Free Republic

<p>I calculated federal income taxes for two hypothetical working class couples filing jointly under the new senate proposal compared to current law, taking the standard deduction in each case (see the pdf at source).</p> <p>The first working class family has a combined income of $100,000 and if my calculations are NOW correct would owe $10,948 in federal income taxes under current law with an effective tax rate of 10.9%.</p>

It's an anniversary of sorts -- and should be something of a national holiday. Twenty years ago, Jim Robinson became FReeper #1 on this website, and we all are much the better for it. I found FreeRepublic.com via my news aggregator at the time, The Drudge Report. Quickly I lost interest in that site in favor of this my new home page. I found that Freerepublic is just not a news aggregator, but an intelligence aggregator. Thanks to the overwhelming diversity of interests amongst the FReeper community, we can go from the smallest subatomic particles to the vastness of inter-gallactic...

This is a news forum. But I sure am seeing a lot of vanity posts lately. You know our readers generally frown on vanities (unless exceptional in quality) so if you feel the urge to post yet another run of the mill vanity, please resist it. Or, in the very least, be sure to submit a donation along with your vanity submission. Thank you very much.

Well, there was this little thing called a VOTER REBELLION that occurred last November. Neither party wants to take responsibility (yet) for their own shortcomings, and neither party wants to admit (yet) that it's really happening. It'll take another election or two where the voters throw the bums out before they start getting the message. It's way too early to send the success or failure of Trump's presidency to the jury, but I'm still happy. He already saved the nation from complete collapse under either Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton, the two uni-party favorites. The establishment elites from both parties...

History proves you cannot appease Marxist/fascist/socialist/globalist totalitarians. They will never be satisfied and will never stop. Trump is absolutely correct. If you allow them to tear down these historical Civil War monuments, then they’ll be coming after Washington and Jefferson next. In fact, they’ll be coming after the American flag, our national anthem, our Judeo-Christian heritage, the Bible, and anything to do with the founding of this great nation while leaving the institution of slavery intact. And that includes the constitution itself. It did not ban slavery and must therefore be destroyed. And they will continue destroying monuments, burning books,...

This is absolutely stupid. These long drawn out debates within the GOP struggling to settle on the nitty gritty about what and who should be covered and at what price is ridiculous. It's NOT your job, gentlemen. All you are doing is playing into the socialist democrats hands. Please consult your pocket constitutions and discover that the power to make these decisions regarding health care and insurance, etc, is not an enumerated power and is not delegated by the constitution to the congress or the federal government. It's reserved to the states and the people. Get OUT of it!! Conservatives...

Has there ever been this level of resistance/interference by a prior administration to the incoming in U.S. history? Haven't we always prided ourselves on our smooth and peaceful transitions of power from one elected administration/party to the next? If we didn't know better and understand that this cannot happen in America, the level of organized and criminal interference and obstruction against the duly elected President Trump being put up by former President Obama himself and his new socialist organization, the entire democrat party, the GOP establishment, the entrenched holdovers throughout government, the liberal activist judges and the liberal media might...

The democrats are doing a full court press in trying to prove Russia influenced our elections. Ok, if true, why then was Russia so successful in hacking, spying and actively disrupting our democratic processes under President Obama? Complete intelligence breakdown or what? Obama's criminal negligence and incompetence? Obama/Hillary complicity? Obama sound asleep at the switch? Or what?

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." I don't see power over health care or insurance or anything like that being delegated to the federal government anywhere in the constitution, so it is reserved to the states and the people per the tenth amendment. The federal government cannot dictate who or what must be covered or at what price or any other terms or requirements for private health care insurance or coverage. And, Robert's ruling notwithstanding, it is not...

Those who insist that America was not intended to be a “Christian nation” point to the obvious absence of specific directives regarding Christianity in the federal Constitution. The popular propaganda since the 1960s has been that “the irreligious Framers did not want the nation to retain any attachment to the Christian religion.” Such an assertion is a monstrous perversion of historical fact. The truth of the matter is that they were fearful of the potential interference by the federal government in its ability to place restrictions on the free exercise of the Christian religion. Consequently, they desired that the specifics...

