Free Republic

The battle over the federal debt ceiling that's currently being fought by government officials and legislators is yet another example of the political posturing that's so prevalent these days. On one side, you have Democrats, who believe that the debt ceiling should be increased automatically or removed altogether, no matter what level of debt Uncle Sam accumulates, and that it should be done with the support of Republicans. On the other side, you have Republicans, who occasionally remember that they are against big government spending, especially if they're in the minority when the debt ceiling needs to be raised. Consider...

In late September, Congress passed a bill to keep the government funded at current levels through this Friday. Trump has refused to sign the comprehensive funding bill tied to providing new $600 stimulus checks to qualifying Americans. It’s clear that they don’t have much time to resolve their disagreements and pass a law President Trump will support. Most likely, they will pass another extension, but Trump has already signaled he would rather use a pocket veto and let the next president handle the issue than sign a bill he can’t support. Such a standoff risks a government shutdown if a...

Gee whiz! Didn't we all get a lot out of the shutdown? Whether or not we sought it, we got the cynical attention of a cynical world, wondering what had possessed the crazy Americans this time. Donald Trump should have known better than to thump his chest over the coming capitulation of Nancy Pelosi, who -- a serious egotist in her own right -- understood the costs of capitulation to the man her constituents like least in the world. Couldn't Trump have figured this out instead of circling the woman who had just merrily knocked the chip off his...

With the government shutdown temporarily behind us, President Trump is essentially back to where he was in December. The government is open but will run out of funding again in a matter of weeks. He wants the wall/barrier built on the southern border but faces a new Democratic majority in the House that sees granting his request as a political implosion and doesn’t appear ready to give him more than a dollar. So are we doomed to another shutdown after February 15? According to the President, not necessarily. He’s indicating that he may be switching back to his previous...

For the last four weeks, the Democrats held furloughed federal workers hostage to their political agenda. On Friday, President Trump rescued them by ending the government shutdown.The President has now given Congress three weeks to reach a deal to fund border security or he will declare a state of emergency at the border. Thanks to President Trump’s bold leadership, the state of emergency faced by federal employees is finally over. Of course, don’t expect the Democrats and their media allies to give him any credit.Since the first day of the government shutdown, the Democrat Party relentlessly used federal workers...

If there’s anything the Trump presidency should have taught people in the opinion business, it is to pause before overreacting in the short term. As such, I will temporarily shelve my gut response to the arrangement that has been made to re-open the government. I’ve spent the last few weeks warning that the Democrat lure—“Re-open the government, and then we’ll really, really negotiate in good faith”—is a trap that should be ignored. But then I’ve spent the last two years trusting that the President knows what he’s doing, an assumption that has held up well in most cases. I...

Chill.Just chill. The wailing and gnashing of teeth on the hardcore conservative side over Trump’s delaying action – really, a hudna – in the battle for the wall is way over the top and typically overdramatic.Trump’s caved-in!We’re doomed!Pelosi annihilated him with her master stratagems and it’s all over for conservatism!Oh please. Lighten up, Francises – and many of you are my pals. But you need this bucket of cold water. What happened Friday doesn’t matter.Not at all.Well, that’s not quite accurate. It could matter, if you decide to keep doing exactly what Nancy Pelosi wants you to do, freaking out. That’s...

I couldn't care less about the State of the Union address, and I'm hardly panicking about the government shutdown, but I care a great deal that Democrats and the liberal media continue to treat President Trump like a dog, with utter impunity. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disinvited Trump to deliver the address in the Capitol, falsely citing security concerns when everyone knows she was just joyfully sticking her thumb in his eye and trying to humiliate him. Trump has decided to postpone the speech until the partial shutdown is resolved, presumably because he believes it's important that it be...

President Trump announced late Wednesday night he will give the State of the Union Address when the government shutdown comes to an end. As the Shutdown was going on, Nancy Pelosi asked me to give the State of the Union Address. I agreed. She then changed her mind because of the Shutdown, suggesting a later date. This is her prerogative - I will do the Address when the Shutdown is over. I am not looking for an....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2019 ....alternative venue for the SOTU Address because there is no venue that can compete with the...

So, could this shutdown end up hurting Democrats again? Both sides are not budging. The partisan divide on immigration is the equivalent of the width of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans combined. President Trump is trying to make good on his promise to secure the border, a key campaign promise. The Democrats, wanting to take their new House majority for a spin, are not playing ball. They were elected to block and fight this administration. They’re not giving one-cent. President Trump recently offered a deal to break the logjam. A three-year extension to DACA recipients, plus more protections to those with Temporary...

