Free Republic

The House Homeland Security Committee hosted a hearing Wednesday afternoon called “An Examination of the President's FY 2013 Budget Request for the Department of Homeland Security” with DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. The Congressmen in attendance were Peter King (Committee Chairman) of New York, Lamar Smith of Texas, Dan Lungren of California, Mike Rogers of Alabama, Michael McCaul of Texas, Bennie Thompson (Committee Ranking Member), Loretta Sanchez of California, Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Yvette Clarke of New York, Laura Richardson of California, Danny Davis of Illinois, Chip Cravaack of Minnesota, Patrick Meeham of Pennsylvania, Scott Rigell...

Mr. Jackson is a voice of reason, in a sea of confusion, and rabid racism...

In the summer of 2009, when the outrage over the Democrats’ emerging health care reform bills was at its height, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was excoriated by the left for saying: “The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.” The roiling debate over the HHS decision to mandate...

Standard and Poor downgraded the credit rating of the USA from AAA to AA+. Add in the fact that they downgraded the credit of institutions such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae for being too reliant on government (shocker!), are mulling downgrades of Britain and France, and said they might downgrade the USA again in a few months if the situation doesn't improve, and we're looking at financial free-falls worldwide. This of course has prompted a renewed interest in American debt, since the S&P said that was the main factor in this downgrade. In fact this morning John Chambers, Managing...

No Child Left Behind is an example of why the 'one size fits all' mentality is an improper way to govern. Placing standardizations as well as allocating specific resources at the federal level is not working. Our education system is decaying. With increasing costs and decreasing scores it is clear that reform is necessary to ensure that the future of our nation have the knowledge and skills to compete in a global economy. Chairman Kline of the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee is sponsoring two pieces of legislation to address this issue. The two bills reform federal education...

After a yearlong fight, House Republicans land a blow against the politicized National Mediation Board (NMB). After assuming office in 2009, President Obama appointed two pro-union members to the three member NMB, the federal agency that oversees union-employer relations in the transportation industry. Effectively controlling the board, Obama’s Democrat appointees rewrote long-held election law to make it easier for unions to organize transportation workers. While the National Labor Relations Board’s nefarious activity has received much publicity, Obama’s regulatory overreach began with the NMB. Since the National Railway Act’s was ratified in 1926, a union needed to receive a majority of...

Republicans favor Jesse Kelly as their candidate for former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' Arizona House seat, according to a poll released first to POLITICO. A Wenzel Strategies survey, paid for by Citizens United Political Victory Fund, shows Kelly is ahead of his nearest GOP primary challenger by close to 25 percentage points in the special election. The poll, taken Wednesday and Thursday of this week, puts Kelly at 43 percent to State Sen. Frank Antenori's 18 percent and sports commentator Dave Sitton's 10 percent. Twenty percent aren't sure. The poll included 700 respondents and has a 3.68 percent margin of error....

House and Senate negotiators have released a conference committee report spelling out several of the provisions of the payroll tax cut extension legislation, which also extends unemployment benefits and the “doc fix” for Medicare reimbursements for physicians. The bill would extend the 2 percentage point cut in Social Security and Medicare withholding taxes to 4.2 percent through the end of the year. The payroll tax cut provision would put a full $1,000 in the pockets of the typical American family over the course of 2012, according to the office of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. Under current law,...

Yeah, I know I'm supposed to feel all warm and fuzzy about the fact that Democrats and Republicans didn't play this out to the 11th hour, like they do with every other dispute these days. We're supposed to cheer because the system worked and it produced a bipartisan result in a year that will see precious few of them. Too bad that it sucks money out of an already-ailing trust fund while delivering none of the economic impact promised when we tried it last year:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Congressional negotiators resolved all differences on an agreement to extend...

