Free Republic

Paul Krugman Answers Paul Ryan on Debt Crisis: We Can Print Money January 31, 2013 By Melanie Hunter (CNSNews.com) – Responding to House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's warning that if the federal government continues to run annual $1 trillion deficits we will eventually face a debt crisis, liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said Wednesday that that is not a legitimate worry because the U.S. government can always print money and weaken the buying power of the dollar. Weakening the dollar, Krugman said, would be a good thing. “The United States is a country that has its...

Introduced Caption Text: Relating to exempting the intrastate manufacture of a firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition from federal regulation.

The site allegedly attacked by Israel in Syria manufactured chemical and biological weapons, according to a report in Iraqi newspaper Azzaman that appears in London. ... It says that the classified installation, which is located just 12 kilometers (7 miles) from the presidential palace, was guarded by a large contingent of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, many of whom died in the attack. A diplomatic source interviewed by the newspaper said that the attack took place 48 hours before it was first reported. He said that initial reports regarding a convoy that was attacked were meant to disguise the true target of...

Former senator Chuck Hagel defended his vote against designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group, claiming it would have been unprecedented and potentially harmful to give that designation to a representative of a “legitimate” government.The Islamist regime in Iran, Hagel said, was “an elected, legitimate government, whether we agree or not.”The Iranian government is currently gearing up for elections by arresting “anti-revolutionary” journalists, and deciding whether or not to allow pro-reform candidates to participate, many of whom have been living under house arrest for years.The country’s election in 2009 prompted large-scale protests followed by a violent...

U.S. spring crop season jeopardized as drought persists By Carey Gillam (Reuters) - The unrelenting drought gripping key farming states in the U.S. Plains shows no signs of abating, and it will take a deluge of snow or rain to restore critical moisture to farmland before spring planting of new crops, a climate expert said on Thursday. "It's not a pretty picture," said climatologist Mark Svoboda of the University of Nebraska's Drought Mitigation Center. (snip)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Some families could get priced out of health insurance due to what's being called a glitch in President Barack Obama's overhaul law. IRS regulations issued Wednesday failed to fix the problem as liberal backers of the president's plan had hoped. As a result, some families that can't afford the employer coverage that they are offered on the job will not be able to get financial assistance from the government to buy private health insurance on their own. How many people will be affected is unclear. The Obama administration says its hands were tied by the way Congress...

The progressive movement has always portrayed itself as one of "choice." They’re pro-choice when it comes to abortion and believe women should have the choice of a wide array of birth control that someone else pays for. Unfortunately, they stop short when it comes to "school choice." For progressives, there’s a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to our children’s education. Problems are attributed to inadequate funding as opposed to a fundamental flaw in the foundation of our educational system. The majority of today’s school districts dictate the conditions of education for students and schools, while taxpayers pick up the tab....

With a dreary predictability, Senator Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) shared with yesterday’s Senate hearing his “fire in a theater” argument for gun control. Schumer, as anyone who follows his exploits will be aware, is fond of this line. Adumbrating his opposition to the allegedly pernicious influence of Citizens United, the senator made the underlying point explicit: “I believe there ought to be limits because the First Amendment is not absolute. No amendment is absolute.” In an op-ed on December 23 of last year, he moved his attentions a little farther down the Bill of Rights: “While the First Amendment...

Geraldo contemplating run for Senate By Jonathan Easley - 01/31/13 02:02 PM ET Television personality and radio host Geraldo Rivera announced Thursday he’s “truly contemplating” a run for Senate in New Jersey. “I mention this only briefly, fasten your seatbelt,” Rivera said on his radio show. “I mentioned this only briefly to my wife ... but I am and I’ve been in touch with some people in the Republican Party in New Jersey. I am truly contemplating running for Senate against Frank Lautenberg or Cory Booker.” 
New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D), 89, is up for reelection in 2014 but...

One day before the biggest shooting range in Colorado opens to the sounds of gunfire, top El Paso County officials are promising to protect residents’ Second Amendment right to bear arms. El Paso County Commissioner Peggy Littleton on Tuesday introduced a resolution that states the board will not “enforce any statutes, edicts, Presidential Directives, or other regulations and proclamations which conflict — and are expressly preempted by — the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings” on the Second Amendment. The resolution refers to a 2008 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s rights, rather than...

