Free Republic

Donald Trump called into a CNBC show on Monday morning, allowing host Joe Kernen to ask a question about government spending and, specifically, the large chunk of spending that is committed to social programs. “Have you changed your outlook on how to handle entitlement — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Mr. President?” Kernen asked. “It seems like something has to be done.” At that point, two familiar patterns kicked in. Trump tends to like to align with the opinions offered by his interviewers, particularly on subjects that aren’t at the center of his political identity. He also tends to ramble when...

Biden and Congress continue their massive spending spree, mostly on themselves and their donors, creating a massive Debt Star capable of unfathomable economic destruction. This will require massive money printing to fund the US Debt Star. But as of today, M2 Money growth is negative as is bank credit growth. But all this is about to change. The U.S. federal government published a December deficit of $129 billion, up 52% from the previous year. The private sector recession is clear as expenses continue to rise while tax receipts decline. If we look at the period between October and December 2023,...

Yes, the US is engulfed in a fiscal inferno! US government debt is now bigger than the US economy. This was unseen until 2012 when debt surpassed GDP for the first time. In addition to almost $34 trillion in debt from our crazy spending, out-of-control government, we are on the hook for almost $213 TRILLION in unfunded liabilites (promises made to Americans that will likely not be honored). The sad thing about the US Debt Clock summary is the $632,195 share per citizen of unfunded liabilties. That raises two questions. First, how can California’s Ken doll Governor Gavin “Greasy” Newsom...

Joe Biden is the Buzz Lightyear of the economy … and not in a good way. Under Biden and the Congressional spending sprees, the US debt is going to infinity … and beyond! Twenty days. That’s how long it took the Biden administration to add another half-trillion dollars to the national debt. Bidenomics certainly requires a lot of borrowing and spending. On September 15, the debt quietly blew passed $33 trillion. On October 5, it pushed above $33.5 trillion. Don’t forget about the $194+ TRILLION in unfunded liabilities that politicians promised the non 1%. By the way, it only took...

The US has passed the 32 trillion mark in national debt, and is going much, much higher. More like 32 tons on the back of taxpayers. When we add unfunded liabilities like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the tab soars to $224.5 TRILLION. New data show that a growing number of U.S. firms are collapsing under the weight of higher interest rates as corporate bankruptcies reached their highest first-half levels since 2010. In the first six months of 2023, there were 340 corporate bankruptcies, topping every other comparable span in 13 years, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. This is...

“… in 1966, a political revolution emerged in America that would have a massive impact on millions of families and marriages. The man behind it was President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who reached the White House amid a national tragedy but grabbed the reins of power quickly and purposefully, bent on transforming the country. Though he is lionized in popular culture these days, it is worth asking whether the celebratory tone accurately reflects the results of his revolution, at least in terms of his massive Great Society.” ……. “Johnson incorporated Moynihan’s study into a speech at Washington’s Howard University that suggested...

A Trump-aligned super PAC released a new attack ad on Ron DeSantis, which mocks him for eating pudding with his fingers and hammers him on his record of voting to cut Social Security, Medicare, and increasing the retirement age to 70.

A Trump-aligned super PAC is hitting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for sticking his “dirty fingers” into entitlement programs for senior citizens — and allegedly using them to eat pudding as well, according to a stomach-churning ad released Friday. “Ron DeSantis loves sticking his fingers where they don’t belong, and we’re not just talking about pudding,” the ad’s narrator says, referring to an alleged 2019 incident where the 44-year-old Florida governor ate chocolate pudding with three of his fingers while on a private plane ride to Washington, DC. “DeSantis has his dirty fingers all over senior entitlements like cutting Medicare, slashing...

Paris (AFP) – French President Emmanuel Macron faced mounting pressure on Friday after violent demonstrations that left more than 400 security forces injured and the centre of major cities shrouded in tear gas and smoke. More than 450 people were arrested Thursday during the most violent day of protests since the start of the year against Macron's bid to raise the retirement age to 64. "There were a lot of demonstrations and some of them turned violent, notably in Paris," Interior Minister Darmanin told the CNews channel. More than 900 fires were lit around the capital on Thursday, he said,...

Former President Donald Trump swung left in his latest bizarre attack on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, on Tuesday accusing him of wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare and calling him a “wheelchair over the cliff kind of guy” in an all-caps blast. ​Trump, 76, who announced Nov. 15 that he was seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and is expected to face his most significant primary challenge from DeSantis, initially touted his poll numbers showing him leading the 44-year-old governor before cribbing from Democratic attack ads of the past. “Great Poll numbers are springing forth for your favorite President,...

Ron DeSanctimonious wants to cut your Social Security and Medicare, closed up Florida & its beaches, loves RINOS Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush, and Karl Rove (disasters ALL!), is backed by Globalist’s Club for NO Growth, Lincoln Pervert Project, & “Uninspired” Koch — And it only gets worse from there. He is a RINO in disguise!, whose Poll numbers are dropping like a rock. Good luck Ron!

