Free Republic

Folks, I'm really worried about the House's passage of the Obamacare bill last night. I'm mostly concerned about the fines/jail time for not purchasing an insurance plan. Currently, I've been without health insurance for over 2 years. I could have bought into a plan, but because the plan's price and my low income (despite my professional job), I decided against getting health insurance. I'm young and in relatively good health. I take prescription meds, but I can purchase them cheaply through Walmart. My question to the FR community is this: since I don't want to pay fines or go to...

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000...

While roaming the grounds of the US Capitol yesterday, Kristinn Taylor obtained a list of possible democrat defectors of the now infamous “Healthcare” bill. Kristinn was asked to post this list of wobbly democrats on FreeRepublic in an effort to mobilize our forces and overwhelm these members with phone calls and e-mails asking them to vote NO on the socialization of our healthcare. We also learned that Nancy Pelosi had just scheduled the vote for tomorrow; Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 6:00 PM. For all those who were unable to answer the call to surround the Capitol yesterday, here is...

Senator Barbara Boxer Breaks Senate Committee Rules… The liberal California senator passed the dem’s cap-&-tax legislation out of committee without a single GOP member in attendance. This is against the rules and the first time it has ever happened. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) discussed the outrageous move by the democrats: The Politico reported: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved climate change legislation Thursday with no Republicans voting for the bill or even participating in the process. With Republican boycotting the proceedings, Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) relied on a little used interpretation of committee rules to move the...

Daniel Hannan, the Conservative MEP, has resigned as European legal spokesman only two months after taking up the post in protest at his party's stance on the Lisbon Treaty. Mr Hannan, a leading Eurosceptic, became the Tory spokesman on legal affairs in the European Parliament in September. But last night on his Telegraph blog, Mr Hannan, the Conservative MEP for South East England, said he would be returning to the back benches in order to campaign for direct democracy that will see power in the hands of individual citizens.

The United States now borrows over 40 percent of each dollar it spends. Once we were the most prosperous nation on the earth now we are drowning in a sea of debt. Our national debt is over 11.6 trillion, the highest in the world. There is no way our nation can “grow our way out” of such overwhelming debt without cutting the size of government. Will politicians downsize our government and cut spending on their own? “Of course not,” is the right answer. When was the last time you heard anyone in Washington say they would sponsor legislation to cut...

In a case that could have a major impact on water use in Massachusetts, the attorney general’s office argued before the state’s highest court yesterday that the Department of Environmental Protection can impose limits on the amount of water municipalities draw from aquifers, rivers, and lakes.... The case, which the Supreme Judicial Court did not immediately rule on, stems from a state policy adopted in 2007 that allows the department to limit residential water use to 65 gallons a day per person for basins at risk of drought and 80 gallons a day per person for those with less risk....

Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care. The news media swoons in admiration. The public is likewise smitten, except for a few patriots who circulate disturbing rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: "Embracing change is never easy." So, does that sound like anyone...

It is high time Brad Paisley and Tim McGraw were taken to task for their support of Barrack Husein Obama. I first must admit that I have been a fan of Brad and Tim for a long time. I love the way they put to tune and words of how it is to be a man is in the world. After all, how can you not enjoy listening to the way Brad strings together the words in his song titled, “I'm Still A guy”, or how he seems to lay his heart out in the tune titled, “I'm Gonna...

The Obama administration is trying to strong-arm America’s colleges and universities into complying with a bill that hasn’t been signed into law yet. The bill, which would replace current subsidized-student-loan programs with a government-run system, passed the House last month, but its fate in the Senate is far from clear. Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Education Committee, plans to use the budget-reconciliation process to pass the contentious bill with a simple majority, but The Hill newspaper reports that it might not even have 51 votes. The bill is far from a fait accompli, making the administration’s pressure campaign all...

It has always been understood, sometimes whispered, that Geroge Soros, the great beneficiary of markets, hates them. The truth is now out in the open. John Stossel reports, via FT, that Soros will give $50 million to start a new think-tank to counter "the unwavering belief in unchecked free markets, which remains pervasive in universities." Soros says: "The ideologists in the free markets are still in command and I think they'll be very difficult to remove because they have tenure." If anything proves that one has to question Soros' analytical ability, it is this statement. The leading economic textbook in...