President Barack Obama in his second inauguration address called for new action to “respond to the threat of climate change.” Taking advantage of the bully pulpit and a huge national audience, Obama mustered his best possible arguments in a brief case for why addressing global warming is supposedly necessary. Unfortunately for global warming alarmists, Obama’s case was exceptionally flimsy. Then again, Obama did not have much to work with, as the overall case for global warming alarmism is exceptionally flimsy.

<p>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Former San Francisco 49er Kwame Harris has been charged with felony domestic violence and assault charges from an August beating involving a former boyfriend, a prosecutor and defense lawyer said.</p>

With the revelation that All Nippon Airways replaced defectivelithium ion batteries 10 times,Japan Air Lines replaced“quite a few,” andUnited Airlines replaced “multiple batteries,” in the months preceding the smoke emergency that grounded their Dreamliners, is there anything that can be said about the technology that can overcome its now-horrible reputation? Boeing has worked on the 787 for 10 years or so, with an ample amount of time to determine what kind of battery technology would be functional with the“super-efficient” jet with “exceptional environmental performance.” Had the Chicago-based manufacturer –and its airline customers – concerned themselves more with achievable plans that...

Police in Mesa, Ariz., reported finding a man with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound who matches the description of a suspect in a Phoenix shooting. Phoenix police Sgt. Steve Martos said a person matching the description of the suspect, 70-year-old Arthur Douglas Harmon, was found Thursday with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, KTVK-TV, Phoenix, reported. "Mesa Police have informed us they have located the suspect vehicle involved in yesterday's [Wednesday's] incident," Martos said in an email distributed to media outlets Thursday. "In addition, they have located an individual matching the suspect description nearby with what appears to...

Riverside, California, January 16, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Seventh-day Adventist website ADvindicate has recently drawn attention to the fact that La Sierra University has named a new economics centre after abortionist and gambling magnate Edward C. Allred, who in 1980 claimed to have personally aborted a quarter of a million babies in twelve years. In 2010, La Sierra, a Seventh-day Adventist University in Riverside, California, established the Edward C. Allred Center to promote free market economics among high school students. The centre’s abortionist namesake founded the Family Planning Associates Medical Group in 1969, a chain of abortion clinics that reportedly...

Why is stealing wrong? Is it wrong because it’s illegal? Or is stealing wrong because individuals have a God-given or natural right to their own property? To some people, that’s like asking, “Which came first: the chicken or the egg?” — in other words, they think the answer is unknowable. But there’s an essential difference here: Unlike the chicken-and-egg question, we know that our God-given/natural rights precede government — both logically and historically. As our country’s Declaration of Independence so eloquently states, we are all endowed “with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of...

Migrants working in the United States sent a staggering $120 billion back to their families last year, it was revealed today. The amount of money being sent by migrants across the entire world reached $530 billion last year, making it a larger economy than Iran or Argentina, the data from the World Bank showed.

Bay State taxpayers are doling out a staggering $25 million a year to welfare recipients who may not even be eligible to collect, according to a blistering new report from one of the state’s top fraud fighters. The report, focused on families with at least one child, 
estimated that almost 10 percent of the 51,311 families on welfare are able to collect benefits from the Department of Transitional 
Assistance without having to provide the right documentation. The inspector general’s eye-opening study found the welfare department is awarding benefits to recipients who: • work outside jobs — a welfare violation that...

One student was shot, according to Channel 2 Action News. A teacher has been injured. One suspect is in custody.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz displayed a flair for showmanship this afternoon at the Senate’s gun violence hearing as he sought to puncture the argument for a proposed ban on assault weapons.“What it bans, I would suggest to you, are scary looking guns,” he said.With a life size photo of a Remington 750, a popular hunting rifle used — as Cruz said, by millions of Americans – the senator argued that the proposed ban focuses on “cosmetic features” such as pistol grips that in no way change the lethality of a weapon.He produced a plastic pistol grip and held it to...