Session #1 of "The Silencing of God" seminar introduces the sinister attempt to expunge manifestations of God, Christ, and the Bible from American life--in direct and stark contradiction to the original intentions of the Founders and Framers. The United States of America is undergoing swift transition as the forces of “political correctness” wage a vociferous culture war. Activist judges, secularist educators, morally bankrupt entertainers, and liberal politicians have teamed up to sell a sanitized version of America’s past. Their objective? To expunge every manifestation of God, Christ, and the Bible from American life. What has been the result of their...

A whole lot of congressional swamp dwellers and citizens alike are entirely missing the point regarding a complete and final repeal of Obamacare. How soon they forget the outrage of we the people when Obamacare was forced down our throats and then a redoubling of that outrage when Chief Justice Roberts failed to uphold the constitution and toss it out. Have they forgotten why the tea party sprang up and why we drove out packs of rats and herds of RINOs in the last several election cycles? We the self-sufficient free citizens of America do not want a federal takeover...

Dear Mr. President: Do NOT under any circumstances endorse or sign RYANcare. RYANcare will immediately become TRUMPcare and that will destroy your credibility and your presidency. Ryan and the globalist big government GOPe hates you and what you ran on just as much as the democrats and the media. The day you sign TRUMPcare, you own it and they own you. You will be the GOPe's prison bitch. You will also lose your support base and then your tax plan and other trade and economic plans go up in smoke. Do not settle for anything less than full and complete...

<p>Slap them back twice as hard. You have the force of God and the people with you. You have been raised up by God to smite the evil America-hating, Christian-hating, Jew-hating, freedom-hating SOBs.</p> <p>You were elected by we the people (per the constitution) to drain the swamp and make America great again. One nation under God!</p>

We voted you in, gave you the majority in the House, the majority in Senate, delivered the presidency and soon the judiciary. You have been given a mandate to repeal ObamaCare in every election cycle since 2010. Do your job! Do not betray us! No more excuses! Screw the democrats and their unconstitutional socialist entitlement schemes! We did not vote you in to deliver ObamaCare-lite! Repeal every word of this unconstitutional boondoggle!! No more government entitlements!! The constitution clearly reserves health care to the states and the people. Feds stay OUT!! Do the job you were elected to do! Repeal...

Any interest in an official Free Republic Trump Inaugural Ball?

Why in the hell do we have 17 security agencies? With all of these security agencies guarding us, how in the hell did Russia (or anyone else) break in to our government servers? Are these agencies incompetent or what? And in particular, why was our state department's servers so vulnerable to hackers? Is this a sample of how a president Hillary will secure our nation's secrets?

Capt'n obvious here again, but Ryan is a cowardly IDIOT and has his head up his arse! If Hillary is allowed to win the presidency, America as a free nation is over. Amnesty and open borders will allow millions of unvetted foreigners, Muslims, drug pushers, gangsters, criminals, terrorists, etc., who will not assimilate to flood into our country to Balkanize and colonize us. And she will stack the court with God-hating, constitution-hating liberal activist judges to destroy our individual liberties. She will complete Obama's plan to transform America from a free nation to a totalitarian communist third-world hellhole. Trump MUST...

If you're going to throw in the towel for some stupid remarks that Trump made in the past and let the thoroughly corrupt, God-hating, America-hating, Marxist/fascist totalitarian Hillary Clinton destroy our nation, then goodbye. Logoff, delete your cookies, post elsewhere. Quit on America? Like hell!! We the unredeemable, despicable deplorables will fight on without you. By the way, FU turncoat FOX News and all bedwetting GOPe NeverTrump RINOs. That is all.

Marriage isn't easy as most of us know. It's work and commitment. I offer a personal toast to the founder of Free Republic and thank him for his years of dedication to our republic and for providing a meeting place to smile, rant, grow and share We are all different and all have various expectations. All contribute differently. Some with research. Some with quick creative minds. Some create clever graphics. Some offer save spiritual wisdom. Thats for starters. There are spelling and grammar horses - one of which I am not. There are lurkers and prolific posters. There are memories...