Free Republic

A large contingent of Republican senators completed their betrayal of Republicans and of the American people on Thursday afternoon, voting to pass a massive $1.7 trillion omnibus package.The bill had been widely maligned, partially because it contained nothing to help secure the US border while providing another $45 billion in aid to Ukraine. It also included provisions funding LGBT “pride centers” and numerous other boondoggles the government has no business being involved in.Despite the outcry, though, Republicans in the US Senate soldiered forward to stab their voters in the back, and now, we have their names.BREAKING: Here are the 18...

Do I detect a trend in the US Leading Economic Indicator data? The Conference Board’s US Leading Economic Indicator was released this morning and it wasn’t pleasant. The US Leading Index was down -1% MoM in November. On a year-over-year basis, it is down -4.5% YoY as The Fed withdraws its massive monetary stimulus. The good news … for military contractors … is that Biden and Congress have given Ukraine’s Zelenskyy ANOTHER $47 BILLION.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is urging her troops to get behind a massive bill to fund the government through most of next year, touting new funding for Democratic priorities and citing an urgency to get the package to President Biden’s desk before a potential shutdown at week’s end. In a letter to fellow Democrats, the outgoing Speaker cited a number of Democratic victories in the package, including provisions to hike nutrition funding for low-income children, provide a huge increase in money for veterans health care, and lend assistance to the victims of natural disasters around the country.

Back in 2010, RNC Chair Michael Steele was heavily criticized and eventually lost his position because donors were angry about what they believed was luxurious spending on private jets, floral arrangements, chauffeur services, and member meetings in expensive tropical locales. Donors were used to frugality from the RNC under the George W. Bush administration, when “Karl Rove would bitch if there were flowers on the tables” and staff holiday parties were catered by Chick-fil-A. Despite Joe Biden’s economy and three straight cycles of election losses, the RNC’s big-spending days are back with a vengeance. Perhaps because of these losses both...

Joe Biden made a big deal about inflation falling this week, to 7.1%, down from a 9.1% high last June, and lower than last month's 7.7%.That was the slowest pace in nearly a year and better than analysts expected....wrote the BBC, echoing much of what's been parlayed in the press.Biden found that something to crow about, according to the New York Post:“In a world where inflation is rising at double digits in many major economies around the world, inflation is coming down in America,” Biden said at the White House, referring primarily to European inflation, which slightly outpaces US rates...

There are plenty of postmortems about Raphael Warnock’s defeat of Republican candidate Herschel Walker in the runoff for the Senate seat in Georgia. Yes, in the same state, Republican Brian Kemp won a decisive victory in the race for governor. And, yes, to be kind, Walker was not a great flag-bearer to draw voters, particularly black voters, to the Republican Party. But let’s ask why voters, particularly black voters, would send Warnock to represent them for another six years in the U.S. Senate. The Georgia electorate is around 30% black, and 90% of them voted for Warnock. What are these...

Recently-appointed White House clean energy czar John Podesta has hired several officials who have advocated in favor of far-left energy and climate policies to join his team. Podesta, who founded the progressive Washington, D.C.-based think tank Center for American Progress (CAP), has hired Kristina Costa, Alison Cassady and Joshua Peck to serve in the White House Office of Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation. The three officials have previously worked in private and public sector roles pushing climate policies and have past ties to Podesta. Podesta, who founded the progressive Washington, D.C.-based think tank Center for American Progress (CAP), has hired...

Nancy Pelosi is passing her gavel to someone else (most likely McCarthy R-CA), but her legacy like that of fellow spendaholic John Boeher (RINO-Ohio) and Paul Rino (RINO-WI) is reckless spending and debt load. Since 2007 when Pelosi took the gavel as Speaker of the US House, Federal debt has risen from $5.8 trillion in Q4 2006 to $31.4 trillion today, an increase of over 250%. Pelosi’s spending spree was continued by RINOs Boehner and Ryan before SanFranNac retook the gavel and continued Congress’ spend-a-holic ways. Nothing has been the same since the financial crisis and Pelosi became Speaker in...

U.S. spending on health care grew by 2.7 percent to reach a total of $4.3 trillion in 2021, or around $12,900 per person, according to new figures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Although this growth was slower than the increase of 10.3 percent in 2020, out-of-pocket health care spending accounted for 10 percent of the overall share last year and increased by 10.4 percent — a rate not seen since 1985. In comparison, out-of-pocket spending fell by 2.6 percent in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as Americans put off doctor’s appointments and other health services. The...

$3.1 million on private jet services $1.3 million on limousine/chauffeur services $17.1 million on donor mementos $750,000 on floral arrangements $80,000 in alcohol-related expendituresUnder the current leadership, the RNC has spent more than $150,000 on what could be considered non-essential office expenses, including $25,000 on Commonwealth Joe coffee, $7,000 on cupcakes, nearly $7,000 on candles and diffusers, and $75,000 total at Pottery Barn, West Elm, Restoration Hardware, and Crate & Barrel. In addition, the committee’s FEC reports show expenditures totaling $381,000 classified as “Furniture Expense” during the same time frame.More than $100,000 was spent at high-end clothing stores such as...

