Free Republic

Republicans Sens. Tom Coburn (Okla.) and Richard Burr (N.C.) today unveiled a plan to revamp Medicare that would accelerate a transition to private insurance, raise the benefit eligibility age and up the premiums paid by middle-class and upper-income seniors. (Avik Roy calls it "the best Medicare reform proposal yet.")Coburn said it best when he explained to The Washington Times why they decided to release the plan in an election year, when it's unlikely to actually go anywhere: "All of us in Congress are running around fixing everything except our biggest problem. If you don’t start fixing Medicare, you can't save...

Yesterday I saw video clips of Kathleen Sebelius, catholic Dem who as Pres. Obama’s patsy is implementing his anti-Catholic agenda, testifying before a Senate committee. She admitted that the Administration did not to any significant degree consult with the US bishops before issuing their mandate. Of course, the Administration didn’t care what the bishops would have said. The President was going to do this no matter what.From The Catholic League: OBAMA MANDATE NEVER SCRUTINIZEDFebruary 16, 2012Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:Following her testimony yesterday before the Senate Finance Committee, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius...

The Republican leader of the state Senate said Friday he expects recall elections to proceed against three of his colleagues, despite challenges they made to thousands of signatures on petitions seeking their ouster from office. Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said he is hopeful, though, that his election can be blocked through the challenges he made to the Government Accountability Board on Thursday. As for the others, Fitzgerald said, "They're not even close." Fitzgerald was the only one of the four who clearly challenged more than enough signatures to void an election. But whether to reject the signatures is up to...

It is a little more than eight months until Election Day, but even now two Republican-held Senate seats look increasingly like the keys to whether Democrats can hold their narrow majority in November. ... With five Democratic seats at greatest risk — Nebraska, North Dakota, Missouri, Montana and Virginia — and another five definitely in play — New Mexico, Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin and Hawaii — the 2012 Senate landscape is stacked in the Republicans’ favor. ...

Mitt Romney is now arguing that Rick Santorum’s record exposes him as one of those Republicans who “act like Democrats” once they get to Washington. Romney surrogate Tim Pawlenty adds that Santorum “clearly has been part of the big-spending establishment in Congress.” Another Romney surrogate, former senator Jim Talent, says of Santorum, “He certainly has been outspoken on social issues . . . but when you get outside those issues into fiscal, spending, regulatory issues, his record shows that he’s been in the liberal wing of the Republican party.” This is clearly emerging as one of Romney’s two prominent lines...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., relented on Tuesday and now says he’ll allow a Senate vote on an amendment that would reverse the White House’s controversial requirement that all insurers provide birth control free of charge to women. The proposal put forward last week by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., would exempt employers from providing any care they find immoral. It’s unlikely to pass the Senate, and Reid blocked the vote last week. But he gave in on Tuesday, providing a potential opportunity for his fellow Democrats Ben Nelson of Nebraska (a cosponsor of Blunt's amendment), Robert Casey of Pennsylvania,...

The tea party isn't dead. It's just looking down ballot. While fiscal conservatives remain split over the GOP presidential candidates, grassroots activists are coalescing around a stellar slate of limited-government candidates looking to reinforce and reenergize the right in Washington. And in the spirit of the modern-day tea party movement, no entrenched incumbent -- Democrat or Republican -- is safe. Utah was Ground Zero for the movement's first major electoral upset. In April 2009, this column first reported on a Salt Lake City tea party protest of 2,000 Utahans who repeatedly booed GOP Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch for...

It was yet another embarrassing spectacle of Republicans squabbling over who was for big government first. Jim Talent, a former senator from Missouri acting as a surrogate for Mitt Romney, took Rick Santorum to task for voting for Medicare Part D while in the Senate in 2003. Medicare Part D was indeed an egregious example of federal government growth. It added at least $7 trillion to the already substantial unfunded liabilities of the Medicare system. The deficit-financed prescription drug benefit was also the biggest new entitlement program since the Great Society. On a media conference call, Talent described it as...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he'll let a bill that would repeal the White House's hot-button birth control mandate be brought up for a vote. Reid had criticized Senate Republicans for offering what he called "extraneous" amendments to the Senate's transportation bill but then said he had agreed to a vote on contraception mandate, The Hill reported. Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/02/14/Birth-control-mandate-repeal-will-get-vote/UPI-78731329257213/#ixzz1mP2m2JPz

This bill will increase the VA gasoline tax by indexing it to the Producer Price Index. Click on the link to see the actual results....should be posted by tomorrow. The bill passed 26 to 14. Republicans voting FOR the gas tax included Blevins, Hanger, Norment, Ruff, Stosch, Wagner and Watkins. Their emails are listed below....

