Free Republic

Why would the president of the United States try to purposely hurt the American people? Well, in 2013 this is done in order to score political points and force the opposition in to doing what you want them to do. A few days ago, an angry Park Service ranger publicly admitted that he and his fellow rangers have been ordered to "make life as difficult for people as we can" during this government shutdown. That Park Service ranger would never have received such an order unless it came from the very top. Apparently the Obama administration plans to cause as...

… then Barack Obama’s hometown newspaper has news for you. The initial shock of the premium increases and the incompetent use of $94 million [see update] to create the world’s biggest 404 exchange are just the starting shocks of ObamaCare. Wait until people have to actually start using their new insurance, and perhaps the biggest surprise of all will be waiting: Adam Weldzius, a nurse practitioner, considers himself better informed than most when it comes to the inner workings of health insurance. But even he wasn’t prepared for the pocketbook hit he’ll face next year under President Barack Obama’s health...

President Barack Obama used his Saturday radio address to press for an end to “this Republican shutdown” and for an increase in the debt limit. “It wouldn’t be wise,” he said, “to just kick the debt-ceiling can down the road for a couple months, and flirt with a first-ever intentional default right in the middle of the holiday shopping season. Because damage to America’s sterling credit rating wouldn’t just cause global markets to go haywire; it would become more expensive for everyone in America to borrow money. Students paying for college. Newlyweds buying a home. It would amount to a...

In the film “West Side Story,” Puerto Ricans sing “America” and pronounce that “Puerto Rico Is In American Now.” If they redid “West Side Story,” they would have to sing “Detroit Is In Puerto Rico Now.” Puerto Rico has a negative outlook from ratings agencies and is rated Baa3 by Moody’s. prcwdes Puerto Rican municipal bonds are collapsing in price. Puerto-Rico-commonwealth-2033 While the Puerto Rican municipal bond 20 year yield has popped to over 10%. PR-20-year-yield Puerto Rico credit default swaps have increased recently (note the “Batman ears”). prdcs At least Puerto Rico isn’t in the Argentina area of CDS...

President Barack Obama is demanding a $1.1 trillion "ransom"--or else he will not allow the debt ceiling to be raised. That's the effective offer on the table from the president and Senate Democrats. They have now refused to pass a "clean" short-term debt ceiling hike unless Republicans agree to reverse the "sequester" spending cuts in the 2011 Budget Control Act that were enacted--at Obama's suggestion--to end the last debt ceiling crisis. The president, who has invited congressional leaders to conduct talks at the White House Monday afternoon, still continues to insist that he "will not pay a ransom for Congress...

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks as he lends a hand during a visit to Martha's Table, a kitchen that provides meals for the needy, in Washington October 14, 2013. With Obama are furloughed workers Dolly Garcia (L) who works at the U.S. Census Bureau and Chantelle Britton who works at Health and Human Services. Obama said on Monday it appears there has been progress in Senate fiscal impasse negotiations but that there is a good chance the United States will default on its debts if Republicans are unwilling to set aside some partisan concerns. Where's HIS hair net? Why is...

At a stately White House ceremony on Tuesday, President Barack Obama will extol former Army Capt. William Swenson's courage and award him the country's highest military decoration. But beyond the pageantry is a convoluted tale not told in the official Army narrative detailing Swenson’s heroics when he and his troops were ambushed in Afghanistan more than four years ago. Even as Swenson receives his Medal of Honor, a Pentagon investigation is unfolding into why the former Army officer’s award nomination once vanished. It has been alleged that military brass may have derailed the approval process because Swenson pointed blame at...

At the same time the National Parks Service has been going the extra mile to prohibit veterans from trespassing on sites in Washington, DC, the Administration issued a permit for an immigration reform rally on the Mall. Presidential Press Secretary Jay Carney justified the disparate treatment as “in accord with the President’s vision for America. As grateful as we may be for the contributions made by World War II veterans, it must be acknowledged that the useful role they played is in the past. They rose to the occasion when they were needed. In no sense of the word are...

We reported several days ago that two women who were part of a protest against President Barack Obama found themselves looking down the barrel of a gun during their protest. Apparently someone didn’t like the message they were sending. Now the suspect in that case has been arrested, and it’s an unlikely culprit. According to WSBTV, Police have arrested an 84-year-old man accused of pointing a gun at anti-President Barack Obama protestors. Roy Smith said he kept the Colt .32 handgun in his car for carjackers. Gwinnett police said he faces three counts of misdemeanor simple assault and pointing a...

