Free Republic

(Reuters) - The Obama administration's opening bid on Thursday in negotiations to avert a year-end fiscal crunch included a demand for new stimulus spending and authority to unilaterally raise the U.S. borrowing ceiling, a Republican congressional aide said. The proposal, made by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to congressional Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, was seen as offering little the Republicans could agree to and was greeted with laughter, the aide said. "We can't move any closer to them because they're not even on our planet," the aide said. "It was not a serious proposal."-snip-In the maiden bargaining session, Geithner, the...

......[George] Washington spoke truly: a democratic form of government, republican or otherwise, is only as virtuous as the citizens who form it. Institutions of liberty, equality, and mutual respect cannot be sustained in, let alone re-imposed upon, a society that has generally forsaken every single virtue named in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, and has in turn filled the soul's moral void with hatred, envy, gluttony, sloth, covetousness, lust, and collectivism's unique license to pillage, namely its presupposition that individual men -- that is, other men -- do not really exist. The entire moral and intellectual structure of the West has rotted...

Via Pat Dollard: 'Well, there are many constitutional provisions for recourse on this and I think that they have to be contemplated. ...this administration -and this candidate- and this president was forced to see signs from people reminding them that they will not forget the seven hours of hell that the murdered Americans went through before they perished in Benghazi! And it’s the same thing with the Camp Bastion attack, which I’ve raised questions about on behalf of murdered Marines in that case and the lack of security, questions about rules of engagement that have been compromised by this...

If you thought President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder had given up on closing Guantanamo Bay and bringing jihadists to American soil, think again. Two troubling developments on the Gitmo front should have every American on edge. The first White House maneuver took place in October, while much of the public and the media were preoccupied with election news. On Oct. 2, Obama's cash-strapped Illinois pals announced that the federal government bought out the Thomson Correctional Center in western Illinois for $165 million. According to Watchdog.org, a recent appraisal put the value of the facility at $220 million. Democratic...

A painting depicting President Obama in a religious pose is now on display at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, and it’s garnering some protests from those who think it’s blasphemous. Artist Michael D’Antuono originally planned to display the piece in an art installation in New York’s Union Square on the president’s 100th day in office, but so many protesters contacted him about it–he received over 4,000 emails–that he canceled the event. It’s something he says he regrets now. “I always regretted cancelling my exhibit in New York because I feel my First Amendment rights should override someone’s hurt feelings,”...

At the November 29, 2012, Preliminary Injunction hearing in Sibley vs. Alexander, Dinan and Lightfoot – a class action lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court against the three District of Columbia Electors of the so-called Electoral College – Barack Hussein Obama, II, refused to produce his original Short-Form “Certificate of Live Birth” and his original Long-Form “Certificate of Live Birth”. These documents are the sole evidence that Mr. Obama has proffered to the American People to establish his Article II, §1, eligibility for the Office of President. I had subpoenaed those documents for the hearing.  As a result, I today filed...

Larry Summers, chair of the White House National Economic Council when the 2009 stimulus was developed, suggested that President Obama will eventually tax and regulate junk food to drive people to eat more healthily — although he dinged First Lady Michelle Obama’s healthy foods initiative.“I think there is no question that the way Americans eat and what Americans weigh is a big contributor to health problems and it’s a big contributor to health costs,” Summers said on Morning Joe today.It’s not the agenda now, but I think at some point you’re going to see tax measures and regulatory measures that...

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Gun sales hit an all-time, one-day record one week ago, driving Black Friday retail sales and actually overwhelming the FBI’s background check center twice. What’s causing the gun-buying zeal? The answer is simple – the actions of a man who hates private ownership of guns, Barack Obama. He’s been doing it for a long time. His election in 2008 drove gun sales through the roof. And now it’s happening, again, because he is supporting the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty that requires member states unable to disarm their populaces to be placed under the jurisdiction of the U.N. Office of...

In the heated fiscal cliff discussions, Congressional Republicans are failing to use the only card that has been dealt to them: go off the fiscal cliff. President Obama’s big fiscal cliff announcement this week that Congressional Republicans should cave to the Democrats’ demands of letting the Bush-era tax cuts expire for top income earners has left few Republicans actually considering the president’s absurd proposal. If the Republicans in Congress feel that since Barack Obama won reelection, they must cave to all his fiscal demands, they’ve proven themselves stooges. Still and all, Republicans have agreed to raise revenues but Democrats have...

