Free Republic

When Mitt Romney selected Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate, people cheered. He was young, attractive, idealistic, and — doggone it! — he did P90x. Images of him lifting weights bounced across the internet. Surely this is what the GOP needed, they said. New blood. Youth. Strength. The fact that his losing bid against Barack Obama and Joe Biden was the high mark of his career says a great deal about his legacy. His lack of true leadership has grown more and more evident. During the last week, Speaker Ryan's stature managed to shrink in regard to Congress, and...

This week, Alabama congressman Mo Brooks introduced a bill that amounted to a one-line repeal of Obamacare. The bill read "Effective as of Dec. 31, 2017, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is repealed, and the provisions of law amended or repealed by such Act are restored or revived as if such Act had not been enacted.” ... “It’s what we promised the American people,” Brooks told Buck of the bill. “Repeal Obamacare. It's not a hundred-and-some page bill that on the one hand says we're repealing, but on the other says we're going to reincorporate all the provisions...

Pollsters like to say their surveys are like a snapshot, limited to the time and the picture frame in which they are taken. What we are seeing in polling on the takeover of health care by the federal government is a consistent opposition by the American people. No major poll shows the people supporting the House or Senate bill. .... This is just another version of the slogan of J. Wellington Wimpy, the great pal of Popeye the Sailor Man. Older readers will remember Wimpy saying: “I would surely pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” Was he Senator J....

I've heard a lot of differing views directing anger, disappointment and relief at the various parties in Washington lately. So I'm wanting to take a poll. Did you support passage of Trump's and Ryan's healthcare bill? Or Did you support Freedom Caucus stopping it?

According to The New York Times, 10 moderates, 15 conservatives, and eight other Republicans would have voted against the Republican repeal and replace Obamacare bill. So, then, 15 or so conservatives made it impossible to pass the bill favored by nearly every other Republican and by President Donald Trump. If that is the case, what we have here is another conservative example of purism and principle damaging another major opportunity to do good. The first purist conservative example were the Never-Trumpers, who believed it was better for Hillary Clinton to be elected president and for the Left to have four...

By Wallace Bruschweiler & William Palumbo Last week, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives failed to pass the one thing they have consistently preached since 2010: a repeal of Obamacare. It was the latest (and most severe) setback since President Trump took office just two months ago. The fallout of this failure is a fiasco for Republicans and, in particular, President Trump. Before another Republican failure finds itself on the doorsteps of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, below are some questions for your, and the administration’s, serious consideration. To the following questions we offer no answers. It is the job of those in...

It is hard to overestimate the damage the Freedom Caucus has done to the fledgling presidency of Donald Trump, and to the country. By blocking the American Health Care Act of 2017, the conservative group has guaranteed that Americans will struggle forward under the burden of Obamacare. In the next few months insurers will announce their premium hikes for the coming year; chances are, given the continuing withdrawal of major companies from the marketplaces and the ongoing failure of the bill to attract enough young and healthy participants, the new rates will not be pretty. Last year premiums went up...

Monday on Fox Business Network’s “Cavuto: Coast to Coast,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the House Freedom Caucus saved House Republicans from a politically destructive vote when they refused to support the House Republican health care bill which only had a 17 percent approval rating among voters. Gingrich said, “Not voting on Friday was really good. The Democrats lost their majority for the first time in 40 years after they tried to push through Hillarycare. The Democrats lost the majority again in 2010 after they pushed through Obamacare. If we had all the House Republicans line up and vote...

Rep. Dave Brat is my rep. Yesterday, he posted an article to his constituents on his Facebook page. There are a lot of rumors & "who shot John" accusations flying around, but here it is straight from a Freedom Caucus & Conservative mouth as to what happened. There are a lot of terrific comments in this article and it's well worth reading. Personally, Dave Brat speaks for me ...... it was a great day when Eric Cantor was deposed from his self-assumed throne & I am grateful every day for Dave Brat. So far he has acted in the best...

This is absolutely stupid. These long drawn out debates within the GOP struggling to settle on the nitty gritty about what and who should be covered and at what price is ridiculous. It's NOT your job, gentlemen. All you are doing is playing into the socialist democrats hands. Please consult your pocket constitutions and discover that the power to make these decisions regarding health care and insurance, etc, is not an enumerated power and is not delegated by the constitution to the congress or the federal government. It's reserved to the states and the people. Get OUT of it!! Conservatives...