Does HIV mean certain death? In the quarter century since the world was introduced to the idea that a new sexually transmitted virus was the cause of Aids, HIV has been generally regarded as one of the biggest killers of our time. HIV/Aids has not been the mass disease in Britain that people were led to believe in the 1980s, but the death toll from immune deficiency diseases ascribed to HIV in Africa has been staggering. The scale of death there is an ongoing tragedy that tests the moral resolve of the rich world. How much do we care? Enough...

The war on conservative speech has moved from the White House to your neighborhood pews. Left-wing church leaders want the Federal Communications Commission to crack down on "hate speech" over cable TV and right-leaning talk-radio airwaves. President Obama's speech-stifling bureaucrats seem all too happy to oblige. Over the last week, an outfit called "So We Might See" has conducted a nationwide fast to protest "media violence" -- specifically, "anti-immigrant hate speech, which employs flawed arguments to appeal to fears rather than facts." Their ire is currently aimed at Fox News and conservative talk-show giants. But how long before they target...

Congressional Democrats are set to announce Tuesday legislation aimed at squeezing more information from foreign banks and U.S. citizens with offshore accounts to ferret out tax evaders. The bill from Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.), includes some of President Barack Obama's proposals to fight offshore tax cheating. According to a summary of the bill obtained by Dow Jones Newswires, it is expected to raise $8.5 billion for the U.S. government over 10 years. Foreign banks with U.S. customers would face a 30% withholding tax on income from...

Herb Denenberg, once Pennsylvania's Commissioner of Insurance and a Professor at the Wharton School, describes in The Bulletin, how the whiff of fascism in this Administration is turning into the stench of fascism. He starts with a reminder of the many ways Obama has acted to stifle opposition views and manipulate public opinion and concludes: I've emphasized one aspect of fascism -- its objective of the forcible suppression of opposition. But it also qualifies under the other elements, including the suppression of private enterprise and putting it under centralized government control. That is one hallmark of the Obama Administration, it...

Government regulators threatened to remove top Bank of America executives if they backed out of a buyout of failing brokerage giant Merrill Lynch, and offered to provide taxpayer funds to compensate for Merrill's poor performance, according to company records obtained by The Washington Times. The documents - e-mails between bank executives and their outside attorneys as well as board meeting "talking points" prepared for then-Bank of America Chief Executive Ken Lewis - offer new insight into the hardball tactics that produced one of the biggest deals negotiated during the late 2008 global financial crisis, one that is still reverberating on...

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people. True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the...

Democrats are pushing Senate leaders and the White House to speed up key benefits in the health reform bill to 2010, eager to give the party something to show taxpayers for their $900 billion investment in an election year. The most significant changes to the health care system wouldn’t kick in until 2013 — two election cycles away. With Republicans expected to make next year a referendum on health care reform, Democrats are quietly lobbying to push up the effective dates on popular programs, so they'll have something to run on in the congressional midterm elections.

Hitler and his Nazi party were sub-human mass murderers, they were also Fascist. While all fascist governments are authoritarian, and by definition severely limit the freedoms of its people have, not all fascists are Nazis. Fascism is a subset of socialism just like Communism, Maoism, and Marxism. Fascism is seen as the medium between boom-and-bust-prone liberal capitalism , with its alleged class conflict, wasteful competition, and profit-oriented egoism, and revolutionary Marxism. Democrats and other Obama supporters have a tough time differentiating between Nazis and Fascists, so for propaganda's sake they brandish anyone who uses the "f" word on the POTUS...

*snip* When the Constitution of the United States was framed it placed the exclusive legislative authority in the hands of Congress and with the President. Article I, Section 1 of the United States Constitution is concise in its language: “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” That is no longer true. The Bill of Rights protected Americans against loss of freedoms. That is no longer true. The Constitution provided for a balanced separation of powers. That is no longer applicable. Perhaps it...

Legislation to be introduced in Congress will make it easier for the US government to seize control of troubled financial institutions that are considered too big to be allowed to fail, The New York Times says. The bill will be introduced in Congress by a key ally of President Barack Obama - Representative Barney Frank - who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, the Times said, citing a senior administration official. The legislation would make it easier for the government to throw out the financial company's management, wipe out the shareholders and change the terms of existing loans held by...

