Free Republic

Appearing on CNN's State of the Union today, Rick Santorum told host Candy Crawley that his loss yesterday to Mitt Romney in CPAC's annual straw poll was because he didn't pay for votes. From Politico: "Well, you know, those straw polls at CPAC... for years Ron Paul has won those because he trucks in a lot of people, pays for their tickets, and they come in and vote and they leave. We didn't do that, we don't do that. i don't try to rig straw polls." Pressed further on whether or not he felt Romney had rigged the poll, Santorum...

One of the great things about America, President Barack Obama told students at the University of Colorado, is that no matter how humble your roots, you still have a shot at a great education. He also told students that his goal is to "make college more affordable." Alas, the president's prescription for making higher education affordable seems likely to yield the same results as his plan for curbing health care costs; that is, it is likely to drive prices higher than inflation. The nation's next fiscal nightmare may well be a higher-education bubble. Americans now owe more on student loans...

Continuing his recent tack of bypassing Congress and enacting reforms “without them,” President Obama on Wednesday announced a package of student loan reforms designed to lower college graduates’ monthly payments, arguing his plan will redirect some of that borrowed money into the economy to promote job growth. Speaking to a friendly audience of college students in Denver, Mr. Obama said the changes “won’t cost taxpayers a dime but will save you money and will save you time,” and tied the ever-rising cost of education to the nation’s lagging economy. “Living with that kind of debt means making some pretty tough...

Obama Looks to Wring Stimulus From Saturated Student Loan Market “$1 Trillion” -- Estimated amount of student loan debt owed by Americans. In keeping with his new campaign theme of “we can’t wait,” President Obama today will roll out a plan to put more money in the pockets of some of the nation’s 36 million student loan recipients. Obama has broad latitude in this area – certainly broader than the first two parts of his western campaign trip, underwater mortgages and subsidies for hiring veterans – because one of his early legislative initiatives was to have the federal government take...

by John HillStand With Arizona Over 500 people turned out for a protest against R.I. Gov. Lincoln Chafee's support for in-state tuition for illegal aliens - which was implemented with a lawless decree by Chafee's education "czars" when he failed to get the Legislature to pass the outrageous bill. Local media hailed the "unusually large turnout for a weeknight" at the the State House in Providence, which included many Stand With Arizona activists, along with members of Rhode Island for Immigration Law Enforcement, and average citizens furious at the Obama-style bypassing of elected officials on behalf of illegal aliens....

A longtime federal fugitive who was an undocumented immigrant cost taxpayers more than $350,000 in healthcare at Miami-Dade hospitals before he died last year, a county investigative report has revealed. The Miami-Dade Office of the Inspector General said the patient was a Colombian who fled the United States in 1983 after a cocaine smuggling conviction but returned under a false name. In 26 visits to the Jackson Health System from 2003 through 2010, his care cost $201,716 — $155,334 in charity care paid by Miami-Dade taxpayers and $46,382 paid by Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor. The man also...

Rebates on social security taxes will not create any jobs, let alone the 1.5 million to 2 million that is projected. To create jobs in private business we need structural reforms that will permanently make businesses more competitive such as health care reform and scrapping numerous union work rules. When it comes to public work projects, assuming the projects are needed, the goal should be to get the most work done as possible for the least cost. For example, it would be far better to hire two or three workers for $13 an hour than 1 person for $39 an...

(CNSNews.com) - The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Tuesday that it has awarded $28.8 million to 67 community health centers with funds from the Obamacare health reform law. Of that $28.8 million, "approximately $8.5 million will be used by 25 New Access Point awardees to target services to migrant and seasonal farm workers," Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Spokeswoman Judy Andrews told CNSNews.com. HRSA is a part of HHS. Andrews said that grant recipients will not check the immigration status of people seeking services. “Health centers do not, as a matter of routine practice, ask...

Benjamin Franklin, regarding the new Republic opined: “When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.” His reference was to individual voters or voting blocs using government to enrich themselves directly. Given the limited powers of the then fledgling Federal Government, he did not envision the “money go round” that permeates and too frequently dominates Washington DC. “Liberals” and their snarky hypocritical ilk controlled the agenda in DC for most years after Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s war. That control existed and was kept alive on a sea of Federal largesse and campaign...

Benjamin Franklin, regarding the new Republic opined: “When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.” His reference was to individual voters or voting blocs using government to enrich themselves directly. Given the limited powers of the then fledgling Federal Government, he did not envision the “money go round” that permeates and too frequently dominates Washington DC. “Liberals” and their snarky hypocritical ilk controlled the agenda in DC for most years after Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s war. That control existed and was kept alive on a sea of Federal largesse and campaign...

