Free Republic

Untangling ourselves from entitlements will restore our solvency and our spirit. America’s financial situation is precarious. Over the past eight years our national debt has doubled to $14.5 trillion, and our total unfunded liabilities now exceed an astonishing $114 trillion. That’s $1,115,000 per federal income taxpayer. Even the most unrepentant spendthrift understands that these debts and liabilities are unsupportable, nor can they be solved by immorally targeting the rich. Instead, we must enact immediate, across-the-board spending cuts, with special emphasis on the biggest components of our financial wreck: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. These entitlement programs constitute the majority of...

In one of those lapses of news judgment that with regrettable frequency make mainstream journalists resemble characters in Scoop, the media herd that gathered in Wisconsin to chronicle the great Democratic triumph in the state senate elections has gone back to the coasts — and missed what could grow into a much more consequential story than the failure of organized labor’s second attempt to punish the Wisconsin GOP: the outbreak of racial hate violence at the Wisconsin State Fair. A story that involved Scott Walker getting his just deserts, even if it didn’t quite work out that way, was infinitely...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — President Barack Obama would veto a House Republican bill that requires Congress to add a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution before raising the country’s debt limit, the White House said Monday, as action in the debt-ceiling debate moved to Capitol Hill. The House GOP’s “Cut, Cap and Balance Act” “would undercut the government’s “ability to meet its core commitments to seniors, middle-class families and the most vulnerable, while reducing our ability to invest in our future,” the White House said in a policy statement about the bill, which would also cut spending from the 2012 budget and...

Here's one story (true) about entitlements and welfare, of which I am intimately familiar. For the sake of protecting identity, we'll call him Billie. Billie was 19 years old in 1979 when he had formed a teenage history of aberrant behavior, including the use and selling of drugs, skipping school, etc., but no violence toward others. His father took him to a psychiatrist who diagnosed him as a manic-depressive, prescribing more drugs that put Billie into a near stupor. That lasted a few months. Billie spent a few days in jail now and then for stealing, but always had someone...

It’s perhaps not the most politically correct take on welfare in America’s black community, but an interesting one nonetheless. Walter E. Williams, a George Mason economist and author of “Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination?” is not a fan of the welfare state that exists in the country. In an appearance on Thursday night’s “Stossel” on the Fox Business Network, Williams argued that welfare has done more damage to black society than slavery or Jim Crow. “[T]he welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery could not have done, the harshest Jim Crow laws and...

President Obama outlined what he called a framework for deficit reduction Wednesday. It was a tacit admission that his 2012 budget submission did not go far enough. That shows Republicans succeeded in seizing the initiative with their own comprehensive, pro-growth proposal to restore America’s solvency. Mr. Obama’s flimsy “me, too” smacks of desperation. The White House describes its latest plan as “comprehensive” and “pro-growth” but that’s deceptive. The GOP used the phrases to describe House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s package of discretionary spending cuts, entitlement reforms and tax relief. Mr. Obama hijacked the words to describe a combination of...

My childhood was spent in the hardscrabble world of Pennsylvania’s coal towns, where hard-working anthracite miners drove the economy. As my awareness of the world around me grew, from the 1950s into the early 1960s, I was struck again and again by the pride of the men who worked underground in a dangerous profession: Those who avoided work were considered a blot on the community, and being forced onto “the dole” for any reason humiliated not only the immediate family involved, but even distant relations. Men expected to earn their way, taking pride in maintaining their simple “company” houses as...

More than a third of California's African American public high school students dropped out before graduation day, a startling number and one that's on the rise, according to 2009 data released Tuesday. The 37 percent African American dropout rate, up three percentage points from the prior year, was far above that of any other ethnic subgroup. Hispanic students had the second highest rate at 27 percent. Locally, San Francisco cautiously celebrated a 9 percent overall dropout rate, a stark contrast to Oakland's 40 percent, numbers still under review for accuracy. The statewide statistics highlight a pervasive achievement gap in test...

While I think the deficit commission’s final product was less than adequate to its mission (as I argue below), it is worth remarking on the extraordinary moment we appear to be in on the deficit and debt questions—a moment which the commission has had a lot to do with creating. Between the Simpson-Bowles proposal, the Rivlin-Ryan proposal, the Domenici-Rivlin proposal (which came from outside the commission), and a number of other ideas thrown around in recent weeks, people in the center and on the right (helped no doubt by the election results) appear to be moving closer together on the...

