Free Republic

Former Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), who was the first Vietnam veteran to serve in the United States Senate, is the latest Republican to back Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign, Politico learned Sunday. Pressler, who said that in addition to casting an absentee ballot for Obama he'd donated $500 to the Illinois senator's campaign, cited the Democrat's response to the financial crisis as the primary reason for his decision. "I just got the feeling that Obama will be able to handle this financial crisis better, and I like his financial team of [former Treasury Secretary Robert] Rubin and [former Federal Reserve...

Let’s face it, no one expected Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” to be perfect. But for Elon Musk to adopt the intransigent position that the work of government should stop in its tracks in pursuit of perfection is a manifest nonsense. Especially when considering OMB chief Russ Vought’s explanation of how the bill helps reduce the deficit. Musk has a habit of failing to see the wood for the trees. He’s been a long-standing backer of China, which my website has reported on for years. He supported DeSantis, not Trump, in the primary. He recently tried to depose Brexit leader Nigel...

PULSE POINTS:❓What Happened: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) says its analysis of President Donald J. Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” finds the legislation introduces historic fiscal reforms, achieving $1.7 trillion in mandatory savings and reducing the deficit by $1.407 trillion. This analysis contradicts a fiscal score released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that claims the bill would increase the deficit by $2.4 trillion.👥 Who’s Involved: President Donald J. Trump, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), OMB Director Russ Vought, Elon Musk, and the U.S. Congress.📍 Where & When: The OMB’s top-line...

“The (puny) ask: Elon Musk recently criticized the GOP’s “massive spending” reconciliation bill, which he says “undermines” the savings DOGE has found. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller responded that Musk was wrong to expect reconciliation to lock in DOGE work, saying that the proper tool was rescission. “So where are the lock-ins? DOGE says it has identified some $180 billion in savings, though Congress needs to approve many of the grant cancellations and other clawbacks. “Yet the White House rescissions request is for a mere $9.4 billion—out of annual discretionary spending of $1.6 trillion. This (supposedly) cost-cutting...

I was under the illusion that with Donald Trump back in charge and the wind at his back Washington Republicans might actually take off the gloves and say eff-it and take on the swamp. With the failures inherent in the Big Beautiful Bill, it appears I was wrong. I don’t blame Trump. This abysmal betrayal of the American people was written in the halls of Congress… The Republicans in Congress talk a good game, but when it comes to actually doing what they say they’re going to do, it turns out they’re really snake oil salesmen. Not that this is...

@elonmusk I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it

The Big Beautiful Bill is 1,100 pages. Massive. The arguments for and against are deafening. And all miss the point.“So here’s the thing. Despite all the spending cuts, the Beautiful Bill still increases the federal deficit by $3.8 trillion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.”—Lawrence Wilson, The Epoch TimesConclusions based on principle, if that principle is forged on the bedrock of eternal truth, blow away petty arguments, which fall away like chaff.Prior to our nation’s inception, the masses were taught that the divine spark resides in a pharaoh, a pope, a monarch. In the world of politics...

I was under the illusion that, with Donald Trump back in charge and the wind at his back, Washington Republicans might actually take off the gloves, say eff-it, and take on the swamp. With the failures inherent in the Big Beautiful Bill, it appears I was wrong. I don’t blame Trump. This abysmal betrayal of the American people was written in the halls of Congress.The Republicans in Congress talk a good game, but when it comes to actually doing what they say they’re going to do, it turns out they’re really snake oil salesmen. Not that this is new. Remember...

What’s really in the Big Beautiful Bill? Depending on who you listen to, the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) is either an incredible piece of legislation that will codify tax cuts while also unleashing growth and reducing the deficit, OR it’s just another 1,000+ page of pork that maintains the status quo of overspending/ growing the deficit/ increasing the debt. The problem with this situation is that the people pushing these claims are either A) individuals who HATE the President and his agenda or B) individuals who work for the Trump administration and so have a vested interest in getting the...

Friday, in a clip that aired on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said President Donald Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Big” was unacceptable in its current form, as passed by the House of Representatives. Johnson told a reporter on Capitol Hill, “I couldn’t care less if he’s upset. I’m concerned about my children, my grandchildren, and the fact that we are stealing from them. We are stealing from our children and grandchildren. $37 trillion in debt, and we’re going to add to it as Republicans? That is unacceptable.” He added, “And that’s why there’s no way I’m going to...

