Free Republic

Nancy Pelosi's health care reform bill passed by a margin of 210-205. A razor-thin victory (or was it?), thanks, no less, to her political-genius. The political cost of her bill: a potential sweeping of the 2010 and 2012 elections by the GOP, and another nail in the coffin of Barack Obama's constitutional usurping Hope and Change agenda.

California Republican Execs have a chance to redeem themselves ... After two serious fumbles: 1. Teresa Hernandez for Congressional District 32, May 2009, and 2. David Harmer for Congressional District 10, November 2009. How can they shed their Keystone Cops image? Answer: Follow the Jim deMint lead and support Chuck DeVore to replace senator Boxer. Do not support Carly Fiorina, she is the poster girl of affirmative action. The Board at Hewlett Packard (mostly heirs of Wm. Hewlett and David Packard) soon discovered she was unsuitable, because rather than build on HP strengths, she sought to expand via acquisition, mostly...

There has been a lot of talk in Washington recently about senior citizens, mostly about how various healthcare reform models would help or hurt them. But there is another critical issue that has quietly devastated seniors financially over the last few decades. It concerns how the cost of living is calculated. How does the administration justify not giving a cost of living increase to Social Security recipients this year? According to the official Consumer Price Index calculation, life has gotten cheaper for the first time in decades. If the government can show statistically that the cost of living has gone...

With most Americans outraged over the behavior of the Federal Reserve and the part it has played in the bailouts of huge institutions in the financial and automotive industries, Ron Paul introduced H.R. 1207, which would have required a full audit of the Federal Reserve and its activities, which crosses international lines. According to Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, the House Financial Service Committee’s panel on domestic monetary policy, Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., essentially stripped the bill of just about everything that would have required transparency, and pretty much is now worthless as to its original purpose of letting the American...

Last week a new bill was introduced in the Senate to audit the Federal Reserve. Some backers of my bill HR1207 and the existing Senate companion bill S.604 were a little miffed at this, but depending on how you think about it, this new legislation poses no great threat to our efforts. With the economy in shambles, people are looking for answers - not just because of lost savings on Wall Street, but because of lost houses on Main Street. Because of the many problems we face, the Federal Reserve and its powers over the economy have come under scrutiny....

The Economist has a thoughtful interview with Reihan. His thoughts on Paul: My suspicion is that non-interventionism is going to enjoy a rebirth among conservatives. As memories of 9/11 fade and casualties continue to mount, a desire for an independent foreign policy with an inward focus—I won't call it isolationism—will reassert itself. Though I'm a firm believer in a more forward-leaning foreign policy (my instincts are more McCain than Paul), this is a good and healthy debate to have. So in that sense, Mr Paul is good for the party. I worry, however, that the Paul movement represents a turn...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says health care is a right; President Obama says health care is a right; the 2008 Democratic National Platform says health care is a right. Republicans say that health care is not a right. Right? Former Republican Senate majority leaders Bill "bought and paid for by the AMA" Frist and Bob "bought and paid for by Big Pharma" Dole support health care reform, but the Republicans in Congress, who have to answer to the voters, are balking. As much as I deplore with every fiber of my being every facet of the federal government’s intrusion into...

With a faltering economy, multiple wars, and the approaching demise of the dollar’s reserve status, there are more than enough problems to keep politicians in Washington working day and night. In between handing out cash for clunkers and nationalizing healthcare, the administration is busy sending more troops overseas, escalating existing wars, and seeking out excuses to start new wars. Congress is working on “urgent” legislation to address crises like healthcare reform and climate change. The reforms are so very urgent that legislation must pass swiftly with no time to read the bills even though the new laws wouldn’t take effect...

It is a cliché that if we do not study the past we are condemned to repeat it. Almost equally certain, however, is that if there are lessons to be learned from an historical episode, the political class will draw all the wrong ones — and often deliberately so. Far from viewing the past as a potential source of wisdom and insight, political regimes have a habit of employing history as an ideological weapon, to be distorted and manipulated in the service of present-day ambitions. That’s what Winston Churchill meant when he described the history of the Soviet Union as...