My kid is an immigrant and came to America legally. I look with awe and wonder at him, remembering how his only wish was to come to America and have a family. It peeves me that illegal aliens are allowed to not only jump in line ahead of him like the schoolyard bully, but even reap benefits that he could not get (while he was waiting for his citizenship my son could not legally attend school for credit though illegals usually can). Angel Families surely feel what I feel, though much more magnified. Their pain is our pain and we...

With the rejection of President Trump’s latest border security compromise Democrats have rejected security for Americans on many different levels. This set of rejections adds to the growing list of recent weeks in which nearly every decision they make works against the citizens of the United States. Even after repeated compromises (President Trump moving to a “steel slat” and away from a “wall”) and self-admissions of a barrier’s effectiveness (House Majority Leader Hoyer confessing “well of course walls work,”) they continue to harbor anti-American values and sentiment in their approach towards the current crisis. Thus far they have rejected the...

After a two month-long hiatus, Real Time With Bill Maher returned to the airwaves Friday. This episode was true to form when it comes to Trump-bashing, with the eponymous host calling President Trump a “dangerous menace” and a “terrorist.” Maher weighed in on the government shutdown. According to Maher, “Trump was very mad that he didn’t get his, you know, Lego wall set for Christmas.” Maher expressed his wish that “Democrats don’t cave” and argued that their position should be “Trump is holding this country hostage, you don’t deal with terrorists,” effectively comparing the President of the United States to...

News article after news article is predicting the federal government partial shutdown will lead to economic hardship. That economic growth will slow in both the public and private sector. But despite all the doom and gloom mentioned in the media, the measure that counts most in predicting the future, the stock market as actually improved significantly since the shutdown started.A headline on Thursday in Politico claimed: “Recession warnings pile up as shutdown wraps up fourth week.” The New York Times, CNBC, Yahoo News , and newspapers across the country have all had similar stories. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, caused shockwaves...

No matter where you look, you can't escape it. "Government Shutdown - Day 27..." "Government Shutdown - Day 28..." The partial government shutdown - and who's to blame for it, who's being hurt most by it and who's going to blink first - is the top topic on television, cable, talk radio, the internet and in the papers. It's so pervasive in all the news media it feels like you're watching a daily "Groundhog Day" movie about partisan politics and biased journalism. Everyone who is interviewed about the shutdown on Fox, CNN, NBC and elsewhere says the same predictable things...

Is it coming tomorrow? House Democrats are still holding the line on denying President Trump his border wall. The $5 billion proposal led to the current shutdown, now the longest in American history. Trump wants to at least get part of the border wall built. Democrats are not in a bipartisan mode. They just retook the House on the overarching promise to fight this White House not work with it.  I will be making a major announcement concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border, and the Shutdown, tomorrow afternoon at 3 P.M., live from the @WhiteHouse.— Donald J....

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats are pretty enraged President Trump cancelled their taxpayer funded trip overseas -- in the middle of a government shutdown -- at the last minute on Thursday. In fact, they were already sitting on the bus ready to go to the airport. Democrat House members getting off the bus that was to take them on an overseas trip while the government was shut down. Adam Schiff looks unhappy he couldn’t go pic.twitter.com/mywvLNtsId #maga #democratShutdown— Matt Batzel (@MattBatzel) January 17, 2019 But it turns out these taxpayer funded Congressional Delegation [CODEL] trips lead by...

It is amusing that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims her desire to delay the State of the Union address is because of security concerns stemming from federal employees' being furloughed over a budget battle caused by her party's refusal to secure this country's southern border. Everyone knows this has nothing to do with security at the Capitol and everything to do with flexing her muscles against President Trump and showing him who's boss. She also wants to deprive Trump of his bully pulpit during a time when public opinion is tilting away from her party's unreasonable, bad-faith and dishonest...

File this one as yet another instance in which the liberal media took President Trump’s bait, hook, line, and sinker, launching into apocalyptic meltdowns and illustrating for the American public how, for those on the right not in The Resistance, they’re the opposition party.  On Thursday afternoon, CNN suffered a network-wide meltdown over Trump’s letter canceling Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s overseas trip less than an hour before take-off, calling the President a “childish” and “cranky” schoolboy who’s only concerned about “pure politics.”  PANIC! CNN Goes DEFCON-1 Over ‘Childish,’ ‘Cranky’ Trump Canceling Pelosi’s Trip   Surprising no one, carnival barker and chief...

The 2018 midterms were a disaster for House Republicans. Democrats gained 40 seats, retook the majority, and, to our horror, Nancy Pelosi is speaker again. They were elected to stop Trump, to block him at every turn, and lead the effort for his impeachment and removal from office. Any Democrat who says otherwise is lying. The base demands Trump go at all costs. The younger, feistier Democrats say that openly. The older crew tries to downplay it, but ultimately that’s their goal. They’re banking heavily that the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the DOJ’s Russia probe,...