It is hard to overestimate the damage the Freedom Caucus has done to the fledgling presidency of Donald Trump, and to the country. By blocking the American Health Care Act of 2017, the conservative group has guaranteed that Americans will struggle forward under the burden of Obamacare. In the next few months insurers will announce their premium hikes for the coming year; chances are, given the continuing withdrawal of major companies from the marketplaces and the ongoing failure of the bill to attract enough young and healthy participants, the new rates will not be pretty. Last year premiums went up...

ATLANTA (AP) — Americans who have benefited from the Affordable Care Act are feeling some relief at the failure of Republican efforts to repeal it, but they face new anxieties with President Donald Trump tweeting that “ObamaCare will explode.” Premiums have risen and major insurers have backed out of the state markets where people can buy insurance online under Obama’s signature health care law. But people who say it saved their lives or helped them start a business want lawmakers to fix these problems, not encourage them. “It does need its fixes, I totally see that,” said Inge Hafkemeyer, 57,...

Trump Wasn't Shown Up by the Health Care Rejection; The simpletons who are gloating that the rejection of the Health Care Repeal and Replace legislation shows that Trump is no longer a master at the Art of the Deal seem to overlook one simple fact. Every deal with a chance of closing has to have two parties with open minds who WANT a deal. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton got things done because they had negotiating partners. The Democrats until the end refused to even consider a deal on the Trump-Ryan health care repeal and replace bill, which required the...

The behind-the-scenes story of the staredown between a few dozen conservative true believers and a novice president. ....In a conference room in the Rayburn House Office Building, the group met that evening and made a secret pact. No member would commit his vote before consulting with the entire group — not even if Trump himself called to ask for an on-the-spot commitment. The idea, hatched by Freedom Caucus Vice Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), was to bind them together in negotiations and ensure the White House or House leaders could not peel them off one by one. Twenty-eight of the...

Dear President Trump, I will gladly contribute to your campaign directly. I will not support the Republican Party. This party is full of establishment hacks lead by a Speaker who in no way supports you. The republican healthcare bill would have hurt millions and especially late boomers. I have heard republicans says that healthcare is a privilege. As long as they are okay with pricing people out of the market, I am not okay with them. Healthcare, drug prices, premiums and deductibles must come way down. I am in the individual market - we must have associations to distribute risk...

With hours to go before the House is set to (finally) vote on Paul Ryan’s health-care bill, the Trump administration is putting a full-court press on recalcitrant Republicans to rally votes. Last night, the White House sent senior officials including Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon to Capitol Hill to deliver an ultimatum to wavering House members: Pass the bill or Trump is moving on to other priorities. The message was intended to put blame for a failed vote on Congress. The failure to repeal and replace Obamacare would be a stinging...

Texas Republican Congressman Ted Poe has announced he is giving up membership in Hillary’s Favorite Caucus over their unwillingness to support President Trump: “I have resigned from the House Freedom Caucus,” Poe said in a statement. “In order to deliver on the conservative agenda we have promised the American people for eight years, we must come together to find solutions to move this country forward. Saying no is easy, leading is hard, but that is what we were elected to do. Leaving this caucus will allow me to be a more effective Member of Congress and advocate for the people...

As he gave his brief press conference Friday afternoon confirming that Republicans had pulled their bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, House Speaker Paul Ryan both looked and sounded like a hangdog high school football coach spilling out a few defeated platitudes after watching his team get ground into the turf. “Moving from an opposition party to a governing party comes with growing pains,” he said, “and, well, we’re feeling those growing pains today.” “We came really close today, but we came up short.” “I will not sugarcoat this. This is a disappointing day for us. Doing...

Don’t take this the wrong way because I actually like Congressman Louis Gohmert a lot. However, this sketchy all-over-the-map interview is at an almost Tippy Guam level of bizzarro. The sum total of this interview would be exhibit “A” in the sketchy trial of “methinks he doth protest too much”, the Broadway musical. Um, Louie.. dude. Rather than shout: “he lie”, “he lie”, “heeee lieeeee”; I’m left wondering if your hands or fingers are broken. Why didn’t Louis Gohmert, a sitting member of congress, just walk over to the Senate and ask the Parliamentarian herself – if he had a...

Free Republic stands for God, family, country. We generally look to Judeo-Christian* guidance on issues of law, morality, justice, freedom, life, family and civil society. And we have a Christian self-governing, self-reliant, individual accountability & responsibility, you gotta work if able-bodied and want to eat attitude on cultural and societal issues. And a Christian pro-Constitution, original intent, pro-liberty, pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, restricted government, small government, states rights, individual rights, free enterprise position on political and civil matters. *Note: I say Judeo-Christian because Jesus was a Jew and referred to the Ten Commandments, Jewish law, beliefs and customs and the scripture...