As we keep warning… a debt crisis is coming.The first round appears to be striking Japan, which is the grandfather of monetary insanity. Japan first introduced Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) and large-scale Quantitative Easing (QE) programs nearly a decade before the Fed or other major central banks introduced similar policies. As a result of its near-nonstop interventions running for 25+ years, Japan’s Debt to GDP is over 200% and its central bank’s balance sheet is equal to 90% of the country’s GDP.As I noted yesterday, Japan finally appears to be losing control of its debt markets. Yields on the...

Billionaire investment manager Ray Dalio has warned that the risks of US debt go beyond credit ratings amid the US government's mounting debt in the current economic scenario. The founder of one of the world's largest hedge funds said that regarding the US debt downgrade, credit ratings understate risks because they rate the risk of the government not paying its debt. According to Dalio, credit rating agencies do not include the greater risk that countries in debt will print money to pay their debts, thus causing bondholders to suffer losses from the decreased value of the money they are getting...

Now you know why Trump is so eager to cut wasteful spending! The real mystery is why Democrats and RINOs are so determined to continue wasteful spending and not cut taxes. Trump inherited a fiscal disaster from Biden and Congress. Not to mention The Federal Reserve. Credit default swaps (CDS) for the USA are near Greece (and China) levels. ... Since Covid struck in 2020, US debt is up a staggering 56% ... And M2 Money is up 40% since Covid.

Down in the swamps of Washington, D.C., our Congress is said to be hard at work hammering out a budget for the coming fiscal year. With a crisis of massive deficits looming, supposedly they are going to come up with some major areas where government spending can be cut. One of the areas under consideration for significant cuts is the program formally known as the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” or SNAP, and informally known as “food stamps.” According to the latest data from the Department of Agriculture, as of February 2025 the SNAP program had some 42+ million “participation persons,”...

WASHINGTON — A key House Republican holdout on President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” to provide tax cuts, border security, defense spending and green energy clawbacks is still calling for deeper spending cuts to chip away at the national debt — as the legislation heads for a critical vote Sunday. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), one of several GOPers who tanked the bill in the House Budget Committee on Friday, says he and other fiscal hawks are still hoping for hundreds of billions dollars more in savings to help reduce the nation’s $36 trillion debt. The Texas Republican huddled with White House...

President Donald Trump is proposing staggering spending cuts. In his budget request for fiscal year 2026, the president demands that Congress slash an eye-popping 20% of spending which lawmakers allocate each year. "You're going to see $150 billion (in cuts) passed in the House and the Senate. That is real money," said Budget Director Russ Vought on Fox News. "I think for the first time, this budget is not dead on arrival." To be clear, the budget which Mr. Trump sent to Capitol Hill is aspirational. All presidential budgets are. It’s what a president proposes that lawmakers – and his...

Younger Canadians stuck living with their parents and unable to afford starting families supported the Conservative Party. Liberals won anyway.The most memorable meme of the recent Canadian election campaign emerged from the line outside an Ontario microbrewery, where an older Liberal Party supporter named Matt Janes flashed two middle fingers to protesters agitating against Prime Minister Mark Carney.The obscenity went viral — with Janes becoming infamous as the Brantford Boomer — not just for its crass vulgarity, but for exposing the deep generational divide in Canada. Polls showed Canadians boomers overwhelmingly backing the successful Liberal campaign, which Carney centered on...

A great piece in the WSJ by former Reagan speechwriter Kenneth Khachigian reminds us of what happened when Reagan was snookered into raising taxes 40 years ago.“In 1988 Reagan complained that the 1982 tax increase that he reluctantly embraced was among the worst decisions of his presidency.”“The fellas promised I would get $3 of spending cuts for every $1 of taxes I agreed to. Instead, for every dollar of new taxes we got $1.70 in new spending – the complete reversal of what I was promised.” We would add that on several occasions when taxes were proposed to Reagan during...

The U.S. GDP shrank slightly in the first quarter – something we never like to see. This data predates the last four weeks of the trade/tariff war trauma, so we are worried about the second quarter coming in negative – which would technically mean recession. If we could get the tax bill signed sealed and delivered, that would provide immediate juice for the economy. Instead, Congress dithers, and they will get blamed for the technical recession.But there was some good news in the report. Much of the “growth” under Biden was “fake growth” driven by trillions of extra government spending...

Buffett had largely avoided commenting on politics during the afternoon part of the annual meetings Q&A and seemed reluctant to directly address a question on what he thought about Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s efforts to cut government spending through the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. What Buffett did say was Congress isn’t doing its job to reduce the fiscal deficit. “We are doing something that is unsustainable,” he said. Buffett said the gap between revenue and spending was about twice as large as what can be maintained and that the more the gap widens, the more risk of it...