Free Republic

When Herman Cain proposed his 9-9-9 plan, many conservatives became energized, despite their misgivings with the fine print of the plan.  It wasn’t so much the details of the proposal that excited the base, as most conservatives intuitively recoiled from a consumption tax; it was the boldness of the plan that resonated with them.  Cain’s 9-9-9 brought some excitement to a race that was defined by a frontrunner who offered 160 pages of banal fluff.  Nevertheless, his plan was too flawed to be utilized as a viable rallying cry in the general election.  Perry appears to have proposed both a...

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry unveiled a sweeping economic agenda Monday highlighted by a plan to level a voluntary 20 percent “flat tax” on all taxpayers who will accept it in place of what they’re paying now.

Herman Cain pushed back hard at Karl Rove's recitation of his recent campaign fumbles and miscues - which he presented on a whiteboard on Fox News this morning - and accused the operative of trying to do him intentional damage in a Byron York interview: "It's a good thing the voters are not looking at Karl Rove's little whiteboard," Cain said in a phone conversation from a stop in Chicago Monday afternoon. "I believe it is a deliberate attempt to damage me because I am not, quote unquote, the establishment choice. But why not go with the choice that the...

Full Title: Cain clarifies again: Abortion shouldn’t be legal, but some families might decide to break the law anyway. A better answer than yesterday’s spin attempt but Mediaite is right that it still doesn’t jibe with what he said to Piers Morgan. Then: No, it comes down to is, it’s not the government’s role — or anybody else’s role — to make that decision. Secondly, if you look at the statistical incidents, you’re not talking about that big a number. So what I’m saying is, it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to...

ATLANTA (AP) — Herman Cain is learning the hard way what it means to face the glare of the national spotlight. After captivating Republicans hungry for an alternative to 2012 GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, Cain has made a series of stumbles that have left some questioning whether he's ready for the White House.

Herman Cain's case against pundits who claim he's running a book tour rather than a presidential campaign just got a bit more complicated. Federal Election Commission records show that the former Godfather's Pizza executive paid more than $64,000 of his presidential campaign funds to his motivational speaking company, T.H.E. New Voice Inc., for copies of his own books, and for lodging, airfare, and resources, Bloomberg News reports. Previous rulings by the FEC have allowed candidates to use their campaign funds to buy their own books, as long as the purchase is at market value and the money goes to charity...

Herman Cain's former Iowa state director, Tina Goff, has signed on to Rick Santorum's presidential campaign. Goff is one of three Iowa staffers that resigned from the Cain campaign in June, citing Cain's unwillingness to make a serious effort in the first-caucus state ahead of the Ames Straw Poll. "Senator Santorum has shown a tremendous commitment to Iowa and the principles our nation was founded upon. I have worked for several presidential campaigns, but none have the organization, passion, and focus of the Santorum campaign," Goff said in a statement. "This is a refreshing reminder of what voters require of...

I Kings 18:21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, hen follow him. And the people answered him not a word. Herman Cain can't make up his mind whether he is pro-life or pro-abortion.  He wants to ride the fence, so let's let him.  But I have two suggestions for what to call his position. First, Unprincipled Pro-Abortion. I don't mean unprincipled and pro-abortion. I mean unprincipled pro-abortion. He is pro-abortion for sure, but not on principle, but rather on purely pragmatic grounds. This will...

Steve Forbes was in Boston and spoke about the 2012 Presidential race and why he's leaning towards supporting Rick Perry. "I'm obviously leaning towards Governor Perry. I talked to his people about the flat tax and I think that's the way to go," says Steve Forbes. "I think with the formal unveiling next week he'll truly be a frontrunner again and will be dominating the debate." Forbes promoted a flat tax plan when he ran for president in 1996 and 2000. He favors a simplified tax plan and starting over again on healthcare.

Art Laffer Spouting Nonsense on 9-9-9 Josh Barro October 19, 2011 I guess somebody had to try to defend Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan. Art Laffer does so in today’s Wall Street Journal, but his defense is really embarrassing.First, Laffer describes the business tax component of 9-9-9 as a 9 percent tax on “net business profits.� This is false. Cain’s business tax, as described by his campaign, applies to “Gross income less all purchases from other U.S. located businesses, all capital investment, and net exports.� Because wages and salaries are not deductible, this is a tax on much more than just...

