Free Republic

The administration's terrible healthcare reform bill is now law, but the debate over how-- and whether-- the federal government should be involved in providing healthcare services is not over. It is not too late for America to correct its course and stop the march toward a government run, "single payer" healthcare system. Polls show that a large majority of Americans don't want Obamacare. Congress should seize the opportunity to repeal the very worst aspect of this new legislation, namely the mandate that forces every American either to purchase health insurance or face an IRS penalty. This mandate represents nothing more...

The day after Republican Rand Paul's landslide primary victory in Kentucky, the mainstream Left tried to paint him as a segregationist, while the mainstream Right either ignored or attacked him. And for good reason. Like his father Ron, Rand represents revolution, and the establishment is petrified. Let's begin with the Left. Afraid that they can't beat a conservative Republican of Paul's pedigree in the Tea Party-influenced, anti-Obama political climate of 2010, liberals are trying to run against him in 1964. Cherry-picking irrelevant references Paul has made about private property rights and how they could possibly relate to the Civil Rights...

Most everyone agrees that health care in the United States has major problems, the biggest problems relating to skyrocketing costs. No one doubts the system is in need of reform. However, too many in Washington see tighter government controls as the solution. In fact, the problems are rooted in past government controls that created more problems than they solved. Ironically, laws and policies in the 1970’s promoting Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) resulted from desperate attempts to control spiraling costs. However, instead of promoting an efficient health care system, HMOs took far too much control away from patients and physicians and...

The spotlight remains on the Greek sovereign debt crisis as the riots continue. The terms of the Greek bailout from the IMF and Eurozone countries remain contentious with citizens on all sides. Europeans hate having their governments throw public money away as much as Americans do. The Greeks are not happy about having their taxes raised while their pensions and salaries are cut. Meanwhile, it is rumored by the Financial Times, AFP and others that Greece may spend more than it saves from austerity measures on arms deals with Germany, France and the US as a potential condition of receiving...

Last week I introduced a very important piece of legislation that I hope will gain as much or more support as my Audit the Fed bill. HR 4995, the End the Mandate Act will repeal provisions of the newly passed health insurance reform bill that give the government the power to force Americans to purchase government-approved health insurance. The whole bill is rotten, but this provision especially is a blatant violation of the Constitution. Defenders claim the Congress's constitutional authority to regulate "interstate commerce" gives it the power to do this. However, as Judge Andrew Napolitano and other distinguished legal...

Few were surprised this week when Jim DeMint endorsed Rand Paul in his bid for US Senate in Kentucky. That the man many consider the most conservative member of the Senate endorsed the son of the man many consider the most conservative member of Congress is indicative of DeMint’s genuine commitment to what most consider traditional Republican principles. Likewise, that GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell so vehemently opposes Paul and has so enthusiastically endorsed his opponent is indicative of his commitment to the Republican status quo-at the expense of genuine conservatism. Rand Paul has gone from relative obscurity to...

Still, if the GOP is interested in actually doing something more glorious than its multi-year FUBAR when George W. Bush and the Republicans were fully in charge of the federal government, they'd do well to listen very closely to Dr. No. However rotten Obama and the Dems poll, the GOP should never think anyone believes them when they say they are the party of small government and, for god's sake, we're well past the sad-sack culture-war days of various Republican geniuses like Newt Gingrich (4 percent!) talk up flag-burning amendments (the First Amendment is not a suicide pact with square...

Much has been made recently about the supposed economic recovery. A few blips in a few statistics and many believe our troubles are all over. Of course, they have to redefine recovery as “jobless” to account for the lack of improvement on Main Street. But the banks have money, Wall Street is chugging along, and the administration would like to get on with other agendae. They have even set up a commission to investigate the crisis as if it were all in the past. The truth is that Americans are still losing jobs, the Fed is still inflating, and more...

As we start the new year 2010, the establishment politicians, economists and Wall Street are trying to convince themselves that we have turned the corner and economic growth has once again begun. The predictions that conditions are getting back to normal come from those who never saw the crisis coming and don't have the vaguest notion what caused it. Some of them concede that it could be a jobless recovery. That will establish a new definition for a recovery. Official unemployment is at 10% but even the government knows that if everyone is counted, including those individuals that are too...

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's son has officially entered the GOP Senate primary in Kentucky. Rand Paul's campaign manager turned in the candidacy papers and a $500 check to the secretary of state's office on Wednesday afternoon.

