Free Republic

For months, I’ve been a bit confused about “affordability,” the latest Democrat meme. Then, early last week, I read a piece about “affordability” and realized: “of course.” Affordability is just the Democrats’ latest excuse for giving out free stuff to their supporters, paid for by you and me. Even though I can’t find the article that I read, I wrote about “affordability” on my Substack.AdvertisementIf you look at the Congressional Progressive Caucus “New Affordability Agenda” you realize that Affordability is not just about free stuff, but something else. “Affordability” is about politicians trying to fix things they screwed up already....

Spirit Airlines is preparing to shutter operations after a $500 million bailout deal with the Trump administration fell apart, according to a report Friday. The embattled budget airline has been unable to secure enough funding from the government and certain bondholders to keep it in business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Spirit had been in talks with the Trump administration about a deal that would hand the government a stake of up to 90% in exchange for a major cash boost — potentially allowing the White House to use part of the bankrupt carrier’s...

Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI. AI/robotics will produce goods & services far in excess of the increase in the money supply, so there will not be inflation.

There’s a new forecast of the Social Security boost retirees should expect in 2027 - and it’s a huge disappointment for the millions of Americans who depend on their bi-monthly benefit checks... Older Americans absolutely rely on this so-called ‘cost of living adjustment’ or COLA, since more than 40 percent of them depend on Social Security alone for all of their retirement income. The new estimate of the forthcoming official 2027 cost-of-living adjustment shows the average Social Security benefit check will only rise by $56, or roughly 2.8 percent. The average benefits check for retired workers would increase to $2,081...

Pope Leo XIV made a plea on March 18 for countries to offer their citizens universal healthcare, calling it a “moral imperative” that people have access to the health services they need. Previous popes have called for countries to offer universal healthcare, but calling an issue a “moral imperative” is an unusually strong term for a pope to use, indicating that something is required by Catholic teaching. “Universal health coverage is... a moral imperative for societies that wish to call themselves just,” the Pope said in a meeting with participants in a healthcare conference organised by the World Health Organization...

If people have property when they die, who should inherit it? You can't take it with you. Increased inequality reduces government's concern for the general welfare. The public owns all natural resources in common and no one deserves more than an equal share of their fruits. The Alaskan oil dividend could be a model here. Inheritance reform would not eliminate billionaires; it would only eliminate hereditary billionaires.

World War I not only toppled empires and redrew borders—it remade the modern world, with few nations feeling the effects as profoundly as Great Britain. The country’s deadliest war—from which 6 percent of its men never returned—accelerated sweeping social, economic and political changes that fractured the rigid British class system and weakened the aristocracy. For centuries, hereditary landowners exercised a near feudal dominance of the British countryside. As late as 1873, fewer than 5 percent of Britons owned all of England’s property. But an agricultural depression in the late 1800s had already begun to erode their dominance as the First...

President Donald Trump on Thursday introduced the Great Healthcare Plan, a comprehensive healthcare plan to lower drug prices and health insurance premiums, hold big insurance companies accountable, and increase price transparency The president’s plan would stop sending billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidy payments to health insurers and instead send them directly to the American people to purchase a health insurance plan that aligns more with their choice.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a remarkable rebuke of Republican leadership, the House passed legislation Thursday, 230-196, that would extend expired health care subsidies for those who get coverage through the Affordable Care Act as renegade GOP lawmakers joined essentially all Democrats in voting for the measure.

The Trump administration announced $12 billion in one-time payments to farmers in the wake of this year's tariff hikes on Monday, primarily targeting farmers who grow crops such as soybeans and corn. The move was outlined during a White House roundtable event, featuring farmers affected as well as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. Trump touted the program in relation to the revenue the government is taking in as a result of his sweeping tariff program and also referenced his popularity among farmers. "What we're doing is we're taking a relatively small portion of that, and we're...

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Hundreds of top economists and other experts, including former U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, called on Friday for the world to set up an independent international panel on income and wealth inequality. The call in an open letter came before the Group of 20 summit in South Africa next weekend, when a report on global inequality chaired by Nobel Prize-winning American economist Joseph Stiglitz is due to be presented to world leaders. That report, which was released this month, said that the world is facing an inequality emergency as well as a climate emergency,...

