Free Republic

House conservatives on Wednesday revolted against a massive bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling and bust spending caps, complaining that the GOP could no longer lay claim to being the party of fiscal responsibility. “I’m not only a ‘no.’ I’m a ‘hell no,’ ” quipped Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), one of many members of the Tea Party-aligned Freedom Caucus who left a closed-door meeting of Republicans saying they would vote against the deal. It’s a “Christmas tree on steroids,” lamented one of the Freedom Caucus leaders, Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.). “This spending proposal is disgusting and reckless — the...

Donald Trump’s private meeting Thursday with Senate Republicans — designed to foster greater party unity ahead of the national convention in Cleveland — grew combative as the presumptive presidential nominee admonished three senators who have been critical of his candidacy and predicted they would lose their reelection bids, according to two Republican officials with direct knowledge of the exchanges. Trump’s most tense exchange was with Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who has been vocal in his concerns about the business mogul’s candidacy, especially his rhetoric and policies on immigration that the senator argues alienate many Latino voters and others in Arizona....

Democrats shouted "Shame! Shame!," but seven Republicans switched their votes and defeated a measure to protect gay rights. The final vote was 213-212 after the chaos on the House floor. That was enough to defeat an amendment by Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., aimed at upholding an executive order that bars discrimination against LGBT employees by federal contractors. Maloney and other Democrats were incensed. "They literally snatched discrimination from the jaws of equality," Maloney said. He said he had approached Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as McCarthy worked on GOP colleagues to vote against the measure. McCarthy told Maloney to...

This week, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz joined an amicus brief on behalf of 22 members of the Texas congressional delegation in support of private landowners along the Red River. The Bureau of Land Management has recently made waves by claiming thousands of acres of privately owned Texas land along the Red River. It has done so by utilizing — in apparent violation of a nearly 100-year-old Supreme Court precedent and tradition — an arbitrary and bizarre gradient boundary survey method that has adversely impacted private landowners. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) joined Cruz in the brief...

North Texas rarely is viewed as a national battleground in the fight for control of Congress, but two of the hottest races in the country are in the region. That's because two Democratic incumbents long considered relatively safe -- U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas and U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards of Waco -- are now considered vulnerable as Republicans seek to wrest control of Congress from the Democrats. Johnson is facing Dallas Pastor Stephen Broden, and Bryan oil and gas executive retiree Bill Flores is challenging Edwards. Broden recently made national news by picking up an endorsement from former...