Snips from Excerpt only website: Seventy-two percent of black babies are born to unmarried mothers today, according to government statistics. This number is inseparable from the work of Carroll, an obstetrician who has dedicated her 40-year career to helping black women. The black community's 72 percent rate eclipses that of most other groups: 17 percent of Asians, 29 percent of whites, 53 percent of Hispanics and 66 percent of Native Americans were born to unwed mothers in 2008, the most recent year for which government figures are available. The rate for the overall U.S. population was 41 percent.

Racist eugenicist and Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger would be so proud: "According to the city Health Department, 2008 saw 89,469 abortions performed in New York City — seven for every 10 live births. Among black women, abortions out number live births by three to two." These statistics from New York City more closely resemble the abortion mill culture of post-communist countries like China and Russia (who have historically devalued the worth of individual human life in favor of the collective good), than the old Clintonian mantra, “safe, legal and rare.” I realize that many people, liberal and otherwise, are...

Deck stacked against those who were raised by the streets. The horrible death of Eric Morse, the 5-year-old boy who was dropped from a CHA building in 1994, became a metaphor for the horrors of urban living. The ages of the boy's killers, 10 and 11, compounded the tragedy, as did the fact that Eric's half-brother, Derrick Lemon, was in the 14th-floor apartment when his brother was dropped to his death. » Click to enlarge image Mary Mitchell Derrick was 8 years old, unable to protect his younger brother from his tormenters even before the killers took him to the...

Sometime during the last half-century, America – the most magnificent and prosperous nation in the world – was stolen, according to June's special issue of Whistleblower magazine. "Just 50 years ago, in the 1950s, America was a great place," writes author William Lind in the issue, titled "STEALTH ATTACK." "It was safe. It was decent. Children got good educations in the public schools. Even blue-collar fathers brought home middle-class incomes, so moms could stay home with the kids. Television shows reflected sound, traditional values. "Where did it all go? How did that America become the sleazy, decadent place we live...

Link only.

How often does the Office of Policy Planning and Research, United States Department of Labor, produce anything worth reading, let alone a report that reverberates 45 years later? Such was the brilliance of Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan that it happened once, when he wrote his prescient 1965 report, "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action." He wrote it on a typewriter over a few weeks and had the publications office in the basement of the Labor Department print 100 of them, marked "For Official Use Only." The report sparked a furor of continuing relevance, as James...

Chris Hansen traveled to Detroit, Michigan for a Dateline special that aired tonight on the state of what is probably America's most desolate city. And in aerial footage—devastation porn at its best—Detroit's grim plight was revealed. "Today, from the air, parts of Detroit look like a war zone," Hansen said in a voiceover near the beginning of the special, before he listed some of the most shocking facts about the city's current state—the population is less than half of what it was decades ago; there are 400 liquor stores there, but only eight supermarkets—all while panning shots of the consequences...

Ok, I have thought that ever since the whole debacle of the Obama care crap, what sort of reform that could be pushed through that would slip past the liberals but help cut money on social programs. Well I thought about it the other night when they were doing a story on the "replacement rate" when concerning demographics. My Solution: "Replacement Rate Based Welfare Benefits" The Logic behind this simply goes like this: The government seems to be looking out for Number One these days and that means the Government in general. Would it not be "progressive" that the government...

PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― Click to enlarge 1 of 1 Photo of an apparent "flash mob" involving approximately 100 teens causing chaos inside the Center City Macy's store. CBS Related Slideshows Openly Gay Celebrities Real Or Fake? The Tattooed Ladies Of Hollywood Celebrities Turning 40 In 2010 Caught Cheating: Celebrity Scandals What's My Name? Honeymoon Lingerie: Behind-The-Scenes 2010 Celebrity Deaths Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show 2010 2010 Vancouver Winter Games Investigators say a massive snowball fight outside City Hall between 100 teens spilled into a popular department store and ended with 14 arrests. The entire ordeal began when approximately 100...

Philadelphia police said a "flash mob" with thousands of teenagers and young adults swarmed South Street Saturday night causing businesses to close early and bringing law enforcement from across the city to control the crowd. --snip-- Mobs of teens have disrupted Center City three times in the last three months. On Dec. 18, students from several city high schools responded to a call via Facebook to participate in a massive gathering in response to fights at the Gallery food court. Some of the teens later randomly attacked pedestrians on nearby Center City streets

Business owners yesterday called on Mayor Nutter to stop "flash mobs" on South Street after patrons couldn't shop, dine or get home on Saturday night because of the hordes of teens roaming the neighborhood. Inspired by Twitter messages to "come to South Street," police say hundreds - business owners say thousands - of young teens stampeded down South Street in waves, jumping on top of cars, knocking over pedestrians and fighting and cursing. ..... About 11 p.m. a 27-year-old woman was walking on South near 15th when a large group of male and female juveniles ganged up on her, kicking...