I am going to be on TV twice tonight to respond to Lindsey Graham's attack Monday that I am trying to "hijack" the Republican Party, and that our movement is a bunch of "angry white men." Please tune in to CNN at 6:00 pm ET and MSNBC at 6:30 pm ET and help me defend our Constitutional principles from the Neo-Conservatives!

It sometimes seems like many members of the Republican party have forgotten the history of the party and lost track of the principles on which the party was founded. The party was founded in opposition to involuntary servitude and in support of the rights of workers to keep the fruits of their labors. It was founded as a party based on liberty of the individual and liberty from oppressive government and no other beliefs of personal agendas should be more valued by Republicans than liberty. The popular right-wing website RedState, which has a long history of condemning political figures for...

What if tomorrow morning you woke up to headlines that yet another Chinese drone bombing on US soil killed several dozen ranchers in a rural community while they were sleeping? That a drone aircraft had come across the Canadian border in the middle of the night and carried out the latest of many attacks? What if it was claimed that many of the victims harbored anti-Chinese sentiments, but most of the dead were innocent women and children? And what if the Chinese administration, in an effort to improve its public image in the US, had approved an aid package to...

This past week there has been a lot of discussion and debate on the continuing war in Afghanistan. Lasting twice as long as World War II and with no end in sight, the war in Afghanistan has been one of the longest conflicts in which our country has ever been involved. The situation has only gotten worse with recent escalations. The current debate is focused entirely on the question of troop levels. How many more troops should be sent over in order to pursue the war? The administration has already approved an additional 21,000 American service men and women to...

If there's anything Lindsey Graham does for the Republican party, it's that he reminds his constituents that political principles are more important than winning. In these videos, Graham simply has no shame as he continues to defy principle for compromise in the name of "winning." Since when did morality become all about winning? Regardless, the last time I checked Mr. Moderate John McCain didn't exactly excite voters in last year's presidential race other than to vote against Democrats. Honestly, I'd rather have one Republican in office who actually stood behind the Constitution than a super majority made up of two...

In 2002, President George W. Bush helped make us poorer by signing off on higher steel tariffs. In 2009, President Barack Obama helped make us poorer by signing off on higher tire tariffs. Is this supposed to be change we can believe in? Economic analysis shows that trade creates wealth. The law of comparative advantage demonstrates that when we specialize and trade, we produce more wealth using the same resources. Preventing trade means that we use more resources to produce less wealth.

Those of us who have been waiting for a politician to pick up on the monetary issue are perking up at Governor Palin’s demarche on the dollar. This came last week in a posting on her Facebook page, where she reacted to a report that Gulf oil producers were negotiating with Russia, China, Japan, and France to abandon the use of the dollar in pricing petroleum. She noted the report in the Wall Street Journal that Arab oil officials were denying the story, but reckoned that “even the possibility of such talk weakens the dollar and renews fears about its...

SAN FRANCISCO – Marijuana advocates are gathering signatures to get as many as three pot-legalization measures on the ballot in 2010 in California, setting up what could be a groundbreaking clash with the federal government over U.S. drug policy. At least one poll shows voters would support lifting the pot prohibition, which would make the state of more than 38 million the first in the nation to legalize marijuana. Such action would also send the state into a headlong conflict with the U.S. government while raising questions about how federal law enforcement could enforce its drug laws in the face...

Political analysts frequently consider what it means to be a libertarian. In fact, in 1997, Charles Murray published a short book entitled "What It Means to Be a Libertarian" that does an excellent job of presenting the core principles of libertarian political philosophy. But almost no one ever discusses what it feels like to be a libertarian. How does it actually feel to be someone who holds the principles described in Murray’s book? I’ll tell you. It feels bad. Being a libertarian means living with an almost unendurable level of frustration. It means being subject to unending scorn and derision...

Last week I was very pleased that the Financial Services Committee held a hearing on the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, HR 1207. The bill has 295 cosponsors and there is also strong support for the companion bill in the Senate. This hearing was a major step forward in getting the bill passed. I was pleased that the hearing was well-attended, especially considering that it was held on a Friday at nine o’clock in the morning! I have been talking about the immense, unchecked power of the Federal Reserve for many years, while the attention of Congress was always on other...

