Free Republic

The 2020 Census admits having undercounted in six states while it overcounted in eight. Oddly enough, most of the undercounted states were red states, and most of the overcounts were in blue states. Census numbers are only surveyed once every ten years. The implications for errors of this magnitude are significant for voter representation, especially since citizens must wait another ten years to redo the count. According to the census website, “data collected by the census determine[s] the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives (a process called apportionment) and is also used to adjust...

The Biden administration’s international tax agenda suffered a setback when Sen. Manchin rejected a 15% minimum tax on multinational companies this past week, dimming prospects of turning last year’s global tax agreement into reality. Biden administration officials had planned to use Democratic fiscal legislation to enact the U.S. piece of the deal struck last year by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and more than 130 other countries. They wanted quick action to set a 15% minimum tax on U.S.-based multinational companies in each country where they operate, a move aimed at showing international leadership and prodding other countries to follow suit....

In Australia there is a culture of silence surrounding injustices done to individuals by police and the courts. Yesterday, the 2nd December, while the government of Socialist Left premier Daniel Andrews accrues more and more power, one woman in Victoria's state parliament spoke up against physical abuse of one man by an arrogant normally unaccountable police force. I was present when the man (who wishes to remain anonymous) was dragged out of his bed in the early morning on December 1st at a round the clock protest against legislation passed the next day which concentrates power to call lockdowns in...

It is the nature of a representative democracy that people will sometimes be represented by politicians with whom they disagree. Ask a Republican in New York City how they feel about their representatives or ask a Democrat, well, anywhere, how they feel about their president. It’s the trade-off of having elections. In general, though, the system works — in part because representatives generally reflect the will of the majority of people they represent. That was largely true following Wednesday’s vote in the House of Representatives to impeach President Trump. It will probably be less true once the impeachment fight moves...

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A Republican state senator from Oregon said on Tuesday that the designation of slaves as three-fifths of a person was not racist, drawing condemnation from at least two black lawmakers. Sen. Dennis Linthicum, from Klamath Falls in southern Oregon, said during floor debate that the intent of the Three-Fifths Compromise, which classified a slave as three-fifths of a person in the U.S. Constitution, was a way to prevent slave states from gaining too much power in Congress. "The three-fifths vote was actually to eliminate the overwhelming influence the slave states would have in representative government," he...

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross cannot be questioned in lawsuits about a citizenship question that will appear on the 2020 census, which halted a scheduled deposition. Dozens of states and big cities have brought about lawsuits over the question. They argue that a citizenship question will keep illegal aliens from participating in the census, which would drastically shift state and federal representation and dollars. Of course, that would be negatively impact Democrats. A federal court in New York had previously said Ross had to provide a deposition as part of the lawsuits brought about...

Too many people believe that slavery is a "peculiar institution." That's what Kenneth Stampp called slavery in his book, "Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South." But slavery is by no means peculiar, odd or unusual. It was common among ancient peoples such as the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, Greeks, Persians, Armenians and many others. Large numbers of Christians were enslaved during the Ottoman wars in Europe. White slaves were common in Europe from the Dark Ages to the Middle Ages. It was only after A.D. 1600 that Europeans joined with Arabs and Africans and started the Atlantic slave trade....

As opposed to corruption of the US Senate, I’ve paid little attention over the course of this blog to the House of Representatives. The House isn’t involved with high profile treaties or appointments, and is far too infrequently involved with impeachments. Aside from hoping it doesn’t fall into democratic hands, it’s just sort of “there.” We dutifully vote every two years for the congressman of our choice, and that seems to be that. While few today give much thought to the topic of representation, it was high on the list of concerns during the Framing era. At the federal convention,...

All: Thanks for responding. Paul, I agree with you, but there is a part of me that believes there might be something we can do. Dan, I agree with some of you your points, mainly the first, which is where I see my effort moving toward. Though, I am not sure how you measure the “corruptness” of the states verses the federal government. I consider the states nothing more than vassals of the federal government, some more than others. Lee, I am serious only to a point. In that I agree with Dan and I see this as first an...

Our previously Free Republic continues to reel from a one hundred and three year old mistake: the 17th Amendment. Pardon me if I don’t celebrate today’s anniversary. Republican theory demands the consent of the governed. From ancient Greece, republican Rome, Saxon Germany, and even in the English kingdom from which we declared our Independence, the component members of their societies had a place at the lawmaking table. Greek ecclesia, Roman tribunes and senators, Saxon Micklegemots, English commons, lords and king, encompassed the totality of their societies. By this, the consent of the governed was present in every law. Unlike simpler...