Anyone up for paying $18,000 sales tax on the next $200,000 house you purchase? I didn’t think so. And for those of us who work our way up the ladder of success at the workplace that next promotion may require moving to another city or state another house and another $18,000 in sales tax. We are either going to become a nation of renters or go bust trying to move up the ladder of success. (Hell on the Middle Class) Cain’s 999 plan is really the 999 plus 10 plan. Maybe you forgot that you no longer have a Social...

One of the key economists who helped presidential candidate Herman Cain draft his 9-9-9 tax plan is backing away from the most controversial component of it, warning that the criticism Cain endured at Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate shows his proposed 9 percent national sales tax might have to go. "It was such a dart board," economist Stephen Moore said Wednesday of the proposal. Cain weathered a storm of complaints over his tax plan at the Republican debate in Las Vegas. Virtually every candidate took turns accusing the businessman of pushing a scheme that would introduce new streams of revenue...

LAS VEGAS – After months of diversions — sideshow candidates, Hamlet acts and straw polls — Tuesday night’s sizzling Republican presidential showdown boiled the nomination fight down to its essentials: a deeply personal, ideological and smashmouth contest between two rivals with almost nothing in common.

Ted Kennedy scrubbed an ad against Mitt Romney in 1994 detailing how many jobs were lost when Romney headed an arbitrage fund that bought ailing companies, fired a ton of employees to clean up the P&L statement, and flipped them. These kinds of ads are really effective because the people who lost their jobs are real people. More, that Romney's Bain Capital was some sort of anonymous group of money men, it was easier for Romney to fire real people. This type of ad is even more effective in this very down economy, when most every voter is worried about...

Mitt Romney is going negative on Rick Perry, and he's using one of the most tried-and-true methods: the Internet. Today, Romney for President Inc. launched (snip) an anti-Rick Perry website aimed at undermining the former Massachusetts governor's best-funded opponent. snip The Washington Post shows other anti-Perry Web domain names are being gobbled up snip While no one is claiming ownership of the anti-Perry domains, The Post's Philip Rucker and T.W. Farnam note that the same day the domain names were purchased, Romney's campaign bought $2,851 worth of domain names at GoDaddy.com, which was the same vendor that sold the anti-Perry...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- South Carolina lacks the authority to conduct a 2012 presidential primary, according to a lawsuit filed by four counties at the state Supreme Court. The counties, in a case filed Monday, argue a 2008 primary law doesn't apply to running a 2012 primary. They argue the state Election Commission lacks the authority to conduct the primary and enter a contract with the state Republican Party to pay for it. And they say the commission can't require counties to cover expenses for the GOP primary. The counties said they "are on the precipice of having to expend...

Via Greg Hengler and Guy Benson, if this answer doesn’t destroy him, nothing will. I get the sense watching it that he’s so unsure of how to answer this exceedingly easy question that he defaults to Netanyahu’s position on the assumption that prisoner swaps must always be the wise, statesmanlike, conservative thing to do. The alternative, that he knows what he’s talking about yet is still sincerely inclined to release the guy who planned 9/11 plus dozens upon dozens of other jihadi fanatics in exchange for one G.I., is even worse. I’d bet 95 percent of people asked on the...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, under questioning from voters in recent days, has switched positions on a 2007 executive order he issued mandating the vaccination of all young girls before they enter sixth grade to ward off cervical cancer. Mr. Perry's order that Texas school girls receive the vaccine, Gardasil, made by Merck & Co., was overturned by the state legislature and never got off the ground. But it still has roiled conservatives and Christian groups for years. After long defending the decision, Mr. Perry has apologized repeatedly for the order since launching his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. As...

     THE SUN NEVER SETS ON THE BRITISH WELFARE SYSTEM August 10, 2011Those of you following the barbaric rioting in Britain will not have failed to notice that a sizable proportion of the thugs are white, something not often seen in this country. Not only that, but in a triumph of feminism, a lot of them are girls. Even the "disabled" (according to the British benefits system) seem to have miraculously overcome their infirmities to dash out and steal a few TVs. Congratulations, Britain! You've barbarized your citizenry, without regard to race, gender or physical handicap! With a welfare...

