Free Republic

Church attendance in the United States is at an all-time low, according to a Gallup poll released in April 2019. This decline has not been a steady one. Indeed, over the last 20 years, church attendance has fallen by 20 percent. This might not sound like cause for concern off the bat. And if you’re not a person of faith, you might rightly wonder why you would care about such a thing. Church attendance is simply a measure of something deeper: social cohesion. It is our position that civil society – those elements of society which exist independently of big...

The Trump administration has started denying pleas by non-citizens who are trying to extend their time in the U.S. in order to treat severe medical conditions. Letters issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and obtained by ABC News, tell people applying for medical relief that agency offices, "no longer consider deferred action requests," except for members of the military.

Having an open border combined with a welfare state is crazy. It’s like having a really nice house with really nice things inside, and then telling people, “It’s all yours. Come on in any time you want. Take whatever you wish”. What do you think would happen? It’s stupid not to have locks on your doors. But it’s even more stupid to treat all your things as if they all belong to others. Yet that’s pretty much what we’re doing now in America, or at least we WILL be doing if the leftists, Democrats and RINO types get their way....

Two California counties on Tuesday filed the first lawsuit against the Trump administration's new "public charge" rule that allows the government to deny entry or green cards to immigrants based on their use of public programs like food stamps and Medicaid. Representatives for Santa Clara County and San Francisco filed the suit seeking a temporary injunction in the District Court for the Northern District of California. The counties allege the rule change hurts "critical public health and safety-net systems, is arbitrary and capricious, flouts federal law, and seeks to usurp Congress’ authority by administratively repealing its longstanding family-based immigration system."...

"Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge," Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Tuesday, twisting Emma Lazarus' famous words on a bronze plaque at the Statue of Liberty. Cuccinelli was speaking to NPR's Rachel Martin about a new regulation he announced Monday that targets legal immigration. The rule denies green cards and visas to immigrants if they use — or are deemed likely to need — federal, state and local government benefits including food stamps, housing vouchers and...

President Trump is set to save American taxpayers billions of dollars as his administration announces a new rule on Monday that will essentially ban welfare-dependent legal immigrants from permanently resettling in the United States. A new regulation set to be published by the Trump administration will ensure that legal immigrants would be less likely to secure a permanent residency in the U.S. if they have used any forms of welfare in the past, including using subsidized healthcare services, food stamps, and public housing. The regulation will be a boon for American taxpayers in the form of an annual $57.4 billion...

WASHINGTON—Immigrants legally in the U.S. will be ineligible for green cards if they use any of an array of social programs, and prospective immigrants will be barred from entry if they can’t convince a consular officer that they will never use such programs, as part of a final rule published by the Trump administration. The rule, issued by the Department of Homeland Security, is one of the most ambitious and sweeping elements of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, according to administration officials as well as immigrant-rights advocates opposed to the change. The administration was all but guaranteeing fresh criticism from...

At the charming Hudson train station in New York, volunteers sell small cups of coffee for $1. The idea is to raise money for the children’s charity in town. They only accept cash. Not everyone carries cash. “Do you ever just let people have coffee on the promise that they will pay you later?” I ask. “Yes, and most do, but some people do not,” says the cashier. “We figure out who is who. When someone is taking advantage of our generosity, we say, ‘You may not have a cup of coffee. Next time bring cash.’ They figure it out...

Republicans have failed to promote a single conservative fiscal reform to even tweak the growing welfare state, despite their promise to fight for welfare work requirements. But at least Republicans at a state level are promoting conservatism, right? Well, not if the courts are crowned king of the republic. Courts have become the final arbiter of cultural issues and now even border and national security issues. Thus, it was only a matter of time before they ventured into fiscal/economic issues. Recently, several states have been conditioning Medicaid eligibility upon work requirements. Arkansas, Kentucky, and New Hampshire got a waiver from...

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials, the Trump administration will propose a rule Tuesday to reduce unwarranted access to food stamps, removing 3.1 million from the program and saving taxpayers $2.5 billion. President Trump has argued that many Americans now using SNAP are not in need, given the strong economy and low unemployment. Recommended changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would limit access to food stamps for households with savings and other assets. The goal is to end automatic eligibility for those already collecting other federal and state assistance. According to Reuters, the residents of 43...

