Free Republic

During a press conference in the White House Rose Garden on Friday morning, President Trump pledged to “take care” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents moments before signing policy into law that strips the agency of deportation powers. “ICE is abused by the press and by the Democrats,” Trump said. “And by the way, we’re going to be taking care of ICE. Whether we talk about the new bill … we’re going to be taking care of ICE. They wanted to get rid of ICE and the bill is just the opposite of that.” The bipartisan spending package, however,...

Washington Post columnist Marc A. Thiessen served as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. It's official. We just had the longest government shutdown in history over nothing. Democrats have agreed to fund $1.375 billion for 55 miles of physical barrier along the border, which is only a little more than what Trump would have gotten under a continuing resolution that funded the government at current levels — and far less than the $5.7 billion he demanded to build 230 miles of barriers that experts and the Department of Homeland Security said they...

longest government shutdown in history over nothing. Democrats have agreed to fund $1.375 billion for 55 miles of physical barrier along the border, which is only a little different than what Trump would have gotten under a continuing resolution that funded the government at current levels — and far less than the $5.7 billion Trump demanded to build 230 miles of barriers that experts and the Department of Homeland Security said they need to secure the border. But Trump can still get the rest of the money — without a government shutdown or declaring a national emergency... To win, Trump...

Winston Churchill summarized the theme of his seminal history of World War II as “[h]ow the English-speaking peoples through their unwisdom, carelessness, and good nature allowed the wicked to rearm.”His first volume, The Gathering Storm, recounted many instances of failure among the leading figures of the 1930s to appreciate the growing danger of Hitler’s rise to power. Churchill’s history highlighted how the good intentions and virtuous character of Britain, France, and the United States hindered them from taking actions that could very well have prevented a war that claimed the lives of some 60 million people. He marveled at [how]...

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Jim Mattis declared Monday that he was "shocked" upon his return to the Pentagon by the poor state of the U.S. military's readiness for combat. He put most of the blame on Congress for its inability to approve budgets on time or repeal a law that strictly limits defense spending. Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, Mattis said Congress has "sidelined itself from its active constitutional oversight role" by failing to deliver a steady stream of funding to pay for new weapons and other critical gear. "It has blocked new programs, prevented service growth, stalled...

President Trump's push for a big military buildup in legislation funding the government is likely to go unfulfilled next week, when Congress returns and quickly tries to agree on how to keep the government open after April 28. A $578 billion bill that funds the Pentagon through September and provides some modest increases has already been hammered out by lawmakers in both chambers and passed by the House. While there is talk of a week-long extension before the big bill is passed, the main bill is likely to be the basis of all defense spending for the rest of the...

"They would rather Hillary Clinton, they would rather bankrupt our kids and grandkids, they'd rather lose the Supreme Court for a generation, they'd rather see our religious liberties stripped away, our Second Amendment taken away, they would rather see Islamic terrorism continue to rise and Israel continue to be under assault than actually have a true Reagan conservative in the White House who believes what he says. That shows just how messed up Washington is, but it also shows why frustration is volcanic."...

Yesterday was slightly heavy on the breaking news front, so this (not unexpected) development went largely overlooked.  President Obama held a photo-op to highlight his decision to veto the bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act, which appropriates $612 billion in defense spending -- a figure that matches Obama's military budget request.  Among other things, the legislation pays the troops and gives them a raise.  It sailed through the Senate with 70 votes, attracting dozens of Democratic votes at both ends of Capitol Hill.  But in an escalation of partisan politics, Obama has refused to sign the measure into law in an effort to coerce Republicans into...

We've been critical of Republicans' chronic inability to thrust political predicaments upon Senate Democrats and President Obama by forcefully spotlighting risky, unpopular filibusters, and forcing politically painful vetoes. Progress on these fronts has been maddeningly rare, though not nonexistent. With additional Democratic obstruction efforts afoot, the GOP now appears poised to require presidential vetoes on measures that would gut much of Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood, via a budget maneuver known as reconciliation.  But perhaps their best opportunity to draw political blood, or even win, is on a showdown involving the National Defense Authorization Act, which large bipartisan majorities have now sent to Obama's desk, directly challenging a veto threat: Speaker...

