Free Republic

Given Elena Kagan's aversion to "vapid and hollow" confirmation hearings devoid of "legal analysis," beginning Monday she might relish answering these questions: • It would be naughty to ask you about litigation heading for the Supreme Court concerning this: Does Congress have the right, under its enumerated power to regulate interstate commerce, to punish the inactivity of not purchasing health insurance? So, instead answer this harmless hypothetical: If Congress decides interstate commerce is substantially affected by the costs of obesity, may Congress require obese people to purchase participation in programs such as Weight Watchers? If not, why not? • The...

As we look around us, we are awash in failed government programs. At the state level, California (and other states) are broke and desperate for cash. At the federal level, we see minimum wage laws stifling the hiring of young men and women; a social security system that is on the verge of paying out more than it takes in; and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac receiving $145 billion in tax dollars now, and more later. We got into this mess because people looked to government to solve problems. The Founders of our nation, by contrast, saw government as a...

f the citizens of New Jersey like candor, Chris Christie is the governor they’ve been waiting for. Or I should say citizens of “the failed state” of New Jersey, as he tends to call it. It’s a “broken state” and a state that’s “broke.” New Jersey was in “a shambles,” he says, when he became governor in January. It’s “a fiscal basket case,” suffering from the “madness” of tax increases and excessive government spending, a “wonderful state” that’s been brought to “the edge of bankruptcy” and faces “the ruination” of its economy and “the quality of life that we want...

This week, Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal signed House Joint Resolution 2 (HJ0002), claiming “sovereignty on behalf of the State of Wyoming and for its citizens under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government or reserved to the people by the Constitution of the United States.”

Restoring Principled Leadership for the United States of America Submitted by Congressman Jason Chaffetz Congressional Action Plan (CAP) for the 112th Congress The American Dream is powerful. It has motivated generations of Americans to contribute to our unparalleled prosperity and quality of life. The American recipe for greatness has always rested on the values of hard work, thrift , perseverance, ingenuity, industry, self-discipline, self-reliance, and dedication. We did not become the greatest country on Earth by entitlement. We worked for it. But when our public policies foster dependence, punish industry, redistribute wealth and limit freedom, we risk compromising the very...

And so the solstice passes and a new year dawns, leaving “newsmen” everywhere with a dearth of “news” to report (since the government bureaus close down, issuing no new edicts for the “newsmen” to interpret and praise, which should give you some indication of what really passes for “news,” these days.) Traditionally, those in the “news” business respond by taking a stab at predicting noteworthy events of the year to come. We can predict the future quite accurately. Unfortunately, accurate predictions are a bore. The sun will rise 363 more times this year. When I ask for extra salt and...

Activists Gather To Read Mayflower Compact, Sing Songs. About 100 people are expected at the Colorado Capitol Saturday afternoon to sing traditional Thanksgiving songs and to read historic documents from the nation's founding. The sing-along and reading are sponsored by Tea Party activists, who decry federal spending and call for a return to more limited government.

Since Sarah Palin’s announcement on Friday, pundits from across the political spectrum have been in a frenzy, with pundits from across the political spectrum arguing over whether or not her career is over, speculating on her health and welfare, and pontificating on whether her decision is part of one grand political strategy which will either prove to be incredibly brilliant or completely foolish. I have been tempted but have avoided to write and comment on the reaction to Palin’s announcement. However, one article in particular struck me as particularly spot-on, a post by Jim Prevor over at the Weekly Standard....

Whatever happened to limited government? Where did it go? Has anyone seen it? I have not. Instead I see a federal government that fires a CEO of a major American corporation, tells people where and under what circumstances they should and shouldn't travel, tries to tax everything including the air we breathe, and regulates everything that moves, or doesn't. I've seen a government that rewards failure (endless bailouts) and punishes success (the more you make, the more they take).

I've been trying to avoid coming to this conclusion ever since a nation chock full of economic illiterates elected him President, but Barack Obama confirmed my deepest fears on Tuesday: “I don’t want to pretend that this marks the end of our economic problems...," said Obama. "Today does mark the beginning of the end.” Now that Obama and I finally see eye-to-eye, where do we go from here? Judah Freed, my colleague and Political Issues writer at Examiner.com, has concocted a three-part plan. You can read it in its entirety here: Obama signs stimulus bill... now comes the real work...

Barack Obama keeps referring to the current economy as the worst since the Great Depression, a bold lie that he hopes will allow him to prevent most Americans from recalling what sort of policies actually got us out of the worst economy the country had since the Great Depression, those of Ronald Reagan. Even Jimmy Carter inherited a much worse recession from Gerald Ford than Obama currently faces, and his policies ballooned that recession into epic proportions during Ronald Reagan's first term. So what did Ronald Reagan do to put an end to America's downturn? Thankfully, we don't need to...