The Federal Reserve joined the Treasury Department on Thursday in imposing new limits on executive pay, extending the government's control over compensation at taxpayer-owned companies to institutions that are merely government regulated. {snip} However, the Fed's proposed rules have wiggle room: The guidelines would let banks set their own compensation but give the Fed veto power over pay practices that it determines could threaten the safety and soundness of a bank. They would extends the regulators' reach into pay practices affecting tens of thousands of bank employees, from senior executives to traders of complex securities.

Obama declares swine flu emergency 9 mins ago WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama has declared swine flu a "national emergency," the White House said Saturday, as the United States reels from millions of cases of infection and over 1,000 deaths.

US President Barack Obama on Friday hit out at naysayers he blamed for peddling "cynical" claims that global warming is a myth to derail a landmark climate change bill in Congress. Obama warned that the closer the Senate came to passing legislation which has already cleared the House of Representatives, the more opponents would resort to underhand tactics. "The naysayers, the folks who would pretend that this is not an issue, they are being marginalized," Obama warned in a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "But I think it's important to understand that the closer we get, the harder...

"Thought crime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for awhile...but sooner or later they were bound to get you." George Orwell, 1984 "The fact is we are witnessing an all-out drive to impose thought control that seeks to ban the ability---the right---to think or speak for one's self. Thinking is becoming a crime." (Globally Acceptable Truth and the Crime of Thinking, Tom DeWeese, Address to the 10th Annual Freedom 21 Conference, 10/16/09) In an article entitled “Dems Undermine Free Speech in Hate Crimes Ploy,” the Washington Examiner exposes the insidious machinations of House...

CNSNews.com) – When CNSNews.com asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday where the Constitution authorized Congress to order Americans to buy health insurance--a mandate included in both the House and Senate versions of the health care bill--Pelosi dismissed the question by saying: “Are you serious? Are you serious?” Pelosi's press secretary later responded to written follow-up questions from CNSNews.com by emailing CNSNews.com a press release on the “Constitutionality of Health Insurance Reform,” that argues that Congress derives the authority to mandate that people purchase health insurance from its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce. The exchange with Speaker Pelosi...

Here we are only nine months into the ubiquitously proclaimed "post-racial presidency," and all that promised harmony among the races has disappeared faster than a Chicago minute. All it took for addled minds to conjure shadows of racism behind every whitey tree in the whole American forest were voices raised in dissent over the President's far-left policies. No sooner had congress' summer recess begun -- without the President's hoped-for passage of Obamacare -- than the racist cries began their assent. Nancy Pelosi threw down the "swastika" gauntlet aimed at townhall attendees, which essentially tarred those citizens with white-supremacy slander. In...

...and Distribute Wealth From Developed Countries to 3rd World Nations. The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations will hold their 15th conference on climate change through December 7-18th. At the conference, globalists like Obama will sign the ‘Copenhagen Climate Change Treaty’ that will replace the Kyoto treaty that is set to expire in 2012. Lord Christopher Monckton, the man who warned many this week of the treaty appeared on Glenn Beck’s radio program, he makes it clear that the treaty will create a World Government Dictatorship that will have complete authority over all nations by intervening in...

By drastically increasing demand while doing little to increase primary care physician supply, ObamaCare will turn health care into a consumer nightmare: longer wait times, shorter visits, higher prices, and decreased customer satisfaction. The U.S. will have to rely increasingly on nurse practitioners and physician assistants to meet patient demand. According to the WHO, the nurse-to-physician ratio in Canada and the U.K. are 5.3 and 5.6, respectively, compared to 3.6 in the U.S. And as fewer bright young people pursue medicine due to the profession's general malaise and oppressive bureaucratic regulations, we're likely to see an even greater physician shortage---not...

Health Reform: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says it's constitutional to mandate insurance coverage. Congress, he insists, has "broad authority" to make us buy things to provide for the "general welfare." Democrats' Alice In Wonderland interpretation of what they consider to be a "living Constitution," where words mean what they say they mean based on political considerations, gets more bizarre by the minute. (snip) We've been down this road before. In 1994, Hillary Clinton's secretive health care task force was trying to nationalize health care. "A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of...

