Free Republic

Debt is about more than just money. It's about the end of expectations and the death of hope In a speech at the Department of Homeland Security, Obama declared that he wants to “replace mindless austerity with smart investments that strengthen America”. Those “smart” investments scattered across a gargantuan $4 trillion budget include a $500 million Green Climate Fund for the Third World and $105 million to help the government build better websites. Obama is fond of putting the word “smart” in front of stupid ideas to make them seem less stupid. The $4 trillion budget is actually as stupid...

NEW YORK, January 6 (C-Fam) A group of U.S. senators is urging President Obama to fund the UN’s controversial population agency despite its ties to abortion and coercive population control programs, and its new push for countries to legalize prostitution. “We are disappointed that despite UNFPA’s critical work around the world, a number of misperceptions about the organization persist,” wrote Senator Barbara Boxer and 21 of her Democratic colleagues. “UNFPA does not promote abortion as a method of family planning and does not condone coercion in family planning, coercive abortion or forced sterilizations,” according to the senators, each an ardent...

With so many high-profile, headline-grabbing issues facing the incoming Congress, lawmakers might be tempted to ignore one of the most persistent problems in Washington: overspending.How bad is it? In 2014, federal spending reached $3.5 trillion, and the one-year deficit was $486 billion. And these huge numbers represent “a small and temporary improvement in the nation’s fiscal situation,” a recent report by The Heritage Foundation notes.But as the authors point out, that doesn’t mean we’re on the right track. Far from it. A serious effort to cut spending -- not just trim a bit here and there -- is needed.“Without further...

Our interview with former U.S. senator, under secretary of state during the Reagan administration, and federal judge James Buckley (brother of William F.).

Updated 2:30 p.m. | Unsure whether they have the votes to pass a trillion-dollar federal spending package, House GOP leaders on Thursday afternoon delayed a final vote on the “cromnibus.” They did so with mere hours to go until the government is set to run out of funding, and just before the House was scheduled to vote. GOP leaders called a recess to floor proceedings, with a GOP leadership aide confirming “no conference meeting [is] planned at this time.” The aide said “leadership teams are still talking to their respective members,” and noted, “We still plan to vote this afternoon.”...

Barack Obama’s flimsy lies in defense of his handling of the Secret Service prostitution scandal have been characterized by the Washington Post as “Demonstrably False.” This truthful statement from a leading media outlet has been a longtime coming; but those of us who have been honest observers of the miserable failure in the White House say: Better late than never. Barack Obama has lied to us from the first day he entered public life from wherever he came from. If Franklin Roosevelt’s Administration was the, “New Deal” and John Kennedy’s was the “New Frontier,” Barack Obama’s Administration must be labeled...

A nuclear lab in Tennessee has canceled a "Southern accent reduction" class after employees raised heck about what they saw as a slap in their Southern faces, the class instructor said Tuesday.

(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is to ask Congress for more than $2 billion to deal with the surge in unaccompanied children from Central America flooding into the United States along its southern border.

"Some think Social Security is going bankrupt, but since the program uses taxes from current workers to pay current retirees, it is impossible for it to go bankrupt. The program also doesn’t contribute to the national debt or the deficit as some have suggested. All taxes and spending for the program happen independently of the federal budget." "Social Security took in more money than it paid out in benefits until 2010, which created an enormous trust fund, but since 2010, the program has paid out more in benefits than it has received in taxes. Should this trend continue, the trust...

(CNSNews.com) - While discussing federal spending and transportation funding last week, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said “there is absolutely no way we’re going to cut spending.” Boxer was discussing the Highway Trust Fund with members of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in Washington on Feb. 26, when she addressed various tax increases that may be used to raise money for the program. - See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/eric-scheiner/boxer-absolutely-no-way-were-going-cut-spending#sthash.bgvFVlLs.dpuf

While discussing federal spending and transportation funding, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said “there is absolutely no way we’re going to cut spending.” Boxer was discussing the Highway Trust Fund with members of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in Washington on Feb. 26th, when she addressed various tax increases that may be used to raise money for the program. “I don’t see support for raising the gas tax and there is absolutely no way we’re going to cut spending, so it’s going to have to be a creative way to fund this in reality,” Boxer said....