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is taking public shots at Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s (Ky.) plan to pass an omnibus spending package before Christmas, fueling tensions between Senate and House GOP leaders. McConnell’s Senate allies say that McCarthy’s criticisms are “not helpful” to their efforts to pass a year-end spending package and avoid a government shutdown. And they worry this could be a preview of a potentially “challenging” working relationship between McConnell and McCarthy in the next Congress. McCarthy told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday evening that he hopes Senate Republicans won’t vote for the omnibus...

Republican leadership in the House is barreling ahead with efforts to prevent Democrats from passing a lame-duck omnibus spending bill this year.“We’re 20 days before the new members are being sworn in. We’ve got two members leading appropriations in the Senate who will no longer be here or be able to be held accountable to the constituents,” Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said at a press conference on Wednesday. He was referring to Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., negotiating what will be in the omnibus, despite the fact that they will be leaving office next month.“We’ve got an...

For all the opposition to Kevin McCarthy becoming Speaker of the House, he sure is doing the kinds of things to gain support from those with a skeptical eye.Initially, I wasn’t a fan of McCarthy following up a subpar election performance with a promotion, but it quickly became apparent that there is no alternate path. No other viable Republican who could gain enough support stepped up to the plate, and continuing to hold things up would only benefit Democrats at this point, who have floated the idea of electing a “unity candidate.”With that said, even though it appears McCarthy has...

Lawmakers in several conservative-led states—including Montana, Wyoming, Missouri, and Mississippi—are expected to consider proposals to provide a year of continuous health coverage to new mothers enrolled in Medicaid. Medicaid beneficiaries nationwide are guaranteed continuous postpartum coverage during the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency. But momentum has been building for states to extend the default 60-day required coverage period ahead of the emergency's eventual end. Approximately 42% of births nationwide are covered under Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for low-income people, and extending postpartum coverage aims to reduce the risk of pregnancy-related deaths and illnesses by ensuring that new mothers'...

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A “secret shopper” accountability study shows that medical patients can’t readily schedule appointments by phone through Medicaid providers in New Mexico, even as the state and federal government spend $8.8 billion annually on the health care program that serves nearly half of state residents. When primary health care providers were reached by phone, more than one-quarter were either not accepting new patients or had left the listed medical practice. The study found that patients who were able to connect with Medicaid care providers confronted waiting lists or appointment times that exceeded contractual requirements. The consumer-protection...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new round of climate-smart commodities projects, funding smaller initiatives that target niche markets and often have a greater role for minority farmers and institutions. Some 71 projects will share up to $325 million, with most of them receiving close to $5 million, the limit for the latest round. The first round of awards, announced in September, totaled 70 projects that will share up to $2.8 billion. A project led by Central State University, a historically Black school in Ohio, will help minority vegetable and beef cattle producers in Ohio and southern Michigan adopt climate-related...

For 20 years, golf had been wilting in the heat of South Florida. As aging players gave up the sport and younger people sought recreation elsewhere, the area’s grand, lush courses and the planned communities surrounding them — many built by overly optimistic entrepreneurs — struggled. Dozens of courses closed. Not to worry: The Biden administration is coming to the rescue. The town of Palm Beach Gardens is using $2 million in federal money from President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to build a $16 million public course, with a two-story clubhouse and driving range that should...

In one of the final economic reports of 2022, the Biden administration again saw the fruit of its "build back better" policy efforts in the Producer Price Index's hotter-than-expected read for November. The PPI report — measuring inflation upstream from consumers — showed an increase of 0.3 percent in November's headline number for an advance of 7.4 percent over the previous 12 months while 7.2 percent PPI inflation had been the consensus estimate. PPI for final demand advances 0.3% in November; services rise 0.4%, goods increase 0.1% #BLSData #PPI https://t.co/dyytPa3BcK— BLS-Labor Statistics (@BLS_gov) December 9, 2022Among the items that drove...

The big problem with debt is that it is addictive. Once a person starts down this ramp, it is hard to stop before insolvency. Addictions give way to irrational action. Sometimes the only way to stop is to crash into something hard. The debt problem is compounded exponentially when the addict is not an individual but a government. It is so much easier to spend someone else’s money and borrow more when it runs out. Governments trying to be all things to all people soon find themselves funding expensive projects that never seem to die or end. As governments barrel...

A $27 billion EPA fund meant to curb planet-warming emissions should be used to support climate projects in disadvantaged areas — and use an existing network of financiers to do so, say community development advocates and green groups. At issue is the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a key provision of the Inflation Reduction Act that aims to leverage federal dollars to provide communities across the country with low-cost, flexible financing for clean energy projects. The EPA-administered program will work by granting billions of dollars to nonprofit organizations, who then will dole out the money to local lenders that specialize in...