VIDEO ad: President Obama: Vote for Cory President Obama looked to shore up last-minute support for Newark Mayor Cory Booker with a new Web ad hailing the Democratic Senate candidate as the antidote to "the shutdown politics we've seen in Washington." The release of the video comes after a new poll showed Booker's lead tightening with just two days to go before the special election to replace deceased Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.). According to a Monmouth University survey, Booker leads Republican Steve Lonegan 52-42 percent, down three points from two weeks ago. The ad also comes after a weekend that...

In a Presidential Address delivered today, President Obama calmed Wall Street and the rest of the nation by reversing course. Here is the text of the Presidential Address: My fellow Americans, some of you believe that my "no negotiations" stance toward Republicans was ill considered and that by intentionally causing unnecessary pain for you, my Fellow Americans, I was just being nasty. Now, I can tell you why I had to do it.As some have noticed, I have been a wuss in dealing with our foreign enemies. That was, I thought, the best I was able to do. Recognizing the...

I interrupt my train of thought regarding things that have fallen down the rabbit hole around Washington to bring you this urgent announcement: It is with a heavy heart that I advise you of a government shutdown that will have a deep and lasting impact on your lives: LADY M’S ORGANIC GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL IS WITHERING ON THE VINE!That’s right, thanks to the Tea Party Anarchists (TPA) who’ve closed down the government, Lady M’s entire organic crop has been barrycaded and is being guarded round the clock by the handful of National Park Service employees assigned to...

After a weekend of meetings, there is still no agreement on the debt ceiling or budget. debtceilgst The reaction? US credit default swaps rose this morning. But notice they are still lower than they were on October 10th. uscds101413 The US has the fastest rising CDS. Simply because the alleged default on US sovereign debt isn’t hurting any other country. sovcds101413 So, President Obama and Congress are digging in their heels on cutting spending or debt. Even though Germany is cutting back on its debt. debtdrop Two different philosophies: austerity to balance sovereign budgets (Europe) or spending like there is...

The White House official who exchanged confidential taxpayer information with the IRS is a longtime Obama advisor and progressive activist who is currently the most powerful official on Obamacare implementation within the White House. Jeanne Lambrew, deputy assistant to the president for health policy, entered Obama-world in 2008 as a health-policy adviser to then-Senator Obama’s presidential campaign. She was subsequently named deputy director and then director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) now-defunct Office of Health Reform, where she reported directly to Kathleen Sebelius. Lambrew’s current “deputy assistant to the president” position, while modest-sounding, gives her extensive...

The White House official who exchanged confidential taxpayer information with the IRS is a longtime Obama advisor and progressive activist who is currently the most powerful official on Obamacare implementation within the White House. Jeanne Lambrew, deputy assistant to the president for health policy, entered Obama-world in 2008 as a health-policy adviser to then-Senator Obama’s presidential campaign. She was subsequently named deputy director and then director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) now-defunct Office of Health Reform, where she reported directly to Kathleen Sebelius. Lambrew’s current “deputy assistant to the president” position, while modest-sounding, gives her extensive...

After Republicans drifted for years without a pilot, Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have taken the helm of the GOP, steering their party and its grassroots into a much-needed, head-on battle with the Democrats. On the campaign trail on the way to his win in November 2012, President Barack Obama promised to finish the work he’d gone to Washington to do: “fundamentally transforming the United States.” Things look tough for the right in Washington today, but the reality is these three conservative Republicans, aided by friends in the Senate

What kind of leader wants a military more loyal to himself than to the rule of law? And why? These are two questions to ponder when considering the strange happenings in the armed forces since Barack Obama took office. Let's start with a hypothetical. Let's say you were a hard-left-wing commander in chief who wanted the military firmly in your corner. You'd certainly note that our armed forces have been a bastion of conservatism and Christian faith, and you'd know that its members generally weren't very fond of you. So how would you go about changing this? Some years ago...

Unless you’ve been bamboozled by the frantic fictions of the right wing, you know that the Affordable Care Act, familiarly known as Obamacare, has begun to accomplish its first goal: enrolling millions of uninsured Americans, many of whom have been living one medical emergency away from the poorhouse. You realize those computer failures that have hampered sign-ups in the early days — to the smug delight of the critics — confirm that there is enormous popular demand. You have probably figured out that the real mission of the Republican extortionists and their big-money backers was to scuttle the law before...

