Free Republic

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said on Monday a Senate Republican package to provide additional Ukraine aid in supplemental spending is not “going anywhere” in the House. McCarthy signaled to Punchbowl News that any additional aid for Ukraine’s protracted conflict with Russia would have to come from the annual appropriations process as part of the Pentagon’s $866 billion in discretionary spending, which was agreed to in the debt ceiling deal, otherwise known as the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

What I'm about to say is flat out disgusting. If you just ate your breakfast, you may want to observe caution over the next 5 minutes. Now before I tell you this, keep one thing in mind: Republicans control all three branches of government. Here we go. It's October, which means the fiscal year has officially ended, so that means the debt numbers are in. Brace yourselves for impact. The federal debt has increased by over $1.2 trillion. Total federal debt is now over $21 trillion and rising. The $1.2 trillion increase is the sixth largest debt increase... in the...

Donald Trump achieved the presidency telling the American people he would "Make America Great Again." Given that during eight years of Barack Obama's presidency there was not a single year in which national satisfaction, as measured by Gallup, averaged above 30 percent, tapping into Americans' general dissatisfaction with the state of the nation was good campaign strategy. This February, national satisfaction reached the highest its been under Trump, 36 percent. However, in March it plunged back down to 28 percent. And this big drop was fueled by a big drop among Republicans. National satisfaction among Republicans dropped from 67...

We've been critical of Republicans' chronic inability to thrust political predicaments upon Senate Democrats and President Obama by forcefully spotlighting risky, unpopular filibusters, and forcing politically painful vetoes. Progress on these fronts has been maddeningly rare, though not nonexistent. With additional Democratic obstruction efforts afoot, the GOP now appears poised to require presidential vetoes on measures that would gut much of Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood, via a budget maneuver known as reconciliation.  But perhaps their best opportunity to draw political blood, or even win, is on a showdown involving the National Defense Authorization Act, which large bipartisan majorities have now sent to Obama's desk, directly challenging a veto threat: Speaker...

As a teenager, I began a new lifelong routine of starting and ending each day reading from the book of Proverbs, which, of course, was written by Solomon, a very wise man. Interestingly, my parents gave me the middle name of Solomon -- not that I claim even a modicum of his wisdom. After Solomon became the king of Israel, he gained great renown when two women came before him claiming to be the mother of the same infant. Solomon decreed that the baby should be divided and half given to each woman, at which time the real mother immediately...

Inquiring minds are digging into a George Washington University paper on State Fiscal Conditions, a ranking of 50 states, by Sarah Arnett. PolicyMic Produced this Chart of State Fiscal Conditions based on the working paper. Highlights and Lowlights Let's return to the original working paper for some highlights and lowlights. At the bottom of the rankings are New Jersey and Illinois. New Jersey faces long-run solvency problems due in part to nearly 15 years of underfunding its state and local pensions. It has an estimated unfunded pension liability of around $25.6 billion as well as $59.3 billion in unfunded liabilities...

Like Enron, Greece, and Donald Trump before us, America is about to go bankrupt. Unfortunately, our bankruptcy will probably be more Enron and less Donald Trump because we're very unlikely to come back bigger and better in the lifetime of anyone reading this column. Instead, most Americans are probably going to experience skyrocketing taxes, spiraling inflation, widespread disorder, and a dramatically reduced standard of living. This isn’t a crisis that our great-grandchildren will have to figure out one day. To the contrary, it's entirely possible it will occur within the next decade and unless we make big changes no one...

We ought to think about the cultural roots of the budget crisis in Washington. The political left says the shut down is all about an ideological tantrum of a handful of Republicans. Certainly Tea Partiers have an ideology and vision about what ground rules would produce a more prosperous, freer, and fairer America. But let’s be honest. The gentleman in the White House, our president, is as hard-core in his ideological dispositions as any Tea Partier. Each side believes America would be better off if it were run according to their vision. What’s the crucial difference? As a Tea Partier,...

I always believed that giving to a good cause or helping victims of a disaster was a noble thing to do. I mean, “There but for the grace of God go I”, right? With the recent uncovering of scandals within the government, more and more investigators are digging to uncover other cases of fraud and mismanagement. Is nothing sacred anymore? A recent investigation exposed by CNN, The Center for Investigative Reporting and the Tampa Bay Times have found that there are dozens and dozens of charities that basically do next to nothing for the causes they raise money for. 50...

WASHINGTON -- A couple of weeks ago, I elaborated on how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had at the time failed for three straight years to write up a budget in the Senate, thereby breaking the law three -- now four -- years running. I said that he should write up a budget in part to inform the citizenry how their tax dollars were being spent. How much was going to the Pentagon and our nation's security? How much was going into green fantasies like Solyndra and payoffs to the Democratic Party's friends. That would be friendly fascism, the left's...

