Free Republic

Then: The average American is not looking at the newspaper and saying: Gee, the economy is great. They are sitting down at the dinner table Friday night and tearing out their hair about how they are going to pay their bills.-- Senator Chucky "Schmucky" Schumer (D-NY), May 5, 2004For the Administration to be out there saying things are great shows just how out of touch they are with the average American. -- Senator Chucky "Schmucky" Schumer (D-NY), January 23, 2006No one needs to remind the Senator that at those times, the economy was excellent. In 2004 the unemployment rate was a respectable 5.5%....

Sen. Charles Schumer’s brother-in-law was quietly nominated this month to a federal judgeship in New Jersey — a move that has some in the Garden State crying political foul, The Post has learned. Kevin McNulty, who is married to Schumer’s sister, Fran, was named to the US District Court by the White House late on Friday, Dec. 16. According to a boilerplate quote, President Obama believes McNulty is a “distinguished individual” who “will serve the American people with integrity and a steadfast commitment to justice.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) brother-in-law was quietly nominated by President Barack Obama to a federal judgeship in New Jersey, even though the state’s senior senator, Frank Lautenberg, was leaning toward other candidates, according to a report Monday. Kevin McNulty, who is married to Schumer’s sister, was nominated for the $174,000-a-year lifetime post in the U.S. District Court on Dec. 16, according to the New York Post.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday said Senate Democrats are done negotiating with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). "Trying to negotiate with Speaker Boehner is like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall," Schumer said on MSNBC. The Senate passed a two-month extension of the backed payroll tax cut legislation in a 89-10 vote on Saturday morning. The House was expected to pass the proposal until Boehner voiced the rejection by House Republicans on Sunday. Boehner said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that legislating tax policy two months at a time is "kicking the can down the road." Schumer expressed...

I’m not a big fan of Senator Schumer of New York. As I’ve noted before, he’s a doctrinaire statist who wants the government to have control over just about every aspect of our lives. But that describes a lot of people in Washington. I guess what also bothers me is his willingness to say anything, regardless of how divorced it is from reality, to advance his short-run political agenda (sort of a Democrat version of Karl Rove).For example, here’s part of what the clownish Empire State  Senator recently had to say about fiscal policy, as reported by a Washington Post...

Schumer: Democrats can gain Senate seats in 2012 electionBy Bob Cusack and Alexander Bolton 12/01/11 05:15 AM ET Sen. Charles Schumer says the political landscape has shifted dramatically from the 2010 election and predicts that Senate Democrats will hold their majority and might even expand it next year. In an interview with The Hill, Schumer (D-N.Y.) brushed off suggestions that President Obama will hurt the chances of congressional Democrats in the 2012 elections. He said Obama’s approval ratings are on the rise, Democrats have the upper hand on the economy and Republican rhetoric on reducing government and the deficit is...

The New Hampshire Union Leader's endorsement of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich could not have come at a better time for the former Georgia Republican Congressman, as he is getting kisses of death from places GOP primary voters are not necessarily fond of. Senator Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat, knows very well that any kind of support from him towards a Republican candidate could deep six that GOP'er in as fast as New York minute. Sen. Schumer was asked by Meet the Press's David Gregory on Sunday about former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich's recent ascent to the top...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Senate Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing on Schumer Registration and Rights Denial Bill   Friday, November 18, 2011   On Tuesday November 16, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism held a hearing on Sen. Charles Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) S. 436.  Dubbed by anti-gunners the “Fix Gun Checks Act,” rather than “fix” the current National Instant Criminal Background Check System, the legislation would eliminate private sales and gun shows as we know them and expand the range of persons prohibited from owning firearms.For much of the hearing, Sen. Schumer and his...

Cam Edwards talks to Dave Kopel from the Independence Institute, who discusses his testimony before today's Senate Judiciary Committee Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee hearing on "The Fix Gun Checks Act: Better State and Federal Compliance, Smarter Enforcement."

WASHINGTON — A Republican Utah senator and Democratic senator from New York introduced an immigration reform bill Thursday aimed at encouraging foreign travel and housing investment in the U.S. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Charles Schumer, D-New York, say the legislation would reduce barriers for Canadian and Chinese visitors, expedite priority visa applications, use videoconferencing to screen foreign nationals and change visa procedures for U.S. allies fighting al Qaeda. It would also provide a three-year visa for foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in residential real estate, including half for a home in which they must live for six months...

