Free Republic

All of the congressional Republicans with viable 2016 presidential ambitions voted against the bill enacted overnight to reopen the government and increase federal borrowing. So did two members of the Senate GOP leadership and three members of the party’s House leadership. The opponents also included a majority of the Republicans who are chairmen of House committees and most of the members of the House GOP caucus who aspire to election to the Senate next year. While the Democrats were unified in their support for the legislation, a review of Wednesday night’s back-to-back roll calls in Congress reveals just how divided...

PANAMA CITY — For U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, the federal government shutdown is a fight to hold every American to the same standard under the country’s new health care law. Along with the House Republican majority, Southerland, R-Panama City, has backed resolutions to eliminate Affordable Care Act subsidies for members of Congress and delay the individual mandate for a year to avert a government shutdown. Democrats have said they will not negotiate until the government is reopened and the debt limit raised. Southerland said the Democratic-controlled Senate’s rejection of the proposal and refusal to negotiate is setting a dangerous precedent...

(CNN) – Republican leaders in Congress received a dire warning on Tuesday from former Vice President Dick Cheney on the ongoing crisis in North Korea.“We’re in deep doo doo,” Cheney told lawmakers, according to a GOP leadership aide.Cheney added the current North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, is unpredictable and doesn't share the United States worldview.One lawmaker present at the session, Rep. Steve Southerland of Florida, said Cheney wore a cowboy hat and "looked really good, spoke really clearly, lucidly.”

Dr. Dick Bott and Congressman Steve Southerland Discussed Missouri Congressman Todd Akin and aired a speech given by Florida Congressman Steve Southerland

Speaker John Boehner pushed his debt-ceiling bill through the House Friday night with the support of 218 Republicans. Here are the 22 no votes: Justin Amash (Mich.) Michele Bachmann (Minn.) Chip Cravaack (Minn.) Jason Chaffetz (Utah) Scott Desjarlais (Tenn.) Tom Graves (Ga.) Tim Huelskamp (Kans.) Steve King (Iowa) Tim Johnson (Ill.) Tom McClintock (Calif.) Mick Mulvaney (S.C.) Ron Paul (Texas) Connie Mack (Fla.) Jim Jordan (Ohio) Tim Scott (S.C.) Paul Broun (Ga.) Tom Latham (Iowa) Jeff Duncan (S.C.) Trey Gowdy (S.C.) Steve Southerland (Fla.) Joe Walsh (Ill.) Joe Wilson (S.C.) CORRECTED: Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) voted YES on the Boehner...

The following twenty-two House members stood firm and opposed the Boehner bill, which is nothing more than a vehicle which will be sent to the Senate, reworked by Harry Reid into something even worse than it already is, and then returned to the House. Boehner will dutifully bring it up and the Tea Partiers who voted for it will then vote against it, but it will not matter. Boehner and Reid will pass the Bill in the House with Democrat votes and Obama will sign it. The votes today cast by conservatives, many of whom are good people, are very...

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller told a Fairbanks audience Monday that he would back an amendment to repeal the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitition.That’s the 1913 amendment that shifted the job of selecting U.S. senators from each state legislature  and required a popular vote in each state.The issue has garnered support from some Tea Party candidates across the country.The idea, apparently, is that if senators are selected by legislators, they would be less susceptible to special interests and more supportive of states’ rights.A Wall Street Journal law blog summarizes the argument this way:  “Nowadays, Senate candidates have to...