Satellite radio show host Mike Church discusses the Campaign for Liberty, the Republican Party of Florida, Will Pitts, Ron Paul,Tom Woods, Audit the Fed, HR1207, Charlie Crist, Jim Greer, and the Republican Liberty Caucus [Click Here to Listen]

Statement before the United States House of Representatives, September 23, 2009. Government has been mismanaging medical care for more than 45 years; for every problem it has created it has responded by exponentially expanding the role of government. Points to consider: No one has a right to medical care. If one assumes such a right, it endorses the notion that some individuals have a right to someone else’s life and property. This totally contradicts the principles of liberty. If medical care is provided by government, this can only be achieved by an authoritarian government unconcerned about the rights of the...

Ron’s editor, Ben Greenberg, writes to him: END THE FED is debuting on the New York Times bestseller list at #6!!! Keep in mind that the Fall is a much more competitive time in terms of #s than April (when we published THE REVOLUTION last year), so I think this is a very auspicious start. This week and next are the crucial times…there are big, year-making nonfiction books coming out every week from here on out, so it’s a very difficult time to maintain traction, but I believe we can. Of course, The Daily Show and Glenn Beck will help...

Two weeks ago, both the administration and the Fed announced with straight faces that the recession was over and the signs of economic recovery were clear. Then last week, the president made a stunning decision that signals the administration’s determination to repeat the mistakes of the Great Depression. Much like the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs that set off a global trade war and effectively doomed us to ten more years of economic misery, Obama’s decision to enact steep tariffs on Chinese imported tires could spark a trade war with the single most important trading partner we have. Not only does China manufacture...

For three decades, Rep. Ron Paul has waged a lonely battle in Congress to abolish the Federal Reserve. But he has more foot soldiers across the nation today, particularly after the financial crisis, who are leading the drive for wider congressional audits of the central bank. In his new book — “ End the Fed” — released today, Rep. Paul walks through his critique of the central bank and lays out a strategy (briefly) for eliminating it. We sat down with the congressman to hear his views on a money system backed by gold, the Fed’s challenge of withdrawing its...

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), informs Congress that there will be hearings to audit the Federal Reserve and why he supports them.

Part of an interview with Phil Donahue...classic, short and sweet.LINK HERE

Far from protecting us and our children, the war on drugs is making the world a much more dangerous place. SO FAR this year, about 4000 people have died in Mexico's drugs war - a horrifying toll. If only a good fairy could wave a magic wand and make all illegal drugs disappear, the world would be a better place. Dream on. Recreational drug use is as old as humanity, and has not been stopped by the most draconian laws. Given that drugs are here to stay, how do we limit the harm they do? The evidence suggests most of...

Last Wednesday the nation was riveted to the President’s speech on healthcare reform before Congress. While the President’s concern for the uninsured is no doubt sincere, his plan amounts to a magnanimous gift to the health insurance industry, despite any implications to the contrary. For decades the insurance industry has been lobbying for mandated coverage for everyone. Imagine if the cell phone industry or the cable TV industry received such a gift from government? If government were to fine individuals simply for not buying a corporation’s product, it would be an incredible and completely unfair boon to that industry, at...

Near the start of this year Ron Paul (R-Texas) introduced H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services. As of this writing, H.R. 1207 has 282 cosponsors. A Senate equivalent, S.604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009, has been introduced by Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). It has 23 cosponsors. Both bills have received a tremendous groundswell of grass-roots support. Much of the support is coming from ordinary people who have become aware of the fact that the Federal Reserve has created trillions of dollars literally out of nothing...

Things seem to be unraveling quickly for the new administration. The latest unemployment numbers are worse than the last reports. For all the billions of dollars spent and committed to fixing our economic problems, the situation is only getting worse. This was to be expected by those who understand the root causes of the problems. Throwing money around and creating more government programs is both simplistic and damaging to the economy. Of course, the administration claims that we would have been much worse off without these efforts. You can’t improve this situation by adding to our mountain of public debt...

Florida Republican Party Wages War on Liberty Caucus: ‘Party Purge’ Expels Caucus Chair and Members from RPOF Positions NO ROOM FOR DISSENT IN FLORIDA REPUBLICAN PARTY JACKSONVILLE, FL — Last Friday, the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) Grievance Committee notified Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida Chairman Will G. Pitts of Jacksonville and four other Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) members that they have been removed from positions within the RPOF or prohibited from serving in any official RPOF capacity for a period of no less than two years. “This is just the latest action in the ongoing ‘Party Purge’,” said grassroots...

