Free Republic

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said the U.S. will continue to strongly support Ukraine with military aide as a new Congress will sit this January...“I believe we will continue to support Ukraine with the kind of military aide that only the U.S. can provide,” he told Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” Wednesday night. “Some of our European partners can provide some military support, but really there are some systems only America can provide.”

WASHINGTON — Negotiators to a stop-gap spending bill in the U.S. Congress have agreed to include about $12 billion in new aid to Ukraine in response to a request from the Biden administration, a source familiar with the talks said on Monday.The source, who asked not to be identified, said the measure will also include resettlement funding for Afghan refugees

Protests have erupted in Buenos Aires over the past 90 days and continue to build inside the capital as residents battle with their center-left government over sizeable amendments to social programs. Cuts to subsidies in the energy sector based on household income already began in June. Other subsidies, including the country’s notorious welfare program, are also on the chopping block, triggering thousands of angry residents to take to the streets. State-sponsored aid for civilians has soared in the past 20 years, leaving 22 million Argentinians dependent on some form of government assistance. However, for the 1.2 million members dependent on...

The decade that just ended saw a period of uninterrupted economic growth. In the decade to come, we'll pay for squandering it. Since the so-called Great Recession officially ended in the third quarter of 2009, the United States has enjoyed 42 consecutive quarters of solid if unspectacular economic growth. That's the longest run of uninterrupted growth since government economists began tracking the business cycle in the 1850s, far outpacing the average economic expansion of 18 months. Employment has increased by 12 percent, the jobless rate reached record lows, and America's gross domestic product (GDP) has increased by more than 25...

Bernie Sanders, avowed socialist that he is, has suggested hefty tax increases on just about everyone and everything to pay for the largess, which includes free health care and free college. But, as it turns out, Hillary Clinton is no slouch when it comes to raising taxes. Americans for Tax Reform estimates that the second President Clinton would hike taxes about $1 trillion over ten years. Clinton’s tax increases will not be used to close the deficit, but rather to pay for new programs

It turns out the "war on women" exists after all, and it's being carried out by women like Joy Behar and other pagan progressives like her. This week Behar's TV show, The View, provided proof that a male creep/perp need not be anywhere in the room for real life victims of sexual assault to be thrown under the bus. Sure, Bill Clinton is "a dog," admitted Behar, while being confronted with his past infidelity and its impact on Hillary Clinton's presidential hopes. But hey, according to Behar taxpayer-funded birth control and satisfying the blood lust to kill innocent babies (millions...

Quick: how much were Social Security, Medicaid and food stamps cut by the sequester? Zero, you say? Those programs were exempted from sequester cuts, and Medicare was reduced by only 2%? Correctomundo! So what was Andrea Mitchell thinking when she claimed on her MSNBC show that the sequester "gutted" social programs? You tell me. View the video here.

Engineering Thinking principle: comparative analysis When you make a decision to purchase an auto or a cell phone or a home, you have lots of choices, because you have a lot of companies competing for your business. You can compare features and prices -- do a comparative analysis -- and arrive at a rational decision of which is best for you. Of course, what is best for you may not be best for others, so having many options helps to ensure that most people can select a choice that best satisfies their particular needs and preferences. Comparative analysis leads to...

Over the last two months, hundreds of protesters have walked out of North Carolina’s capitol in handcuffs to show their opposition to policies by the GOP-controlled Legislature. While a broader coalition of supporters is building around the “Moral Mondays” started by the state chapter of the NAACP, the inspiration behind the protests is a throwback to the biblical message of civil rights leaders fighting segregation in the Jim Crow era. They argue that cutting benefit programs and cutting tax breaks for low- and middle-income families violates Jesus Christ’s teaching to care for those with the least. It’s running into another...

There were 2,362 people who earned a million dollars or more in taxable income in 2009 and who also received federal unemployment benefits that year, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. In fact, these millionaires collectively raked in more than $20 million in unemployment benefits. The Congressional Research Service report--Receipt of Unemployment Insurance by Higher-Income Unemployed Workers (“Millionaires”)--was published on Aug. 2 and was based on the most recent data available from the Internal Revenue Service. “Among tax filers with AGI [Adjusted Gross Income] of $1 million or more, 2,840 reported receipt of unemployment benefit income in...

