Free Republic

Esquire magazine recently reported that representatives from Barack Obama's administration team admit the president-elect will give strong consideration to decriminalizing marijuana by the end of his tenure in office. Those remarks follow comments issued last summer by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), who introduced H.R. 5843 -- an act to remove federal penalties for the use of marijuana by "responsible adults." According to CNN, the liberal lawmaker "doesn't think it's the government's business to tell you how to spend your leisure time." Lending the Esquire article additional credence is an interview with Obama, recorded in January 2004, during which the then-U.S....

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, continuing to hit on economic themes in her White House campaign, said the government should do more to help people save for retirement, and is proposing an annual tax credit of up to $1,000 to help do that. The Democratic presidential frontrunner's plan would allow households earning up to about $100,000 a year without employer-provided 401(k) plans to open new "American Retirement Accounts," and get a tax credit matching contributions up to a maximum $1,000. But the incentives would be available also to savers with 401(k)s or Individual Retirement Accounts. To offset the revenue lost,...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama on Monday said that if elected he would establish an economy-wide cap-and-trade program that would sharply cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. In a speech prepared for delivery in Portsmouth, N.H., the Illinois senator said the cap-and-trade plan would be the centerpiece of a wide-ranging set of measures designed to cut emissions of gases tied to global warming and weaning the United States off of dependence on oil. Under a cap-and-trade plan, companies that produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases receive or buy credits that give them the right to emit a...

Polls show Hillary Clinton has now opened up a striking 33-point lead over Barack Obama in the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. The latest poll shows that likely Democratic primary voters favor her in every major policy area. Clinton also raised $27 million in campaign contributions in the last quarter, adding to an already-significant lead over her Democratic rivals. For seven years, the left has been up in arms about President Bush's aggressive foreign policy, his secrecy, his partisanship, and his expansive claims on executive power. It's odd, then, that they're prepared to nominate Hillary Clinton to carry...

Counting on Failure, Energy Chairman Floats Carbon Tax WASHINGTON, July 6 — A powerful House Democrat said on Friday that he planned to propose a steep new “carbon tax” that would raise the cost of burning oil, gas and coal, in a move that could shake up the political debate on global warming. The proposal came from Representative John D. Dingell of Michigan, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and it runs directly counter to the view of most Democrats that any tax on energy would be a politically disastrous approach to slowing global warming. But Mr. Dingell,...

One third of Americans say global warming ranks as the world's single largest environmental problem according to a new survey conducted by the Washington Post, ABC News and Stanford University. That's double the number who considered it of most import last year. Seven out of 10 of those surveyed want the federal government to do more to combat climate change and "by a 40-point margin, the public trusts congressional Democrats more than it trusts President Bush to handle global warming," writes the WPost. Climate change might yet become a key election issue then. Al Gore, are you listening?