The time is drawing near for a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff. Here is the White House proposal (courtesy of Zach Goldfarb at the Washington Post). ACCORDING TO REPUBLICAN AIDES. THIS IS A SUMMARY ONLY AND NOT AN OFFICIAL DOCUMENT. White House Proposal November 29, 2012 STAGE ONE: Taxes Immediate increase in both top marginal rates, as well as capital gains and dividends: +$960 Billion Additional taxes: +$600 Billion 2009-level estate tax AMT and business tax extenders: -$236 Billion Payroll tax extension or alternative policy: -$110B Bonus depreciation extension Spending/Extras $50 billion stimulus package in FY13 Mass refi mortgage...

A new report shows that the gap between the rich and the poor in the US is significantly wider than it used to be, with the annual median wage falling to $26,364 in 2010 while the high-earners increased their wealth by 71 percent. The New York University report found that in 2010, the median net worth in the US reached its lowest point since 1969 at $57,000. Conducted by Professor Edward Wolff, who has studied Americans’ net worth since 1983, the report provided some surprising revelations about the extent of the income inequality. While the middle class lost 18 percent...

The portfolio of embattled United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice includes investments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in several energy companies known for doing business with Iran, according to financial disclosure forms. Rice, a possible nominee to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she steps down, has come under criticism for promulgating erroneous information about the September 11, 2012, attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. Rice has the highest net worth of executive branch members, with a fortune estimated between $24 to $44 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. A Free Beacon analysis of Rice’s...

We need a catchy keword for Obama Taxes. Last term it was Obamacare, which has a negative connotation to many people. The hiking of the tax rates for working Americans is the Goal of the Obama Administration. Period. The reason: the free-loaders of this country [who expect working Americans to support them] do not want their benefits cut. At one time, people referred to Massachusetts as Taxachusetts Maybe some catchy phrase might be found to put a label on Obama and his tax plan. Some Links: Obama tax plan hashtag hijacked by conservative think tankHeritage Foundation buys a promoted tweet...

... Obama is having Mitt Romney over for lunch on Thursday and their meeting is already generating a lot of buzz. Here are five theories about the White House’s motives.... 1. Obama is extending a common courtesy... 2. Obama will offer Romney a Cabinet job... 3. Obama will enlist Romney in the fiscal cliff debate... 4. Obama wants Romney’s advice on business issues... 5. Obama wants closure on the 2012 presidential election, or something else?....

Residents living near the beachfront homes where President Barack Obama and First Family vacation with their friends every year since 2008 were alerted on Monday to some specifics of the Obamas' holiday vacation plans. The report delivered to residents living along the ocean and canal that surrounds the multi-million dollar homes at Kailuana Place where the President stays, informed them of restrictions that will be implemented for 20 days beginning December 17 and running through January 6. In a matter of weeks, Kailua residents will see the familiar street barricades fronted by U.S. Secret Service agents and Navy Seals and...

(Editor’s note: The video above features Beck’s radio segment from Wednesday morning, discussing the eBay incident.)The popular online auction site eBay has yanked a piece of artwork done by Glenn Beck citing its belief that the project featured an Obama figurine floating in actual urine (it was not, however). Bids can now be emailed in the subject line to the following email address set up by Beck: obamapeepee@glennbeck.com (Related: Liberals Goes Berserk Over Beck’s ‘Obama in Pee Pee,’ Hurl Expletives at Beck)On Tuesday evening, Glenn Beck featured an Obama bobble head doll in a jar of yellow liquid, catalyzed by Michael D’Anouto’s painting titled,...

Word is slowly seeping out for Washington about a grand bargain being worked out between Barack Obama and John Boehner. As we hear about the negotiations, the obvious question to be asked is, does Boehner and the Republican leadership in the House even have a clue? What is going on that is so dangerous? The Republicans are going to surrender on taxes. According to published reports a deal is going to be made. It is your typical Republican deal. The GOP will agree to a trillion in new taxes and there will be spending cuts in the future. When will...

We apprehensively advance through this nail biting moment in history as a great Nation floats, uncertain, caught in a holding pattern, hoping its leadership will find wisdom enough to avert the so called Fiscal Cliff, even if most of us don’t fully comprehend what such a cliff entails, or even if such a thing exists. We’re too busy struggling, hanging on to whatever we have, hoping for stability, and hoping that tomorrow brings some relief to our stress.So let’s look for a little insight into what astute and gifted minds are really doing deep in the core of the...

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that House Republicans should stop negotiating with President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats on the fiscal cliff, saying that by doing so, they give Obama all of the leverage in the talks. “One of the things I would say to House Republicans is to get a grip,” Gingrich said in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. “They are the majority. They’re not the minority,” he said, enunciating the words as if explaining the concept to someone who did not understand it. “They don’t need to...