Former President Donald Trump pledged he will never cut Social Security if elected again to the White House in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News here earlier in December. “We’re not cutting Social Security,” Trump said. “It’s very simple. It’s a simple answer. We’re not cutting Social Security.” *** “We have to protect it. It’s a contract with the people,” Trump said of Social Security. “They go in. They work and they do. They put their blood, sweat, and tears into Social Security and then you have a guy like a Paul Ryan or others that want to destroy it....

There are 132,188 public employees and retirees in Illinois who earned $100,000 or more last year.Auditors at OpenTheBooks.com found almost 500 educators in Illinois public schools had salaries between $200,000 and $439,000. Small-towns city managers made up to $341,300, and three doctors at the University of Illinois at Chicago earned between $1 million and $2.1 million.This is as crime increases, test scores drop among public school students, and inflation decimates private-sector paychecks. This doesn’t stop the Illinois public employee class from living the good life.Well-paid barbers working for State Corrections trimmed off $104,000, janitors at the Chicago Transit Authority cleaned...

The analysis exposed the inherently gimmicky nature of using permanent tax increases to pass temporary increases in spending.In the second installment of news the Biden administration didn’t want to hear about Friday (the first being the record-breaking inflation report), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an analysis of making permanent the programs in Democrats’ Build Back Bankrupt spending spree. Democrats immediately claimed the bill they want to pass through Congress doesn’t resemble the CBO’s parameters in the slightest. In that case, Republicans should respond by bringing a legislative proposal resembling those parameters to the Senate floor, and forcing Democrats to...

n 2010, then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen called the national debt "the greatest national security threat facing our nation." At the time, the national debt was around $13 trillion. Eleven years later, the national debt exceeds $29 trillion—that's bigger than the gross domestic product of the United States! Yet almost no one in Washington is at all serious about cutting spending. The Democratic Party is so devoted to massive spending increases that those Democrats who "only" want to spend $1.75 trillion on the so-called Build Back Better Plan are considered "fiscal conservatives." Republicans may vote...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) claimed that Democrats can only get funding for “their giveaway programs,” apparently including provisions in their roughly $2 trillion social spending and climate bill, from the middle class. “The only place Democrats can get the money to fund all of their giveaway programs is from the middle class, because that's where the money is,” Johnson said Sunday in an interview with John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM. Johnson claimed that even if taxes on corporations were raised, the middle class would ultimately end up shouldering the costs... In the interview Johnson also discussed spiking inflation in...

At some point in the near future—whether a few days or a few weeks—the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) will release a complete score of the spending spree legislation Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and House leaders introduced on Nov. 3. The document will represent the first complete CBO analysis of any of the multi-trillion-dollar spending bills that Democrats have spent the fall writing, then re-writing. Two budgetary analyses suggest CBO could find the most recent version of the legislation increases the deficit. A Penn-Wharton analysis of the White House’s policy framework concluded it would spend $1.87 trillion over ten years while...

Only An Idiot Would Believe Congress’s Spending Spree Will Cost ‘Zero’ The Biden administration insists the spending bill independent experts believe could cost $5.5 trillion over a decade will actually cost 'zero.' Is this how stupid they think Americans are?In a word, hardly. Multiple elements in the history of Democrats’ last big spending bill, Obamacare, have turned it into a budget buster, suggesting that Biden’s “zero” legislation will follow the same fiscally irresponsible path.Budget Gimmicks GaloreFirst, the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress employed numerous fiscal gimmicks. While drafting the bill, they delayed implementation of the bill’s main provisions from...

Democrats rush to pass their cradle-to-grave entitlement agenda with little debate or scrutiny. .....snip..... Congress is back in session, and don’t blink or you may miss the plan to transform America in 17 days. Never mind Sen. Joe Manchin’s “strategic pause.” Democratic leaders are moving to ram into law their $3.5 trillion plan for cradle-to-grave entitlements with the narrowest of majorities before Americans figure out what they’re doing. As Nancy Pelosi famously said about ObamaCare, Congress will pass the bill so people can find out what’s in it. ......snip...... Industry lobbyists are feverishly trying to parse the hundreds of pages....

Sen. Marco Rubio is circulating a memo aimed at emboldening Republicans to fight a measure that would distribute even more taxpayer money to nonworking parents.In a sign of the times, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, is circulating a memo aimed at emboldening Republicans to fight a measure that would distribute federal money to nonworking parents, worsening “poverty traps” by extending the new child allowance through the budget reconciliation bill. Rubio’s memo also criticizes the media for characterizing Democrats’ proposal as an “expanded child tax credit” when the money “goes to parents with zero tax liability, or who are simply not working...