Expect chilly temperatures in Hell (more commonly known as Michigan) tomorrow, when Republican Drain Commissioner Dennis Lennox will ask that his office be terminated in order to save taxpayers funds, according to a spokesman for the politician. CHEBOYGAN, Mich. (Feb. 8) -- County Drain Commissioner Dennis Lennox will ask the Board of Commissioners to fire him by passing a resolution to abolish his office during Wednesday's session, which is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. While drain commissioners play a role in agriculture-dominated counties, Cheboygan County has little need for the position... "There is nothing for the drain commissioner to...

It seems the most enduring divide in American politics isn't between left and right, conservative and liberal, or Republican and Democrat, but voters who want real change and politicians who refuse to give it to them. Mark Sanford is not that politician. As a South Carolina congressman and now governor, Sanford has had one primary guiding principle his entire political career — limited government. Not just limited government rhetoric, the sort of lip service paid by milquetoast Republicans to pacify their right-leaning base, but genuine, strict, fiscal conservatism. More importantly, Sanford has the guts to back it up. If you...

There isn't much point in my expending a lot of time this morning chastising Senate and Assembly Democrats for their plans, this morning, to try to stick Californians with billions of dollars in new taxes, using some scheme where they brazenly attempt to navigate around the State Constitution's requirement for a 2/3 vote to raise taxes. Through sleight of hand and bizarre terminology, Democrats are planning to hike the state's income, gas, and car taxes (and that's not all) -- and do it with a majority vote (Republican legislators have appropriately and boldly said NO to any tax increases to...

(CNN) -- The questions now being asked are: Where to go from here and who's to blame for the downfall of the Republican Party? Too bad the concern for the future of the Republican Party had not been seriously addressed in the year 2000 when the Republicans gained control of the House, Senate, and the Presidency. Now, in light of the election, many are asking: What is the future of the Republican Party? But that is the wrong question. The proper question should be: Where is our country heading? There's no doubt that a large majority of Americans believe we're...

In an op-ed in the Washington Post on Friday, U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, wrote that Republicans need to "rebuild our party by fighting for the principles of freedom, opportunity, security and individual liberty." You think? Boehner wrote that during an Obama presidency, Republicans will "stand firmly against policies that violate our principles." If only more Republicans had stood firm when their own leadership pushed policies that violated their principles, the party might be enjoying its eighth consecutive electoral victory instead of its second consecutive shellacking. Also on Friday, Boehner's predecessor, former Majority Leader Dick Armey, wrote in...

A Contract to Limit Government 1 - Limit Members of Congress to Social Security and Medicare for their retirement benefits 2 - Limit Members of Congress to Medicare for health care benefits while serving 3 - Limit Members of Congress to three terms in each House, cumulative 4 - Limit total Federal taxes per individual to no more than 15% of gross income 5 - Limit Federal rules on education to funding only. 6 - Make the Federal education funding portable at the choice of the parent/guardian. 7 - Limit access to our border to legal immigrants and citizens only....

1. Keep spending within constitutional limits. The Tenth Amendment restricts the size of government, and that should always bear out in the federal budget and spending. That means understanding income and export taxes were unconstitutional to our founders, which if applied today would be two of the greatest economic stimulus packages. 2. Return to a pay-as-you-go government. If we don't have the money, we don't spend it. Period. No more debt. No more bailouts. No more spending. As Thomas Jefferson once wrote to Fulwar Skipwith in 1787, "[T]he maxim of buying nothing but what we had money in our pockets...

Bill Clinton Says ‘Extreme Philosophy’ of GOP Dates to Reagan Presidency Thursday, August 28, 2008 By Staff (CNSNews.com) - In his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last night, former President Bill Clinton said that the Republican Party has been defined by an “extreme philosophy” for more than 25 years. The remark appeared aimed at the foreign and economic policies of President Ronald Reagan, who was sworn into office in 1981 and was in his third year of governing 25 years ago.

There's a passage from a 2005 essay by Umberto Eco that I've frequently quoted, as it neatly defines several elements of the mindset of our age in just a few carefully thought out sentences: G K Chesterton is often credited with observing: "When a man ceases to believe in God, he doesn't believe in nothing. He believes in anything." Whoever said it - he was right. We are supposed to live in a [skeptical] age. In fact, we live in an age of outrageous credulity. Indeed. While it's a cliche that ours is a cynical era, it really is just...