Free Republic

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich) want Congress to pass a law absolving them of their responsibility to repay their student loans. Both receive an annual salary of $174,000 plus perks that include taxpayer-funded travel, meals, and lodging. Both claim to be too poor to bear the burden of repayment. In Ocasio-Cortez's case, her remaining debt is $17,000, an amount that she contends is "unacceptable. Since I have dedicated myself to public service by serving in Congress my debts should be paid by the taxpayers I represent." She also admitted to "being miffed that the President hasn't...

It's hard not to be a conservative and revel in the chaos that the dominance of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is causing in the Democrat Party presidential primaries, as their establishment works to reject their party's populist choice similar to what the Republicans tried to do to Donald Trump in 2016. Like with the Republicans in 2016, it will be difficult for the Democrat elites to reject the people's choice. Sanders' lead is demonstrable, perhaps even insurmountable, with all of the momentum accumulated behind him, as his competitors dilute the vote of waning moderate and conservative voters among Democrats. Every...

WASHINGTON—Immigrants legally in the U.S. will be ineligible for green cards if they use any of an array of social programs, and prospective immigrants will be barred from entry if they can’t convince a consular officer that they will never use such programs, as part of a final rule published by the Trump administration. The rule, issued by the Department of Homeland Security, is one of the most ambitious and sweeping elements of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, according to administration officials as well as immigrant-rights advocates opposed to the change. The administration was all but guaranteeing fresh criticism from...

Well-to-do Illinois parents, including lawyers, doctors and realtors, are reportedly giving up custody of their high school-aged children in order to help them secure scholarships and financial aid reserved for low-income students. Separate investigations conducted by ProPublica Illinois and The Wall Street Journal have uncovered dozens of cases in the wealthy suburbs of Chicago involving parents transferring legal guardianship of their teenagers to grandparents, aunts, friends, or even co-workers over the past year-and-a-half. The idea behind the tactic, which is legal in Illinois, is that once the parents give up custody, the children are able to declare themselves financially independent...

THERE is a backlash growing across Asia against Western ‘begpackers’ who want the locals to fund their travels around the world. People across the continent are growing tired of the sight of seeing relatively affluent Westerns begging on the streets in the hope that locals help pay for their journey to the next destination.

Total Air Force Expenses $184,587.81(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it obtained documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Air Force detailing $134,587.81 plus $50,000 for an advance of funds for an “escort officer” for a total of $184.587.81 for then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) Congressional delegation (CODEL) to Italy and Ukraine in 2015. Judicial Watch filed a December 2015 FOIA lawsuit after the Air Force failed to respond to an August 2015 request ( Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Defense (No 1:15-cv-02236)) for: All records regarding mission taskings of flights escorting...

On Tuesday, my wife and I went and voted early, mostly to get it out of the way while my dad and sister are visiting and they could watch our newborn. The experience was pretty much what you’d expect – paid temporary workers trying to remember their training, to varying degrees of success, in a community center’s gym with a bunch of other people looking to check the “civic duty” box. But something struck me this year that made me wonder what the point of citizenship is anymore. My ballot in Maryland was in both English and Spanish. Maybe it’s...

Make the Road New York is closely involved in a number of anti-Trump campaigns! A prominent liberal activist group that is closely involved with anti-Trump campaigns has been awarded more than $20 million in taxpayer-funded government grants since 2002, according to a review of the organization's Form 990s. Make the Road New York (MRNY), a New York City-based Latino immigrant group with 19,000 dues-paying members, has been actively involved with anti-Trump campaigns and is closely linked to an organization that is spearheading a new $80 million anti-Trump network that will span across 32 states. {..snip..}

As America’s first family enjoys its eighth and final vacation in Hawaii, new estimates put the price tag of the Obamas’ annual trip at $3.5 million or more. In total, the cost of the the first family’s personal or largely personal travel during the last eight years comes to $85 million – though that is likely to climb to $90 million after additional records are released, according to the conservative group Judicial Watch based on federal government records.

"He that will not work shall not eat (except by sickness he be disabled). For the labors of 30 or 40 honest and industrious men shall not be consumed to maintain 150 idle loiterers." -- John Smith, 1609 One out of 6 prime-working-age adult males in the United States is not temporarily unemployed, or "between jobs," or "looking for work." No, a huge cohort of men in America is now neither employed nor looking for work. They are just skating by on a combination of girlfriends, wives, mothers and government benefits. Their status, argues Nicholas Eberstadt in "Men Without Work,"...