Back in the dog days of George W. Bush's second term, when each month seemed to bring new lows for the president's approval ratings, there was almost always this consolation: The surveys would show that Congress was even less popular than he was. In general, that's going to be the advantage an executive enjoys over a collective body such as a legislature. Hence the decision by Barack Obama to take a page out of Harry Truman's 1948 playbook and campaign for re-election against a "do-nothing Congress." Given his record, it may be his wisest course. It's also a gift to...

It is amazing how much legislators forget while they are in Richmond. While their constituents are home balancing their budget and making do with much less, the Senate of Virginia is supporting efforts to increase taxes. This week, the Virginia State Senate will consider a bill that will increase the gas tax (SB 631). The sponsor of the bill calls this an “inflation adjustment,” but AFP-VA is calling this a tax increase on hard working families of Virginia. Increasing the gas tax will drive up consumer costs; unfairly hurting the less fortunate and the unemployed. Tell your Legislators you oppose...

ABC says Lieberman, Manchin, Casey, and both Nelsons (Bill and Ben) have headed for the lifeboats, but I think that count’s already outdated. According to Fox News’s Chad Pergram, John Kerry also thinks the new rule “needs to be compromised, adjusted.� If all six vote with the GOP caucus to either repeal the rule or expand the conscience exemption, then McConnell starts with 53 votes, but since Scott Brown’s been desperate lately to show he’s as good a Democrat as Elizabeth Warren, in reality it’s probably only 52. Even with pressure mounting on swing-staters like Tester and McCaskill, it’s hard...

If Democrats are concerned about the lopsided Senate playing field this cycle, just wait until 2014. An early scan of next cycle’s Senate landscape paints a favorable picture for the GOP, which will defend 13 seats to Democrats’ 20. There is a noticeable dearth of competitive Republican seats, while several Democrats will be automatic targets based on geography.

President Obama “reinforced” his stance on the controversial contraception mandate while speaking at the Democrats’ annual retreat at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. today, Senate Democrats said. The retreat was closed to media. Following President Obama’s speech at the retreat, a small group of Senate Democrats, mostly women, left the retreat early in order to hold a news conference on Capitol Hill to counter the Republicans’ news conference today at which they called for the mandate to be overturned.

Madison - Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said Tuesday he will challenge thousands of signatures this week - enough to prevent a recall election against him if state officials agree. Fitzgerald made the comments Tuesday as the state Government Accountability Board disclosed it is considering using statistical sampling to determine how frequently duplicate names have appeared on petitions to recall Fitzgerald, Gov. Scott Walker and four other Republicans. The board's director, Kevin Kennedy, said the board is committed to creating a database of those who signed the Walker recall petitions to find people who may have signed twice. But the...

Reid’s floor maneuvers leave some Senate Democrats frustratedBy Alexander Bolton - 02/07/12 05:15 AM ET Some Democrats are grumbling over how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has run the floor this year. The frustration is felt mostly among junior lawmakers, who want more of a role in decision-making and have yet to resign themselves to the traditional pace of the Senate, where seniority rules and lawmakers often have to wait years to have significant influence. They say Reid’s style leaves them feeling out of the loop. Colleagues have second-guessed Reid’s decision to greenlight a deal with Republicans on the...

Senate Democrats divided over deep cuts to U.S. Postal ServicesBy Alexander Bolton - 02/05/12 06:00 AM ET Senate Democratic lawmakers from rural states are balking at legislation from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that would let the U.S. Postal Service close thousands of offices. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has convened meetings of Senate colleagues and staffs to overhaul the bill, which he believes could lead to the eventual privatization of the postal service. The postal reform bill crafted by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) was expected to reach the Senate floor as soon as next week....

Reid: This year's budget is doneBy Vicki Needham - 02/03/12 06:00 PM ET Senate Democratic leaders on Friday said they do not intend to bring a fiscal 2013 budget up for a floor vote. "We do not need to bring a budget to the floor this year — it's done, we don't need to do it," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters on Friday. Reid and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued that the debt-limit agreement in August directs spending for the next year and said Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) has already asked the heads of the...

Presidential approval ratings matter more than ever now that swing voters are going the way of the dodo bird. Once, in the time before super PACs and independent expenditures, before blogs and social media made even local elections a national sport, great herds of split-ticket voters roamed the plains. They voted easily for a Democrat for one office, a Republican for the next, with little consideration for future political scientists who would puzzle over their motives. But now, ravaged by decades of hyper-partisanship, the split-ticket voter is becoming an endangered species. For generations, voters handed presidential electors to one party...

