Free Republic

As you dig into your expensive turkey after having spent a ton of cash filling up your SUV to get to grandma’s for Thanksgiving dinner, take heart. We’re winning. Yeah, I know – conservatives are Eeyore/Cure fan centaurs, always ready to see the despair, always ready to detect the doom coming at us. And let’s not sugar-coat it – there’s a lot of bad stuff going on. Our alleged president is only allegedly mentally competent. His understudy is a half-wit who got with Montel Williams. His party wants to spend trillions we don’t have and is convinced that printing more...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) claimed that Democrats can only get funding for “their giveaway programs,” apparently including provisions in their roughly $2 trillion social spending and climate bill, from the middle class. “The only place Democrats can get the money to fund all of their giveaway programs is from the middle class, because that's where the money is,” Johnson said Sunday in an interview with John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM. Johnson claimed that even if taxes on corporations were raised, the middle class would ultimately end up shouldering the costs... In the interview Johnson also discussed spiking inflation in...

The number of Americans filing for first-time jobless benefits fell very modestly lasyt week from 269k (revised up) to 268k, the lowest since before the pandemic lockdowns...Source: BloombergCalifornia saw the biggest jump in claims last week.Biggest increase in California (6,431), Massachusetts (2,146) and Pennsylvania (1.906)Biggest drop in Kentucky (-8,729), Tennessee (-4,148) and Ohio (-3,535)Continuing Claims also dropped to its lowest since the COVID lockdowns, at 2.08mm...Source: BloombergHowever, amid all that good news, something odd happened as 537,467 Americans were added to Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, sending the total number of Americans on the dole higher for the first time in 8...

Hi FRiends, Happy Thanksgiving I hope you are having good weather and a relaxing time. I have a Question on Medicare Plans. My Wife and I are thinking about Advantage Plans to replace Traditional Medicare. We are 81/83 now and active. We currently have Traditional Medicare with a Gap Policy. The latest offerings from United Healthcare Advantage Plans seem to have taken care of out-of-network services with their Passport which create instantaneous in-network charges in most States that we visit. Emergency care is Covered in any State. Our current Doctors accept this Advantage Plan. Our Saving would be about $5000./year...

(CNN)The federal government announced a large hike in Medicare premiums Friday night, blaming the pandemic but also what it called uncertainty over how much it may have to be forced to pay for a pricey and controversial new Alzheimer's drug. The 14.5% increase in Part B premiums will take monthly payments for those in the lowest income bracket from $148.50 a month this year to $170.10 in 2022. Medicare Part B covers physician services, outpatient hospital services, certain home health services, medical equipment, and certain other medical and health services not covered by Medicare Part A, including medications given in...

Money from the Child Tax Credit program is set to hit U.S. parents' bank accounts on Monday. After that, the sixth and final check is scheduled to be deposited on December 15. The future of the expanded Child Tax Credit program remains in limbo amid negotiations over scaling back President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion social spending plan, which included an extension of the CTC through 2025. To slash spending in the bill, some lawmakers want to limit the tax credit's renewal to just one or two years. As talks among Democratic lawmakers continues, the future of the family assistance measure...

Arizona leads 11 Republican states in defending rule that restricted green cards for immigrants likely to rely on welfare The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a bid by Republican states to take over the defense of a Trump-era rule that restricted green cards for immigrants deemed likely to be reliant on welfare – after the Biden administration dropped the legal defense of the rule. The "public charge" rule was introduced during the Trump administration and expanded the definition of "public charge" as an immigrant who receives one or more designated public benefits for more than 12 months within...

Democrats used to be the party of working people. Now they sneer at people who work hard. Democrats pushing to pass the Build Back Better bill want a single parent with two kids to be able to take home well over $31,000 a year in cash and noncash federal benefits, tax-free, without having to work. The handouts are even higher in places like New York, which offers generous state benefits too. So why get a job? Nonworking adults are already eligible for food stamps, housing vouchers and health care. Now Democrats want to send them monthly checks if they have...

More destructive than any specific policy item modern Democrats are pushing this year are the ideas they use to justify their agenda. The $3.5 trillion bill that resident Joe Biden and Democrats are now attempting to cram through Congress via reconciliation is meant to create a European-style cradle-to-grave welfare state here in the United States. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the bill's Senate author, has, for years, praised systems across the Atlantic. As have many other Democrats. There are numerous specific arguments against the agenda that further expands an already onerous bureaucratic state, but it is the idea that traditional American life...

