Free Republic

Physicians have received another holiday season reprieve from financial disaster as the Senate today easily approved a bipartisan budget deal — already passed by the House — that delays an almost 24% reduction in Medicare pay from January 1 to April 1.

The lawmaker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Mr. Boehner had said he would be willing to violate the so-called Hastert Rule if necessary to pass a debt limit increase. The informal rule refers to a policy of not bringing to the floor any measure that does not have a majority of Republican votes. Other Republicans also said Thursday that they got the sense that Mr. Boehner would do whatever was necessary to ensure that the country did not default on its debt.

I have wondered for quite some time why Obama, Reid and Pelosi have been screaming so loudly about not prioritizing and "causing" a default. After all, it's not a default if you cannot pay for every program that was appropriated. You're just not keeping your political promises, which may***** off voters but isn't a default. A default is exactly one thing -- the non-payment of coupon or principal when it comes due. Now I understand the reason -- the 14th Amendment doesn't empower The President to raise the debt ceiling on his own. No, the 14th Amendment requires him to...

“I will continue to do everything in my power to get the House of Representatives to allow our government to reopen as quickly as possible, and make sure you receive the pay that you have earned,” he said. Shortly after the shutdown went into effect, Congress introduced a bill that would assure retroactive back pay for all federal employees, meaning they will be paid in full once the shutdown ends.

Immigration overhaul legislation has been dormant in the House for months, but a few Republicans are working behind the scenes to advance it at a time the Capitol is immersed in a partisan brawl over government spending and President Barack Obama's health care law.

Two of the three largest health insurers in Wisconsin — UnitedHealthcare and Humana — will not participate in the state’s online marketplace under the Affordable Care Act, but 13 insurers are considering selling to individuals and nine insurers have indicated an interest in selling to small businesses.

But a company spokesperson says they're simply trying to protect themselves from the types of protesters that vandalized the mine site on June 11th. 15 to 20 protesters raided the mine site in the Town of Anderson early that morning, throwing full soda cans and water jugs towards some workers. One of the protesters, who Iron County Sheriff's Deputies identified as 26 year-old Katie Kloth of Stevens Point, is facing a felony charge of robbery with use of force. A sheriff's report states Kloth forcibly stole a camera away from a Gogebic employee who was videotaping the protesters. The employee...

Minutes after the border fence, senators also voted to weaken current law that requires the government to have biometric checks such as fingerprints or eye-scans for every visitor to the U.S. — a recommendation of the 9/11 commission that looked into the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York. Senators on Tuesday rejected building the 700 miles of double-tier border fencing Congress authorized just seven years ago, with a majority of the Senate saying they didn’t want to delay granting illegal immigrants legal status while the fence was being built. The 54-39 vote to reject the fence shows the core...

Eventually, the College Board will hand over its student data to research organizations like SDP, with restrictions on sharing information; but Coleman was not clear on how this would happen. However, Coleman made it abundantly clear he will concentrate on data mining our schoolchildren's proclivities. So, how does intrusion into children's privacy through more accumulation of data support Coleman's stated goals of making students career and college ready? Now that many states have awakened to the deficiencies in Common Core and are even moving to defund them, Republican governors who bought Coleman's spiel three years ago need to redeem themselves...

A White House official says President Barack Obama will name former aide Samantha Power as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Power will replace Susan Rice, who will take over as Obama's national security adviser. The official says Obama will announce both appointments from the White House Wednesday afternoon. Power is a longtime Obama adviser who worked on his 2008 presidential campaign and ran the human rights office in the White House. She left the administration in February but was considered the favorite to replace Rice at the U.N. The official insisted on anonymity in order to confirm the...

Through 2012, then-Exempt Organization Specialist Stephen Seok signed many of the intimidating letters sent to conservative nonprofits. For example, this January 2012 letter sent to the Richmond Tea Party demanded the date, time and location of all group events, as well as copies of all handouts provided at the events, and the names and credentials of all organizers… According to WXIX-TV/Fox 19 in Cincinnati, Seok is no longer an exempt organization specialist. He has since been promoted to “supervisor IRS agent.”

With this in mind, we agree as a group that we cannot both represent our constituents and our conservative principles by supporting the budget in its current form. We in good conscience cannot support this budget unless the following issues are substantially addressed: · Adoption of Rep. Dale Kooyenga’s tax reform package and serious reforms to the “Marriage Penalty” tax. · Complete and total removal of the “DNA Collection Upon Arrest” proposal. · An overall reduction of $500 million in bonding. · Appropriations and tax reform done in a deficit neutral manner. · Double dipping 2/3 FTE employee provision returns...

The School Board was open to some "outside the box" thinking, so Hibner and Peerenboom spent the following weeks evaluating what activities and duties could and couldn't be done from afar. They determined that with the help of videoconferencing and Skyping, the majority of Peerenboom's duties could be performed remotely. They presented a plan to the board that they say benefits the district as well as Peerenboom. The board unanimously approved a one-year change in Peerenboom's contract April 8.

A great deal has been written and spoken about Common Core, but it is worth rehearsing the outlines again. Common Core is a set of math and English standards developed largely with Gates Foundation money and pushed by the Obama administration and the National Governors Association. The standards define what every schoolchild should learn each year, from first grade through twelfth, and the package includes teacher evaluations tied to federally funded tests designed to ensure that schools teach to Common Core.

http://www.foxnews.com/

Italian authorities have seized a record $1.7 billion in assets from a Sicilian green energy entrepreneur with alleged ties to the Mafia.

Senator John McCain dismisses a question about the impeachment of President Obama and makes light of the questioner. He asserts that the recent popular election overrides any Constitutional issues or criminal actions by Obama. Following McCain's logic, an anti-American dictator can be elected, who commits criminal acts, and Congress can do absolutely nothing about it.

Many of us have questioned what causedRoberts to switch his vote on ObamaCare at the last minute, as repo..., and doing so, so late that the Conservative Justices were forced to rewrite their majority opinion to be minority dissent. These facts may answer that question.

Will be speaking about Keystone XL pipeline.

Day Two. Asking about targeted killings.