Senator Chuck Schumer is one of two senators introducing a bipartisan bill aimed at improving the housing market by offering an incentive to foreign buyers, the Wall Street Journal report. He and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah want to offer residence visas to any foreigner that spends at least $500,000 on residential real estate in the United States. The measure compliments existing rules that offer visas to foreign investors that create jobs in America.

The owner of the not-too-generous traits outlined above is one New York Democratic Senator named Charles Schumer. I suspect that Democrat leadership feels that they can call on “Chuckie” to make a public spectacle out of himself as the spokesman for anything distasteful with which leadership would rather not be connected.

Liberals:President Barack Obama: “We’ve made steady progress to stabilize the economy.” President Obama on the Solyndra loan guarantees: "It went through the regular review process and people felt that it was a good bet...If you look at the overall portfolio . overall it's doing well." Former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi: "I don't remember being ever disappointed in the president." President Obama: “I don't think they're [the American people] better off than they were four years ago. They're not better off than they were before Lehman's collapse, before the financial crisis-- before this extraordinary recession we're going through. I...

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), the Democrats’ chief political messenger, is up to old tricks. In a memo to his Democratic colleagues, Schumer lays out his preferred strategy of blaming “Tea Party Republicans� for the sorry state of the economy. In this case, Schumer argues, Democrats should blame the  “extreme� GOP opposition to the President Obama’s jobs bill (defeated last night in the Senate) for putting the economy at risk. As the debate over jobs moves forward, he writes, “the Tea Party’s growing unpopularity has the potential to be the GOP’s Achilles’ Heel.� Recent polling appears to confirm Schumer’s claim...

As Allahpundit wrote of last night's Senate vote to block the president's jobs bill, the outcome was just about as perfect as it could have been for the president, whose jobs package, loaded as it was with tax hikes Republicans were bound to reject out of hand, wasn't designed to pass in the first place. The vote last night provides the basis for Democrats to blame Republican obstructionism for the next 13 months of a slow-to-no recovery, and blame ‘em they will. But they won’t just blame “Generic Republicans.� As the Senate now lays its plans to vote piece by...

Senate Democrats proposed today a 5.0 5.6 percent surtax on the "rich," where they define rich as someone who makes a $1M or more.   Senator Schumer was instrumental in moving the threshold from $250,000 to $1M, apparently because he recognizes the impact it would have on small business, since much of this income is taxed as personal income:  On Wednesday, Schumer said raising taxes on families earning more than $250,000 a year, as Obama has long supported, would affect small businesses, an argument that is more associated with Republicans than Democrats. "It also would affect too many small businesses if...

WASHINGTON—Senate Democrats proposed a 5% surtax on people earning more than $1 million a year to pay for the $447 billion cost of President Barack Obama's job-creation bill, in a move designed to shore up their party's support for the measure. The proposal would replace the range of tax deductions for wealthy people, oil companies and other businesses that the president had proposed to end to offset the cost of the job-creation initiatives in his plan. WSJ Deputy Managing Editor Alan Murray and Evan Newmark discuss the politics of the proposed 5% surtax on millionaires put forth by Senate democrats....

President Obama has made ending the Bush tax on incomes above $250,000 a year a top goal of his presidency. Republicans have predictably fought him at every turn, and used misleading statistics to characterize the plan as one that would cripple small businesses -- when in fact only sliver of the impact would fall on truly small businesses. Wednesday, those Republicans got a big, if unintentional, assist from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) -- a member of Democratic leadership, who has been a leading advocate for setting the threshold at $1 million in income. "There are people making 250, 300 [thousand...

It was just a matter of time before history once again repeats itself. I am referring to the joint press conference held by Senator Jeff Sessions, R. Atlanta, and Senator Charles Schumer, D. New York. Since the President's jobs program is a non-starter for both Republicans and Democrats it was only logical that both parties needed something to not only show the electorate that jobs were paramount but also to show that both parties could and would be bi-partisan. Who to make the whipping boy for both parties? None other than China. Then, with the blessing of Senator Harry Reed,...

Schumer Has A PlanSenator Chuck Schumer, Democrat, N.Y. thinks the president's plan to raise the taxes on households making more than $250,000 may require a special dispensation for New Yorkers. After President Obama unveiled his totally new plan for the new plan for deficit-reduction that Americans hear about every other month, the plan that raises taxes on households that have an income of over $250,000, he flew to New York for a fundraising event (tickets were priced at $36,000). A reporter, Marcia Kramer asked lawmakers from the New York region what they thought of President Obama's tax plans. Most of...