I was a Ron Paul supporter in the 2008 campaign for the presidency, and I made no apologies about it. Ron Paul was the candidate at the time that supported a smaller government, individual liberties and the Constitution closer than any other candidate. By far, he was the small government candidate. Others, especially conservatives, would often say that they support many of Paul’s positions, but… Either his voice was too “high and whiny”, or they viewed his position on America’s foreign policy to be “wacko” and “crazy”. The going phrase at the time, and still today, is that Ron Paul...

Last week on Christmas Eve, after many backroom deals were made, the Senate passed the healthcare reform bill with a strictly partisan vote. I was pleased that my colleagues in the GOP are on the right side of this bill. Although this vote was a major step in healthcare reform becoming reality, they still have to reconcile the Senate bill with the House-passed version in conference committee. This could prove even more difficult and costly than the Senate vote. There was a little bit of controversy surrounding one particular Senator who was initially against the bill, but then, coincidentally, a...

A pro-life conservative women's political action committee that promotes what it calls "biblical values" has endorsed Bowling Green eye doctor Rand Paul for U.S. Senate. A pro-life conservative women's political action committee that promotes what it calls "biblical values" has endorsed Bowling Green eye doctor Rand Paul for U.S. Senate. In a statement released Wednesday, Concerned Women for America called Paul a "strong man of faith and of conviction." Paul is seeking the GOP nomination for the seat held by fellow Republican Jim Bunning, who is retiring. Beverly LaHaye, founder and chairman of the Concerned Women PAC, cited Paul's financial...

The same grassroots energy that propelled Ron Paul from a little-known Congressman to a force in the presidential primaries now seems to be transferring to his son in his Senate run in Kentucky. Public Policy Polling's (D) latest survey shows him easily ahead of Secretary of State Trey Grayson, who was recruited by the national party after Sen. Jim Bunning (R) was pressured not to seek re-election. Republican Primary Election Matchup Paul 44 Grayson 25 Und 32

Last week the House overwhelmingly approved a measure to put a new round of sanctions on Iran. If this measure passes the Senate, the United States could no longer do business with anyone who sold refined petroleum products to Iran or helped them develop their ability to refine their own petroleum. The sad thing is that many of my colleagues voted for this measure because they felt it would deflect a military engagement with Iran. I would put the question to them, how would Congress react if another government threatened our critical trading partners in this way? Would we not...

People often mistake being named Time’s “Person of the Year” as an honor, but that men as sinister as Adolph Hitler, Josef Stalin and Rudy Giuliani have all been given the title suggests otherwise. According to Time, the award is primarily a recognition of influence and by that measure the 2009 selection of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke makes sense. Explains Time, the Fed is “an independent government agency that conducts monetary policy, which means it sets short-term interest rates - which means it has immense influence over inflation, unemployment, the strength of the dollar and the strength of your...

Last week, in the name of protecting the little guy from Wall Street, the House passed HR 4173 to increase the little guy’s false sense of security in the financial system. This mammoth piece of legislation would massively increase government regulation and oversight in the banking industry under the misguided reasoning that more government could have stopped faulty lending practices, when in actuality it caused them. This bill would also greatly increase the powers of the Federal Reserve, which too many in Congress still see as savior rather than perpetrator in this mess. One silver lining is that the amendment...

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul reportedly won the U.S. Virgin Island caucuses Saturday, although it was reported rival Mitt Romney secured the victory. According to the U.S. Virgin Islands’ Republican Party results, Mr. Paul won with 29 percent of the votes, followed by Mr. Romney at 26 percent. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum placed in third with six percent, followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at three percent of the votes. In contrast, The Associated Press and several other major media outlets reported Mr. Romney as the winner of the Virgin Island caucuses, because he actually comes away from...

Some of my regular readers will wonder why I'm wasting my time with Ron Paul. After all, ol' RuPaul is nothing but a piker, and our eyes should be on the prize--- the White House in 2012. This would be a fair assessment----if one only looks at the small picture. I am fighting for the soul of the Conservative Movement. I'm heading off RuPaul and his cyberstormtroopers at the pass before they irrevocably damage the Movement. If the Conservative Movement is destroyed, all hope is lost. The Republic will not survive. It's that simple. It's that cut and dried.

Just as those in union leadership cavalierly and ruthlessly use their rank and file members as tools for their own empowerment and enrichment, the GOP elite prey upon their base for power and wealth at the expense of the American taxpaying citizen. Congress has become an elite society of male and female Willie Sutton (prolific U. S. bank robber) imitators, because that is where the money and power in American Politics is. The Mafia must be jealous of how those in Congress have co-opted and corrupted the legislative branch of our Federal government into their own syndicate.