Free Republic

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi issued this statement following a report by the Trump Administration’s own Treasury Department that the U.S. budget deficit rose 17 percent to $779 billion in FY2018, the highest level since 2012, due to the deficit-increasing consequences of the GOP Tax Scam: “The bitter reality of the Republicans’ tax scam dishonesty is laid bare by the Trump Administration’s own report.  Republicans passed a tax scam for the rich that is adding $2 trillion to the deficit in order to give massive tax breaks to Big Pharma, big banks, big corporations shipping jobs overseas and...

There are a lot of reasons I’m not a Democrat. For example, I believe that… 1. Jesus, America, and capitalism have been the three greatest forces of good in world history. 2. An attractive woman posing with an AR-15 beats a screaming feminist in a pussy hat 10 times out of 10. 3. You can’t #believeallwomen or #believeallmen; you have to #believetheevidence. 4. It’s wrong and disgusting to harass people in restaurants and at their home just because you disagree with them politically. Also if you block traffic to get attention for your cause, whatever it may be, I am...

Last Saturday’s column on the New York Times investigation of Trump family tax dodging put aside the question of whether hefty inheritance taxes are good public policy. Let’s take it up now. Those who complained that my nondefense “normalized” Trump-era corruption miss an obvious fact. The events took place 30 years ago. It was already normalized. The Times itself has now run two op-eds making the same point. The appraiser who valued Trump property for tax purposes, according to the paper’s investigation, was a “favorite of New York City’s big real-estate families.” Trump family lawyers and accountants were the same...

Another manufacturer is bringing jobs to Rock Hill. The South Carolina Department of Commerce announced Tuesday that Linde Hydraulics Corp. will invest $13.4 million and create more than 60 jobs when it opens a new production site in Rock Hill. Linde is a global hydraulic and electronic drive system maker. “Linde Hydraulics is the latest industry leader to select our state for its operations, and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome them to our dynamic business community,” Gov. Henry McMaster said in a statement. The new 67,200-square-foot site at 1679 Overview Drive in Rock Hill should be up and...

There is no limit on how many people Vallourec, a global manufacturing company with a steel pipe mill here in the Valley, could hire right now, said Chris Allen, the company’s talent acquisition manager for North America. “We don’t have enough [workers] and we won’t have enough,” Allen said. “Our [hiring] number is infinite right now.” That demand is no doubt driven partly by the boom in oil and natural gas, one of the primary industries Vallourec serves, but there are other issues at play that other Valley manufacturing companies are experiencing, too. “We could use 20 more [employees] right...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Can we talk? Donald Trump would like to chat. And, boy, is he ever. Riding high after Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s successful confirmation, the president has been on a rollicking press tour of late. He’s inviting reporters up to his private cabin on Air Force One. He’s calling in to his favorite shows. And he’s turning closed White House events into major media moments. On Thursday alone, Trump held four separate press availabilities, including one that featured a profanity-laced Oval Office performance by Kanye West, the rapper and producer who has emerged as Trump’s top Hollywood...

America stands at a precipice. It's a moral precipice of our own making: We're not facing any external existential threat, or any serious economic crisis. Nonetheless, we're at each other's throats in a shocking and unique way. At least in the 1960s, serious issues divided us: the national attempt to grapple with legally enshrined racism, the sexual revolution, the Vietnam War. We have no such excuse now. Yet to view the sheer chaos surrounding the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh is to realize that we may simply have nothing in common anymore, other than our sheer blind luck at having...

Talk about a Freudian slip, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez, with a slip of the tongue, voiced what anyone paying attention already knows, that being that there are no moderate Democrats left. Doing what Democrats do best, projecting and flipping the narrative, the head of the party who called un accomplished democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez its “future,” appeared on MSNBC to suggest the GOP is the party of extremists — except his tongue couldn’t keep up with his deceptive mind. “When you see the mistreatment of Dr. Ford, that’s a mistreatment of every woman across America,” Perez declared. “When...

