Free Republic

A senior U.S. House Democrat unveiled this week an aggressive agenda to boost workers' paychecks by shifting significant tax breaks from the wealthiest Americans to the middle class. The plan from Representative Chris Van Hollen has almost no chance of passage by the Republican-controlled Congress but is aimed at shaping Democrats' policy vision for the 2016 presidential election. The Maryland Democrat's plan calls for an annual 'paycheck bonus' tax credit of $1,000 for individuals making less than $100,000 a year and $2,000 for married couples making less than $200,000 and would be funded through a new fee on financial transactions.

Coming this tax season from the IRS: More identity-theft risk, longer hold times and refund checks that take a WEEK longer to arrive The IRS, long Americans' least-favorite government agency, is likely to be a lot less popular this tax season - refunds will be slower, the risk of identity theft will be higher and there will be longer hold times to reach customer service. By some estimates, fewer than half of the taxpayers who call the IRS will be able to speak to a representative. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen revealed to the changes to employees in a memo -...

Democrats are seizing on the fight for mandatory paid leave in the United States as their next big pocketbook issue. The Obama administration has for months called upon Congress to require employers to offer paid leave, with Labor Secretary Tom Perez relentlessly pressing the case to anyone who will listen. And while potential Democratic presidential candidates, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), have voiced support for the proposal, the party has yet to elevate paid leave to the top tier of its policy agenda. That will soon change, according to Democratic operatives, administration officials...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday he will allow the Senate to vote on an amendment asking if they agree that climate change is impacting the planet. At his weekly press briefing, McConnell said "nobody is blocking any amendments" to legislation that would approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The GOP leader had promised to allow an open amendment process on the Keystone bill. But a measure proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had raised questions about whether he would stick to that commitment. The Sanders measure asks whether lawmakers agree with the overwhelming consensus of scientists...

A Fort Hood soldier who just returned from West Africa and was self-monitoring for Ebola symptoms was found dead on Tuesday outside his apartment, officials said. Killeen police and hazmat teams arrived after 911 calls came in of a man's body on the front lawn of his home, which is just outside the base. Fort Hood said that the 24-year-old man, who has not been named, had returned on January 7 as part of a 87-person team assigned to West Africa for three months and was found dead at around 7.30am. Carrie Williams, director of media relations for Texas Department...

EXCLUSIVE: Bill Clinton pictured with Jeffrey Epstein's social fixer at Chelsea's wedding AFTER severing links with disgraced pedophile This is the society fixer alleged to have helped find underage girls for pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein - helping Bill Clinton celebrate his daughter's marriage. Ghislaine Maxwell was photographed at the former First Daughter's glittering July 2010 wedding to Marc Mezvinsky - despite Epstein having been convicted of soliciting underage girls. Clinton had cut ties to Epstein after his arrest over allegations of sex with girls as young as 14. But this photograph shows that he maintained close ties to Maxwell, who...

<p>Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) gave her most definitive answer to date about her 2016 plans in an interview with Fortune published Tuesday.</p> <p>So are you going to run for President? No.</p> <p>In the past, Warren has denied that she's running for president, always speaking in the present tense.</p>

During his time as a personal aide, Reggie Love developed a very personal bond with Barack Obama. The 'bodyman' stuck with him during the 2008 presidential campaign and during his first years in the White House. But there is perhaps one moment where their working relationship became slightly awkward. Love recounts how he was staying in a hotel during the presidential campaign when he had a female friend from college to stay - and the then Senator Obama barged in.

In what may be the most unlikely duo to show up at any Golden Globes after party, The Good Wife Star Alan Cumming attended HBO's Sunday night soiree arm-in-arm with none other than Monica Lewinsky. The odd couple looked to be having a great time, with the one-time political hopeful all in black and the Broadway performer in an all nude-colored suit. It was a rare, and high profile, glimpse at the duo who've been the best of friends since not long after Lewinsky became the country's most infamous intern.

Grace Brewer says she never thought she would be without health insurance at this stage of her life. "I'm a casualty of Obamacare," says Brewer, 60, a self-employed chiropractor in the Kansas City, Kansas, area. She wanted to keep the catastrophic health insurance plan she once had, which she says fit her needs. But under the Affordable Care Act, the government's health care reform law, the plan was discontinued because it did not comply with the law's requirements, and her bills doubled to more than $400 a month. "I wanted a minimal plan and I’m not allowed to have it,"...

Filmmaker, actor and activist George Clooney faced some serious questions backstage at the Golden Globe Awards after receiving his lifetime achievement Cecil B. DeMille Award. Wearing a “Je Suis Charlie” button in tribute of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, he closed his acceptance speech by saying, “Today was an extraordinary day. There were millions of people that marched, not just in Paris but around the world. And they were Christians and Jews and Muslims. They were leaders of countries all over the world, and they didn’t march in protest. They marched in support of the idea that we will not walk...