U.S. Senate hopeful Tim Burns of North Strabane Township exited the U.S. Senate race on Thursday. “Those leaders spoke on Saturday,” Burns said of the GOP endorsement, where committee members confirmed Gov. Tom Corbett’s choice. “ And while it may not have been the outcome I hoped for, I have always known it would be difficult to carry on without their support.”

RICHMOND — The Virginia Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would require women to have an ultrasound before an abortion, the first of several legislative measures this year that are expected to dramatically alter abortion law in the state. Democrats and moderates in the Senate had rejected a similar bill each year for the past decade, arguing that the measure is designed to discourage women from the procedure. But now that the body is more conservative, abortion and other social legislation are back to the forefront. Republicans, in control of both chambers for only the second time

Vulnerable Senate Democrats take early fundraising lead over 2012 challengersBy Cameron Joseph - 01/31/12 09:00 PM ET Six Democratic Senate incumbents facing tough reelection bids brought in big bucks in the final months of 2011. All of those vulnerable senators raised more than $1 million in the fourth quarter of last year, an early indication of strength for Democrats, who are defending control of the upper chamber. Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Jon Tester (Mont.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Bob Casey Jr. (Pa.) and Bill Nelson (Fla.) brought in between $1.1 million and $1.6 million apiece for their...

© mmxii ittm® Somewhere in Alabama: While I'm at it why not look at the Senate races? Clearly a GOP majority there will be icing on the cake. Without it America runs the risk of stagnation. So let's have a look. Again I'll preface this piece with the disclaimer that I know no more about the subject than you do. I just choose to voice my opinion. American Affairs offers a good look at the races in the 2012 Senate. While I read from this and similar sites I am not "tainted" by their views. I go with my gut....

The Justice Department on Monday charged a former CIA officer with repeatedly leaking classified information, including the identities of agency operatives involved in the capture and interrogation of alleged terrorists. The case against John Kiriakou, who served as a senior Senate aide after ending his CIA career, extends the Obama administration’s unprecedented crackdown on disclosures of national security secrets to journalist. Kiriakou, who was among the first to go public with details about the CIA’s use of water-boarding and other harsh interrogation measures, was charged with disclosing classified information to reporters and lying to the agency about the origin of...

Hawaii Senate candidate Linda Lingle is out of the gate with a towering fundraising haul: $1.7 million during her first quarter in the race. The sum is almost three times what Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee-favored candidate Mazie Hirono raised over the same period. Lingle's campaign notes that 44 percent of donations came from inside the Aloha State, a statistic that highlights the reach of her national fundraising base. The campaign statement does not list a cash on hand number; Hirono carried $1 million into the year. The National Republican Senatorial Committee's Brian Walsh chest-beats with a bit with context: "Governor...

FRANKFORT — Kentucky State Police arrested a Lexington composer Tuesday and charged him with menacing after an altercation outside the state Senate involving supporters of Democratic Sen. Kathy Stein, who recently lost her Lexington district in a Senate redistricting plan. State police spokesman Lt. David Jude confirmed the arrest and charge that occurred after the Senate had adjourned for the day, but he had no other immediate information. The Franklin County Regional Jail’s Web site identified the man who was arrested as Stephen Rhodes Schwartz, who also is known as Stephen Trask. He scored and wrote lyrics for the film...

One thousand days is long enough to get a lot done. An elephant needs only about two-thirds of that time for a full-term pregnancy. In the past 1,000 days, the Egyptians figured out how to overthrow their government. The Libyans figured out how to overthrow their dictator. Theoretically, man could travel to Mars and back in that time. However, the U.S. Senate has failed to figure out how to propose and pass a budget for this country as required by law in that time. It is only fitting that President Obama will deliver his State of the Union address on...

Senator John Kerry surprised a few people at the Boston Bruins Stanley Cup ceremony at the White House Monday afternoon. The 68-year-old senator had two black eyes and a swollen nose. His spokeswoman Whitney Smith told WBZ-TV Kerry broke his nose playing ice hockey recently

Sen. Mark Kirk undergoes surgery after suffering stroke 9:31 a.m. CST, January 23, 2012 U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk underwent surgery today at Northwestern Memorial Hospital after suffering a stroke, his office said. "On Saturday, Senator Kirk checked himself into Lake Forest Hospital, where doctors discovered a carotid artery dissection in the right side of his neck," his office said in a statement.

