Free Republic

BATON ROUGE – On 60 Minutes Sunday, Donald Trump made one thing perfectly clear – he supports a new federal entitlement program to give free government funded health care to every American. This is how the Donald described ‘Trumpcare’ on 60 Minutes:Scott Pelley: Universal health care.Donald Trump: I am going to take care of everybody. I don’t care if it costs me votes or not. Everybody’s going to be taken care of much better than they’re taken care of now.Scott Pelley: The uninsured person is going to be taken care of. How? How?Donald Trump: They’re going to be taken care...

I grew up in a blue-collar family in a working class neighborhood (the South Bronx) where just about everybody (if not literally everybody) voted Democratic. In college, I was a liberal – and proud of it. The big issue was civil rights and liberals were on the right side of that one while conservatives – yes, mostly Democrats from the South – were on both the wrong side of history and the wrong side of decency. When the issue of women’s rights came along, I was on board with that too. I didn’t think much about taxes, mainly because I...

Pope Francis’ unexpected and unscheduled visit to the Little Sisters of the Poor, a convent of elderly nuns fighting ObamaCare’s contraception mandate in the courts, is a clear message shot across the Obama administration’s bow that such religious persecution is not acceptable, backing up the American Catholic Church’s mantra: we will not comply While the lamestream media focuses on the Pope’s seeming alignment on issues such as climate change and immigration reform, the chattering class ignores this ongoing battle over religious liberty.

If Ted Cruz is ever going to break through in the Republican presidential primary, the time is now. Cruz has been the workmanlike conservative of the GOP field: a strong fundraiser but no Jeb Bush, well-liked by the activist right yet unable, so far, to generate the kind of breakout moments that have vaulted his anti-establishment rivals out of the single-digit doldrums. But Cruz’s supporters see the showdown in Congress over Planned Parenthood and the budget — which kicks into high gear this week and could stretch into the winter, on the cusp of voting in early states — as...

Last night, Donald Trump sat down with Scott Pelley on ’60 Minutes’ and made a gloriously confused barrage of promises and wishcasting about taxes, Social Security, ISIL, trade, and immigration. There’s a lot in there, but for my money his most laughable comments were about repealing Obamacare. Here’s the key section: Scott Pelley: What’s your plan for Obamacare?Donald Trump: Obamacare’s going to be repealed and replaced. Obamacare is a disaster if you look at what’s going on with premiums where they’re up 40, 50, 55 percent.Scott Pelley: How do you fix it?Donald Trump: There’s many different ways, by the...

Pope Francis said on Monday government officials have a “human right” to refuse to discharge a duty, such as issuing marriage licenses to homosexuals, if they feel it violates their conscience.

Last week, House Speaker John Boehner decided to retire rather than chance being ousted by his own colleagues. Despite this lucky break, the congressional GOP has little chance of winning back disenchanted Republican voters unless it also shows Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell the door. Continued Republican control of the Senate is on the line. A brand-new poll reveals that 72 percent of Republican primary voters are dissatisfied with McConnell and Boehner. Only 2 percent of those polled were “very satisfied” with the party’s two congressional leaders, who the majority believe have accomplished essentially nothing. The situation is actually...

Chuck Todd, the liberal host of NBC's "Meet the Press" asked Republican Carly Fiorina on Sunday if Republicans should "force a government shutdown" over federal funding of Planned Parenthood. "I believe if the president of the United States and Democrats are willing to stand up and defend what is roughly a $500 million to $600 million line item in the budget -- if they are willing to stand up and defend this practice (harvesting baby parts) and shut down the government over it, then let them explain it to the American people," Fiorina responded. "You think Republican leaders in Congress...

President Obama late Sunday predicted marriage equality probably won’t be an issue in the 2016 presidential race, saying the U.S. has “come too far” since the 2004 campaign. "Tonight we live in an America where 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' is something that 'don't exist,' " he said to cheers and applause at the beginning of his remarks to a Democratic National Committee LGBT gala in New York, according to a reporter traveling with the president. The president told the audience that cynics who said change is “too messy” have been proven wrong time after time. Obama also said that 2016...

President Obama’s reelection guaranteed at least one thing for his second term – Obamacare is here here to stay. But that is not going to keep Republicans from trying to chip away at the law. House Speaker John Boehner wrote, in an op-ed, Tuesday that cuts to the president’s landmark legislative achievement should be included in efforts to deal with the looming fiscal cliff. “We can’t afford it, and we can’t afford to leave it intact. That’s why I’ve been clear that the law has to stay on the table as both parties discuss ways to solve our nation’s massive...

