Free Republic

It’s finally passed and heading for President Trump's desk for signature. The recissions package has made it over the finish line in a 216-213 vote in the House. It had to be bounced back from the Senate, which passed it on a 51-48 vote, as the upper chamber had made slight adjustments to it during the vote-a-rama process. The GOP has slim majorities in Congress, but they’re getting the Trump agenda through. 216-213:House approved the Trump WH's 1st round of DOGE spending cuts, $9B in foreign aid & public broadcasting from previously approved funding by Congress. Republicans Fitzpatrick (PA) &...

Our country cannot get its fiscal house in order unless and until it starts slowing the explosion of Medicare spending.The budget reconciliation measure Congress recently passed includes some important reforms designed to help reduce entitlement spending. But any realistic assessment of the nation’s fiscal position reinforces why Washington must go much further in reducing spending than the half-measures enacted in recent weeks.In March, as lawmakers were beginning debate on the “big, beautiful bill,” the Congressional Budget Office released its annual version of the “Long-Term Budget Outlook,” which features economic and budgetary projections for the next three decades. The CBO report...

Perhaps it’s too soon to mark nuclear power’s revival in the U.S. but there is a burst of activity that should ultimately yield a new generation of advanced nuclear plants and small modular reactors.This is especially true for major industrial energy consumers—which now also includes data centers—where there is a strong economic incentive to use more nuclear power instead of natural gas and intermittent renewables.In Illinois, Meta recently signed a long-term agreement to buy nuclear power from Constellation’s Clinton nuclear plant, the latest in a slew of deals between big tech and the nuclear industry. Constellation also said it would...

Live by the federal subsidy ... well, you know the rest. And if not, Robert Kennedy Jr just served up a big reminder.Republicans in Congress got thwarted in their attempt to defund providers delivering pediatric sex-change therapies. Instead, the HHS Secretary will act within his authority to deny Medicare and Medicaid funds to hospitals and clinics that provide these services, forcing them into a choice between funding for actual care and pandering to the extreme Left at the expense of children. National Review got the scoop:The Department of Health and Human Services will soon begin the rule-making process to prohibit...

Late Thursday afternoon, the Wall Street Journal published an "exclusive" involving President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. That "scoop," as our Joe Cunningham notes, amounts to a "bawdy" birthday card purportedly sent by Trump to Epstein for his 50th birthday...in 2003. Setting aside the time, context, and rather ridiculous nature of the described communication, WSJ noted that Trump flat-out denied having authored the note. "This is not me," he said in response to the story. "This is a fake thing. It's a fake Wall Street Journal story. I never wrote a picture in my life. I don't draw pictures of...

In California, some radical far-left ideas don't seem to be drawing the applause they were expected to draw.Which brings us to one state Sen. Ben Allen, a Santa Monica statehouse senator who put out a proposed law so stinky, so stanky, so vile, he skedaddled backward as fast as his little legs would carry him.At a time when the County of Los Angeles has witheld rebuilding permits for all but seven of the 17,000 homeowners who lost their homes in the fires they caused, Allen's SB 549 authorized the state to go around buying up burned properties in fire-ravaged areas,...

“Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!”

A resurfaced clip of Zohran Mamdani explaining how when he runs out of money—because he’s decided to quit his job—he’ll just live off his parents is going viral: ... He’s got absolutely no qualms about producing nothing, being unemployed, and living off of someone else—which is to say he’s just your average socialist/communist. Recall that Karl Marx lived off of handouts from Freidrich Engels, and was once so broke that he left his wife to pawn his last pair of pants instead of just getting a job to support his family (walking around in his skivvies for who knows who...

The Wall Street Journal, and Rupert Murdoch, personally, were warned directly by President Donald J. Trump that the supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE and, if they print it, they will be sued. Mr. Murdoch stated that he would take care of it but, obviously, did not have the power to do so. The Editor of The Wall Street Journal, Emma Tucker, was told directly by Karoline Leavitt, and by President Trump, that the letter was a FAKE, but Emma Tucker didn’t want to hear that. Instead, they are going with a false, malicious,...

In a shocking new development, President Donald Trump’s longtime political adversary, Democrat Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), is facing criminal prosecution after a bombshell referral from the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) over alleged mortgage fraud spanning years. The FHFA has formally alerted the Department of Justice (DOJ) of the evidence, triggering an investigation into Schiff’s actions following a series of mortgage-related allegations. Schiff, who was elected to the Senate in 2024 after years of serving as a House lawmaker, is under intense scrutiny after Trump announced the charges earlier this week. It was revealed that between 2003 and 2019,...

