Free Republic

Setting up insurance exchanges — the centerpiece of President Obama's healthcare reform law — is costing the Health and Human Services Department a whole lot more than it originally expected. According to budget documents released Wednesday, the department expects to spend $4.4 billion on exchange grants to the states by the end of this year — double its estimates a year ago. The HHS is also asking Congress for another $1.5 billion to set up a federal exchange in 26 states. The department has cobbled together money from other programs to get started, but officials said they need another $800...

Go For Broke Day When : Always Apil 5th Are you a gambler? Then, today, is your day. It's Go For Broke Day. Today is a day to put it all on the line, and take a chance. It might be money. Or, it can be a love relationship. Perhaps, it's time to initiate a risky project, or to take a new job.Many of us go about our daily lives playing it safe, not taking big chances. If you are of a conservative ilk, you may have never gone out on a limb, or taken big risks. If this...

Were California's state government a business, it would be a candidate for insolvency with a negative net worth of $127.2 billion, according to an annual financial report issued by State Auditor Elaine Howle and the Bureau of State Audits. The report, which covers the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, says that the state's negative status -- all of its assets minus all of its liabilities -- increased that year, largely because it spent more than it received in revenue. During the 2011-12 fiscal year, the state's general fund spent $1.7 billion more than it received in revenues and wound...

Homeland prepares budget cuts, up to 1,000 furloughs at Secret Service • As many as 1,000 Secret Service agents, officers and workers could be furloughed as Homeland Security prepares for sequestration Bracing for the possibility of budget sequestration next month, the Homeland Security Department is making plans to furlough as many as 1,000 Secret Service agents, officers and others employees, officials say. Homeland Security issued its first agency-wide memorandum late last week preparing for sequestration, the sweeping automatic budget cuts set to take effect as early as March 1 under a prior deal between the White House and Congress to...

• Tendai Biti made the announcement at press conference declaring: 'Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 in government coffers' • However he today contradicted his claims by saying the following day $30m was paid into government accounts • Result is culmination of years of ruinous economic policy by Zimbabwe's despotic President Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe's finance minister has taken a hard look at the cash strapped country's bank accounts - and discovered it only has £138 and 34 pence left. Tendai Biti made the announcement at press conference yesterday declaring: 'Last week when we paid civil servants...

An Argentine navy ship was given a triumphant homecoming on Wednesday three months after it was seized in Ghana on behalf of a hedge fund suing over defaulted government bonds. The ARA Libertad, a tall sailing ship used as a training vessel, was detained in the West African nation on October 2 due to a court order obtained by NML Capital Ltd as it fights to get full repayment for the bonds in the courts. Argentina's government, which calls funds like NML "vultures," asked a U.N. maritime court to intervene and the Hamburg-based tribunal ordered the ship's release last month....

Democratic Illinois Rep. Danny K. Davis told The Daily Caller that President Obama should have the power to raise the nation’s debt ceiling without congressional approval, citing the example of President Abraham Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation as a good use of presidential authority. “Sometimes when we’ve gotten great answers is when presidents have had enough authority to take some actions,” Davis told TheDC on Capitol Hill Friday. “I mean, remember that we just celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, and if Abraham Lincoln had not had the power, authority and the will to make that decision, we...

US taxpayers spent a staggering $1.4 Billion (yes, with a B) on the Obamas according to author Robert Keith Gray in his new book PRESIDENTIAL PERKS GONE ROYAL! (1) Compare that to only $57.8 million the Brits shelled out for their royals and you have to ask what is going on with President Obama. Now word comes that he and first lady Michelle, their two daughters and Dog Bo will be spending an extended holiday vacation in Hawaii that will cost we taxpayers...

Anyone who believes that the president’s proposed tax hikes on “the rich” will save our country from insolvency is grossly mistaken, and should begin to educate themselves by examining the graph below. Whoa: This isn’t the least bit surprising, of course. We’ve seen this coming for a very long time. Barring major cuts to entitlement spending the country will go bankrupt. It’s not a possibility -- it’s an absolute certainty. Which is why I find all the “negotiations” surrounding raising taxes on “the rich” so reprehensible. The revenue generated from such a proposal -- as the graph above demonstrates --...

When George W. Bush was sworn in as president, it cost US taxpayers $115.5 million. In January of 2009, it cost us $125 million for Barack Obama’s swearing in. All indications are pointing to a cost of over $100 million for Obama’s second swearing in. Seeing this kind of waste of taxpayer dollars makes we want to swear in here and there. The money will be spent on the preparations and decorations along with the gala ball that follows and the multiple DC parties. In the meantime, our country is facing a financial crisis and millions of Americans are losing...