Sept. 25, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) - Never in human history has there been a time in which the buying and selling of human flesh, in one form or another, has been more prevalent. Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. Pornography depicting the brutalization of women and girls is among the most popular material on the Internet. And abortion, the financed destruction of tiny human beings developing in the womb, claims the lives of almost 42 million pre-born children each year. The first time I fully realized how dehumanizing the “sex trade” is was when I was...

September 16, 2015 Congressman Jim Jordan Chairman, House Freedom Caucus 1524 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 HAND DELIVERED Dear Jim: When the House Freedom Caucus formed in January, I fervently hoped that it would provide responsible and effective leadership to advance conservative principles in the House of Representatives. I know that every member of the HFC sincerely supports these principles, but as I have expressed on many occasions during our meetings, I believe the tactics the HFC has employed have repeatedly undermined the House’s ability to advance them. Allow me to review a few examples. On February 27th,...

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)9% refused to acknowledge the controversial series of undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood doctors negotiating prices for fetal tissue are real. Pelosi said, “I don’t stipulate that these videos are real. And the fact is — and fact is that the research that is being criticized there is research that has been supported. now. I haven’t seen — I’ve seen some news reports of it, but I also know that it’s not real and you can create any reality that you want.” She continued, “And I think...

Here is the Vatican translation of the Pope's address to victims of sexual abuse by the clergy, who he met with early this morning at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia. Following his address, the Pope met privately with each of the individuals present at the meeting. * * * My dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, I am grateful for this opportunity to meet you. I am blessed by your presence. Thank you for coming here today. Words cannot fully express my sorrow for the abuse you suffered. You are precious children of God who should always expect our...

Planned Parenthood supporters and Code Pink activists showed up at a Carly Fiorina event in Iowa yesterday at a tailgate before a Hawkeyes game. They screamed insults and threw condoms at her. They are furious that she brought up their baby harvesting practices at the last debate. Carly was asked about a female protester she had a confrontation with. “ She came on and said she was concerned about women’s health and as a cancer survivor I said, I was too. And, she said she was concerned about women’s rights and I said I was too. I said you ought...

Carly Fiorina on Sunday defended her assertion that an undercover sting video shows Planned Parenthood officials keeping a “fully formed fetus” alive “to harvest its brain.” At the second Republican presidential debate earlier this month, one of Fiorina’s strongest moments came when she described a gruesome scene from one of the controversial undercover videos. "A fully-formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says, 'We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain’,” Fiorina said at the time. Fiorina’s description of the scene, and her supporting super-PAC’s subsequent use of it in an campaign...

The abrupt resignation of House Speaker John Boehner shows that “the crazies have taken over the party,” Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said Friday. “I think it signals the crazies have taken over the party, taken over to the party that you can remove a speaker of the House who’s second in line to be president, a constitutional officer in the middle of his term with no allegations of impropriety, a person who’s honest and doing his job. This has never happened before in our country,” King said in an interview on CNN. “He could have stayed on.” King praised Boehner,...

John Hawkins writes at Townhall: "Boehner Resigned? Good. Go Cry, Drink And Surrender Somewhere Else." Well, Boehner's resignation is far too late for me and especially far too late for the Fast and Furious investigation that he derailed because the FBI was blackmailing him. Long-time readers will recall that when the Issa committee got around to noticing the fact, uncovered by this blog and FOX News' William La Jeunesse, that the middle men who the ATF agents were forbidden by their superiors from following (the ones who actually transported the weapons across the border) were the Miramontes brothers who were...

The real religion of Washington conservatives is that having a government at all is offensive to the market. No wonder leading a branch of it is thankless work.House Speaker John Boehner’s last official moment in the media spotlight found him crying: sitting behind Pope Francis during the pontiff’s address to Congress, Boehner – a notorious public cryer – teared up at the homiletic spectacle, and was forced to dry his eyes with a handkerchief. It was fitting because, over the past five years, Boehner himself has presided over a far less decorous and infinitely more fractious show of ardent faith,...

Although Vice President Joe Biden says he is “a practicing Catholic” and believes that life begins at conception -- but he would not “say that” to people who “have a different view” -- his former bishop forbade Biden from speaking at Catholic schools, and the bishop for Colorado Springs has said Biden should not present himself for Communion at Mass. Also, in a document cited by the Wilmington, Del., office of Biden’s former bishop – Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli, who died in 2009 – it states that “Catholic politicians who take pro-abortion legislative positions … should never be put forward...