Perry is Bush lite and Sarah Palin in a skirt Todd J. Gillman August 7, 2011 GOP consultant Alex Castellanos dumped all over Gov. Rick Perry this morning on NBC's Meet the Press, calling him "Sarah Palin with a skirt" and a lesser version of George W. Bush - and not in a good way. "He has some challenges. One of them is that people think he's a little bit of a coffee table book. He's kind of Sarah Palin with a skirt. Not a substantive candidate," Castellanos said when host Dick Gregory asked if Perry could give the current...

Gov. Rick Perry's political stock has soared in recent months as he has traveled the country touting a decade of fiscal restraint in Texas under his leadership. Last month, Perry made Texas history by signing a two-year state budget that cuts overall spending for the first time in over 40 years. Perry has long promoted the state's fiscal record as a model for the country and a key to why Texas has weathered the recession better than most other states. He has opposed new taxes and been vehemently anti-Washington, and his message is drawing interest among Republican primary voters nationwide....

If Rick Perry does mount a successful bid for the U.S. presidency, it will be interesting to see whether he can translate his past and present criticisms of the federal government into concrete changes to the sprawling bureaucracy. Perry has yet to say he will or won’t toss his hat into the Republican race for the right to square off against President Barack Obama in 2012. He is, however, making all the moves of a potential candidate testing the waters. Insiders are mixed on the odds. Some say he’s definitely in; others put the odds at 50-50. But the mere...

...With Perry's history of straddling the establishment and tea party wings of the party, [Andrew] Hemingway [chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Liberty Caucus, told RCP] offered a bold prediction for the unique assets that the Texas governor could bring to the table in New Hampshire. "I think ultimately Rick Perry is a candidate who secures Haley Barbour's money with Sarah Palin's endorsement," he said.

Perry's first stop should he announce is almost sure to be Iowa, where voters in its Republican caucuses are nearly all white and roughly 60 percent describe themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians, according to entrance polls from the 2008 GOP caucuses. In Texas, Perry has enjoyed "astronomical support" from protestant Christian conservatives and evangelical white Christians, Henson said. [Jim Henson, a pollster and director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin] "You have to count religious conservatives in Texas as among the components of Perry's base," he said. "People that go to church a...

Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Mitt Romney and other Democrats by Steve BarrettWhy is Mitt Romney still running for president?Let me rephrase: Why is Mitt Romney still running for president — as a Republican? Shouldn’t he be seeking the Democrat nomination and snapping up as many center-left votes as possible while Barack Obama forages for support on the MoveOn.org fringe? After all, there’s incontrovertible evidence of Romney’s Democrat credentials. It’s called RomneyCare, and he merrily shepherded it into law as governor of Massachusetts. How’d that work out? Well, it’s estimated that without radical reform of RomneyCare, annual premiums for a typical...

Romney is simply the front-runner (“Romney Wins N.H. Straw Poll”), the “Billion-Dollar Man” and the president’s most implacable foe (“Romney: First Thing I Would Undo Is Obamacare”). A survey of the past 13 months of Drudge headlines found only one debatably negative reference to the 2002 Olympics CEO (“Bachmann Outraises Romney”) — and a survey of aides to his rivals found a rising level of frustration at what one described as “favoritism” by one of the most important, if also one of the quirkiest, referees.

The Democrats are three votes short in the Senate of being able to outright pass the stand alone bill repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but it looks like that obstacle has been overcome. Word has come down that not only will Senator Susan Collins be voting for it, but so will Senators Olympia Snowe and Lisa Murkowski.

Rove is right. He predicted how O'Donnell would flop and hinted that it could cost the GPO additional senate seats.... In my personal opinion, he was thinking about Alaska, Nevada, Colorado, Washington, etc. All of these should have been captured by the tea party. Personally, I think O'Donnell cost real conservatives senate seats. Say what you will... but Rove was right. Don't hate the messenger.

Retired Gen. Colin Powell, a former chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, on Sunday made the case for Congress to pass the DREAM Act, a way for young illegal immigrants to become citizens if they attend college or join the military. Republicans in the Senate are strongly opposed to attaching the DREAM Act to the annual defense authorization bill. “Whether it should be part of the Defense Bill or not, is something the Congress will decide,” Powell said on NBC’s "Meet the Press." However he stressed that Republicans should not embrace an anti-immigration platform. “Immigration is what's keeping this...