Mortimer Zuckerman is a Canadian-born American real estate/media tycoon and co-founder, chairman and CEO of Boston Properties, one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the United States. He is also owner/publisher of the New York Daily News and of U.S. News & World Report, where he serves as editor-in-chief, used to own The Atlantic, and is worth about two-and-a-half billion bucks. In addition to all that, he's a regular and entertaining guest on the good ole McLaughlin Report, where I do enjoy Zuckerman's well-supported turn on Obama: seems he's deeply alarmed by where Dear Leader's taking us, particularly regarding...

Gallup tracks daily the percentage of Americans who approve or disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing as president. Daily results are based on telephone interviews with approximately 1,500 national adults; Margin of error is ±3 percentage points

Katelyn Fossett / Foreign PolicyYou may not have heard of Gennady Onishchenko, but if his own accounts are to be believed, he’s the Russian government official who single-handedly averts major public health crises posed by foreign countries’ dangerously lax and unsophisticated food safety standards (including those in a certain country where the federal government has ground to a halt). To others, Onishchenko, Russia’s chief sanitary inspector, is also Russia’s chief manufacturer of elaborate food safety scares to wage geopolitically motivated trade wars with other countries, particularly former Soviet republics. On Wednesday, Onishchenko, the director of Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s consumer-protection agency, announced...

Late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was concerned by the United States’ lean to the left after President Barack Obama took office in 2009, authors of a recently released book about “The Iron Lady” claim. Thatcher never commented publicly on President Obama’s leadership, though the Obama administration’s big government agenda runs counter to everything she believed in, former Thatcher aide Niles Gardiner and writer Stephen Thompson, authors of “Margaret Thatcher on Leadership: Lessons for American Conservatives Today”, told The Daily Caller. But even though Great Britain’s first female prime minister didn’t speak out publicly about Obama, she was privately concerned...

If it seems like it’s hard to find conservatives in Hollywood, finding conservatives in the music industry can be an even rarer feat. John Ondrasik, the singer-songwriter of the band Five for Fighting, says it’s basically “me and Kid Rock.” Ondrasik, known for hits like “Superman” and “100 Years” and now marking the release of his sixth album, Bookmarks, got some attention last week after he tweeted about his experience getting physically removed from the Jefferson Memorial during the government shutdown. The Blaze spoke with Ondrasik about that, the reaction from people when they find out he’s conservative, and his...

The news from Washington is all about President Obama’s impending triumph in the government shutdown/debt ceiling standoff. “Boehner Blinks,” declared a recent headline in The Washington Post. “Republicans,” explained ABC’s Jonathan Karl, “are working out the terms of their surrender.” If this is Republican surrender, I hope I never see Republican victory. To understand how upside down the current media analysis is, you need to go back a couple of years. In 2011, with Republicans threatening to provoke a debt default, President Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011, which cut government spending by $917 billion over 10 years....

So, at halftime of the Sunday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington REDSKINS, Bob Costas decided to lay down some wisdom on America. He started out okay in his discussion of Obama's new pet project, to pressure Washington into changing the name of the football team, but almost at the end when you were suffiently sucked in, he threw out the bombshell.....the use of the term "Redskins" is indeed offensive...a nasty slur. And there you have it. Just like Global Warming, um, I mean Climate Change, the debate about the term "Redskins" is now settled science....

The dance we are watching this weekend is a very important moment in modern American history with big implications for how the executive and the legislative branches interact in the future. The House Republicans have staked out a position that they can use their constitutional power of the purse to force the President to negotiate over key issues. President Obama and Senate Democratic Leader Reid believe they can break the House Republicans and force them to reopen the government and pass a debt ceiling hike with no negotiations and no conditions. Senate Republicans are split between a majority who want...

Senate leaders attempting to avoid a U.S. debt default remained at loggerheads Sunday and escalated the standoff by reopening the contentious issue of automatic spending cuts... Many Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), oppose retreating from those cuts. That set up a clash that seemed almost as intense as the one that caused budget talks between House Republicans and President Barack Obama to collapse Friday. Senate Democrats have been strengthened by the sidelining, at least for now, of House conservatives, who dropped nearly all their major policy demands only to see Mr. Obama reject their proposal for...

The government shutdown the World War II memorial, now truckers are shutting down America. On October 1, the Obama administration closed the WWII memorial in DC, which was paid for with private funds to honor the country's most beloved veterans. One week later, the Administration allowed for an immigration reform rally to take place on the National Mall with hundreds of illegal immigrations in participation, just a few hundred feet away. The outrage caught national headlines and the National Park Service has since changed the wording on the signs around the memorial. Ride for the Constitution has sent their drivers...