Brother testifies in favor of “Terri Schiavo Day” by Matt Lacy – Bobby Schindler, the brother of Terri Schiavo testified on Tuesday in support of a New Hampshire bill proclaiming March 31 of each year as a day to remember Terri Schiavo. Schiavo, who spent 15 years on a feeding tube, became a focal point over the right to die issue and highlighted the need for individuals to have a living will specifying their wishes.. On February 25, 1990 Schiavo collapsed while at home. After being admitted to the hospital, doctors were unable to determine an exact cause of...

Ted Cruz is surging. Ted Cruz has climbed 6 points to 18% in a new poll, putting him a solid second place in the 8-candidate field. Meanwhile, the frontrunner -- Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst -- has dropped 5 points to 36%. Cruz has cut Dewhurst's lead from 29 points in September down to just 18 points today. This is great news, but it's even better than it looks. If Dewhurst fails to get 50% of the vote in the April 3rd primary, he will be forced into a run-off with the second place finisher. And if Cruz makes it into...

MEDIA RELEASE John Roco, a counselor on Oahu, is also a sometime church pianist and cantor for Sunday mass and founder of ‘Saint Damien Advocates’ – a nonprofit defending Catholic works from closure of adoptive and foster care services due to new gay non -discrimination laws (e.g., H.R.1681, ‘Every Child Deserves a Family Act’). Family values are not given ‘lip service;’ instead, Roco’s website is thoroughly ‘family.’ His son designed the site, took and arranged the photos at ‘homepage,’ and put together a video explaining H.R. 1681. His daughter, Eileen, is a 2010 Nene award winner and contributes with political...

I was browsing around to find who was running against my (darn it) Senator Casey (D), and found this site. I truly believe that winning the Senate may be more important than winning the Presidency. We need to win this fight!

A bill has been introduced in the United States Senate which will authorize the federal government to revoke the citizenship, creating practical expatriates, of American citizens. Introduced by Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman and Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown, S 1698, the “Enemy Expatriation Act,” is a simple, 2 page document which offers apparently innocent amendments and additions to existing federal legislation. (1) That legislation, known as Title 8, “…outlines the role of aliens and nationality in the U.S. Code.” And it is just one small piece of this massive and complex law which the Enemy Expatriation Act seeks to modify, that...

With less than a month to go before President Obama is required by law to submit a budget to Congress (February 6th), Mr. Obama’s decision today to make Jack Lew White House chief of staff leaves deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Heather Higginbottom to take Mr. Lew’s place as the director of OMB. As The Hill newspaper reports, Ms. Higginbottom has only served one month in her present role as deputy director of OMB and is considered a “controversial appointee” due to her thin, some would say “nonexistent”, budgetary resume. Prior to becoming deputy director...

Speculation on Michelle Obama for Senate in 2016 Jeff Poor - The Daily Caller 1 hr 29 mins ago In November 2016, Illinois voters will go to the polls to decide who they want to occupy the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Sen. Mark Kirk. And although it is a long way off, could one of the names on the ticket be first lady Michelle Obama? At the end of this weekend’s broadcast of “The McLaughlin Group,” show host John McLaughlin made that bold prediction, saying a Michelle Obama run for the seat her husband won in 2004...

In November 2016, Illinois voters will go to the polls to decide who they want to occupy the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Sen. Mark Kirk. And although it is a long way off, could one of the names on the ticket be first lady Michelle Obama? At the end of this weekend’s broadcast of “The McLaughlin Group,” show host John McLaughlin made that bold prediction, saying a Michelle Obama run for the seat her husband won in 2004 would happen. “Michelle Obama will run for the United States Senate in 2016 and she will be thereby mimicking,...

Calling the president’s illegal non-recess appointments “an escalation in a pattern of contempt for the elected representatives of the American people,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, dismissed a Justice Department memo on Thursday that sought to lend retroactive constitutional weight to the president’s move. Grassley hinted at Senate “action to check and balance” the president’s power grab, though he declined to go into specifics. The DOJ Office of Legal Counsel’s memo, also debunked by Heritage’s Todd Gaziano, claims that pro forma Senate sessions do not preclude the president from unilaterally appointing federal officials. That legal...

Republicans outraged over the recess appointments of Richard Cordray and three NLRB commissioners argue that the pro forma Senate sessions every three days means that the Senate has not recessed at all. The Congressional Research Service notes that no President in the 20 years prior to Barack Obama’s actions in the past two weeks has attempted a recess appointment unless Congress has been out of session more than nine days. Today, to no one’s great shock, Obama’s own Department of Justice says that these arguments aren’t good enough to stop the President from the exercise of his constitutional power: President...

