Free Republic

This column has already told the story of Frank VanderSloot, an Idaho businessman who last year contributed to a group supporting Mitt Romney. An Obama campaign website in April sent a message to those who'd donate to the president's opponent. It called out Mr. VanderSloot and seven other private donors by name and occupation and slurred them as having "less-than-reputable" records. Mr. VanderSloot has since been learning what it means to be on a presidential enemies list. Just 12 days after the attack, the Idahoan found an investigator digging to unearth his divorce records. This bloodhound—a recent employee of Senate...

Online retailers are coming under fire from Washington and state governments for not collecting sales tax from customers who purchase goods and services through websites such as Amazon and eBay. The tax itself is not new. The only difference is that online retailers could soon be required to collect it — just like their traditional bricks-and-mortar peers — instead of trusting customers to pay it on their own to the state, which is a requirement few heed.

With the presidential campaigns entrenched in hand-to-hand fighting, Democrats are looking for a way to capture the voters’ attention. They think they’ve found the edge with new policies designed to increase government dependency. The latest gambit would relieve benefit recipients of any personal responsibility. Fortunately, the battle isn’t over. On Wednesday, a group of congressional Republicans led by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp and Senate Finance Committee ranking member Orrin G. Hatch introduced a bill to block the Obama administration from its attempt to exempt states from the work requirements for welfare recipients. Without consulting Congress, the...

Propose voting on all the hot issues every week in either house of Congress. Maybe the right should explore the possibility of symbolic votess. Seriously, explore this option and then decide to vote on all kinds of things. It makes the news and it is smart, right? It's free to a certain extent, and at least bit of the wealthy left-wing folks pay taxes and help contribute to the plan. Gold in peace, iron in war.

Washington, DC - The US House of Representatives has passed an amendment unanimously that cuts down $650 million in military aid to Pakistan as Republicans sought to tamp down demands for still deeper reductions. Congressman Ted Poe had demanded a $1.3 billion cut, but later settled for the 650 million cut. "Pakistan is the 'Benedict Arnold' to America in the war on terror. They are disloyal, deceptive and a danger to the United States," Poe, who had moved the amendment, said. "This so-called ally continues to take billions in US aid, while funding the militants who attack us. And we've...

Current Law The 2001 tax relief bill (EGTRRA), drastically reduced the impact of the death tax over the course of a decade, so that it was eliminated entirely for one year in 2010 — a good year to die, joked a number of pundits. The bill lowered marginal rates and increased the applicable exclusion amount, but it also included a provision allowing individuals to carry over exclusion dollars that were unused by their spouse at the time of his or her death. This “portability” measure effectively increased the applicable exclusion for many households, in some instances putting millions of dollars...

WASHINGTON — Rep. Nancy Pelosi was emphatic. Mitt Romney’s refusal to release more than two years of his personal tax returns, she said, makes him unfit to win confirmation as a member of the president’s Cabinet, let alone to hold the high office himself. Sen. Harry Reid went farther: Romney’s refusal to make public more of his tax records makes him unfit to be a dogcatcher. They do not, however, think that standard of transparency should apply to them. The two Democratic leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives are among hundreds of senators and representatives from both...

Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod and his hatchet people are still yammering about GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney's overseas investments. It's time for the Romney campaign to educate voters about all the shady financial institutions embraced by Democrats right here on American soil. The fat-cat narrative attacks on Republicans won't go away by making nice with the White House -- or by relying on Beltway journalists to drop their double standards and vet the president's own bad bank entanglements. Indeed, The New York Times admitted this week that their staff and other political journalists from every major media outlet submit...

Times That Try Men’s SoulsMost of us have the herd mentality. It is comforting for us to stay in the middle of the herd where it is safe, while the point person and those around the periphery display unusual courage. America’s socio/economic landscape has been scorched by a burning desire for change 70 years in its development. Somehow the corporation has become an evil empire. Corporations built the Ford automobile, gave us the electric light bulb, the telephone, the microwave, private corporations accounted for 79--90% of life saving pharmaceutical products.Some believe that politicians possess a degree of honesty not found...

The severity of the climb back to the majority facing House Democrats could be summed up in one fundraising report filed this week: veteran Rep. John Tierney’s. Tierney, who is embroiled in his wife’s family’s legal troubles, has been outraised for the past three quarters. The Massachusetts Democrat’s latest fundraising report showed that he ended June with $693,000 in cash on hand, compared with the $802,000 his Republican opponent had in the bank. Tierney’s situation is indicative of a broader problem for House Democrats, whose “Drive to 25” campaign is complicated by a handful of races that should be safe...