The controversy over Orson Scott Card's opposition to gay marriage appears to have simmered down. Maybe it'll kick up again as the Ender's Game premiere closes in, but it shouldn't—Card's religious objection to gay marriage is shared by a substantial minority of Americans, and holding it against him is a little pat. The actual outrage over what's happening to gay Russians appears to have captured all the anger being directed Card's way. That's good! The gay marriage foofarah was a distraction from Card's much more fascinating political paranoia. His last column on politics is a sort of masterpiece of that...

(Reuters) - Three of the world's most powerful bankers warned of terrible consequences if the United States defaults on its debt, with Deutsche Bank chief executive Anshu Jain claiming default would be "utterly catastrophic." "This would be a very rapidly spreading, fatal disease," Jain said on Saturday at a conference hosted by the Institute of International Finance in Washington. "I have no recommendations for this audience...about putting band aids on a gaping wound," he said.

(image courtesy of dailycaller.com) Veterans from all over the country gathered at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. Sunday morning to protest the closure of the memorials during the partial government shutdown, throwing barricades placed in front of the memorials aside in heaps. Organized by Brats for Veterans Advocacy, the Million Vet March on the Memorials drew in a crowd of vocal veterans fed up with the federal government’s shutdown decisions waving enormous American and “Don’t Treat On Me” flags and signs. “I’m totally, thoroughly disgusted in our government’s decision to close these monuments,” said retired Army...

As our divided government attempts to resolve the partial shutdown and debt ceiling fights, there is renewed talk of some type of “grand bargain” that could involve significant cuts to federal spending and entitlements. Resolving America’s fiscal crisis requires hard choices, but any “grand bargain” must ensure that we continue to fulfill our promises to the men and women who served. During the worst days of World War II, Winston Churchill famously said, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” Don’t these same words apply today to the “few” who...

President Obama called House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday as lawmakers are attempting to reach a deal to avert a default on the U.S. debt, the White House said. Obama and Pelosi “discussed the way forward on the pressing fiscal matters facing Congress today,” the White House said. The Democratic leaders agreed on the necessity of a “clean” bill to hike the U.S. debt limit, which the Treasury Department has said the federal government will reach on Thursday, according to a White House statement about the call. “This afternoon the president spoke with Leader Pelosi over the phone,”...

Washington Post columnist George Will suggested on “Fox News Sunday” placed blame for “hyper partisanship” that plagues Washington, D.C. on President Barack Obama’s progressive, polarizing politics. Moderator Chris Wallace at suggested the tense atmosphere could either be the result of gerrymandering or an aspect of American culture. Will disagreed, pointing to Obama as the source. “It’s not that simple,” Will replied. “The fact is, we have a very polarizing president. I’m not criticizing him for this. He’s a progressive. He exists to enlarge the power of government as an engine of the redistribution wealth and opportunity. That’s his agenda. He’s...

According to The Federal Reserve G.19 Report for August, consumer debt topped $3 trillion! Of course, Federal government debt has topped $16 trillion, over 5 times the amount of consumer debt. Note that pickup in Federal debt growth compared to consumer debt growth after Q2 2008 (red box). feddebtconsumer Here is a chart of revolving consumer credit versus non-revolving credit. Non-revolving debt (e.g., auto loans) have effectively replaced revolving debt. revnonrev Business loans have finally grown past the prior peak in 2008. frbusloasn On the government side, current expenditures (purple line) continue to grow, but the rate of growth flattened...

Journalism icon Bob Woodward wrote in a new Washington Post op-ed first that the sequester was the "brain child" of the White House...

Bob Woodward said that sequestration was Obama's & Lew's idea. Why now is Obama againt it? Why was he for it before he was against it? Why does he flip-flop on his CORE beliefs (raising the debt ceiling, the individual mandate, sequestration, etc)? Not secondary or tertiary beliefs...core beliefs. And why is Lew fearmongering over the debt ceiling? What he has said about it recently has been debunked by Moody's.

President Obama, speaking in 2007 and 2008, explains why he was very much against an individual mandate... Time to give an opt-out for the individual mandate, and hold Congress to the same rules that they enact over others - as to ObamaCare.

even during the temporary and partial government shutdown, we are spending more than when President Obama took office. . . . .

March 16, 2006 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE S2237-2238: “Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about America’s debt problem. The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. Over the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion. That is ‘‘trillion’’ with a ‘‘T.’’ That is money that we...