Over the last few months, there has been a growing movement to bring transparency and new levels of accountability to the US Federal Reserve. Congressman Ron Paul has been leading the fight in the House of Representatives. There’s no champion fighting in the US Senate to bring accountability to the Federal Reserve, but that might change if one Kentucky senatorial candidate gets elected. Currently in the U.S. Senate, there’s a piece of legislation similar to Ron Paul’s H.R. 1207 which would bring new levels of accountability to the Federal Reserve by allowing the GAO to audit the Fed. The legislation,...

Just got off the phone with some 20 year old at the RNC. I screen my calls and was going to let it roll over to the answering machine. Then I realized that this was a chance to give the RNC an earful.

It has been an interesting week indeed for the Federal Reserve. Early this week, it was announced that President Obama intends to reappoint Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to a second term in January, signaling a vote of confidence in him. Bernanke seems to be popular with the administration and with Wall Street, and with good reason. His lending policies have left big banks flush with newly created cash that covers up old mistakes and allows for new ones. By buying up mountains of Treasury debt he has also enabled spending to soar to ridiculous levels that should startle any responsible...

Japan’s historic election Sunday gave the Democratic Party an overwhelming victory over the Liberal Democrats that have dominated Japan’s government for 55 years.  The Liberal Democrats oversaw Japan’s industrial policy that supported Japan’s dominant firms during Japan’s rise as a major economic power during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.  Indeed, many American economists argued the U.S. should do more to emulate Japanese industrial policy and have the government actively involved in supporting dominant corporations to enhance their international competitiveness.American support for industrial policy, where the government actively picks the winners in economic competition, died off in the 1990s when the...

Obama Health Care leads to forced indenture. Can’t any one see where Obama Health Care is headed? The monetary costs are trivial compared to FORCED INDENTURE. Forced indenture will follow single payer healthcare, as night follows day. Do those who demand health care for all know what they are asking for? No, they don’t. If they did, they would be embarrassed. Read all

Watch this video. It is the most important video you will ever watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw&feat... George Soros and the progressive democrats he has in his pocket have a goal to destroy the dollar and to push for a global currency. As a result, George Soros would make billions just as he did from his attempt to destroy the British Pound. To accomplish his goal, George Soros and his team of democrats have chosen a messenger who via teleprompter will spread their message and will not oblige to his constitutional obligation to prove that he is a US citizen. Please view http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe2bpV1QlkE...

During August recess, many legislators have heard an unexpected amount of discontent from their constituents about what is happening on Capitol Hill, particularly regarding healthcare. Some people are justifiably terrified at what the government could do to healthcare, should it get its claws even further into it. Others demand a public option for health insurance and are adamant that healthcare be treated as yet another absolute entitlement. One thing everyone agrees on is that the final bill needs to be read and understood by all legislators before a vote is taken. To any American, this is common sense. In Washington,...

Since the bailouts last fall, lawmakers have been behaving as quasi-owners of the bailed-out banks and businesses, leading to calls for increased regulation of executive compensation and other wasteful expenditures. We have heard much about bonuses and executive pay packages that sound more like lottery winnings than an honest salary. Many lawmakers voted in favor of these unconstitutional bailouts, believing that these corporations were too big to fail, and allowing them to go under would precipitate widespread economic disaster. This second wave of citizen outrage at the bailouts has left these lawmakers with a bit of egg on their face,...

The US Patriot Act was used AGAIN to incarcerate the juvenile & model citizen for months without being charged with a crime! Arrested March 5 not indicted until July 9 10th He is detained on the basis of "good faith" beliefs on the part of the investigators, as permitted under the Patriot Act, rather than the normal legal standard of "probable cause" to suspect his commission of a crime. Fact: Ashton has an airtight alibi for the night he supposedly made a threat against Purdue University in Indiana; while the real perps go free to brag about hacking his skype...