Cornyn: GOP's stance on social issues alienating independents A striking admission from NRSC chair John Cornyn, buried in today's New York Times article about the GOP and the Tea party: Mr. Cornyn, who has been on the receiving end of anti-establishment anger, argued that the Tea Party had helped Republicans in one important respect, by moving the debate away from social issues. While Tea Party supporters tend to be socially conservative on issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, most say they don't want to talk about them; they believe that by spending so much time on those issues, the Republican...

"This is probably one of the few times we're going to disagree here." -- Sean Hannity to Karl Rove regarding Christine O'Donnell. I'll say. Even after Fox News called the Delaware GOP senatorial primary for Christine O'Donnell tonight, Karl Rove continued to rip the winner, questioning everything from O'Donnell's "rectitude" to her "character." Concluded the pessimistic Rove: "this is not a race we're going to be able to win." Sean defended O'Donnell staunchly, but was met with a litany of Roveian criticism of Christine, including these comments: View video here.

Suddenly, it's becoming less of a stigma for bigwigs to associate with gays in the Republican Party. Not only has former RNC chairman Ken Mehlman's 9/22 fundraiser for gay marriage rights attracted numerous high-octane Republican donors and activists, but Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Rep. Pete Sessions, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee will help the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay GOP group, raise money for its political action committee. A glossy pamphlet advertising the Log Cabin Republicans' national dinner at the Capitol Hill Club highlights an hour-long cocktail gathering with...

Ken Mehlman's fundraiser for same-sex marriage will be, among other things, a gathering of some of the most high-profile -- and deep-pocketed -- backers of gay marriage on the right. The names of Bill Weld, Christie Todd Whitman, Steve Schmidt, and Mary Cheney's didn't surprise me. Other names did a bit: Bush aides Mark and Nicolle Wallace are on there, as is top GOP lawyer Ben Ginsberg. Most notably, Mehlman's fundraiser extends the reach of same-sex marriage backers to the very top Republican donor pile: The private equity titan Henry Kravis (who's also Mehlman's boss at KKR) is among the...

Former GOP presidential contender and potential 2012 candidate Mike Huckabee said Wednesday that he does not support a repeal of the 14th Amendment -- a part of the Constitution other Republican leaders have called into question recently because it guarantees citizenship for children born in the United States, regardless of their parents' immigration status. Huckabee said in an interview Wednesday that he does not support a repeal, NPR reports. While the former Arkansas governor said, "I'm not for an amnesty program," he added, "You do not punish a child for something the parent did." (snip) Huckabee told NPR that the...

Former presidential nominee slams 'Eastern press' QUEEN CREEK, ARIZ. — It's dark, but still an oppressive 102 degrees, when Sen. John McCain agrees to talk to me in a parking lot next to his campaign SUV (flex-fuel and energy efficient, I'm assured). It's revved and running, no doubt for the air- conditioned comfort of those inside, but perhaps also for a quick getaway if needed. I have a feeling our time will be short, so I plunge quickly into questions about the upcoming Aug. 24 Republican Senate primary . "Why are you spending so much money?" I ask ( nearly...

In a rapid turnaround trying to capitalize on a J.D Hayworth comment at a tea party rally earlier this week, U.S. Sen. John McCain released a new web video drumming Hayworth for reportedly preferring President Obama to the Republican incumbent senator. The video begins with a picture of President Obama and lists a litany of criticisms, from the 9.5 percent unemployment rate, to the $13 trillion national debt and the lawsuit against Arizona’s immigration law. The text interrupts with, “but J.D. says he’d rather have Barack Obama as president.”

We have been scouring the interwebs for lists of the Republicans who voted for the big three bills that have had destructive consequences for the country. Several searches on Google have gotten us very little on the top searches, only on maybe the second or third page do we find lists. Even then they are somewhat hard to maneuver. So we wanted to compile these lists so you can know which RINOs voted for these atrocious bills. We will start rolling these out over the course of the week and keep them in the lists category for future ease of...

A candidate in New Hampshire says the current financial crisis and move towards socialism by the N0bama administration is the worst he's ever seen in his entire life.

<p>PHOENIX (AP) - Both were once considered vulnerable but recently have found stronger footing in their Republican primary races.</p> <p>Now, Arizona Sen. John McCain and Gov. Jan Brewer will campaign together at six events in five communities on Friday and Saturday.</p>

House Minority Leader John Boehner on Sunday said he's open to talks on changing the U.S. Constitution -- or at least the way it's interpreted -- so that U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants are not automatically U.S. citizens. "I think it's worth considering," Boehner said. The top House Republican joined Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in calling for further study of the idea -- something that has been endorsed by prominent Republicans over the past few weeks. Though the call is already running into stiff opposition and faces extremely long odds of ever succeeding, some lawmakers say it would be...