Hard to believe, butt we’re just one day shy of a full 2 week government shutdown. Combined with the problems we’re experiencing (temporarily) with our Obamacare system, things are getting a little tense around here.With so many of our non-essential personnel on furlough, Lady M is growing a little short with those of us still on the job - which is okay, because we’re used to it. Butt now even “no-drama Obama” is beginning to act out a little.“That Boner, I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.”Not only that, butt I’m working here with a handicap because I left...

House Republicans were furious with Senate Republicans and President Obama on Saturday for trying to cut a debt ceiling deal that leaves them out in the cold. Members emerged from a conference meeting saying Obama had double-crossed them by breaking off talks in order to shop for a better deal from the Senate GOP. “Clearly the president can't be trusted,” said Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.). “It is up to Senate Republicans to grow a backbone and stand with House Republicans like they said they were going to do.”

Last week I wrote a column accusing the president of having a vindictive streak — of deliberately trying to make the lives of average Americans worse just so he could score ideological and political points. We already knew from how he handled the budget sequester that Obama liked this approach. He ordered Cabinet secretaries not to do their jobs — i.e., to manage as best they could under spending restraints — but instead to find ways to make the cuts needlessly painful for innocents caught in the Beltway crossfire. They dusted off the same playbook for the shutdown. As one...

Back in 2008, when then-candidate Obama promised Joe the Plumber and the rest of America that he intended to spread the wealth around, most democrat and liberal voters embraced the notion of wealth redistribution under the guise of equality. A universal health care plan, that would be free for all Americans, was the promise from the candidate of hope and change. Tens of millions of Americans jumped on the bandwagon waving their flags, fainting at his appearances, and fawning over his every word. None ever thought about where the money would come from for all this new found wealth he...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced that she will travel to Washington, D.C. on Sunday to support and honor the veterans who will be arriving for the "Million Vet March" on the memorials. Speaking at a rally for New Jersey Republican Senate candidate Steve Lonegan along with Mark Levin on Saturday, Palin denounced the Obama administration for dishonoring veterans by barricading the World War II Memorial during the federal government shutdown. She said it was "heart-wrenching," "atrocious," and "not right."

"...........Since he was first elected in 2008, journalists and pundits have repeatedly exclaimed that Barack Obama is the first president in our history who does not love our country. Being a minister, I always initially refuse a bad report about anyone until there is ample proof; it is the benefit of the doubt. That day has come and gone and I am now among those who believe that Obama actually hates America. He has smashed traditional marriage, exalted homosexual perversion, used the IRS like a battering ram, left border agents, ambassadors, and good soldiers to die without help, raised the...

During the “Overtime” online edition of HBO’s Real Time, host Bill Maher posited that President Obama moderates his political positions out of fear of being assassinated, leading to a panel-wide battle over whether Americans are “subconsciously racist” against the president. While lamenting with Oliver Stone about the short political career of John F. Kennedy, Maher suggested that bold leaders like JFK “always seem to, at the end of the day, get cut out of the picture, violently or otherwise. And maybe that is why Barack Obama is more of a centrist than we want him to be?” “You think that?”

It’s three years away, but the ongoing government shutdown and debt ceiling debate makes it clear that Democrats need to be thinking now about a candidate able to effectively counter the Tea Party caucus in Congress — which thanks to gerrymandering, isn’t going anywhere until 2020. While the Republican field is already loaded with possible candidates — Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Scott Walker, Jeb Bush III and Bobby Jindal – the Democratic field is apparently sealed: Hillary Clinton. RealClearPolitics finds Hillary getting 61 percent of the vote in a Democratic primary against Joe Biden (11), Elizabeth Warren (7),...

Video at link. Andy Mangione, who lives in Louisville, Ky. with his wife Amy and their two boys, is doing the same thing millions of people are doing --trying to figure out how much his insurance will cost under ObamaCare. Before the exchanges opened, his insurance company said his rates would soar. But now that there are subsidies, he's been trying for days to find out how much he would get. "To logically compare plans, I've been calling them every day since October 1st," says Mangione, "several times a day on some occasions. Sometimes enduring 45, 50 minute holds, half...

Recently, Peter King, the court jester of the House of Representatives, had this to say to PMSNBC's Andrea Mitchell about Tea Party heroes Rand Paul and Ted Cruz: *** "I'm really more concerned about why more Republicans around the country didn't join me in denouncing Ted Cruz. We now have people on the sidelines coming forward who we have to take a stand here. We cannot allow our party to be taken over by the likes of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. I mean, these are people, isolationists, I consider them RINOs, because they don't represent traditional Republican principles. Ted...