On January 21 Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina Primary. But he did it, in part, by using racist rhetoric, characterizing President Obama as “the best food stamp president in American history.” Since then, he has continued to drive this distortion hoping it will somehow resonate with voters. It’s not likely to work, because most Americans understand that food is fundamental. Presidents do not put people onto the food stamp rolls. People, predominately people with children to feed, become eligible for food stamps. The food stamp program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, is a critical safety net for...

President Obama is wrong.  In his highly anticipated deficit speech at George Washington University recently, Obama spoke of Social Security and Medicare and stated, "We would not be a great country without these commitments." Really?  According to Obama then, America wasn't a great nation prior to 1935 and 1965, the years in which Social Security and Medicare were enacted. So, for nearly 200 years (1776-1965), America was not a great nation in the eyes of the 44th President of the United States.  Presidents Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln were among those who led a good nation, perhaps, but not a great...

You'd think I murdered someone when I proclaim that if you took welfare or unemployment away from people, it'd be amazing how fast they found work to feed themselves. The looks, the sneers, the gasps all indicate that this logically correct and sound principal is lost to modern generations of entitlement seekers. At least someone gets it. Watch the video at the link. - Casey

Before you call out the men in the white coats, and have me measured for a straight jacket, let’s explore a few ideas and hopefully a few possible cures. Democrats have installed many rules and social programs that have not only enabled illegal aliens, but actually encourage them to move to America. The continuance of the status quo will soon swamp our already ailing economy. Starting with the “anchor babies” (children born to illegal aliens who become citizens merely by being born here), the drain to federal, state, and private industry are massive to say the least. Hospitals are failing...

President-elect Barack Obama's plan to jolt the economy by overhauling the nation's roads, bridges and transit systems has local officials clamoring for their share despite questions as to whether the program will actually work. "California's fiscal house is burning down," state Treasurer Bill Lockyer declared recently after a California regulatory board halted financing for some 1,600 infrastructure projects because of the state's nearly $15 billion deficit. California's woes are far from unique, as the deepening economic crisis has wreaked havoc on state budgets across the country. At least 40 states are running deficits, forcing governors to raise taxes and trim...

So isn't it interesting that we keep hearing about Sarah Palin's peccadilloes while the major media continues to ignore the George Obama scandal? Here is a guy living in Third World poverty and his half-brother is the leading candidate to become the next president of the United States. Are the networks and major newspapers so exhilarated at the prospect of an African American president that they have become cheerleaders for the Obama campaign? Fortunately the McCain campaign is making the media an issue, and I hope the American people are smart enough to see through the news charade. Here are...

Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumb By Burt Prelutsky Timing, as they say, is everything, and not just for baseball players trying to hit a 95-mph fastball. For example, if Hitler had come along 70 years later than he did, I have no doubt that he would have succeeded in conquering all of Europe. One only has to look at how close he came, and that was in spite of all those nations and the U.S. aligned against him. Today, much of Europe has no backbone, and I doubt that, in the wake of Iraq, Americans would have the collective will required to...

A rowdy Ontario legislature passed a hike in the sales tax and tolls on all highways yesterday. Don't panic though, it was the Ontario Youth Parliament, sitting in London, that gave the green light to highway tolls to pay for our crumbling roads and to raise the provincial sales tax to nine per cent. The 39th Ontario Youth Parliament continues today and tomorrow at Riverside United Church. More than 100 delegates, age 14 to 21, beat the weather and arrived Friday for their annual meeting, held in London for the first time since 2003. Welland delegate Mandy Lewis, a Grade...

John Edwards says if he's elected president, he'll institute a New Deal-like suite of programs to fight poverty and stem growing wealth disparity. To do it, he said, he'll ask many Americans to make sacrifices, like paying higher taxes. Edwards, a former Democratic senator from North Carolina, says the federal government should underwrite universal pre-kindergarten, create matching savings accounts for low-income people, mandate a minimum wage of $9.50 and provide a million new Section 8 housing vouchers for the poor. He also pledged to start a government-funded public higher education program called "College for Everyone." "It is central to what...

This is not an Onion article. I solemnly affirm to Scrappleface: New York Times columnist Judith Warner doesn't want decisions on spending taxpayer money on social programs to be judged by how much they cost or whether they work. Despite my disclaimer, I bet you're still dubious. "Come on, Finkelstein - that can't be right. As liberal as the New York Times might be, there's no way one of its regular columnists would come right out and say that."Wanna bet?The particular government programs that Warner - the Times's family-issues maven - discusses in The Real Value of Public Preschool [subscription]...