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, says he has every intention of voting to repeal Obamacare with a new GOP majority in January, but also said people should be realistic about what to expect in the way of repeal with President Obama still in the White House. “We certainly will have a vote on proceeding to a bill to repeal Obamacare. … It was a very large issue in the campaign,” Mr. McConnell told Roll Call. “We’re certainly gonna keep our commitment to the American people to make every effort we can to repeal it. “It is a...

Has anyone stood up in a Presidential Press Conference and simply asked: "Mr. President, why have you sequestered virtual every document from your past?" And if it hasn't been asked, why not?

Making Ebola medicine Zmapp takes time and the company has already distributed what it has. Government budget cuts may be partially to blame for the shortage.

As long as one sorely needs a certain additional amount, that man isn’t rich. Seventy times seventy millions can’t make him rich, as long as his poor heart is breaking for more. I am just about rich enough to buy the least valuable horse in your stable, perhaps, but I cannot sincerely and honestly take an oath that I need any more now. And so I am rich. But you, you have got seventy millions and you need five hundred millions, and are really suffering for it. Your poverty is something appalling.—Mark Twain to Cornelius Vanderbuilt He lies in little...

790 shares 100 View comments President Barack Obama pledged in the spring of 2013 to give back 5 per cent of his $400,000 salary in solidarity with federal government workers who were expected to lose an average of two weeks' pay because of automatic budget cuts – known in Washington parlance as a 'sequester.' A year later, however, it's not clear that he made good on his $20,000 promise. Mr. and Mrs. Obama's 2013 tax return, which the White House published last month, shows an adjusted gross income of $481,098. The couple claimed $147,769 in itemized deductions, but no line-item...

Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ongoing push into Ukraine represents a “startling brazenness not seen in history,” a top House defense thinker said on Monday. “It means we need to expand the range of military options for which we have to be prepared,” according to Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, a member of the Armed Service Committee. On a recent trip to Asia just ahead of President Obama, “I heard that China is a rising power and the U.S. is a declining one, which doesn’t mean conflict is inevitable, only that there’s the potential for increasing complexity,”...

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE — Force reduction measures and degradation of military benefits could have an effect on local service members under the Pentagon’s proposed budget cuts. The Pentagon officially unveiled its 2015 budget proposal Tuesday as part of the White House’s total budget request. The first post-Afghanistan war budget calls for a drawdown of Army and Air Force personnel, but invests additional funding in training, new weapons systems and special operations. The budget still requires approval of Congress, where a heated battle is expected. Although the budget calls for the Army to reduce its ranks by 40,000 to 50,000...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. budget deficit is set to fall to $514 billion this year, down substantially from last year and the lowest level by far since President Barack Obama took office five years ago, a congressional report said Tuesday. The Congressional Budget Office credits higher tax revenues from the rebounding economy and sharp curbs on agency spending as the chief reason for the deficit's short-term decline. But the budget experts see the long-term deficit picture worsening by about $100 billion a year through the end of the decade because of slower growth in the economy than they had...

WASHINGTON - President Obama's bogus promises, predictions and claims are legendary, but perhaps you've forgotten his "sky is falling" forecast about the $85 billion budget sequester. Last February, as Congress's automatic budget cuts began chipping away at the government's out-of-control spending levels, Obama went hyperbolic. The spending cuts would deal a "huge blow... to our economy as a whole" and "all our economic progress could be at risk." In a string of speeches, the president played his fear card again. Air traffic control operations were being put at risk. Cancer research projects would be halted. Your food safety was in...

Sequester, we hardly knew ye. The omnibus budget deal slithering its way toward President Barack Obama’s desk for signing abandons the automatic spending cuts that resulted from an earlier fiscal compromise. Why was the sequester abandoned? Like the Gramm-Rudman Act a generation earlier, the sequester had to be stopped for one fundamental, undeniable, bipartisan reason. It worked. It did not work perfectly, and it did not balance the budget or put us on course for a balanced budget. But it did play a critical role in nudging the deficit away from “catastrophic existential threat” territory and toward “terrifying money-suck.” It...

Recent polls suggest Barack Obama has become a turn-off. Why? In part, all presidents wear on Americans. Their presence has become as ubiquitous in our lives as the busts of the emperor Augustus dotting the Mediterranean world. So who wouldn’t annoy after speaking and appearing on our screens 24/7 for five years? But in Obama’s case, two character traits made him especially aggravating this year. Both explain why vero possumus and hope and change have descended to “you can keep your plan, period.” ~snip~ Why so? Few care to speculate anymore other than the obvious that his cursus honorum was...