The Poway Unified School District in California is facing a whopping $1 billion repayment on a loan of just $105 million. It borrowed the money using bonds that the state treasurer has compared to payday loans -- and more than 200 other California districts are in the same boat. More than 200 school districts across California are taking a second look at the high price of the debt they've taken on using risky financial arrangements. Collectively, the districts have borrowed billions in loans that defer payments for years — leaving many districts owing far more than they borrowed. In 2010,...

Many Americans didn't bother to vote in the past presidential election, some out of apathy or a belief that the election would hardly affect them. They are in for a rude awakening now that Obama has won re-election. His Santa Claus false promises are unsustainable, so there are going to be few winners and a lot of losers as he redistributes wealth. Obama ran on a platform of making the rich “pay their fair share of taxes,” but raising taxes on the wealthy will only fund the federal government for eight days a year. In order to even partially keep...

A decade and a half ago, both of us served on President Clinton's Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, the forerunner to President Obama's recent National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. In 1994 we predicted that, unless something was done to control runaway entitlement spending, Medicare and Social Security would eventually go bankrupt or confront severe benefit cuts. Eighteen years later, nothing has been done. Why? The usual reason is that entitlement reform is the third rail of American politics. That explanation presupposes voter demand for entitlements at any cost, even if it means bankrupting the nation. A...

We, the people of the US, are heading for a disaster of epic proportions. And when it hits, due to the US influence abroad, the world will feel the hurt at the same magnitude. Why? Fiat currency, that’s why. Combined with rapidly increasing national debt, and interest rates kept artificially low, with massive infusions of "cash" into the market place, the foundation holding up the confidence in the US dollar is starting to crumble. Given more credit ratings downgrades by the various international credit foundations and agencies, the point of irreversible damage is quickly approaching. When that happens, hyper-inflation will...

The GOP's Presidential election defeat is opening up a debate in the party, with more than a few voices saying they are willing to rethink their views on immigration. This is good news, which means it's also a good moment to address some of the frequent claims from the anti-immigration right that simply aren't true, especially about Hispanics. One myth is that Latino voters simply aren't worth pursuing because they're automatic Democrats. Yet Ronald Reagan was so eager to welcome Latinos to the GOP that he described them as "Republicans who don't know it yet." Recall that between 1996 and...

The U.S. Treasury quietly warned at the end of a statement issued last Wednesday that it expects the federal government to hit its legal debt limit before the end of this year--which means before the new Congress is seated--and that "extraordinary measures" will be needed before then to keep the government fully funded into the early part of 2013. On Aug. 2, 2011, President Obama signed a deal he had negotiated with congressional leaders to increase the debt limit of the federal government by $2.4 trillion. But, now, after only 15 months, almost all of that additional borrowing authority has...

On Aug. 2, 2011, President Obama signed a deal he had negotiated with congressional leaders to increase the debt limit of the federal government by $2.4 trillion. But, now, after only 15 months, almost all of that additional borrowing authority has been exhausted. Although Treasury revealed in its statement on Wednesday that it was likely to hit the debt limit by the end of the year, Treasury Secretary Geithner failed to respond to a letter that Senate Finance Ranking Member Orrin Hatch and Senate Budget Ranking Member Jeff Sessions sent to him on Oct. 15 demanding that he notify them...

The Obama administration is committing federal resources to Hurricane Sandy clean-up at a rate that is either impressive or alarming, depending on which disaster matters more -- the storm, or the budget deficit. For the time being, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is in better shape than in past storms. Administrator Craig Fugate said this week the agency has $3.6 billion to pay for the federal response. But Fugate said Thursday he's not giving any predictions for what the total bill will be, and the heavy demand could certainly require Congress to consider additional funding during the lame-duck session. With...

President Obama has spent far more lavishly on White House state dinners than previous chief executives, including nearly $1 million on a 2010 dinner for Mexico's president, according to documents obtained by The Washington Examiner. Presidents have long used formal dinners to court foreign heads of state and to dish out fine food and wine to reward political, financial and show business celebrities and supporters. But current and former government officials said the documents obtained by The Examiner point to an unprecedented upsurge in White House spending on such events. The Obama extravaganza two years ago for Mexican President Felipe...

The opening line of the Beatles’ iconic “Sergeant Pepper’s” album is echoing in my thought: “It was 20 years ago today…” Well, not quite to the day, but 20 years ago I published an article titled, “$4 Trillion and Counting.” In it, I despaired at the rapid increase in the national debt from its first-ever crossing of the $1 trillion mark during the Reagan presidency to four times that gargantuan amount in only a decade. Today, a mere two decades later, we have quadrupled the national debt again, to $16 trillion. (That figure represents the official national debt, but if...