Free Republic

House Republicans are looking to use a vote on raising the debt ceiling, a must-pass measure to avoid stark economic consequences and damaging credit of the United States, to get concessions on spending cuts if they win control of the chamber in the midterm elections. The federal government is expected to reach the $31.4 trillion debt limit, last increased in 2021, sometime in 2023. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is likely to become Speaker should the GOP take the lower chamber in November, is preparing for a battle with the Biden administration over curbing spending as a condition...

Dark days await armies gathering for the mother of all showdowns around Baghdad By Donald Macintyre in Qatar 25 March 2003 The United States and Britain began a ferocious air and missile attack on the Republican Guard divisions protecting Baghdad yesterday in their first concerted effort to force a way through the treacherous "red zone" surrounding the Iraqi capital. The US confirmed that one Apache helicopter gunship was downed in the first wave of air assaults, launched as a precursor to what military planners see as the decisive phase of the campaign. And the US 3rd Infantry Division was slowed...