Free Republic

Friday night's deal includes every Democratic wish except taxpayer-funded abortion and not a single Republican proposal. Those will come later, we're told. We're always told that, and it almost never happens. WASHINGTON, DC — Washington politicians appear poised to fail the country once again, agreeing Friday evening to a one-sided and partisan coronavirus bill disguised as compromise. It’s not a shock to any conservatives in Washington and probably isn’t surprising to Republican voters either. They’re used to betrayal. But the suffering men and women who run America’s small and mid-sized businesses might have hoped they wouldn’t be abandoned in a...

"The agreement reached tonight would include: -$1.375b for border barriers (55 new miles of bollard fencing) -Dems drop call for new cap on ICE beds for detentions in interior -Overall cap on detention beds drops from 49,057 to 40,520 Per congressional official."

President Trump on Monday said he would build his long-desired wall along the southern border regardless of whether Congress approves funding for it. "Just so you know, we're building the wall anyway," Trump said at a campaign rally in El Paso, Texas, which sits directly across the Rio Grande from Mexico. Trump spoke shortly after lawmakers said they had reached a funding deal in principle to avoid another government shutdown set to begin on Saturday. The deal includes some money for barriers along the border. The president said he would not sign an agreement that cuts the number of detention...

RUSH: The budget deal. It’s a big deal. It’s a two-year budget deal. We talked about this yesterday. And remember, I had an idea. You know, there’s a lot of people wondering about (laughing), “What is going on?” All of this spending, combined with the tax cuts, deficits as far as the eye can see — and it doesn’t seem like it’s very Republican. It doesn’t seem like it’s very conservative. And they indeed they shut down the government for a couple hours and they got it reopen last night when the deal was agreed to. Trump signed it early...

WASHINGTON — Just add cash. That was the ingredient Republican and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill needed to strike and pass a long-term budget deal after months of bitter fighting across and within party lines about how to spend funds that had been limited by budget caps. An $89 billion injection "changes a lot of votes," explained North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, the chairman of Republicans' arch-conservative Freedom Caucus and an opponent of the bill, hours before it passed. And that figure, an important factor in securing the support of lawmakers from the Republican-heavy states of Texas and Florida, only...

Sen. Rand Paul was blocking the Senate's move to quickly pass its massive budget deal Thursday with only hours until government funding lapses. For the Senate to hold a vote on the spending package Thursday, all senators must agree. The Kentucky Republican held out as he sought a vote on an amendment to maintain budget caps. "All Senator Rand Paul is asking for is a 15-minute vote on his amendment to restore the budget caps. He is ready to proceed at any time," Paul spokesman Sergio Gor said in a statement. As Paul railed against lifting spending caps, the nonpartisan...

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...

(a) Transmittal of special message Whenever the President, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the head of any department or agency of the United States, or any officer or employee of the United States proposes to defer any budget authority provided for a specific purpose or project, the President shall transmit to the House of (1) the amount of the budget authority proposed to be deferred; (2) any account, department, or establishment of the Government to which such budget authority is available for obligation, and the specific projects or governmental functions involved; (3) the period of time...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has announced a deal with Senate Democrats to fund the government and set spending levels for defense and nondefense programs over the next two years. The legislation would avert a government shutdown on Friday, when federal funding is due to expire, and boost defense and nondefense programs. It also lifts the debt ceiling to March 2019, which White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders hailed as a decision that would move Congress away from "crisis-to-crisis budgeting." The deal is backed by McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and will almost certainly be...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon that a deal had been reached to fund the government for 2 years, which includes raising military spending but excludes a DACA provision. Why it matters: The budget lifts sequestration caps, increasing discretionary spending by $300 billion over two years. The deal extends CHIP for 10 years instead of two and includes disaster relief and opioid response funding.

BREAKING: Senate leaders have reached an agreement on a two-year budget deal, adding billions of dollars in federal spending. The bipartisan accord would lift statutory budget limits by more than $200 billion, provide tens of billions of dollars in disaster relief funding. Senate leaders unveiled the deal Wednesday after months of negotiations -- and after Senate Democrats agreed to set aside immigration policy demands. The plan still faces head winds -- particularly in the House, where conservative Republicans are balking at the increased spending and liberal Democrats want further assurances on immigration. The announcement came as Congress faces yet another...