This column is part of an ongoing series of essays examining and applying the timeless principles and truths of the Federalist Papers to the political events of our day. “I don’t control the checkbook . . . I’m not the king of New Jersey. I’m just the governor.”- NJ Gov. Chris Christie The recent Jersey Shore town hall meeting that many who are “Ready for Hillary” may have hoped would end Chris Christie’s threat to their champion took an unexpected turn in the direction of a primer on 21st century American federalism. More the lion tamer than the elephant in...

This year President Barack Obama and his party will begin their campaign against “the rich” while emphasizing the “gap” in wages between those on top and those on the bottom. Their solution will be to increase the minimum wage, raise taxes on “the rich” and increase government spending. They will exploit ignorance and envy to maintain power. Their solution will make the gap larger and create an endless recession. Unless reversed, the result is likely to be a financial collapse, wiping out savings, retirement accounts and putting almost everyone in the country into the category we now call the "working...

<p>Congress gave final approval Thursday to a $1.1 trillion spending bill that eases the sharp budget cuts known at the sequester and guarantees that the nation will not endure another government shutdown until at least Oct. 1.</p> <p>After three years of politically bruising and economically damaging battles over the budget, the bipartisan agreement to fund federal agencies through the rest of the fiscal year passed with little fanfare.</p>

This week's spending-bill fight revealed deepening fractures within the GOP, spelling trouble for 2016. Imagine the ground is splitting open beneath your feet. The rocking plates of earth slowly spread apart, and you're left straddling both sides to keep from falling in. That is how some of the most publicly visible GOP lawmakers are feeling right now. They must choose whose side they're on: establishment Republicans or the far-right flank. Ultraconservative groups are furious over the omnibus appropriations package that coasted through the Republican-led House on Wednesday. The bill, which would fund the government for the rest of the...

WASHINGTON — The House voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday, 359 to 67, to approve a $1.1 trillion spending bill for the current fiscal year, shrugging off the angry threats of Tea Party activists and conservative groups whose power has ebbed as Congress has moved toward fiscal cooperation. The legislation, 1,582 pages in length and unveiled only two nights ago, embodies precisely what many House Republicans have railed against since the Tea Party movement began, a huge bill dropped in the cover of darkness and voted on before lawmakers could possibly have read it. The conservative political action committee Club for Growth...

The US financial aid designated for the Palestinian Authority (PA) is set to grow considerably in 2014 to $440 million, up from $426 million in 2013. The aid aims to bail out the PA, which in June was revealed to owe $4.2 billion in internal and external debt. Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) representative in Washington DC, Maen Erekat, reported the figure, saying the transfer was already agreed upon by Congress, but will be influenced by progress in the peace talks with Israel. The PA recently declared the talks have failed, and threatened diplomatic action against Israel. …

**SNIP** 3. Medicare and Medicaid Health care was been a huge issue in 2013, and Congress continues to grapple with how to fix the ailing benefits program. One thing that doesn’t help is the millions of dollars in waste uncovered in the programs. A December investigation found that Medicare payed $24 million for full vials of medicine, even when health care providers were only using part of the vial. It’s the kind of thing that happens often with the program, said Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “This is endemic. This...

Last week the House passed the Ryan-Murray budget deal that inadvertently changed the benefits for service members who retired due to a disability or a service-related injury. This is not acceptable and was not the intention of either Chairman Ryan or Chairwoman Murray. I do not support changing the retirement benefits for disabled veterans, and today, I introduced a bill with House Veterans Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller (FL-01) that will ensure this COLA reduction does not impact service members who retired because of disability or a service-related injury. The bill I introduced will exempt: - All veterans who medically...

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday that the country doesn’t need to worry about another government shutdown in January when the current stopgap spending bill runs out. The government shutdown lasted for 16 days in October, after Republicans demanded that President Obama defund his signature healthcare law. To avoid another shutdown, Ryan said either he and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) would strike a budget deal or Congress would pass a stopgap keeping existing spending levels. “Either of those two scenarios will prevail, and we will not have a government shutdown,” he said at the...