Imagine government without responsibility toward its citizens — let me give you a hint, it looks a lot like Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime. America is blessed with a Constitution that protects Americans so they are not afraid that each new leader will turn the country into a fascist nation. No matter how much anyone disagrees with a president's policies, we can take solace in the protections of the Constitution. The Constitution's authority is supreme and every piece of legislation must fit within the Constitution's limits. This is why I, along with many constituents of Michigan's 1st District were so worried...

[Last week], the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology dragged all five FCC commissioners up to Capitol Hill to oversee the agency on a wide range of issues. As to be expected, there were some notable takeaways on regulation, taxes, spectrum, and more. First, Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) managed to get FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to commit to maintaining a “light touch” approach and not enact new regulations on fiber networks, including price controls. The FCC adopted the policy back in late 2003, noting that such requirements “tend to undermine the incentives of both incumbent LECs and...

Voters in three North Carolina Congressional districts head to the polls today to decide the GOP nominees in runoff elections. The Tar Heel State represents House Republicans’ most fertile territory this cycle, with the party expected to net a gain of at least two seats and as many as four. 8th district The most competitive race tonight is taking place in the 8th district, pitting former Hill aide Richard Hudson, backed by the establishment, against dentist Scott Keadle, a former Iredell County commissioner who is backed by the anti-tax Club for Growth. “We’re finishing strong,” Hudson told Roll Call on...

In an interview on Bloomberg TV, RDM Financial's Ron Weiner summarizes the thing that keeps him up at night as in over thirty years he has never seen "The fate of the world economy rests so much on politicians." Pointing out the sad reality that since WWII the US has always spent more than it earns; he warns that if the politicians don't make it right, then "the markets will!" The heuristic bias to accept the spending status quo, as for most young-to-middle-aged people 'it has always been this way' - just like rising home prices (and the current hope-for-a-housing-recovery...

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.’s mother, Jacqueline Jackson, told a Rainbow/PUSH conference Friday that her son has suffered years of “enormous disappointment.” “I’m not ashamed to say ... he thought he was going to be a senator. He thought he was going to have a chance to run for mayor. And young people don’t bounce back from disappointment like me and my husband,” she said.

When Rep. Tim Ryan recently published a book touting the benefits of a meditative practice known as mindfulness, the Ohio Democrat had a target audience: anyone and everyone suffering from chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, information overload. In other words, himself. His co-workers. Oh, and pretty much the rest of America, too.

From Congresswoman Adams: Governor Sarah Palin Endorses Conservative Sandy Adams for U.S. House Orlando, FL – Today, freshman Sandy Adams announced that she had earned the endorsement of former Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin. Governor Palin’s support is proof-positive that Sandy Adams is the conservative choice for Florida’s new 7th Congressional District. “Governor Sarah Palin has led the charge for conservatives,” said Adams. “While many politicians subscribe to the notion of the status quo, Governor Palin has risen above it. She knows that the true power of our country comes from the American people – not the...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday rejected a Republican request to vote on President Obama’s income tax plan amid defections within his caucus on tax policy," Alexander Bolton of The Hill newspaper reported just before 10:30 a.m. today. "Reid appeared exasperated by the Republican request to vote on extending the Bush-era tax rates when Democrats would prefer to focus this week on a small-business tax package estimated to create 1 million jobs," Bolton added. You may recall that on Monday, President Obama renewed his call to extend the Bush tax cuts for every income bracket except that covering...

BREAKING: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell: Rep Jesse Jackson Jr is in a rehab facility in AZ suffering from alcoholism and addiction -@JesseRodriguez — HuffPost Politics (@HuffPostPol) July 11, 2012

Current Law Flexible Savings Accounts (FSAs) are tax-privileged accounts available to employees through an employer “cafeteria” health plan. Employees agree to make a fixed annual contribution to the account which will be deducted from their pre-tax salary. This exempts the contribution from income and payroll taxes. That money can then be used to pay for “qualified medical expenses” incurred by the account holder, his or her spouse, and any other dependents under the age of 27. The contribution amount is currently unlimited, but money left in the account is forfeited every calendar year under the so-called “use it or lose...