What's more infuriating, a government "pay czar" who can dictate the salaries of private-sector citizens or some corporate welfare queen who has the nerve to complain about a salary cut? On a gut level, it's a tough call. Watching the same swine who begged for charity after spearheading the devastation of their respective companies take massive salary cuts is thoroughly satisfying. Yet in a broader sense, this unprecedented intrusion into the economy accomplishes nothing -- well, other than setting an array of dangerous precedents. Who knew? Chicken-little governance comes with a steep price tag. Could anyone have imagined, even two...

America's freedom is rapidly vanishing. Under the guise of "fairness" and "equality," and powered by the tactics of Saul Alinsky/Chicago-style class warfare, class envy, and thuggery, gullible Americans are having their paychecks and freedom confiscated while they whistle past the graveyard with dreams of "hope and change" floating in their heads. Aspiring fascist thug dictator, Barack Obama, is coming after the paychecks of formerly free American citizens, and it's chilling.

The Federal Communications Commission has unveiled the topics it is looking to discuss as it considers revising its media ownership rules, and one area it is looking to explore could have ramifications for future mergers between broadcast and cable companies and newspaper companies. Specifically, the FCC said it will probe whether it could continue to enforce regulations regarding media concentration by industry or should it find an "alternative structure to determine an ownership limit for all media within a relevant market." Cutting through the bureaucratic speak, what the FCC is saying is that currently it regulates broadcast, radio and cable...

WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve for the first time would police banks' pay policies to ensure they don't encourage employees to take reckless gambles like those that contributed to the financial crisis, according to a proposal unveiled Thursday. Unlike a Treasury plan to slash pay at certain companies that were bailed out with large sums of taxpayer money, the Fed proposal would cover thousands of banks, including many that never received a bailout. The Fed would not actually set compensation. Instead, the central bank would review — and could veto — pay policies that could cause too much risk-taking by...

egislation granting the Food and Drug Administration new powers to oversee the nation's food supply has elbowed its way onto Congress' crammed calendar with bipartisan support and rare agreement between consumer groups and an industry stung by product recalls. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), would require the FDA to step up inspections of food facilities and to issue new rules to improve the quality of imported food and to combat contaminants in fresh produce. The measure also would give the agency authority to recall products on its own, instead of relying on industry cooperation. "Hardly a...

DESTIN — News that a federal agency had slammed the door on this year’s amberjack season without notice didn’t sit well Tuesday with charter fishermen. They believe Big Brother is out to take their livelihood from them. “They’re killing us,” said boat captain Thomas Swanson. “They’re flat killing us.”

If Americans want a glimpse of all of the good that can be done for children if our Senate decides to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), we need look no further than 90 miles off the coast of Florida. For a shining example of the success of internationalism, Cuba is the United Nation’s latest poster child. In articles released this week by official Cuban news agencies, UNICEF representative José Juan Ortiz praised Cuba for being “able to apply the UN Convention on Children’s Rights in a way which is truly a model.” Cuba? --...

Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) locked Republicans out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee room to keep them from meeting when Democrats aren’t present. Towns’ action came after repeated public ridicule from the leading Republican on the committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), over Towns’s failure to launch an investigation into Countrywide Mortgage’s reported sweetheart deals to VIPs. For months Towns has refused Republican requests to subpoena records in the case. Last Thursday Committee Republicans, led by Issa, were poised to force an open vote on the subpoenas at a Committee mark-up meeting. The mark-up was abruptly canceled. Only Republicans...

THE WHITE HOUSE - Despite the President's promise of a swift and decisive victory, Obama's War on Fox News has developed all signs of an unwinnable quagmire, making the White House even more isolated in its unilateral attempts to crush the growing media insurgency. As the war continues to grind on for a second month, public opinion is shifting towards a quick and complete withdrawal. While many observers still agree that the "War on Limbaugh" is a "just and necessary war," even the former supporters of the war effort are now labeling the War on Fox an "unnecessary war of...