Alan Greenspan, the former Fed chairman, supported the Bush tax cuts originally but with warnings that he said were ignored. It was not enough, it seems, for Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman and a self-described lifelong Republican libertarian, to call for stringent government regulation of giant banks, as he did a few months ago. Now Mr. Greenspan is wading into the most fierce economic policy debate in Washington — what to do with the tax cuts adopted, in large part because of his implicit backing, under President George W. Bush — with a position not only contrary to...

(CNSNews.com) - Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that Jesus’s Golden Rule inspired him to vote to confirm Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court and suggested it would be a good thing for his Senate colleagues to also ponder Jesus’s words as they prepared to vote on Kagan. “It is divine in its orientation, and it is probably something that would serve us all well if we thought about it at moments such as this,” Sen. Graham said on the Senate floor, as he pointed his colleagues to the Golden Rule and counseled them to look to...

A pickup-driving image helped put Scott Brown in the U.S. Senate, so is Mitt Romney hoping it will drive him him to the White House? The 2008 Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor drove a beat-up pickup to a New Hampshire fundraiser last night. He's also driven it to other political events as he weighs another run in 2012. Spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom says Romney has owned the Chevy since 2002 and uses it for errands around his New Hampshire lakeside vacation home.

Mitt Romney's visit to New Hampshire triggers questions about his stance regarding the Federal Reserve. This is partial raw tape; more vid to follow.

Arizona Sen. John McCain has a message for illegal residents of his state: Go back where you came from. McCain, who has been veering right to try and win his Republican Senate primary against conservative former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, said on Tuesday that he supports immigration reform that would deport those living in the country illegally. "No amnesty. Many of them need to be sent back," McCain said during an interview on KQTH-FM in Tucson, Ariz. when describing how he would deal with illegal U.S. residents. McCain said he supported reform that would create a guest worker program, but was...

South Carolina’s Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is fast becoming the mainstream media’s new favorite Republican. With Senator John McCain (R-AZ) in an unexpectedly tough primary fight, McCain has had to tack hard to the right. This means, the “Maverick” will have to pretend for the next 4 months that he shares at least a few Republican values. It’s a tough job, but McCain should be up to the challenge. With conservative and former congressman J.D. Hayworth breathing down his neck, McCain’s reversal on immigration reform has been enough to cause whiplash. He went from the front man on amnesty to...

<p>Sarah Palin predicted Friday that a new wave of antiabortion feminists, including California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, will soon take power in Washington.</p> <p>"This year will be remembered as the year that commonsense conservative women get things done for our country," Palin said at the Susan B. Anthony List Celebration of Life Breakfast in Washington.</p>

PHOENIX -- The day that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is set to campaign with Sen. John McCain in Tucson, another figure from the 2008 presidential election will make an appearance on the lawn of Arizona's capitol building. Samuel Wurzelbacher, more commonly known as "Joe the Plumber," is scheduled to make an appearance at Friday's "Ax the Tax" rally against Proposition 100, which institutes a temporary sales tax increase across Arizona to fill the budget shortfall. Wurzelbacher rose to fame after he questioned then-presidential-candidate Barack Obama about tax increases at a campaign rally. Both Obama and McCain referred to Wurzelbacher...

Critics of Michael Steele's tenure as RNC chairman are motivated by racism, Steele suggested in an interview published today. Speaking to the Washingtonian Magazine (no online version), Steele wondered why his DNC counterpart doesn't get the same criticism he does. "I don’t see stories about the internal operations of the DNC that I see about this operation," Steele said. "Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?” The RNC has experienced significant staff turnover since Steele became chairman, especially in the communcations shop. That has prompted speculation about Steele's management...

Washington (AP) - Sen. Lindsey Graham makes an unlikely champion for action on climate change. The South Carolina Republican has joined forces with Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to drum up support for a bill that would put a price on heat-trapping pollution. Graham's position has irked just about everybody. He has been censured by Republicans back home for supporting a bill that would clamp down on greenhouse gases. Environmentalists have criticized his push for nuclear energy, more oil drilling -- and most recently his support of a GOP effort to prevent the Environmental...