Scotland's government began moves Friday to hold a new referendum on independence from the U.K. after the "Brexit" vote, saying it faced being taken out of the European Union against its will. Scots voted by 62 percent to 38 percent to remain in the EU, according to Friday's results, in contrast to the overall U.K.-wide result of 52 percent to 48 percent in favor of quitting the bloc. A majority of voters in Northern Ireland also voted to remain in the EU, suggesting the U.K. faces internal constitutional upheaval as well as a contentious divorce from Brussels.

Where are you, country? Why can’t I find you? Why have you gone away? Adapting Cindy Lou’s song about the loss of Christmas spirit in Whoville expresses the sadness for what as been lost in my country. When I was a young boy in the small town of Piedmont, Missouri, the local physician, Doc Jones, would come to your house if you were sick. People paid him in cash, or perhaps some other goods. No one imagined they had a “right” to have someone else pay Doc Jones. It was their solemn duty, part of leading a responsible and moral...

The president’s plan to make community college free for everyone is the best news for the middle class in a long time. President Obama this month gave the best State of the Union address of his presidency but it was largely written in disappearing ink. Like the vast majority of presidential speeches, little of it lingers. But one proposal in the speech could prove historic. While Obama’s $60 billion plan for two free years of community college is dead-on-arrival in the Republican Congress, it is very much alive in American politics, where progressives now have an aspirational, easy-to-understand issue to...

The Los Angeles Unified School District is declaring itself a safe haven for unauthorized immigrant students and their families who may qualify for relief under President Barack Obama's executive order. At a press conference Tuesday, district officials and union leaders pledged to work together to help students who qualify access the records they need to file their applications.

Authorities in St. Louis County, Mo. continued preparations ahead of an expected grand jury decision on whether to charge a white police officer for the fatal August 9 shooting of a black teen in Ferguson.

President Barack Obama’s last three vacations cost $6.2 million. As a friend made me think, when he sent me this story, if this man ever opens his mouth again about “income inequality” and “economic injustice,” someone needs to tell him to shut up. A Secret Service agent would be perfect. The next two years can’t be over soon enough. I’m sure he’ll add another $5-$10-million to this obscene bill to shove down our throats before he’s done. According to the Washington Examiner,, “Taxpayers get stuck with $6.2 million tab for just 3 Obama vacations; $40m over 6 years.” Three recent...

SIOUX FALLS, SD - U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Annette Bosworth is standing strongly in support of a controversial Facebook post she made on Monday. "The statement is tongue and cheek; it's meant to stir discussion," Bosworth said. Stir discussion it has. Bosworth is receiving national attention for a Facebook post she made earlier this week. The post, which has now been shared by nearly 60,000 people, is a photo comparing the country's food stamp program to a national park warning about feeding the animals, which goes on to say the animals would grow dependent on the handout. "It did ruffle...

A mother-of-nine who claims £38,000 a year in handouts and demanded a bigger council house for her huge family is pregnant again - this time with twins. Cheryl Prudham, 32, and her husband Robert, 29, are set to receive at least a further £1,400 in handouts when the baby girls arrive. Mrs Prudham said she will 'not be made to feel guilty' for having children' as she and her husband both work part-time. Last year the couple, from Sittingbourne, Kent - who were living in a three-bedroom council house at the time - said they were entitled to a bigger...

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who has decried the failure of Congress to extend unemployment benefits before its December recess, is talking about changing the vocabulary of assistance. In a speech Jan. 8 on the House of Representatives floor, Jackson Lee suggested renaming government welfare. "Maybe the word 'welfare' should be changed to something of, 'a transitional living fund,'" Jackson Lee said, according to a post on The Minority Report blog. "For that is what it is - for people to be able to live," she said....

"....Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal's office will cancel food stamp benefits for anyone who participated in a fraud and shopping spree catalyzed by an EBT malfunction....More than 12,000 people were sent an insufficient funds notice when the problem with the EBT cards was fixed on Oct. 12; those who transgressed may lose their EBT cards for a year....On October 11-12, at least 17 states experienced problems with their EBT card systems. In Springhill and Mansfield, Louisiana, cards indicated they had no spending limits, so EBT holders went wild with purchases..... The stores that were cheated are bound to come up with...