The U.S. military does not fully reflect the demography of the United States, at least not in terms of the places American service members hail from. According to data from the Census Bureau's 2013 population estimates and the Department of Defense, young adults from some states are more likely to enlist in the military. As the above map demonstrates people between the ages of 18 and 24 from Florida, Georgia, or Maine, are more likely to join the armed forces than their counterparts in lower enlistment-rate states like North Dakota or Utah. These differences exist at the regional level...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in an interview that aired Sunday dismissed criticism from his congressional colleagues, saying that he was "not remotely" upset that party leaders had chastised him over a legislative strategy many believe forced the 16-day government shutdown. "I don’t work for the party bosses in Washington. I work for the people of Texas, and I fight for them,” Cruz told CNN's "State of the Union." “Look, the reason people are frustrated all over the country is that far too many people get elected and they think they’re there to be part of the club,” he continued. Cruz...

The Original Boston Tea Party had the slogan: “NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION !” Back then in the 1700’s the Colonists did not like Tyranny, and eventually went to War to rid themselves of it. Today, low-information people, and their "Mainstream" Media's attitude is: “Tyranny? Is that like “bad” or something?” High-information people realize that we have had Tyranny imposed on us by our own NINE SUPREMES when they told us that ANY Administration can force us to buy anything they want us to buy as long as it is called a MANDATORY TAX. The Obama Administration then decreed that the...

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President Obama’s motorcade sported “Taxation Without Representation” license plates for the first time on Saturday. As part of the National Day of Service kicking of a weekend of inaugural events, the president has traveled to the Burrville Elementary School in Northeast Washington to participate in a City Year service project. Three vans in Obama’s motorcade were outfitted with the unique D.C. license plates as the president traveled to the school, according to a White House pool reporter. The reporter said other vehicles in the motorcade had Maryland, Virginia or U.S. government plates. The White House decision earlier this week to...

Most commentators agree that Mitt Romney has committed political suicide by pointing out that 46pc of Americans pay no income tax but he may have done us all a favour by raising a fundamental weakness in many developed economies – including Britain’s – which is also one of the causes of the credit crisis. Whether or not his candour costs the Republican candidate any hope of winning the Presidential Election in November, he has certainly demonstrated the modern meaning of the word ‘gaffe’ – that is, a statement of the bleedin’ obvious by someone in the public eye. There can...

In 1935, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins was fretting about finding a constitutional basis for the Social Security Act. Supreme Court Justice Harlan Fiske Stone advised her, "The taxing power, my dear, the taxing power. You can do anything under the taxing power." Last week, in his ObamaCare opinion, NFIB v. Sebelius, Chief Justice John Roberts gave Congress the same advice—just enact regulatory legislation and tack on a financial penalty, as in failure to comply with the individual insurance mandate. So how did the power to tax under the Constitution become unbounded? (Read the rest at the WSJ page) ============Dr....

Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar is running for re-election in a state he has not lived in for over 30 years. Lugar sold his home at 3200 Highwoods Court in Indianapolis shortly after first assuming office in 1977. But due to a loophole in Indiana law, both he and his wife Charlene Lugar are still registered to vote at that address. Greg Wright, an Indiana tea party member and certified fraud examiner, told The Daily Caller that he has been investigating Lugar’s residency situation “for a few weeks” and has not been paid for his efforts. He just heard one...

The recent Occupy Wall Street ruckus and the drumbeat rhetoric of Democrats in Washington that the rich pay too little shows the dangers of placing power in the hands of those who have no real interest beyond self-interest in the governance of the nation. One rallying cry of our forefathers when the British Crown sought to impose taxes -- really, very modest taxes -- on the colonies without the consent of us colonials was "No taxation without representation!" The logic of that slogan ran something like this: if I have no say in who passes taxes that I must pay,...

“She” is Kathy Moore, a Lincoln Park friend and former public school teacher who was put in that unenviable position by the stark reality of political hide-and-seek. Or, in this case, seek-and-hide. Her reliably Democratic 11th District, which includes Lincoln Park and Lakeview, elected a brand new state representative, Ann Williams, in November, to replace John Fritchey, a popular long-time rep who won election to a seat on the Cook County Board. Fritchey began his new job in December, so Williams could have been sworn in as a state rep a month ago to represent the district in the lame-duck...