Republican Bob Turner has been declared the winner by the Associated Press in the New York 9th district special election. With 82% of precincts reporting, the latest returns show Turner with 53% of the vote and Democrat David Weprin with 46%. Weprin leads narrowly, 51%-48%, in Queens, where 90% of the precincts have reported; Turner leads 69%-31% in Brooklyn, where 66% of the precincts have reported. Thus if the remaining precincts in each borough match existing percentages there, Turner will win by a slightly larger margin than in current returns. This is a big reversal from the 2008 general election,...

This result is a rebuke to Barack Obama, but it is a rebuke as well—a stinging one, perhaps more stinging—to Senator Charles Schumer. He represented much of this district for 18 years and the now disgraced Anthony Weiner was his staffer and pretty obviously Schumer’s chosen successor as congressman when he ran successfully for the Senate in 1998. In addition, Schumer has made it his special project to win back white middle class voters in places like metro New York for the Democratic party. In January 2007, just in time for the new Democratic majority in Congress, he published a...

It might not cost a hefty $25 to get into the 9/11 museum after all. With prodding from Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, a bill was introduced in Congress yesterday to provide $20 million a year in operating funds to the museum. That would be enough to cover at least one-third of its estimated $50 million to $60 million in yearly expenses once it opens on Sept. 11, 2012. Museum officials disclosed earlier this year that they’d have to impose an admission charge to pay the bills, like most every other national memorial museum.

From Fox News Channel Wednesday, September 24, 2008 Special Report With Brit Hume

In 2006 Senator Chuck Schumer went after Allstate insurance for canceling homeowners policies in NY.

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) accused House Republicans of “hostage taking” for not passing a “clean” short-term extension to fund the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with no cuts, comparing the situation to “a gun held” by the GOP to the heads of Democrats. “The issue is not essential air service. It’s not even a labor issue. It’s the issue of hostage taking. It’s as if someone puts a gun to your head and says ‘give me your money’ and then you say, ‘why won’t you give them their money?’

The Senate on Monday night confirmed for the first time ever an openly gay male to serve on the federal bench. J. Paul Oetken, whom President Obama nominated in January, was voted in, 80 to 13, by the Senate to sit on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. “As the first openly gay man to be confirmed as a federal judge and to serve on the federal bench, he will be a symbol of how much we have achieved as a country in just the last few decades,” New York Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer said...

The New York legislature has voted to impose same-sex "marriage" in New York State. But did you know that the U.S. Senate is now preparing to make that imposition permanent? True, there is no bill to accomplish this goal. Instead, the imposition will be by future court order. And the instrument chosen by Sen. Charles Schumer to do the deed is J. Paul Oetken, nominated for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. A vote to confirm this nominee is in effect a vote to subject New York by force of judicial fiat to the homosexual...

These three Dem clowns are tag-teaming each other now live. They are promising that unless Obama gets his new taxes by 2 August, the country will be destroyed: no Boy Scouts, no IRS, no FBI, no Border Patrol, no school lunches for schools (indeed, all schools may be forced to close), no Social Security checks, no military retiree checks, etc. I am not making this up. In between these screeds, AARP is running terror ads telling seniors they will all die in the street without Social Security. I have never seen such a display of mendacity and outright fraud by...

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that Republicans would rather "tank the economy" than end a single tax break. "In the home stretch of negotiations Republicans seem willing to tank the economy rather than eliminate a single tax subsidy," Schumer said. "You can't just say my way or the highway," he added referring to a hard line many in the GOP have drawn against raising taxes. "It will lead to a fiscal Armageddon." Schumer was on the floor to oppose Republicans’ call for a balanced-budget amendment, which would alter the Constitution to ensure that the federal budget is balanced each...

After President Barack Obama revealed the suspect status of his support for Israel — and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wowed crowds with a sternly-worded address to a special joint session of Congress — some speculated Jewish American support for Obama would wane. But a new Gallup poll out yesterday shows a large majority still approve of the president. Jewish Americans gave President Barack Obama a 60% job approval rating in June, down from 68% in May, but statistically unchanged from 64% in April. Thirty-two percent of U.S. Jews now disapprove of the job Obama is doing, similar to their...