Christian conservatives looking to put a Republican in the White House heard a lot about the economy on Friday in a sign that their social issues may take a back seat in 2012. Many political speakers at the Faith and Freedom Coalition, including Republican White House hopefuls, emphasized jobs, debt and deficits... In contrast to some previous presidential campaigns, social issues like gay marriage and abortion have not been prominent topics for Republicans hopefuls seeking to replace President Barack Obama in next year's election. The weakness of the economy has triggered a debate within the Republican Party about whether conservatives...

I am old enough to remember a time when Americans hated being in debt, and looked down on people who were heavily in debt. People in those days used to say that, if you could not afford it, you did not need it. There was a core value among Americans, that people should live according to their means. Both Republicans and Democrats lived according to those values. New Deal Democrats believed in tax and spend, and supported top tax rates of 90 percent on the rich. Republicans opposed taxes and spending. But both parties were totally opposed to the idea...

Speaking Up For Tough Choices Tilla Bradley, January 14, 2010 There is certainly no better time for the release of former Government Accountability Office (GAO) head David M. Walker’s latest book, Comeback America: Turning the Country around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility than this. With the national debt at over 12 trillion dollars, America needs more sensible voices like Walker’s to help America stage the comeback to sound financial principles that is so fervently needed. The GAO is a research arm of the U.S. Congress. With over 35 years of experience in both the private and public sector, Mr. Walker is...

Fiscal Responsibility Has Moved Abroad 1 comment November 05, 2009 John Browne Last week, to the delight of its media cheerleaders, the government announced that economic growth had returned and the recession had ended. But before we start celebrating one quarter of modest growth, we should realize the only force driving this apparent recovery is an enormous increase in government spending. To finance its largesse, the government is now borrowing at a rate that has ordinary citizens and the international community extremely concerned. Leading into the first election season under Obama's reign, this unprecedented government borrowing and spending is creating...

For a scant few moments this week, I felt that our state legislature had finally gotten the message. Leadership begins at the top and “painful” cost-cutting measures should start there. The reason for my jubilance came in the form of Senate Bill 44 which would’ve begun the elimination of those frivolous do-nothing boards and commissions which merely serve as “weigh-stations” with six figure salaries for termed out over-the-hill lawmakers. A companion bill was introduced in the Assembly.

Given the GOP’s hail-mary strategy on the Obama stimulus plan, you just knew this was coming. But still it makes you shake your head. The AP reports that as many as six Republican governors may turn their noses up at stimulus money for their states. That includes, of course, Sarah Palin 2012. According to the AP report: A half-dozen Republican governors are considering turning down some money from the federal stimulus package, a move opponents say puts conservative ideology ahead of the needs of constituents struggling with foreclosures and unemployment. Though none has outright rejected the money available for education,...

State lawmakers cut Florida's budget by more than $2.5 billion during their recently-completed special session, but Gov. Charlie Crist has vetoed almost a quarter of the spending reductions. About $90 million that would have been cut from the budget is being spared. Items that Crist vetoed, meaning they will stay in the budget, include: $29 million for teachers, autism education and Florida School for the Deaf and Blind $23 million for food stamps, disability agencies, mental health and substance abuse treatment $16 million to keep 118 probation officers working, as well as substance abuse and guardian ad litem programs The...

Burdened by credit card debt? It may not be your fault. Sen. Barack Obama says in many cases, the credit card companies are to blame for "pushing" financially strapped Americans "over the edge." The banking industry disagrees. In a speech in Chicago Wednesday, Obama outlined his plan to "build an economy that works for all Americans." He spoke mostly about personal credit card debt, which he views as a problem with a government solution. Obama says the sour economy is forcing Americans to put more and more of their debt onto credit cards. (The American Banking Association on its Web...

There has been a lot of talk in the news recently about the Federal Reserve and the actions it has taken over the past few months. Many media pundits have been bending over backwards to praise the Fed for supposedly restoring stability to the market. This interpretation of the Fed's actions couldn't be further from the truth. The current market crisis began because of Federal Reserve monetary policy during the early 2000s in which the Fed lowered the interest rate to a below-market rate. The artificially low rates led to overinvestment in housing and other malinvestments. When the first indications...

SALINAS, Calif. (AP) - Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton said the economy is beginning to slide into recession and that it's time for the United States to reduce its dependence on foreign lenders. Speaking to a raucous group of supporters on Tuesday in this heavily Hispanic farming town on the central coast, the New York senator tried to energize this key Democratic constituency before the state's Feb. 5 primary. With red-shirted United Farm Worker union members behind her, Clinton gave a downbeat assessment of the economy and said she would bring fiscal responsibility back to the White House. ''We know...