Free Republic

Call it the procession of the RINOs. Call it the dirty dozen, standing up and getting themselves counted. Loaded with piety, tears, and flapdoodle, 12 GOP senators proudly voted to halt President Trump's declaration of a "state of emergency" at the U.S. border as migrant caravan after migrant caravan after migrant caravan from Central America and beyond prepare to roll into the states through our porous border, and cartel human smugglers prepare for a big cash flow to themselves, the better to wreak havoc on Mexico and Central America. Utah Senators Mitt Romney and Mike Lee, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio,...

Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi held a press conference on Wednesday shortly after meeting with President Trump at the White House again over the border security disputes that have caused the government shutdown. They described Trump as off putting and unreasonable, completely unwilling to make a deal. He was having a "temper tantrum," according to the Democrats. "He couldn't get his way and he just walked out of the meeting," Schumer recalled.GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy helped lead a press conference shortly afterward, attempting to "clarify" just about everything the Democrats said. Standing beside Vice President Mike Pence, McCarthy gave...

“Trump has claimed that as president, he can declare illegal immigration as a national emergency, and then he wouldn’t need congressional approval to build the wall. He could just do it himself.” Noah also noted that national emergencies are fairly common, reminding viewers that “President Carter declared a national emergency during the Iranian hostage crisis in order to put sanctions on Iran. President Obama declared a state of emergency during swine flu to help hospitals respond more effectively. President Bush declared an emergency when Friends went off the air.” (Note: one of these is not true.) “Presidents declare national emergencies...

President Trump is sitting down with top Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to discuss his immigration plans on Tuesday. His top priority is to obtain funding for his border wall, not least of which is necessary, he argues, because of the migrant caravan headed to the U.S.'s southern border. It was clearly on his mind this morning.

North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis is demanding the Department of Homeland Security hand over more H-2B worker visas before he allows Senate approval of a top homeland security official. President Donald Trump has appointed Lee Francis Cissna to serve as director of the DHS’s critical U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency. The agency is responsible for screening arrivals and immigrants to prevent jihad attacks and other terrorism. Cissna has been approved by the Senate committee, but he won’t get a Senate approval vote soon because Tillis asked the GOP’s leader to put a so-called “hold” on the nomination. Tillis...

The Trump administration is calling out Senate Democrats for blocking President Trump's nominations. The Senate has only confirmed 48 of 197 nominees to departments and agencies, and only two of 23 judicial nominees. Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump The Senate Democrats have only confirmed 48 of 197 Presidential Nominees. They can't win so all they do is slow things down & obstruct! 6:59 AM - 11 Jul 2017 16,061 16,061 Retweets 52,253 52,253 likes

The newly elected chair of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez, said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the Democratic Party's message will be carried out in part through lawsuits against President Trump. Perez, the former secretary of labor under President Obama, made the comment after host Chuck Todd asked if he is content with the Democratic Party being known as the party of "no." "Are you comfortable with the Democrats being known as the party of ‘no?'" Todd asked. Perez side-stepped the question, arguing the Democratic Party is the "party of opportunity and inclusion." "We are going to...

Black Democratic congressman says Trump 'made up' story about him canceling White House meeting because Chuck Schumer told him to Donald Trump said during Thursday's press conference that Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings had canceled a White House meeting with him The president said he was willing to meet with the Congressional Black Caucus to discuss urban issues, and cited Cummings as a Democrat he could work with But Cummings, he said, had made it impossible to schedule a meeting – and he blamed Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer for telling him not to come Cummings disputed the story, but only...

BALTIMORE — In an escalation of Democratic efforts to highlight questions about President Trump’s potential conflicts of interest and alleged ties to Russia, a senior House Democrat is dusting off a little-used legislative tool to force a committee debate or floor vote on the issue. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) filed a “resolution of inquiry” Thursday, a relatively obscure parliamentary tactic used to force presidents and executive-branch agencies to share records with Congress. Under House practice, such a resolution must be debated and acted upon in committee or else it can be discharged to the House floor for consideration.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democratic Senate leaders refused to meet with Judge Neil Gorsuch Thursday. The act appears to be an act of revenge against Republicans for holding the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia open and not holding a hearing for Obama Supreme Court appointee Merrick Garland. The White House requested that Gorsuch meet with Schumer, but aides said he declined in order to learn more about the nominee’s record, The Washington Post reported. “By refusing to meet with Judge Gorsuch, Senate Democratic leadership is taking Washington gridlock and obstruction to a new low and placing Senators McCaskill, Donnelly, Heitkamp,...