Syndicalism is alive and well in Washington. Syndicalism embraces the notion that labor unions should have leadership roles in all aspects of a society whether it be banking, business, science, the arts, manufacturing, or politics. Syndicalism seeks the establishment of a communist state. The bolsheviks, led by Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky, used as a rallying cry: “All power to the Soviets,” wherein the word “soviet” means council, (but was widely understood as labor union). The new nation that emerged once the Bolsheviks had seized power from the Romanovs in Russia (1917) was Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). [Continue in...

It is every American's patriotic duty, if they are over the age of 65, an active exploiter of Medicare or any other government services, and not contributing retribution, to plan for their departure from American society. If you are over 65, a burden, you should feel duty bound. Now which of you folks here feels patriotic, raise your hand--Barack Obama

Despite the advances in technologies and solutions, the concern that remains central to the objective of providing security to the nation is the question of “who is who?” The federal homeland security laws directed toward enhancing the security of the United States — and the federal government’s confidence in the adequacy of such efforts — is, at the most basic level, grounded in the process of identity determination and the use of powerful databases to accurately determine individual identity to best evaluate threat and risk. Much of government’s effort to protect the borders, minimize the risk to infrastructure and ensure...

The Cash for Clunkers program has received a lot of attention this week on Capitol Hill and across the country. The program offers a voucher of up to $4500 in federal funds to anyone who trades in a working used car for a new one with better fuel economy. Congress was shocked at how quickly people responded to promises of free money and drained the program, while car dealers have been equally shocked at how slow and arduous the government’s website to claim the rebates has been. It’s not a shock that people respond to incentives. The program has been...

How sick and sad that Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed today by the US Senate for a seat on the US Supreme Court! Anyone who cares about individual rights and true justice has to be in despair. Sotomayor is a racist, sexist, bigot, and lowlife. Her "identity politics" philosophy, and "wise Latina" persona, violate the Greek ideal of "impartiality before the law," and the American ideal of "e pluribus unum." She's a drop-dead enemy of civil rights and neutral, impartial justice -- the only justice that even exists. Sotomayor reduces America to the level of savage, tribalist Afghanistan wherein the great...

(An open letter from the Chairman of the RLC to liberty activists attending health care townhall events this month)I've been studying videos of the Townhall protests which have taken place so far, have talked to participants and have been tracking the media coverage and the spin which the left is trying to put on the protests. As a result I have some suggestions for Republican Liberty Caucus activists who attend these events which I hope you will also share with others who go with you. The line of attack against the protests is to try to discredit them as "astroturf"...

The world today would be a helluva lot better place if only we would get the government to mandate everyone everywhere go to Tolerance Camp at least once a year -- especially all our impressionable children. We could all go there for various communalist- and identity-type group lessons, particularly Diversity Seminars and Sensitivity Training. Clearly this kind of far-minded, progressive education for all mankind would significantly promote the brotherhood of man, just as it radically enhanced planetary social harmony and worldwide public unity. After graduating from this universally-obligatory Tolerance Camp -- as run by the best of inclusive, egalitarian, truly-enlightened...

Healthcare continues to dominate the agenda on Capitol Hill as House leadership and the administration try to ram through their big government healthcare plan. Fortunately, they have been unsuccessful so far, as there are many horrifying provisions tucked into this massive piece of legislation. One major issue is the public funding of elective abortions. The administration has already removed many longstanding restrictions on abortion, and is unwilling to provide straight answers to questions regarding the public funding of abortion in their plan. This is deeply troubling for those of us who do not want taxpayer dollars funding abortions. Forcing pro-life...

Republican Senator Bob Corker apparently goes on record as one of the most vocal congressional opponents of Federal Reserve transparency.

Doing no harm is the ancient tradition of Western civilization, stretching from ancient Greece to the present Judeo/Christian world. Doing Good requires a “problem” needing a remedy. Doing No Harm has no such trigger. Revolutions always crash and burn, if modeled after the French Revolution, anyhow. The people suffer, and the leaders of the revolution install themselves as all-powerful despots. The American Revolution was different, because it applied the concept of Doing No Harm. The American Revolution also contained a mind-set typified by Edmund Burke’s conservatism. See previous Freeper post. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-rlc/2205205/posts The current Revolution promulgated by the president and the...