Washington, DC --(Ammoland.com)- “Gun Control” advocates fall into only two categories: the Liars and the Ignorant. There is no third category. The Liars invent the lies. The Ignorant believe the lies and repeat them. Truly fervent “gun control” advocates are quite often mentally ill. Their most common clinical symptoms, projection and denial, are barely below the surface. Because they often entertain a warped contempt of other human beings, they don’t trust themselves with guns, so they would prohibit firearms to all. They also entertain a primitive superstition about an inanimate object: “Guns are bad! Guns kill people!” Read what a...

This morning we speculated that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was seriously considering just ignoring the statutory debt limit by claiming it was superseded by section Four of the 14th amendment. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., confirmed that that course of action has been considered by the White House. Talking Points Memo‘s Brian Beutler reports on a conference call with Schumer today: I asked Schumer, a lawyer, whether, in his view, the administration had the power to continue issuing new debt even if Congress fails to raise the debt limit. He acknowledged that the question’s been discussed, but said the White House...

Dems dig in: GOP trying to sabotage economy on purposeBy Greg Sargent Posted at 12:00 PM ET, 07/01/2011 In recent weeks, there’s been some question as to how far Dems are willing to go in making the explosive charge that Republicans are deliberately trying to sabotage the economy in order to improve their chances of defeating President Obama in 2012. On a conference call just now with reporters, Senator Chuck Schumer made the most aggressive case we’ve heard yet along these lines, leaving little doubt that Dems are locking in behind this message as the deficit talks hit crunch time...

I am currently reading Reckless Endangerment by Gretchen Morgenson and Josh Rosner. I highly recommend it. This book names names, exposes policies and schemes, and will make you very mad with all of politics of the current economic mess. It documents the role of James Johnson and his tenure at the head of FNMA (Fannie Mae) in the 1990s, and his role in the housing price collapse/financial crisis of 2008. It focuses on James Johnson, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), and Representative Barney Frank (D-MA). The book does an excellent job of explaining their roles, but does not elaborately discuss...

As Wisconsin heads toward lifting a ban on carrying concealed weapons, researchers at the University of California-Davis have turned up some unsettling information about those who may take advantage of the law. In a study using 15-year-old data -- the most recent available -- published online in the journal Injury Prevention, the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program says those who carried concealed weapons or who had confronted someone with a gun were twice as likely to be heavy drinkers than non-gun owners. Gun owners who drove with loaded weapons were four times more likely to hop behind the wheel...

“The Imperial Presidency” was written in 1973 out of Arthur Schlesinger’s concern that the U.S. presidency had exceeded its constitutional limitations. If Schlesinger were merely concerned in 1973, he’d be downright terrified today. According to Trevor Loudon’s blog, New Zeal, an American Caesar has emerged on the political landscape in the form of our current commander-in-chief. New Zeal bases its premise on the Presidential Appointment and Streamlining Act (S. 279), which is stampeding through the Senate with Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., clutching at its reins. Since its introduction, seven Republicans jumped on board in support.The stated purpose of the bill is...

Weiner Is Thinking About ResigningBy John Hudson 08:59 AM ET Rep. Anthony Weiner may be worn out. According to the New York Daily News, the embattled congressman is considering resigning following the latest batch of beefcake photos and calls for his resignation from the Democratic leadership. "A source close to the congressman told the Daily News that he had been adamant about keeping his seat - even amid daily new revelations of his reckless sexting," Alison Gendar reports. "But the unrelenting media coverage, the demands from his party's leaders that he step down and the appearance of more humiliating photos...

Sen. Chuck Schumer said he doesn’t think his fellow New York Democrat Rep. Anthony Weiner had anything to do with the picture of a man’s erect penis underneath gray boxer-briefs sent from Weiner’s official Twitter account Friday night. “I don’t know the details,” Schumer said, according to the New York Daily News. “But I know him to be a person of integrity and I am virtually certain he had nothing to do with this.” Schumer’s office did not, however, respond to The Daily Caller’s request as to whether he’d like an official investigation to learn all those details he doesn’t...

The left-leaning blog ThinkProgress isn’t happy with Sen. Chuck Schumer’s statement that Palestinians and Arabs “don’t believe there should be an Israel.” Here’s the text of the statement Schumer made at a Jewish function this past Sunday: The reason there is no peace in the Middle East is very simple. It’s because the majority of Palestinians and the majority of Arabs don’t believe there should be an Israel. It’s that simple. Anyone who tries to figure out a way to solve this conflict without realizing that truth will never get anywhere. ThinkProgress cites various polls that seem to contradict Schumer’s...