Top Senate leaders were working Tuesday to finalize a sweeping long-term budget deal that would include a defense spending boost President Trump has long demanded alongside an increase in domestic programs championed by Democrats. As negotiations for the long-term deal continued, the House passed a short-term measure that would fund the government past a midnight Thursday deadline and avert a second partial shutdown in less than a month.

Some people have called for a balanced budget amendment to our Constitution as a means of reining in a big-spending Congress. That's a misguided vision, for the simple reason that in any real economic sense, as opposed to an accounting sense, the federal budget is always balanced. The value of what we produced in 2017 — our gross domestic product — totaled about $19 trillion. If the Congress spent $4 trillion of the $19 trillion that we produced, unless you believe in Santa Claus, you know that Congress must force us to spend $4 trillion less privately. Taxing us is...

WASHINGTON - The threat of yet another government shutdown looms in about eight days amid speculation that next year’s budget deficit could speed past $1 trillion. Despite a fast-approaching Feb. 8 deadline, Congress appeared no closer to passing a budget, after it approved a stop-gap bill last month, giving lawmakers more time to reach agreement on a variety of divisive issues, including immigration. A growing number of lawmakers in both parties were complaining about out-of-control figures in both domestic and defense spending. Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee called the large increase in military spending “grotesque,” while Rep. Mark...

No one is paying much attention, but Congress is preparing a two-year budget that would blow past bipartisan spending caps to the tune of $216 billion through 2019. That might be a best-case scenario. The budget watchers at FreedomWorks estimate that when hurricane disaster relief, funding for the border wall, added Obamacare money for the bankrupt insurance markets, and other last-minute spending "emergencies" are thrown in the mix, the two-year spending blitz could exceed $300 billion. President Donald Trump had better get his veto pen handy. All of this is happening because Republicans have fallen into the Democrats' fiscal trap....

The Senate broke its budget impasse Monday as Democrats joined Republicans in voting to end debate on a short-term spending bill that would reopen the government and provide funding through Feb. 8. The upper chamber was expected to quickly approve the bill, and House members were told to await a possible vote Monday afternoon, raising the possibility that the shutdown would end after just three days. "We will vote today to reopen the government," Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a speech on the Senate floor. The vote was 81-18 to move ahead on the spending bill.

This is why America hates Hollywood. Late night “funny” man Jimmy Kimmel delivered a heart-wrenching monologue Monday night that every mother and every father could relate to. In the emotion-drunk moments last month after the birth of their son — still in the hospital room surrounded by nurses and euphoric family — he and his wife watched their boy turn blue and got the terrifying news that something was wrong with his heart. Or lungs. Or both. Mr. Kimmel called it the “longest three hours of my life” as more nurses and doctors and machines crowded into the room and...

Congratulations! The GOP holds the House, the Senate, and the White House, and, in addition to not abiding by the Constitution and repealing all of the so-called “Affordable Care Act,” they are set to pass a budget that not only hands the Dems pretty much everything they want, it also funds so many obviously crazy things that it would be virtually impossible to defend. Take a deep breath, and let’s dive into the swamp! The GOP budget does not cut taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, which comprises 40% of that organization’s income. Rather than mention that there’s nothing in the Constitution that...

Sen. Cruz: The Budget Deal Is a Corrupt Betrayal of the American People (video) WASHINGTON, D.C. — Upon the Republican leadership’s passage of the Obama-Boehner Budget Deal, a backroom agreement to grow our nation’s debt and bust responsible budget caps, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) issued the following statement after voting against this reckless bill:“Pay no attention to another roughly $80 billion in debt. Pay no attention to the fact that it is the Republican-controlled Congress giving an unlimited credit card to Barack Obama, scheduling votes at 1 o’clock in the morning, and hoping that no one notices.“How is it...

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke about his opposition to the budget and debt ceiling agreement. He was critical of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), President Obama, and Senate Democrats over the deal.