Socialist Zohran Mamdani called for ‘abolition of private property,’ resurfaced video shows New York City socialist Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is being ripped for advocating “the abolition of private property” — as a video resurfaced of him touting the radical position this week. “If there was any system that could guarantee each person housing — whether you call it the abolition of private property or you call it a statewide housing guarantee — it is preferable to what is going on right now,” Mamdani said in the video shared by RNC Research. “People try to play gotcha games about...

On Thursday, Chairman of the Board of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Bill Pulte, said Fed Chair Jerome Powell may be criminally referred to the Justice Department for alleged perjury about the $2.5 billion building renovation plan. “I am told by very reliable Congressional sources that there may be a criminal referral coming from one or more Congress members to the DOJ for Jay Powell’s alleged perjury about the $2.5BN building,” Pulte said on X. I am told by very reliable Congressional sources that there may be a criminal referral coming from one or more Congress members to the DOJ...

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who earlier this month feuded online with President Donald Trump after stepping down as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, has been flooding his social media feed with criticism of Trump and his administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Using his X platform, Musk has been on a posting spree since Wednesday, posting or reposting criticisms of Trump's handling of the Epstein files more than 35 times. In one post, Musk called the Trump administration's actions "a cover up (obviously)" and claimed in another that "so many powerful people want that list suppressed."...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will be given access to the personal data of the nation’s 79 million Medicaid enrollees, including home addresses and ethnicities, to track down immigrants who may not be living legally in the United States, according to an agreement obtained by The Associated Press. The information will give ICE officials the ability to find “the location of aliens” across the country, says the agreement signed Monday between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Homeland Security. The agreement has not been announced publicly. The extraordinary disclosure of millions of...

WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate panel on Thursday advanced the nomination of Donald Trump's former personal lawyer to be a federal appeals court judge over protests from Democrats, who accuse him of using aggressive tactics to enforce the U.S. president's agenda at the Justice Department. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously supported the nomination of Emil Bove for a lifetime appointment on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sending the nomination to the full Senate. Bove currently serves as a top Justice Department official. The hearing devolved into partisan rancor when the panel's Republican chairman,...

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday confirmed he's seriously considering two options to try to redraw California's congressional districts to get more Democrats elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. The update comes after President Donald Trump earlier this week urged Republican state lawmakers in Texas to help the party pick up five seats in that state. Gov. Greg Abbott has directed the state Legislature to discuss redistricting in an upcoming special legislative session. Unlike Texas, the California Legislature does not draw district maps. Every 10 years, the state's independent redistricting commission undertakes the work through a lengthy, citizen-led process. Voters...

“The employment of individuals under the age of 21 in the cannabis industry is strictly illegal, a serious matter, and is not tolerated,” the statement said. “We encourage anyone with information about child labor or trafficking at any facility to immediately contact the Department.” Glass House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. But in a statement posted to X last week, the company said it “does not and has never employed minors.” Federal officials raided the company’s operations in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign against undocumented immigrants in...

A Monday poll by Data for Progress gives new insight into the 2025 New York City mayoral election as the field of candidates for the November general election remains in flux. The Data for Progress poll shows Queens Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic primary winner, leading the field with 40% of polled individuals marking the 33-year-old as their top choice for mayor. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who appears to be nearing a decision on an independent campaign after losing to Mamdani and is expected to commit to the race in the coming days, is polling in second place with...

There are several reasons why Jerome Powell should be fired or forced to resign:Powell pretends he cares about budget deficits and inflation, but the cost for the Federal Reserve building renovations surged $700 million past the initial budget, or almost 40%:The Federal Reserve has defended itself from White House criticism that ongoing, costly renovations at the central bank’s headquarters in Washington are the result of mismanagement.Last week, Russel Vought, the director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, said the Fed was turning its headquarters into a ‘palace.’ The cost of the renovation has risen to $2.5 billion,...

While headlines chase shadows and social media churns with conspiracies about Jeffrey Epstein, something far more serious—yet underreported—is unfolding: America just ran a budget surplus in June.That’s right — the U.S. government, long buried under record-breaking deficits, posted a $27 billion surplus, the first for that month in eight years. And it wasn’t a fluke. It was driven largely by one policy move: tariffs.Back in April, critics warned that Donald Trump’s newly announced “Liberation Day” tariffs would tank the economy.Instead, those tariffs have proven to be a financial engine.Trump invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to declare a...