and 15 minutes. We discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides. It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace. President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.

A Chinese national couple was hit with criminal charges Tuesday for allegedly smuggling a dangerous fungus into the US capable of destroying crops and poisoning humans and livestock. Zunyong Liu, 34, was caught by US Customs and Border Protection officers attempting to smuggle Fusarium graminearum – a biological pathogen considered to be “a potential agroterrorism weapon” – into the US via the Detroit Metropolitan Airport last July, according to a criminal complaint filed in a federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan. Liu initially made false statements about his visit to the US and his knowledge of the pathogen...

New York City mayoral front-runner Andrew Cuomo vowed to lead the fight against President Trump, but bizarrely pledged to “spend eight years in Washington” in a bid to help Democrats retake the House. The former governor told Politico he planned to wage the national campaign against the Trump administration — even though the president’s second and final term would come to a close in 2028, or three years into the next mayor’s tenure. “I would spend eight years in Washington — go to that US Conference of Mayors, go to the National Governors Association,” Cuomo said as he detailed his...

PBS stands accused of “grooming” children after Sesame Street, one of the nonprofit TV network’s premier programs, shared a social media post hailing LGBTQ Pride Month that drew an immediate response from a group of Congressional Republicans. The veteran children’s education and entertainment program went on social media to welcome the annual event built around an image of puppets holding hands, as Breitbart News reported. On both X and Instagram, the Sesame Street pages shared a graphic of multi-colored puppets reaching out so that they resembled the colors of an LGBTQ Pride flag. “On our street, everyone is welcome. Together,...

@elonmusk I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it

SAN FRANCISCO - Several prominent Bay Area arts organizations have abruptly lost federal funding following a shift in grantmaking priorities by the National Endowment for the Arts under the Trump administration. It's a change that leaders say is putting vital programs and community work at risk.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) trails Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) by 22 points in the state’s Republican Senate primary, according to a poll released Tuesday. The survey, which was conducted by pollster Robert Blizzard on behalf of the Educational Freedom Institute and first obtained by Punchbowl News, showed Paxton leading Cornyn 50 percent to 28 percent among Republican primary voters. Paxton expanded his lead among voters described as “very conservative GOP primary voters,” leading Cornyn 60 percent to 22 percent. Among voters described as “high propensity 3/3 GOP primary voters,” Paxton leads Cornyn by 30 points. The poll also...

Operation Patriot, the largest ever ICE operation, resulted in the arrest of nearly 1,500 illegals, including murderers, rapists, drug traffickers and child sex predators, in the deep blue sanctuary city-heavy state of Massachusetts. Operation Patriot concluded on Saturday after netting 1,461 illegal aliens throughout the Greater Boston area and the state of Massachusetts, which includes numerous sanctuary jurisdictions. Sources at ICE told Fox News that 790 of those arrested had criminal convictions or charges and 277 had final removal or deportation orders. The sources said that all the targeted criminals were roaming the streets of Massachusetts cities freely before being...

Progressive California Rep. Maxine Waters' campaign has agreed to pay a $68,000 fine after an investigation found it violated multiple election rules.The Federal Election Commission (FEC) said the longtime House lawmaker's 2020 campaign committee, Citizens for Waters, ran afoul of several campaign finance laws in a tranche of documents released Friday.The FEC accused Citizens for Waters of "failing to accurately report receipts and disbursements in calendar year 2020," "knowingly accepting excessive contributions" and "making prohibited cash disbursements," according to one document that appears to be a legally binding agreement that allows both parties to avoid going to court.

On Monday’s “Alex Marlow Show,” host and Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow discussed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent rebuffing host Margaret Brennan on inflation Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Bessent said, “When we were here in March, you said there was going to be big inflation. There hasn’t been any inflation. Actually, the inflation numbers are the best in four years. So why don’t we stop trying to say this could happen, wait and see what does happen.” Marlow said, “This is the exact same thing with the egg prices. We were told the egg prices are not coming down and...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the surprise drone operation over the weekend against Russia was a success that will "continue" if Moscow doesn't halt its offensive. Zelenskyy addressed reporters following the next round of U.S.-brokered peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul on Monday, intended to end Russia's 3-year-old invasion of its neighbor. The talks came just one day after Ukraine launched an audacious drone attack on Russia's strategic bomber fleet. Asked by ABC News' Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz on whether the attacks changed the dynamics of the war or at the negotiating table -- and...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) praised Ukraine’s weekend drone attack on Russia, calling its government and armed forces “ever-resourceful” while warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing for more war. “The ever-resourceful Ukraine used creative drone warfare tactics to successfully attack Russian bombers and military assets used to kill Ukrainian citizens and destroy their country,” Graham said on the social platform X on Sunday reacting to the Ukraine attack. Ukraine hit Russian bases across the vast country in the recent attack, including in the regions of Irkutsk and Amur, which are thousands of miles from the Russian-Ukraine border. The attack...

CVS says it will close 271 retail locations across the country by the end of the year. The company — the world’s second-largest healthcare provider — announced the move to stockholders late last week as part of an enterprise-wide restructuring plan. The goal, CVS says, is to simplify the organization, improve efficiency, and generate more than $500 million in cost savings in 2025. CVS has not yet released which stores will be affected or when closures will take place. The company currently operates around 9,100 stores across the US. Founded in 1963 in Lowell, Massachusetts, CVS is now headquartered in...