In a pact early Thursday morning, congressional negotiators gave final approval to an economic plan worth more than $150 billion that would extend a payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits. A key roadblock was overcome when the lawmakers agreed to require new federal workers to contribute more to their pension plans, clearing the way around 12:30 a.m. for a majority of the House-Senate conference committee to begin signing the deal. The pension provision represented a concession to key Maryland Democrats who, even after prodding from President Obama, did not grant their support until current federal workers were shielded from the...

One of life's minor annoyances occurs when someone receives preferential treatment because of his wealth or perceived power. Many people have experienced this firsthand when a "VIP" comes into a restaurant and jumps ahead while they've been waiting for a table. This offends most Americans because it is contrary to our sense of fair play. It divides people into elites and everyone else. This is where we are heading with health care. Don't think so? Well, on October 11, 2011, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) declared that PSA screening for prostate cancer in healthy men was no longer...

President Barack Obama has proposed a $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2013 that aims to slash the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years but still envisions growth in the government's major health benefit programs. The agency-by-agency breakdown: ------ Agency: Agriculture Spending: $154.7 billion Percentage Change from 2012: 4.8 percent increase Discretionary Spending: $23 billion Highlights: Obama's budget envisions savings of $32 billion over 10 years by cutting some farm subsidies, such as eliminating direct payments, which are made regardless of price and crop yield. Other subsidies are paid only when prices dip or a farmer's revenue drops....

There is a political landmine in our Constitution. As with the real thing, which can lie dormant for many decades and eventually kill non-combatants, Article II Section 3 grants a power that could unintentionally injure our liberties 220+ years later. No American President has exercised this power.1 However, for a president hostile to our traditions, who invokes the Constitution when it serves his purpose and ignores it when it does not, this potentially explosive clause could, under certain circumstances provide the legal basis for one man rule. From Article II Section 3: “ . . . and in Case of...

On Tuesday Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House committee on Oversight and Government Reform, took a major step toward holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his failure to provide subpoenaed documents and other information about Operation Fast and Furious.

Combat judicial activism by utilizing checks on judicial power Constitutionally available to the elected branches of government. (Read an extended white paper on restoring the proper role of the judicial branch here.)

The U.S. House this week will vote on H.R. 4013, a bill which will continue payroll tax relief for the remainder of 2012. In all of 2011 and through February of 2012, the Social Security payroll tax rate nominally paid by employees has been reduced by two percentage points, from 6.2% to 4.2%. For someone earning $50,000 annually, this has reduced their FICA tax by $1000 over the year. Americans for Tax Reform is supportive of this extension of payroll tax relief: Now is not the time for workers to see their take-home pay decline because their taxes went up....

n his New York Times bestselling book, Throw Them All Out, Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer revealed how members of Congress enrich themselves and their relatives using earmarks and insider information. Now, the Washington Post, following in Schweizer’s footsteps, has conducted a study that found 16 members of Congress have used their power of the purse to benefit companies, colleges, and community groups tied to their relatives. *snip* Among those cited in the Washington Post report were the following (below):

Senior Muslim Brotherhood official tells 'Al Hayat' if the US cuts aid to Egypt, it would be violation of 1979 peace accords. US aid to Egypt is guaranteed by the Camp David Accords, and stopping it would be a violation of that treaty, a high-ranking Muslim Brotherhood lawmaker said Sunday. Essam El-Erian, who also serves as chairman of the Egyptian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said that should aid from Washington be cut, the Brotherhood would consider changing the terms of Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel. El-Erian told the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat the US needs to understand that “what was...

While positive ratings for Congress remain at an all-time low, more voters than ever see the Republican agenda in Congress as extreme. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 35% of Likely Voters say it would be more accurate to describe the agenda of Republicans in Congress as mainstream, while 52% feel extreme is a more accurate description. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure.

In his New York Times bestselling book, Throw Them All Out, Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer revealed how members of Congress enrich themselves and their relatives using earmarks and insider information. Now, the Washington Post, following in Schweizer’s footsteps, has conducted a study that found 16 members of Congress have used their power of the purse to benefit companies, colleges, and community groups tied to their relatives...