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White House press secretary Robert Gibbs singled out specific shows on the Fox News network for criticism ... ... Tuesday morning, continuing a public feud between the White House and the cable network that gained new momentum over the weekend. Meeting with reporters in his office for an off-camera question-and-answer session, Gibbs parried questions about the White House's harsh criticism of the cable news network, leveled on several Sunday shows by officials including White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and senior adviser David Axelrod. Asked if it was fair for the White House to label Fox an illegitimate news...

Obama Czar Agrees With Mao, Too, and Thinks Free Market is "Nonsense" http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-czar-agrees-with-mao-too-and-thinks-free-market-is-nonsense/ Breitbart.TV and Naked Emperor News

Jesse Jackson’s (public) objections to Rush Limbaugh’s NFL ownership plan ran roughly as follows: “Rush Limbaugh made his wealth appealing to the fears of whites with an unending line of insults against blacks and other minorities…the National Football League has set high standards for racial justice and inclusion.” “Viva Fidel!” bellowed Rev. Jesse Jackson during his speech at the University of Havana in June 1984, while trailing a 300 person entourage that included Rev. Jeremiah Wright. “Viva Che Guevara!” he yelled again with fists raised high. “Long Live our cry of freedom!” “He (Jesse Jackson) is a great personality,” reciprocated...

Moderate Democrats — always courted and often feared in big roll call votes in the House — have backed down from a key fight over financial reform. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has persuaded a bloc of moderates to withdraw an amendment that would have watered down a consumer protection agency bill and shield banks from tougher state laws. Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) agreed to pull her amendment with a promise that Frank would continue to work with her to change the bill, though when that change would be made remains uncertain. This amendment, which would have...

Younus Abdullah Muhammad of RevolutionMuslim.com has taken his message to the streets once again. Anyone who thinks that Islam is tolerant, needs to view this video. Younus freely admits that Islam is here to conquer and dominate all with no compromise!

Politics: Democrats say Rush Limbaugh is running the Republican Party. Better Rush than George Soros, who is running the Democrats. At least Rush believes in freedom, capitalism and letting you keep what you earn.The cover of the March 7 issue of Newsweek shows a picture of conservative icon Limbaugh with a piece of tape covering his mouth and the word "Enough!" So much for disagreeing with what you say but defending to the death your right to say it. Voltaire could never be a contributor to Newsweek. But David Frum is, and his inside cover story, "Why Rush Is Wrong,"...

There used to be a time in this country, not that long ago, when, despite our religious, cultural and societal differences, there were at least a few basic tenets upon which we, as Americans, could all agree. We could locate our borders, we spoke a common language and shared a common understanding of our Founders and constitutionalism. There was no confusion over what constituted acts of heroism and patriotism. Conversely, we also understood and clearly recognized, evil, greed, treason and hypocrisy. But, alas, the beloved country that was so united in my youth has become a cesspool of unabated and...

Oct. 16, 2009) — One world government, ruled by heartless and godless Marxists might be here sooner than you think. And the objectives of international Communists might explain all the money and power behind putting Obama into power. But the mechanism for establishing this one world Marxist government has only recently been revealed: The Copenhagen Treaty on Climate Change. So says Lord Christopher Monckton, former science adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who, according to Fightin’ Words Blog, gave a scathing critique of the treaty at the recent Minnesota Freemarket Institute Conference: Here are some excerpts of Lord Monckton’s...

Even as the economy continues to struggle, much of Wall Street is minting money — and looking forward again to hefty bonuses. Many Americans wonder how this can possibly be. How can some banks be prospering so soon after a financial collapse, even as legions of people worry about losing their jobs and their homes? It may come as a surprise that one of the most powerful forces driving the resurgence on Wall Street is not the banks but Washington. Many of the steps that policy makers took last year to stabilize the financial system — reducing interest rates to...

Bank of America chief executive Kenneth Lewis has decided to forgo his total pay for 2009 -- giving in to pressure from the Obama administration's "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg. Lewis announced recently that he was stepping down -- a victim of the continuing fall-out from BofA's Merrill Lynch purchase last year. Even though the takeover occurred as Merrill was going broke, its executives received millions in bonuses. While Bank of America received billions in federal TARP money, BofA shareholders ended up losing millions in stock value. Both federal regulators and New York's attorney general are probing the transaction. There needs...