President Obama is calling for a $250 rebate for seniors after the Social Security Administration announced Friday that interest rates in 2010 haven't risen enough to justify an increase in benefits next year to the 58 million retirees and disabled Americans who receive the entitlement. Congressional Democrats, already in a precarious position headed into Election Day, are heeding the president's call. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced that in light of the economic downturn and the fact that Social Security will not provide a cost-of-living adjustment for a second year, the president will ask Congress to approve a $250 "economic...

A check from Uncle Sam gets your attention, even if the money doesn't help that much with the bills. More than 750,000 Medicare recipients with high prescription costs each got a $250 government check this summer, and 3 million-plus more checks are going out to people who land in the program's anxiety-inducing coverage gap. Democrats, running scared in an election year, are trying to overcome older people's mistrust of the new health care law, which expands coverage for younger generations by cutting Medicare payments to hospitals and insurers. Will the ploy work? "It's like a teaser," says Virginia Brant, 65,...

Given the choice between retaining power in the short term or doing what's right for America, which would you choose? Most Americans, I believe, would be willing to sacrifice a great deal for their country, and this willingness to sacrifice has always been the great pillar of American democracy. Unfortunately, there is no fondness for sacrifice in Washington these days, especially among the Democratic leadership and its supporters. The irresponsibility of the left is on display daily as one piece of self-serving legislation follows another. The latest example comes in the form of the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes...

As the health care leviathan slouches toward a final vote in the House of Representatives — or at least a final “deeming” — it is worth taking one final look at what’s at stake. In the end, this vote is not about the corruption of the legislative process — although this has been tawdry and sleazy almost every step of the way. The Democrats have bought votes with pork and special deals. They’ve twisted and ignored congressional rules. They’ve threatened and intimidated critics. And they’ve ended up with a new procedure that will allow them to pass the bill without...

Bye bye, Cornhusker Kickback. Hello, special treatment for Tennessee and North Dakota. Democrats unveiling revisions Thursday to their health care overhaul bill decided to kill the extra $100 million in Medicaid funds for Nebraska that has become a symbol of backdoor deal making. But the 153 pages of changes to the massive health care package include extra money for hospitals in Tennessee that serve large numbers of low-income patients. And though the bill would revamp the nation's student loan system to make the government the only lender, one bank — the state-owned Bank of North Dakota — would be allowed...

President Obama has nominated Scott M. Matheson Jr. to the 10th circuit court of appeals; and in a completely unrelated event, Matheson’s brother, Utah congressman Jim Matheson was among a group of 10 democrats who met at the White House to discuss their votes on healthcare with the President. Jim Matheson had previously voted against the House healthcare bill, now Obama wants to talk it over. Of course the allegations of bribery and buying votes have already surfaced and one can only gather that the nomination of Scott M. Matheson Jr. to the US circuit court has a secondary motive...

The blog And So It Goes in Shreveport notes that a petition to recall Senator Mary Landrieu has been accepted for filing by the Louisiana Secretary of State. Citizens have 180 days to file enough signatures to get this on a ballot: "Via Caught Him With a Corndog, there is an active petition to recall Senator Mary Landrieu: 'On Dec. 29, a recall petition was filed by Ruben Leblanc of New Iberia, for the recall of Mary Landrieu. Sec. of State Jay Darden stated that he WILL accept the filing.' Kinda like chicken fried bacon, this limited time offer won't...

Harry Reid and his jolly elves today will deliver unto America a Christ mas gift it can ill-afford -- health- care "reform" -- and then vote to raise the federal debt ceiling to a staggering $14 trillion to help pay for it all. The two are not unrelated. That became clear yesterday, when the Congressional Budget Office blew the whistle on some fiscal deck-shuffling so egregious that it might make even Bernie Madoff blush. Turns out that Reid & Co. have been double-counting the proposed Medicare savings to satisfy President Obama's "demand" (wink, wink) that any health-care bill reduce the...

Democrat Ben “Dover” Nelson, who had previously threatened to join a GOP filibuster of the Senate Health Care Bill, proved today that everything has a price – including a man’s values. The Nebraska Senator just accepted what I’ll generously describe as an enormous “monetary incentive” to do a complete 180 on his long-time position on abortion funding and thereby gave this awful legislation life with his 60th all-Democrat vote. Earlier this month, Nelson insisted that he would not support a bill without stronger anti-abortion language:

New reports from the Tax Foundation show that President Obama's policy proposals will increase the financial dependence of middle-income Americans on the federal government. "Attempts to put 'price tags' on health care and cap-and-trade proposals vary among government agencies and think tanks," said Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge, "but one vital question has been left unanswered: Counting all federal taxes and spending, how would these policies affect American families' financial ties to the government? The foundation's new 'fiscal incidence model' answers that question." "Currently the bottom 60 percent of the income spectrum receives more in federal spending than they pay...