Free Republic

THIS WEEK, THE UNITED STATES SENATE WILL VOTE ON A SPENDING PACKAGE TO FUND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS FISCAL YEAR THE SENATE SHOULD REJECT THIS BILL. IF WE DO NOT, PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA SHOULD VETO IT. THE OMNIBUS INCREASES DISCRETIONARY SPENDING BY 8% OVER LAST FISCAL YEAR'S LEVELS, DWARFING THE RATE OF INFLATION ACROSS A BROAD SWATH OF ISSUES…APPROPRIATE FOR A NATION FLUSH WITH CASH OR UNCONCERNED WITH FISCAL PRUDENCE, BUT AMERICA IS NEITHER. OUR NATION'S CURRENT FISCAL IMBALANCE IS UNPRECEDENTED, UNSUSTAINABLE AND, IF UNADDRESSED, A MAJOR THREAT TO OUR CURRENCY AND OUR ECONOMIC VITALITY. THE...

For many Minnesota Muslims, it's been virtually impossible to buy a home, because Islamic law forbids the paying or charging of interest. The African Development Center, with support from the state's housing agency, is now offering Islamic mortgages as a way to help close the home ownership gap among Muslim immigrants. Minneapolis, Minn. — Islamic law does make exceptions to the ban on interest, if one's family is at stake. But the exceptions are open to interpretation and for many observant Muslims, conventional mortgages are strictly taboo. Nawawi Sheikh is one of them. The Somali-American says he and his wife...

As we dig into the President's budget, more emerges: 1) Remember the President stating his budget "identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade?" It actually increases spending by $1 trillion. But he classifies as "savings" $1.4 trillion in tax increases (apparently savings for the government, not for you) and $1.5 trillion "saved" in Iraq relative to a fantasy baseline that otherwise assumes current spending levels forever. The Iraq gimmick is the equivalent of a family deciding to "save" $10,000 by first assuming an expensive vacation and then not taking it. 2) Real federal spending per household — $24,000...

Yesterday,  just days after President Barack Obama signed his economic stimulus measure, the White House released a statement claiming credit for the reopening of a window and door factory in Chicago. Vice President Joe Biden said, “The reopening of this factory and the rehiring of these workers provide an excellent example of how the money in the Recovery Act is targeted to spur job creation quickly.” If the Obama Administration is going to claim credit for every job created since  Obama and Biden were elected, then if they are honest, they should also take the blame for every job lost....

Passing off the Carbon Tax as "climate revenues," Obama hides largest tax increase in bloated big-government budget CHESAPEAKE, Va., March 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- While some media outlets are reporting more than $1 trillion in new taxes in the Obama budget, Grassfire.org has identified more than $1.6 trillion, and possibly as much as $2.2 trillion. "The President's 'carbon tax' is the single biggest tax-increasing item in his budget, and the largest in history," says Steve Elliott, President of Grassfire.org. According to Grassfire.org researchers examining the official published documents on the budget, the $645 billion in carbon taxes pushes the total tax...

The government is on the verge of closing a deal to significantly boost its ownership stake in Citigroup. In return, it will demand changes be made on the troubled banking giant's board and other conditions, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions. The increased stake in Citigroup Inc. will not require additional money from taxpayers and the bank will still have to undergo a "stress test," such as those that banking regulators started conducting this week on the nation's biggest banks, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because a deal hasn't been officially announced.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Veterans in Tennessee no longer have to attend smoking cessation classes to boost their sex lives. For the past three years, officials at Veterans Affairs facilities in Murfreesboro and Nashville required smokers to take cessation classes that lasted up to six weeks before they could get Viagra, which treats impotence, said Laurie Tranter, a spokeswoman for the agency in Washington. Cigarettes and Viagra don't interact negatively with each other, but smoking can contribute to erectile dysfunction, says Michael Valentino, a pharmacy benefits expert at the VA in Washington. After getting some calls about the policy, federal officials...

Fight Terrorisms at USF We desperately could use your help! The Jewish president of the University of South Florida, Dr. Judy Genshaft, is under pressure to reinstate a known terrorist who she suspended after he appeared on Fox's Bill Oreilly show. In 1995, after a suicide bombing operation carried out by Palestinian Islamic Jihad killed 21 Israeli soldiers, University of South Florida computer science professor Sami Al-Arian wrote a fund-raising letter in which he "call(s) upon you to try to extend true support to the jihad effort in Palestine so that operations such as these can continue." The Palestinian activist...