Started streaming 49 minutes ago LIVE STREAM: Senate Judiciary Committee votes on Jeff Sessions nomination to be Attorney General The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday is expected to approve President Trump’s nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions to become attorney general, sending the matter to the full Senate. But the morning hearing is likely to last hours as Democratic senators speak out against Sessions and criticize the president’s executive actions on immigration!

Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he is confident that he has laid the groundwork for Democrats to nuke the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees if they win back the Senate in November. Envisioning Hillary Clinton in the White House and Democrats controlling the Senate, Reid warned that if a Senate Republican minority block her Supreme Court nominee, he is confident the party won’t hesitate to change the filibuster rules again. Such a move would be an extension of what Reid did in 2013 when he was still majority leader, eliminating filibusters (with a simple majority vote) on...

Remember when Democrats insisted that incoming presidents had to get immediate confirmation of Cabinet appointments for the good of the nation? What a difference an (R) makes ... The Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe reports on a plan by Senate Democrats to “slow walk” confirmation of Donald Trump’s appointments, including an insistence on nor more than two confirmations a week: Democratic senators plan to aggressively target eight of Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees in the coming weeks and are pushing to stretch their confirmation votes into March — an unprecedented break with Senate tradition.Such delays would upend Republican hopes of quickly holding...

I was interested to read the article from The Sun News on Thursday about the last-minute delay of the permit to pave International Drive. This project will take thousands of cars off of the gridlock of Highway 501, and relieve congestion in Carolina Forest. On the day before we were to receive the permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, the Coastal Conservation League filed an appeal. It seems they want the road to be redesigned to include multiple bear crossings, at a cost of millions of dollars to the taxpayers of Horry County. That’s millions of scarce taxpayer dollars...

WASHINGTON — Next year was supposed to be a prime opportunity for Republicans to retake the Senate. And for a while, everything seemed to be breaking their way: a wave of Democratic retirements, a fluke in the electoral map that put a large number of races in states that President Obama lost, a strong farm team of conservative Senate hopefuls from the House. Then the government shut down. Now, instead of sharpening their attacks on Democrats, Republicans on Capitol Hill are being forced to explain why they are not to blame and why Americans should trust them to govern both...

Former GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, who this week referred to Tea Party lawmakers as "hobbits," publicly criticized Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey Sunday during an unusual unscripted debate on the Senate floor. McCain, who appeared to be having a great 'ol time during a back and forth with Democrat Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin, referred to Toomey and those who share his views as "terrible." (snip) "...the terrible obstructionists on this side of the aisle, the terrible people, their flawed philosophical views about the future of America..."

How many times did you hear socialist-progressives (so-progs) call Republicans ‘obstructionists’ when Democrats held absolute power over all three branches of the US government? Correct answer: too many times to count. Voters wised up and restored some balance to Washington during the November midterm elections. Republicans gained control of the US House after including a major commitment in speeches across the land—to cut federal spending. There have been some small gains. But furor has arisen among the so-progs who react to talk of spending cuts in decibels a Highlands banshee would be proud of. That furor can take an ugly...

Wisconsin Republicans on Sunday upped the pressure on Democrats who fled to Illinois to return home and vote on an anti-union bill, with the governor calling them obstructionists and a GOP lawmaker threatening to convene without them. Gov. Scott Walker said the 14 minority Democrats who left Madison on Thursday were failing to do their jobs by "hiding out" in another state. And Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said his chamber would meet Tuesday to act on non-spending bills and confirm some of the governor's appointees even if the Democrats don't show up -- a scenario that should outrage their...

In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," Obama says Republican who are opposing the overhaul of the nation's heath care system are doing it for political gain.WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said he is confident Congress will pass "a good health care bill," as months of rancor over reforming the nation's health care system seemed to be easing Sunday, with the White House playing down an immediate role for a government insurance option. At the same time, Obama was critical of Republican opponents who he said were trying to block an overhaul of the nation's heath care system for political...

The Washington D.C. City Council has created so many hoops for handgun owners to jump through before they can exercise their Second Amendment rights, they may require legal counsel just to identify what the hoops are.  This sorry state of affairs is much to the satisfaction of The Washington Post, which called for just such an obstructionist policy in an editorial.  At least one of those hoops is illegal, according to the Supreme Court, but a Post news story spun that fact as the opinion of “opponents of the handgun ban.”  Is editorial policy coloring the news?The Washington Post is...