When President Barack Obama offers his Jan. 24 State of the Union address, it will mark exactly 1,000 days since the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate has passed a budget. The Senate has not bothered to pass a budget since April 29, 2009. “The Republican-led House of Representatives passed the Paul Ryan budget that reduced Obama’s spending levels by six trillion dollars over the next decade. The Democrat-controlled Senate has not passed a budget in three years," said Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist. "When President Obama tries to blame a ‘do nothing’ congress for his problems….he is half right. The...

CHICAGO (Reuters) – As Mitt Romney inches toward the Republican Party's presidential nomination, many conservative activists are increasingly focused on a different political prize for 2012: the Senate. Republicans, who currently have 47 of the 100 Senate seats, are seen as having a good shot of winning control of the upper chamber because they are defending far fewer seats in the November election. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, is the clear frontrunner for the party's presidential nomination after victories in the Iowa and New Hampshire nominating contests this month. He can move a big step closer with a win...

For immediate release: January 9, 2010 STATE OF HAWAII ORGANIZATION OF POLICE OFFICERS (SHOPO) ENDORSES LINDA LINGLE FOR U.S. SENATE HONOLULU - Joined by the Board of Directors of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers (SHOPO), President Tenari Ma'afala announced today that Hawaii's police officers' union is endorsing former Governor Linda Lingle in her bid for Hawaii's open U.S. Senate seat. "Governor Lingle has always had our police officers in her heart, and she advocated for us in every leadership position she has held - from Maui's Mayor to Hawaii's Governor. We know she will represent Hawaii's police...

House liberals cheer proposed Obama administration immigration reformBy Mike Lillis - 01/08/12 05:40 PM ET Several senior House liberals are cheering President Obama this week after his administration proposed new rules making it easier for some illegal immigrants to remain in the country while they apply for citizenship. "The President deserves credit for setting in place another essential building block through administrative action – moving us closer to a common sense immigration policy – that puts America, its families and its economy first," Rep. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said Friday in a statement. The...

Two days after defying Republicans and appointing Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, President Obama visited the new agency to take a little time to gloat. Making a victory lap of sorts at the independent agency, Obama cracked a joke, telling employees that he came by to help their new director move in. More seriously, a seemingly content Obama called the man he tapped a “great director who is tailor-made to lead this agency.” With Cordray at the helm, after months of delay, the agency will help Americans better digest mortgages, student loans and credit card fees...

President Obama today made an unprecedented “recess” appointment even though the Senate is not in recess – “a sharp departure from a long-standing precedent that has limited the President to recess appointments only when the Senate is in a recess of 10 days or longer,” according to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). It turns out that the action not only contradicts long-standing practice, but also the view of the administration itself. In 2010, Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal explained to the Supreme Court the Obama administration’s view that recess appointments are only permissible when Congress is in recess for...

Today, I was appointed by President Obama to serve as the first Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I am honored by this opportunity to continue my work on behalf of consumers. And I am energized by the responsibilities and challenges facing the Bureau. The importance of this day has less to do with me personally and much more to do with you – and the millions of individuals and families across the country who access consumer financial markets every day to participate in our economy and to pursue their dreams and aspirations. That’s because now, with a Director,...

Washington, DC --(Ammoland.com)- Happy New Year from all of us at Gun Owners of America And we would also like to extend best wishes to Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who is challenging anti-gun Senator Richard Lugar in next year’s Republican primary. Dick Lugar is without a doubt the most anti-gun Republican in the U.S. Senate. He voted in favor of President Obama’s two picks for the Supreme Court -- Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – who deny the existence of an individual right to bear arms. * Lugar voted against repealing the gun bans in national parks and in...

Senate plans swift action on long-delayed transportation billBy Alexander Bolton - 12/29/11 02:14 PM ET Senate Democrats expect to pass a long-delayed surface transportation bill soon after they return to Washington next month. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said her colleagues have identified a list of offsets that could be used cover the final $12 billion of the bill’s cost. Shortly before Congress left town for the holidays, Boxer told The Hill that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had put together a variety of proposals to push the legislation over the...

Richard Lugar has been in Washington since 1977 and has been among the most visible Senate Republicans for decades now. On foreign policy, he’s perhaps one of the most knowledgable members of the Senate at this point and, if he manages to get re-elected and Republicans gain control of the Senate, he would become the President Pro Tempore and third in line to the Presidency. That “manages to be re-elected” part is the problem for him, though. It’s not likely that he’d lose to a Democrat in a General Election, but right now he’s facing a Tea Party backed challenge...