Trump on Thursday to discuss manufacturing jobs in Chicago and opportunities for ex-cons The rapper will meet Trump along with his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner They will discuss manufacturing jobs in Chicago and opportunities for ex-cons West has been a prominent supporter of the president despite public criticism Angered SNL cast members when he went on an unscheduled rant last month at the end of the show about Trump Met with Trump at Trump Tower in New York City in 2016 after he was elected Wife Kim Kardashian has been the White House two times to discuss prison reform...

Let me start by cautioning constitutional conservatives on being giddy, gloating, and excessively celebrating over the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. College football head coach emeritus Lou Holtz once admonished his players that when they end up in the end zone and score a touchdown, act like you have been there before. Yes, a good man survived, withstood, the most vile, vicious, and vitriolic of assaults and character assassination from the progressive, socialist left. Already the left has evidenced that they are not done. They now want to investigate and impeach Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The question to be asked: why?

With China still running a record trade surplus with the US, it seems premature — to say the least — to say that Trump has won his long-overdue trade war with China. But it is not too early to conclude that, despite their threat of retaliatory tariffs, China’s Communist authorities know that they have lost. The increased tariffs to date, combined with the threat of more, have already clipped the wings of China’s economic rise. Its stock market is down 21 percent year over year, industrial output is slowing and its currency is weakening. Looking beyond the bluff and bluster...

As trade tensions escalate between the U.S. and China, Washington is sending a warning to U.S. companies: Think twice about doing business with China. “If I were a business, I would basically just stay away from China right now. Their misbehavior is so terrible.” Kevin Hassett, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers said on Yahoo Finance’s Market Mover Friday.

He’s less popular than Trump, his party is trailing in the polls, and he couldn’t afford facing the heat coming his way if he failed to cut a deal. It’s no secret that President Trump and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau don’t get along. In June, as both nations threatened each other with tariffs during negotiations to rewrite the NAFTA trade deal, Trump tweeted that his 46-year-old Canadian counterpart was “weak” and “dishonest.” Trudeau responded by boasting that Canada “will not be pushed around” by its bigger neighbor. But three months later, both countries came together, along with Mexico, to...

The decision by China's central bank to cut the amount of reserves held by banks is an indication that authorities in the world's second-largest economy are getting nervous about a long-drawn trade war with the U.S., experts said. China insisted last month, in a 71-page paper, that its economy is "highly resilient" and Beijing is not afraid of a trade war. At the World Economic Forum in Tianjin, China in September, an official from the country's securities regulator said there was nothing President Donald Trump's administration could do to make a significant dent in the Chinese economy. Fang Xinghai, vice...

Just posting this because you won't see it on Television, because it's actual news, and television doesn't report on real news. ashington (CNN Business)The last time the American job market was this strong, astronauts were still going to the moon. The unemployment rate fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest level since December 1969

Support for President Donald Trump is growing among black Americans, but it’s unclear whether that will translate into enough votes for Republicans to retain control of Congress in the midterm elections in one month’s time. This apparent reversal of fortunes stands in stark contrast to Republicans’ inability in recent decades to attract much support from black voters. Part of the growth could be due to defections from the Democratic side. Former Democrat Brandon Straka’s #WalkAway movement has been encouraging Americans to share their personal stories of disillusionment with the Democratic Party and abandon, or “walk away,” from the party. The...

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke out against President Donald Trump in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, blasting his anti-press rhetoric, the retreat from the world stage, and his insults of U.S. allies.

The China card was something Mexico and Canada were ready to play against the Americans when Donald Trump first came to power under a unilateralist banner of “America First”. Who knew how far this volatile and inconsistent leader in Washington was willing to go after he denounced the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) – which formed the basis of trade between the three countries for 24 years – as the worst trade deal in the history of his country? But when the three sides have finally agreed on a replacement trade pact – the so-called United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)...

The U.S. government spends a lot of money it doesn’t need to, according to Citizens Against Government Waste, and it’s occurring at a time when the federal debt continues to rise even as the economy expands and tax revenues increase.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-eight percent (48%) disapprove. This is Trump’s highest Presidential Approval Index rating since early March of last year, shortly after he first took office.By comparison, Barack Obama earned a presidential approval index rating of -11 on October 5, 2010, in the second year of his presidency.