Free Republic

People To Have More Babies Republicans must become not just the party of workers but also the party of families. They should do it by upping Joe Biden’s proposed child tax credit into something bigger.As the Republican Party charts its path during a Joe Biden presidency, there will undoubtedly be calls from the corporate wing to return to the neoliberal orthodoxy that defined it under the Bushes, Mitt Romney, and Paul Ryan. This would be a profound mistake.President Donald Trump has repositioned Republicans as the party of workers with his focus on trade, industrial, and immigration issues. By crafting an...

There’s no question the Social Security retirement trust fund will run out of money, and the current recession will make that happen faster than previously forecast. The key questions now are: When will the trust fund be exhausted? How (and when) will Congress respond? How can individuals protect their retirement security?The 2020 annual report from the trustees of Social Security was issued last April and estimated the retirement trust fund would be depleted and unable to help pay benefits in 2034.That report was based on data through the end of 2019 and didn’t anticipate the sudden and severe recession caused...

President-elect Joe Biden plans to announce a $1,400 personal stimulus check for individuals on Thursday despite voters expecting a $2,000 check as promised. Reuters reports Biden will announce a massive $1.5 trillion spending program which will include $1,400 stimulus checks.

A weak economy, high unemployment rates, failing schools, and high child poverty levels all plagued Cleveland in 1982. Those same issues remain in 2020, laid barer by the coronavirus pandemic that limited access to social services and increased social isolation that devastated people’s mental health. The two years are linked because they represent the worst two years in recent history for deadly violence in Cleveland. The city hit 185 homicides on Dec. 20, the most in a single year since 1982 when the city hit 195 homicides and when nearly 200,000 more people called the city home. The homicide rate...

Perhaps $2000 could be issued for each SSN holder for whom over $1000 in FICA&SE taxes was paid in four quarters within the tax years 2018-2019 who lacked total state unemployment insurance (UI) income in excess of $6000 in the previous UI quarter at least 30 days prior to enactment. If in excess $6000 but less than $14000, the $2000 would be reduced by 25 percent of the excess. Payment would done by the claimant's state unemployment office at least three federal business days after electronically filing a 1099-DJT for $2000(or lower amount) with the IRS so duplicate payouts under...

A wise man once said, “In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.” That man was Benjamin Franklin. He further said, “I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but...

The dust has settled and the evidence is in: The 1960s Great Society and War on Poverty programs of President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) have been a colossal and giant failure. One might make the argument that social welfare programs are the moral path for a modern government. They cannot, however, make the argument that these are in any way effective at alleviating poverty. In fact, there is evidence that such aggressive programs might make generational poverty worse. While the notion of a “culture of dependence” is a bit of a cliché in conservative circles, there is evidence that this...

“Morally and economically, the welfare state creates an ever accelerating downward pull. Morally, the chance to satisfy demands by force spreads the demands wider and wider, with less and less pretense at justification. Economically, the forced demands of one group create hardships for all others, thus producing an inextricable mixture of actual victims and plain parasites.” -Ayn Rand I think that this quote by Ayn Rand on the welfare state is, like most quotations of hers, absolutely spot on. It perfectly sums up the negative current and after-effects of the welfare programs enacted by “looters” in the government to please...

A man shot at Peachtree City first responders Tuesday morning, but it turned out to be a misunderstanding and nobody got hurt or even arrested. Here’s the story as told by the department’s Facebook page: “On the morning of December 1st, Peachtree City PD received a welfare check request from the daughter of an 83-year-old man that lives in the Hampton Green neighborhood. [That’s off Braelinn Road and Peachtree Parkway in south Peachtree City.] “The daughter, who lives out of state, explained that her father has been ill and she has been unable to reach him for three days —...

Senate bill introduced to transfer 32 million acres to black farmers.

Something always struck me as odd about liberals – their love of high taxes. I always thought it had to do with their desire to punish successful people, something deeply rooted in jealousy. Over time, however, I came to realize it was something more, something deeper and deeply flawed in their understanding of the world and the idea of the concept of liberty. Democrats view government as the center of life and the giver of all good things. And that doesn’t come for free. The other day, billionaire Mark Cuban tweeted something normal people would find uncontroversial, but since it’s...

The Supreme Court convened Monday to deliberate on a petition filed on behalf of seven Arab terrorists who face the loss of their Israeli residency due to their involvement in anti-Israeli terrorism. Bereaved families and their supporters gathered outside of the hearing to protest the petition, calling on the court to reject the appeal. Maurice Hirsch of Palestinian Media Watch, who also serves as an attorney for bereaved families who lost relatives to Arab terrorism, spoke with Arutz Sheva about the bid to strip the terrorists of their Israeli residency. “I’m here today in the Supreme Court of Israel to...

... The cards, known as P-EBT (for Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer), are entirely legitimate. As it happened, every child enrolled in public school in New York City would receive one regardless of family income. The program, which delivers $880 million to New York State, was paid for by the federal government, a result of the economic relief package passed by Congress in the earliest phases of the coronavirus outbreak. The sum of $420 was meant to equal the cost of meals that a child would have received in the spring had school been open. While the notion of people who...

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif) used the shooting of Jacob Blake by a Kenosha police officer while he was resisting arrest to bolster her charge that "black lives have never been treated as fully human in America. It is yet another instance of an innocent black man being victimized by police brutality and another reason why voters need to elect Joe Biden and me to bring an end to this sorry history." President Trump lost no time in challenging Harris' notion that blacks would be better off under a Biden Administration. "In the last three years, my Administration...

Most people agree that politics is a dirty game and that political powers will inevitably be used to further the agenda of officeholders and their cronies. That said, despite being immersed in the current thinking regarding UBI for three years now, I have seen precious little worrying as to what the government — or a future government — might actually do once it has seized control over everyone’s purse strings.

President Trump's effort to break the Congressional deadlock on the next iteration of coronavirus relief by threatening to issue an Executive Order has Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) incensed. "His insistence that the coronavirus relief bill be focused on stimulating the economy after it was shut down to slow the spread of the contagion is too narrow," he said. "We want to include bailouts for states that have crippled their economies with reckless spending and high taxes. There are hundreds of thousands of government employees in my state who could face layoffs, pay cuts, or deferred pensions if federal...

BART’s ridership is only 12% of what it was before the coronavirus pandemic and it’s facing a projected loss of $975 million over the next three years — nonetheless, the transit agency’s workers got a 2.75% raise July 1, bringing the top salary for station agents and train operators to $93,085.20 a year, plus benefits.“It was clear from the beginning of the budget process that staff and a board majority was committed to maintaining status quo,” BART board Director Debora Allen said. “That meant no layoffs, furloughs or pay cuts.”

I’d really prefer to go to the beach but it’s tax day in the MOTUS household. We’ve delayed this year’s inevitable day of reckoning as long as possible – well technically we have till October with our extension but even I’m not that much of a procrastinator – so meeting with our accountant this morning. This is how I always feel by the time we’re done gathering everything required together in order to turn over a substantial portion of our annual income to the government for redistribution as they deem fit: Current mood: (fill-in-the-blank) So you do what you have...

By preserving culture and supporting children, the nuclear family consequently becomes the highest and most effective form of empowerment. By now, people are realizing that Black Lives Matter (BLM) is less an organization committed to improving the black community, and more a Marxist group exploiting racial tensions to push its agenda. According to a recent poll, “70 percent of respondents think that the movement has not improved race relations, with 38 percent saying Black Lives Matter has made race relations worse.” After so much agitation and protest, BLM has little to show for itself besides fomenting chaos in urban America...

No excerpt from Bloomberg, story here.