The Trump administration on Tuesday will propose a rule to tighten food stamp restrictions that would cut about 3.1 million people from the program, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials said. Currently, 43 U.S. states allow residents to automatically become eligible for food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, if they receive benefits from another federal program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, according to the USDA. But the agency wants to require people who receive TANF benefits to pass a review of their income and assets to determine whether they are eligible...

White House officials and congressional lawmakers are nearing a deal that would boost government spending levels over the next two years and raise the federal borrowing limit. If passed by Congress and signed by President Trump, it would avert a default crisis this fall and avoid automatic spending cuts next year. The agreement would raise spending by $320 billion, compared to the strict spending levels established in the 2011 Budget Control Act and set to go into effect next year without legislative action, according to three people familiar with the negotiations who requested anonymity to discuss the unfinished deal. The...

Historically, economic prosperity has carried incumbent presidents to reelection. After two-and-a-half years of the Trump Administration the US economy appears very prosperous. GDP is expanding at a rate that former President Obama insisted would never be seen again. Stock prices are reaching record highs. Unemployment is at historic lows. Wages are rising. The task of Democrats seeking to persuade voters to unseat Trump would seem to be daunting. Nevertheless, several of them are trying out arguments against the Trump economic gains. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass) played the envy card, pointing out that "a 3% gain on a billion dollar income...

Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., signed a bill into law on Tuesday making young illegal immigrants eligible for the Medicaid program in California, making it the first state to offer such taxpayer-funded health benefits to low-income adults age 25 and younger regardless of their immigration status. State officials said they expected the plan to cover about 90,000 people and cost taxpayers $98 million. California already covered children 18 and younger regardless of immigration status. The law will not give health insurance benefits to everyone 25 and younger, but only those whose income is low enough to qualify.

El Paso police and its SWAT team are responding to a woman armed with a gun inside the El Paso Health and Human Services Commission at 5150 El Paso Drive in south central El Paso. Enrique Carrillo with El Paso police said a woman entered the building armed with a handgun, confronted security and employees and made demands. Carrillo said employees were evacuated from the building and no injuries have been reported. The woman is confined to an office and is alone, according to Carrillo. There is no word at this time on what the woman's demands were. Carrillo said...

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it will take up cases over whether the federal government must pay billions of dollars to health insurers that sold coverage on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. The Supreme Court will consider whether the government had an obligation to pay private health insurers under the so-called "risk corridor" program that was meant to offset insurer losses in the early years of the ACA exchanges. That three-year program has ended, but health insurers argue the HHS owes them more than $12 billion in unpaid funds. The Supreme Court will hear three consolidated cases during...

In a recent poll for “Axios on HBO,” 55% of American women say they would prefer to live in a socialist country over a capitalist country. This week on “Problematic Women,” we discuss why women are embracing socialism and what can be done to stop this trend. Also, we break down why freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says members of Congress, despite already making $174,000 a year, deserve a pay raise. We crown Yale University graduate and future Justice Brett Kavanaugh law clerk Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld Problematic Woman of the Week. And we discuss these topics: — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had...

Number of Ga. recipients falls 200,000 since 2018, continuing 6-year trend. As of March 31, nearly 1.38 million Georgians were receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, commonly known as food stamps, according to figures obtained from the Department of Family and Children Services by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That’s down from more than 1.55 million in June 2018. That drop-off is part of a steady decline in recipients since 2013, when the number of Georgians using food stamps peaked at 1.95 million. State employees and advocates working with poor and low-income Georgians say the decline is the result of several factors...

Georgia’s Medicaid and PeachCare programs covered 20,000 fewer children at the end of 2018 than the year before, a new report says. That 1.6 percent drop is less than an overall 2.2 percent decline in enrollment nationally, according to the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. The report, released Thursday, said that nationally, about 828,000 fewer children were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which in Georgia is called PeachCare for Kids. Not every child cited in the statistics is now necessarily without coverage. With unemployment low, many less affluent people have been able to...

President Trump has signed a memorandum enforcing a provision requiring sponsors of legal immigrants to pay back the government for any social services used by the immigrant. The provision was part of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) and Welfare Reform laws enacted by then-President Bill Clinton. The law stated that immigrants should “not depend on public resources to meet their needs.” However, the provision has not been enforced. (continued at source)