New York Sen. Charles Schumer wants the government to investigate U.S. oil refiners' skyrocketing profits, which he said are to blame for high gas prices. "Something is rotten," said the Democrat, speaking today at a gas station on Manhattan's West Side. He said refiners' profits have more than doubled since last year. Meanwhile, the price of unleaded gas went up by almost 12 percent in just the two weeks ending May 6, topping $4 a gallon in New York. The senator said he believes refiners may be fixing prices by cutting back on stockpiles — by keeping refining capacities to...

(CNSNews.com) - Senate Democrats are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate possible price-fixing of gasoline by U.S. refineries because “recent reports,” according to the senators, suggest the refiners are trimming supply to keep prices high. But a federal report from November shows that refinery stockpiles started to decline in 2008, if not earlier. At a press conference on Tuesday, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that they had sent a letter that day to the FTC, “to request the Commission begin an investigation into potential price fixing of gasoline by U.S. refiners.” “Recent...

This, introduced by Chuck Schumer on 30 March 2011, looks like a very, very bad idea, from the perspective of anyone who wants government to be smaller and less intrusive – and wants the executive to be policed better by the legislative branch. President Obama and his czars are the obvious counterargument to this bill. They make a powerful one. More than 200 appointed positions would be excused from the advise-and-consent requirement by S. 679. ... The Senate may be naïve enough to think presidents “should” simply be trusted to appoint honest brokers to these positions. With the Obama administration’s...

Americans are fed up with high gas prices, and some U.S. senators are getting disgusted enough to act. Appearing in front of an Exxon gas station last week, Charles Schumer and several other senators called for the elimination of tax deductions oil companies use in their business of finding, refining, and marketing the precious energy we use. It is time we are outraged by blatant greed at the gas pump, they implored. Some of us agree, but for different reasons. Let's have the courage to name those who are getting the biggest cut from our gasoline dollars, and put a...

A few days ago Politico ran a Chuck Schumer dog and pony story as Senate democrats summoned oil company executives to Congress so they could use them as punching bags. Chuck Schumer: Democrats to aim at gas prices Senate Democrats this summer will roll out their recipe for dealing with high gasoline prices, emphasizing conservation and alternative energy to wean the nation off oil. The plan will come up sometime after the Memorial Day recess, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer told reporters Wednesday. “In June and July, we will be introducing legislation that will promote conservation, that will promote alternative...

Five executives from America’s leading oil companies were marched in front of the Senate Finance Committee Thursday morning for a public scolding, and told to defend industry tax breaks while Americans are being charged $4 for a gallon of gas. In other words, Thursday was judgment day the CEO’s of the country’s five largest oil companies. And because most of the committee’s Republicans were attending a budget meeting at the White House, the executives were left to face a very partisan, very unhappy panel of Democrats. Representing the scorned oil industry was John Watson of Chevron, Marvin Odum of Shell...

If you answered "four times" to the question posed in the headline above, you are either spending way too much time in the Congressional Record, or you have superb research and recall skills! Let's just assume it's the latter. Anyway, the right answer is indeed four times, at least. For the record, here's the four occasions, as documented by congressional records.......

It's A Dead Heat, Lunacy And Hypocrisy Are Dueling For The Lead, At The Head Of The StretchSen. Charles Schumer, NY, is calling for increased security on trains; since, Osama's computer files have included vague plans for attacking rail systems to celebrate the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Schumer is suggesting an ever larger increase in America's security forces that have largely been shown to be ineffective and incompetent in the past. Schumer is also suggesting a fool proof, no-ride list, so that terrorists who are known to be terrorists cannot ride, but will be free to find another opportunity...

— Sen. Charles Schumer is calling for better rail security now that the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound has turned up plans to attack trains in the U.S. “Anyone, even a member of al-Qaida could purchase a train ticket and board an Amtrak train without so much as a question asked,” Schumer said. “So that’s why I’m calling for the creation of an Amtrak no ride list. That would take the secure flight program and apply it to Amtrak trains.”

With a key test vote in the Senate on Monday, Democrats are playing the national security card in their push to get the No. 2 man at the Justice Department confirmed. Democrats argue that acting Deputy Attorney General James Cole, whom President Obama wants named to the post permanently, needs full congressional backing if the treasure trove of intelligence from Osama bin Laden’s killing can be fully put to use. “There’s a heightened need for him now, given all the new work that’s going to come forward,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said during a SenateJudiciary Committee hearing...