Free Republic

A New York Times article accurately describes a set of fiscal realities in Sunday's editorial A Growing Gloom for States and Cities. The New York Times wildly misses the mark as to who is to blame for this crisis.  NYT: Washington should have been trying to find a way to help states avoid the layoffs and cutbacks that have contributed heavily to the high unemployment rate. Instead, it seems to be doing everything possible to make the situation worse in state capitals around the country.  Mish: That is essentially correct (except the implied tone). I proposed three items that would most...

This week the Senate grinches stole Christmas. The Obama Nation is getting Obamacare. It’s easy to blame the sixty Democrats, as the Wall Street Journal does, for "the worse bill ever." It solemnly declares: "These 60 Democrats are creating a future of epic increases in spending, taxes and command--and control regulation." True enough. But what's the root cause of this permanent disaster? Sorry, friends, but it’s not the Democrats, nor the American people who elected them. The real culprits are two Republicans who ran the show the previous eight years: George W. Bush and his "master political strategist" Karl Rove....

White House fights back on Cash for Clunkers Obama administration goes to battle with Edmunds.com on Cash for Clunkers analysis, saying the program contributed heavily to last quarter's economic expansion. By David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer Last Updated: October 29, 2009: 5:51 PM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Obama administration on Thursday lashed out at a prominent critic of its Cash for Clunkers program, arguing that the popular trade-in initiative helped give the auto industry and the economy a much needed boost in the past few months. In a blog post on whitehouse.gov, the administration argued that a report...

Part of the speculation about why Chicago didn't get the Olympics is that maybe the President wasn't at his best, after all he doesn't have a lot of experience in saying good things about the United States. But there is no worry, the president didn't have to say anything nice, what he said is he wanted the Olympics because America needed to repair its Image because of what was going on during the past few years, a code for "We Suck Because of George Bush."

AT tonight's press conference, someone should ask President Obama why he's endorsing, and not threatening to veto, the 1,018-page House health-care reform bill now being rushed to passage: It breaks nearly all his core promises about health-care reform. "If you have health insurance, then you don't have to do anything," Obama said on Oct. 15, 2008. "If you've got health insurance through your employer, you can keep your health insurance, keep your choice of doctor, keep your plan. . . And we estimate we can cut the average family's premium by about $2,500 per year." Both these solemn pledges, repeated...

One nation just passed a fully-funded budget for the next fiscal year. It was contentious, the different partisan sects fought bitterly, but it got done. Skilled parliamentarians proved that Democracy could work in the face of divisive strife. It was an example of how representative government should work. Another country just can’t get their government to work. No matter what reasonable observers tell them, they just can’t get it together and pass the necessary appropriations. It’s a quagmire, and they have no one to blame but each other. The daggers have begun to come out. The country clicking on all...

Questions remain about allegations that apparently were never reported to law enforcement as police continue to identify possible victims of a substitute teacher accused of child molestation. Fontana police said Thursday that investigators are now reviewing three cases involving girls from Fontana Unified School District; only one has been verified by detectives so far. Police from Ontario and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department are investigating five additional cases, though detectives have not verified all of those accusations. Eric Norman Olsen, 28, was charged Monday with molesting a 10-year-old girl in an Ontario-Montclair school classroom in June. When school officials...