President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he will give a $2,000 check to every American, which will come from the tariff revenue collected by the administration. “A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that those against tariffs are “fools.” While this proposal would likely need to be passed by Congress, it resembles legislation introduced this summer by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) this summer, to give $600 tariff rebates to nearly all Americans and their dependent children. “My legislation would allow hardworking...

Zohran Mamdani campaigned on making MTA buses free, freezing rents, launching universal childcare, and raising the minimum wage to $30.New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani promised during his campaign that he would make public buses free for New Yorkers as part of a wide-ranging list of ambitious goals, which included freezing rents, creating no-cost child care, and raising the minimum wage to $30 by 2030. The democratic socialist, who turned 34 years old last month, beat former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa in the general election on Nov. 4. The closely-watched...

Senate Republicans are discussing voting on a bill that would prevent millions of low-income Americans from losing access to food aid on Nov. 1.The bill from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) would fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for the duration of the shutdown, which on Wednesday entered its 22nd day. The Department of Agriculture warned earlier this month that if the government shutdown dragged on “there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the Nation.”Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in a brief interview that senators were discussing “some options,” though...

The Trump administration has agreed to cancel student debt under programs it had partially blocked, reopening a path to student loan forgiveness for millions of borrowers. The outcome is the result of an agreement reached on Friday between the U.S. Department of Education and the American Federation of Teachers, a union. In the agreement, the Trump administration said it will again process student loan forgiveness for eligible borrowers in two income-driven repayment plans — the original Income-Contingent Repayment plan and the Pay as You Earn plan — as long as those programs remain in effect. President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful...

Millions of student loan borrowers will see the “light at the end of the tunnel” after the Trump administration agreed to reinstate loan forgiveness plans it had partially blocked following a court battle. The Trump administration reached an agreement with the American Federation of Teachers to approve student debt cancellation for millions of borrowers who continually make their regular payments. The AFT and Department of Education came to an agreement Friday to begin cancelling student loans for borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans... “This is a tremendous win for borrowers. With today’s filing, borrowers can rest a little easier,” said...

A UN conference to boost support for global development aid begins on Monday as US funding cuts jeopardise the fight against poverty. But key player the United States is snubbing the biggest such talks in a decade, underlining the erosion of international cooperation on combating hunger, disease and climate change. UN sustainable development goals set for 2030 are slipping from reach just as the world's wealthiest countries are withdrawing funding for development programmes. President Donald Trump's gutting of the US development agency USAID is the standout example, with Germany, Britain and France among other rich economies making cuts when faced...

Donald Trump used videos of a Marxist firebrand politician to highlight the alleged persecution of white farmers in South Africa as the country’s president sat beside him. The US president dimmed the lights at an Oval Office meeting to play clips of Julius Malema, known for his anti-white rhetoric, who was this month blocked from visiting Britain. Mr Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party won just under 10 per cent of the vote at last year’s general election with a platform feeding on the disillusionment of many young black voters who have not seen their lives improve, despite the abolition...

The South African president’s office vowed Wednesday to fight the “treasonous act of misinformation,” which it blames for spreading abroad what it considers false narratives about the persecution of white Afrikaners. The warning came two days after the first charter flight of several dozen Afrikaner refugees arrived in the U.S. On Tuesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa called the refugees “cowards” for “running away” — a sentiment that his party, the African National Congress (ANC), echoed. The ANC claimed that the Afrikaners were not being persecuted, while faulting them for abandoning “transformation,” a policy of racial economic redistribution. Ramaphosa’s representative, Minister in...

Aubrey Bertram was starting to imagine her life without student debt. Bertram, a staff attorney at Wild Montana, a nonprofit that works on land conservation in the state, had just around two and a half years left of payments before her $247,804 federal student loan balance would be excused under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Bertram took out her loans in law school knowing that she’d work in public service and pursue PSLF. “That was the only way taking on this debt made any sense,” Bertram said. Millions of other student loan holders are in the same frustrating limbo...