Free Republic

The continuing resolution Congress approved last night with the help of the Republican leaders in both the House and Senate funds and permits implementation of an Obamacare regulation that forces Christians to act against their faith by forcing them to buy and/or provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs and devices. An earlier version of the CR that the Republican-controlled House passed on Sept. 29 had included language that would have at least “delayed” the regulation’s impact on religious liberty until Jan. 1, 2015. That language said that until then the administration could not force employers, insurers or individuals to buy...

Why is no one in Congress pointing out the illegal way by which Harry Reid and his cohorts rammed through the very punitive Obamacare bill in the first place? Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX) delivered an outstanding one hour exposition of the skullduggery these partisans used to shove this socialistic atrocity down the throats, “into the bathrooms, the bedrooms, the kitchens” of we ordinary US citizens. No one else has the courage to point out that Harry Reid and company rewrote out of whole cloth a unanimously passed H.Res 3509 called “Sevice Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009.” This bill’s...

Here’s some free market advice to GOP legislators at all levels thinking about introducing bills supporting the state health exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA): Be prepared to wear the “Care” moniker around your name. You know? As in HillaryCare, RomneyCare or ObamaCare. Colorado’s Amy Stephens, a Republican state representative from El Paso County, was once considered a future Lt. Governor, or member of Congress. Instead, she may have flamed out her career by sponsoring a bill that would opt Colorado out of ObamaCare by implementing a so-called “health exchange” under PPACA. Yet that didn’t stop...

Breitbart News reported that House Republicans have offered a new deal to the White House to end the fiscal stalemate. The GOP plan, authored primarily by House Budget Chair Rep. Paul Ryan according to Hill sources, would meet Obama's demands in exchange for negotiations on a longer-term budget agreement. At least two high-ranking Capitol Hill sources have told Breitbart News that Ryan’s plan would also help protect Obamacare as it is currently implemented. Ryan's office deny the claims. “What your sources are attempting to attribute to Congressman Ryan is not accurate,” Kevin Seifert, Ryan’s spokesman, said in an email. But...

President Barack Obama spoke with House Speaker John Boehner on Friday but did not wholly accept the House Republican plan to open government, raise the debt ceiling and open budget talks, sources said. -snip- Senior Republican sources say Obama is amenable to changes to mandatory and discretionary spending, but needs Republicans to commit to increasing governmental revenue.

Shutdown: Obama's approval rating has cratered, Democrats are fighting among themselves and ObamaCare — the reason for the shutdown in the first place — has been a disaster. So why are Republicans' knees shaking? The federal government's hometown newspaper, the Washington Post, reports "key GOP figures" are "abandoning their bid to immediately stop the federal health care law" and are "scrambling for a fallback strategy." Republicans, the paper claims, "have overreached," and their plan to stop ObamaCare has been "politically disastrous" and a "failure." House leaders seem to be dropping talk of Obama-Care and, over in the Senate, Republicans appear...

Populism is fun. “I never thought I’d see the day when the White House, the president came down on the side of big business but left the American people out in the cold as far as his health care mandate is concerned,” Cantor told reporters after House Republicans met for their weekly closed-door meeting. “And we, as House Republicans, are not going to sit still for that.”…“What the president did is outrageous,” Boehner said. “The idea that we’re going to give big businesses a break on Obamacare but we’re going to punish small businesses and families? It’s wrong. And we’ll...

When Mitt Romney left office as Massachusetts governor, his aides removed all emails from a server computer in the governor's office, and purchased and carted off hard drives from 17 state-owned personal computers, according to a current state official. But a small cache of emails survived, including some that have never publicly surfaced surrounding Mr. Romney's efforts to pass his now-controversial health-care law. The emails show the Republican governor was closely engaged in negotiating details of the bill, working with top Democratic state leaders and drafting early copies of opinion articles backing it. Mr. Romney once trumpeted the overhaul as...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney appears to be the early front-runner in the largely unformed race for the Republican nomination for president, but real estate magnate Donald Trump may be a surprise contender, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. Among Republican primary voters, Mr. Romney captured the support of 21% in a broad, nine-candidate field. Mr. Trump was tied for second with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, with 17%. House Speaker Newt Gingrich got 11%, just ahead of former Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s 10%. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, considered a strong contender by political...

Third Edition: Pawlenty's In, Thune's Out, And The 'Invisible Primary' Is Slowly Drawing To A Close. After months of masking their intentions while nimbly navigating the invisible primary, White House candidates are beginning to show their hands. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty became the first top-tier candidate to formally announce an exploratory committee this month, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is close to doing the same - moves that will likely trigger a run of announcements from other contenders in the coming weeks. With the Iowa caucuses tentatively slated for February 6, 2012, candidates have roughly 10 months left...