**SNIP** Requiring employees to shoulder more of the cost burden may undermine public support for Obamacare just as Congress, now firmly under Republican control, considers new ways to gut the law. The tax takes effect in 2018, and employers are already laying the groundwork to make sure they don’t have to pay the 40 percent surcharge on health-insurance spending that exceeds $27,500 for a family or $10,200 for an individual. Once envisioned as a tool to slow the nation’s growing health-care tab, the tax has in practice meant higher out-of-pocket health- care costs for workers. “I don’t think there’s any...

Over the last 15 years, California racked up three small surpluses, two break-evens and 10 huge deficits. “There’s not a lot of money left in the budget,” said Gov. Jerry Brown regarding the $164.7 billion budget unveiled Friday. “It’s very tight.” The real reason money is tight is Brown and the Democratic legislature increased spending by five percent in a period when inflation is averaging 1.3 percent. California’s proposed spending will jump $5.8 billion more than inflation.

At the end of last year, with most of his colleagues stuck in Washington for an important Senate session on a Saturday, Sen. James M. Inhofe was in Tulsa getting spurs fastened onto a pair of boots. “They’re ostrich,” said Inhofe (R-Okla.), the country’s most prominent climate-change denier, referring to his footwear. “Probably some endangered species; I have a reputation to maintain.” Inhofe could have been wearing Birkenstocks and it wouldn’t have put a dent in his notoriety. The senator cemented his status as public enemy No. 1 for environmentalists long ago, topping it off with his 2012 book on...

The State of the Union address offers President Obama a huge platform to double down on his call to reclassify the Internet as a utility, advocates say. Obama inserted himself into the net neutrality fight in November, when he urged the Federal Communications Commission to adopt strong regulations ensuring that the Internet remains a level playing field for businesses and the public. But the White House has yet to say whether the issue will make it into his agenda setting speech. “The President should reiterate his support for a free and open Internet,” Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) said, noting its...

Chris Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday,” couldn’t help but ask Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) about a video, which went viral, of his daughter looking uncomfortable while Vice President Joe Biden whispered in her ear and gave her a kiss on the head during the senator’s swearing in ceremony last week. “I have to ask, cause a lot of people have been speculating about it, does she think the vice president is creepy?” Wallace asked. “No, Chris,” Coons said with a chuckle. “She doesn’t think the vice president is creepy.” To the contrary, Coons went on to say that Biden,...

Hillary Clinton is ready to run on President Obama’s record when it comes to the economy. Clinton allies say that if the former secretary of State does in fact announce a second bid for the presidency this year, they expect that she’ll tether herself to a main slice of Obama’s legacy. A series of economic reports including Friday’s positive jobs numbers is adding to Democratic confidence that the economy will finally be a winner for Obama in his last two years in office, and that it will help the Democratic White House candidate in 2016. But even as Clinton embraces...

**SNIP** He handed the bank teller a note, which asked for a donation to be made to his church, according to documents filed in court. Rhode Island police believe that the former professor, who currently lives in a Boston suburb, is responsible for a similar heist at a bank in Providence. According to the Providence Journal, a middle-aged man robbed a Citizens Bank in November, telling the clerk who handed over $3,000, 'Thank you, this is for the church.' The Post reports that while waiting to be arraigned for the incident on New Year's Eve, Gibbons told another man who...

**SNIP** The Seattle City Council member, a member of the Socialist Alternative movement, has been collaborating with ex-Stranger writer and blogger (Horsesass.org) David Goldstein, often in the past a defender and advocate for the Democratic Party. The Stranger has been a non-stop advocate for Sawant. It promoted her as a challenger to House Speaker Frank Chopp in 2012. It boosted her 2013 City Council race with a Madonna like cover photo, and Dominic Holden’s acid attacks on her opponent, Seattle City Council incumbent Richard Conlin. If it keeps to the schedule listed on Amazon, “The Most Dangerous Woman in America”...

**SNIP** After all, a Senate seat is a plum job anywhere, but especially for Democrats in California, where it’s been decades since any of them lost a reelection bid for statewide office. Whoever takes Boxer’s place can expect to become the state’s senior senator after 2018, when the then-85-year-old Dianne Feinstein is also widely expected to retire. But ambitious Democrats should beware: Their eagerness, even greed, could do in their party’s hold on Boxer’s spot. It has happened before in California, and very recently. The field of potential Democratic candidates for Boxer’s slot is large, possibly going beyond obvious prospects...