Free Republic

We have covered several areas concerning corporate welfare or cronyism; however, our areas of research were limited to the State of Texas. Unfortunately, Texas is not the only government that suffers systematically from this problem. The Federal government does as well, and there is little question as to whether or not it exists. The real question is, “How much of it exists?”Our Founding Fathers feared corruption caused by foreign interests. Being a relatively new nation, they believed we were vulnerable to countries like Great Britain who would try to usurp power. One of the reasons our first national bank, the...

Friends, countrymen, let me explain what has been happening for years and is only now coming to head with all of the present scandals. A couple of years ago, my wife and I went to look at a house for sale. A Federal employee and his Filipino wife were selling and in the conversation, the man admitted he was retiring to the Philippines. It didn't register at the time, but now it is really hitting me. It is very inexpensive to live in the Philippines, servants are cheap, housing is a steal and food prices are rock bottom. Almost all...

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, located in Brooklyn, was on lockdown shortly after 4:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon after an anthrax threat, a court official confirmed to TPM. A source in the courthouse passed along an email from the court clerk informing court personnel of the threat. “An envelope was received with an anthrax threat and a white power and was released in the main clerk’s office on the first floor. Only one staff member came into direct contact with the powder,” the email read. “At this time and until we get an all clear...

Republicans want to limit the number of bullets federal agencies can purchase so American gun owners can buy more.

WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) -- The U.S. House voted overwhelmingly to keep the Federal Helium Program, set up after World War I to guarantee U.S. dirigibles would have the gas they needed. The vote Friday was 394-1, The Washington Post reported. The helium program has been a target of small government advocates for decades. President Ronald Reagan wanted to eliminate it and President Bill Clinton put it on his reinventing government target list -- along with aid to beekeepers and wool producers. He succeeded in killing the latter two programs but they were revived a few years later, the Post...

Lax marijuana laws may soon become a reality in the United States. ... National support is rising for this cause.[5] Cohen’s proposal comes as a bipartisan coalition of House representatives have sponsored the Respect Marijuana Laws Act.[6] It would exempt businesses that comply with state marijuana laws from federal prosecution.[7] Moreover, Kentucky senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul recently supported the passage of a regulatory framework allowing industrial hemp in their state.[8][9] McConnell is a figurehead for the GOP establishment. Paul represents the rising libertarian caucus. Ergo, the Republican Party may soon change its position on pot.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Twenty-four current and former Internal Revenue Service employees have been charged with stealing government benefits, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The IRS employees were indicted on charges that they illegally received more than $250,000 in benefits including unemployment insurance payments, food stamps, welfare, and housing vouchers, the U.S. attorney’s office in Memphis said in a news release. Prosecutors say 13 of the IRS employees face federal charges of lying about being unemployed while applying for or recertifying their government benefits. They each face up to five years in prison if convicted of making false statements to receive...

Markets were mostly closed on Friday. When they re-opened on Monday, investors seemed unmotivated. Neither the Dow nor the price of gold moved appreciably. Gold ended the day right on the $1,600 mark. Not much to report in other words. Here in Argentina, most things were closed on Monday… and closed again today, too. Who do these Argentinians think they are… French? snip But Bernanke? Is there any evidence than any central banker from the beginning of time until 2 April 2013, added a centime or a farthing to the wealth of the world? snip How about Nancy Pelosi or...

The Federal Government will never be won back. Focusing effort on it is to squander time that could be spent preparing defense of state, family and freedom against tyranny of evil. Conservatives and Repubhlicans are operating from Delusions. Let it Go or Die... (Video)

Despite deficit woes, Obama pushes forward on bizarre projectsWhile the U.S. Senate, for the first time in years, has adopted a budget, it includes $1 trillion in new taxes, adding to the record deficit. The budget also doesn’t align with a House plan that spends hundreds of billions of dollars less. Both, however, project spending more than the government receives far into the future. But even so, frogs, Uganda and pine cone projects apparently are so important to the Obama administration that it’s worth borrowing money and paying interest to fund them.

From the “That’s Not Already the Rule?” File: Citing figures indicating that more than 100,000 federal employees owe more than $1 billion in federal taxes, a House committee on Wednesday approved legislation that would require the firing of government workers who are “seriously tax delinquent.”The legislation, introduced by Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, advanced through the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. It now has to pass the full House to be implemented into law.“Most taxpayers file accurate tax returns and pay the taxes they owe on time, regardless of their income,” Chaffetz, a Republican, said during the hearing Wednesday. “Federal...