On Sept. 9, resident Biden declared that all companies with more than 100 employees must “ensure their workforces are fully vaccinated or show a negative test at least once a week.” According to Biden’s federal vaccine mandate, any company that does not comply will face a fine of $14,000 per case. During his speech, Biden also declared that “all nursing home workers who treat patients on Medicare and Medicaid” and that “those who work in hospitals, home healthcare facilities, or other medical facilities” as well as “all executive branch federal employees” and “federal contractors” must get vaccinated. If these Americans...

With instability and political unrest roiling the world stage, it is more important than ever for America to have solid allies in the Middle East, a dangerous region historically rife with conflict and dysfunction. Americans know and understand almost innately that Israel's values are a mirror of our own: Israel champions democracy and the rule of law, has a strong judiciary and demonstrates freedom of religion and the press. However, our recent hurried withdrawal from Afghanistan and the ensuing chaos illustrates how quickly fortunes can change in this volatile region. The resulting pandemonium underscores how much we need a steady...

Legendary Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre must repay $828,000 that he received from welfare funds that were meant for families in need, according to a report.

Right now there are four Mexican gents fixing my carport roof. I am amazed by the work ethic shown by these four men, they don’t chit chat, they don’t stand idle and smoke, they just work. My roof is going to get done today, weeks ahead of schedule by four men who barely speak any English. The jobs were there and they saw an opportunity and I hope they get paid well for their labors. For the record I’m 60 with health issues and had to hire this job out, I’m not lazy, just grateful there are still hard working...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — More than 214,500 households across Connecticut will receive at least $95 in extra monthly food benefits beginning Friday, the state Department of Social Services announced on Tuesday. The additional benefits provided under the Emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP are expected to continue as long as there are declared state and federal public health emergencies related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Eligible households in Connecticut will receive the extra food aid on their Electronic Benefit Transfer or EBT cards. Households that are already receiving the maximum monthly SNAP benefit will receive an extra $95. Those who...

Although Social Security has been around for a long time, the program continues to evolve. And one positive change that has the potential to arise in the near term is a generous cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA. COLAs are the annual raises seniors on Social Security are entitled to. They're not guaranteed, and there have been years when seniors have gotten no boost to their benefits at all. A nice windfall could be on the way In recent years, Social Security's COLAs haven't been much to write home about. In 2021, seniors saw their benefits increase by 1.3%. In 2020, they...

Happy Mutt Day. Tell me that this little man, seen here with his best childhood friend, doesn’t look like he was destined to grow up to be a captain of industry.I don’t know whether he did or not but can’t you picture him behind a solid wood desk, smoking a stogie? He looks as if he’d always be his own man, rolling the dice, calling the shots, running his business. Of course he’d be retired, or dead, by now which is probably just as well as you need to be “woke” in order to run a big business today. This...

Almost one-third of all working-age men in America aren’t doing diddly-squat. They don’t have a job, and they aren’t looking for one either. One-third of all working-age men. That’s almost 30 million people! How do they live? What are they doing for money? To me, this is one of the great mysteries of our time. I’m certainly not the first person to make note of this shocking statistic. You’ve heard people bemoaning this "labor participation rate," which is simply the number of working-age men (usually counted as ages 16 to 64) who are working or are seeking work, as a...

This post is about a situation where the correct public policy approach should be obvious to everyone, but the perverse incentives of government as usual push in exactly the wrong direction. The issue is how many people should receive benefits, and in what amounts, from government “safety net” programs. From all I can find, there appears to be near-universal support for at least some level of government “safety net” for the poor. After all, no one wants to see fellow citizens starving for lack of food, or dying for lack of medical attention to a curable health condition, and so...

Democrats are grasping for ways to finance their cradle-to-grave welfare state, with the left demanding what they claim is $3.5 trillion over 10 years. The truth is that even that gargantuan number hides the real cost of their plans. The bills moving through committees are full of delayed starts, phony phase-outs, and cost shifting to states designed to fit $3.5 trillion into a 10-year budget window that can pass with a mere 51 Senate votes. Even if the bill shrinks to $2 trillion or less, the real costs will be far greater. Behold one of the greatest fiscal cons in...

The Democrats’ $3.5 trillion proposal to expand the U.S. safety net is being described as a make-or-break moment for the Biden presidency. Regarding electoral politics in the short term, that may well be true. But some of us are more concerned about what it could mean for the country beyond the next election or two. Liberals view a larger welfare state as an unalloyed good, but what’s the track record? Entitlement programs were dramatically expanded in the 1960s in the service of a war on poverty, yet poverty fell at a slower rate after the Great Society initiatives were implemented,...