(CNSNews.com) - Federal spending was up $30.5 billion in the first five months of fiscal 2013 compared to the first five months of fiscal 2012, according to newly released data from the U.S. Treasury. The federal fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30. In the first five months of fiscal 2012 (October through February), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement, total federal spending was approximately $1,473,999,000,000.00. In the first five months of fiscal 2013, total federal spending was $1,504,547,000,000.00. Thus, federal spending was $30,548,000,000.00 more in the first five months of fiscal 2013 than it was...

Not so long ago in this republic, most parents of school-age children would frequently visit grocery stores where they would use their own money to buy things like peanut butter and jelly, and bologna and cheese to make lunches for their kids to haul to school in brown paper bags. It was an American tradition. Now, like other great things about America, brown-bag lunches are being driven to extinction by politicians seeking inordinate government control over our lives. In fiscal year 1969 (which started in 1968), there were approximately 47,906,000 American children enrolled in elementary and high schools,

Empty Boast: As we have noted before in our Issues & Insights pages, President Obama has taken credit for an energy boom he had nothing to do with. A government agency now confirms what many have known to be true. The Congressional Research Service has released a report, "U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Production in Federal and Non-Federal Areas," that corroborates what we've said. "All of the increase (in oil and natural gas production) from FY2007 to FY2012 took place on non-federal lands, and the federal share of total U.S. crude oil production fell by about seven percentage points,"...

WASHINGTON - From military personnel to postal workers, federal employees are on the hook for $3.5 billion in unpaid 2011 taxes, according to a report obtained by WTOP. The amount is a nearly 3 percent increase compared to the year before. About 312,000 employees owe the government a total of $3,519,410,517, according to the Federal Employee/Retiree Delinquency Initiative (FERDI) released on March 8 by the IRS. The total number of delinquent workers dropped between 2009 and 2010 but jumped more than 11 percent in 2011. The number of delinquent civilian taxpayers is the highest since 2005. Roughly 9.8 million people...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of federal workers and retirees who owed delinquent income taxes jumped by nearly 12 percent in 2011, the Internal Revenue Service said Friday. Nearly 312,000 federal workers and retirees owed more than $3.5 billion in back taxes as of Sept. 30, 2011, the agency said. The year before, about 279,000 workers and retirees owed $3.4 billion. Overall, the 9.8 million workers included in the data had a delinquency rate of 3.2 percent. That's better than the general public. The IRS says the delinquency rate for the general public was 8.2 percent.

A federal judge has struck down an Idaho law prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks, ruling that the so-called fetal pain law violates U.S. Supreme Court prohibitions against unduly impeding a woman’s ability to seek an abortion before her fetus is able to live outside the womb. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise declared the 2011 law -- similar to limits adopted in at least seven other states -- to be unconstitutional in a ruling that took the Idaho Legislature to task for acting against the advice of its own attorney general. “The Idaho Legislature’s enactment of the [fetal...

Additional clips of a United States Department of Agriculture sensitivity training class feature USDA employees being told to recite, “If we work for a federal agency, we’ve discriminated in the past.” The clips, released by the conservative government accountability group Judicial Watch Thursday evening, are the second installation of revealing footage obtained by a Freedom of Information Act (FIOA) request the organization made last May. According to Judicial Watch, the documents reveal the sensitivity training was delivered to USDA employees at least 16 times last year in an attempt to boost employees’ “emotional intelligence.”

As the final deadline for creating state health insurance exchanges passed Friday, New Jersey, Tennessee and Florida said they would not work with the federal government on establishing insurance markets required under ObamaCare. Exchanges are online markets required under the federal health care law where consumers will be able to buy individual private policies and apply for government subsidies to help pay their premiums. In his announcement Friday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said his administration is committed to complying with ObamaCare, but "only in a manner that is the most effective and efficient for the residents of New Jersey,...

The president of the American Federation of Government Employees says a one-percent increase is "absolutely unconscionable." The head of the largest federal employee union said Saturday that President Obama's proposal to increase pay for federal employees by 1 percent was "absolutely unconscionable" and "simply not enough." "It is not enough to allow federal employees to make up lost ground from two-plus years of frozen pay. It is not enough to allow workers, most of whom earn very modest salaries ranging from $24,000 to $70,000, to maintain living standards. And it is not enough to send a message with any kind...