Free Republic

WASHINGTON – The historic $38 billion in budget cuts resulting from at-times hostile bargaining between Congress and the Obama White House were accomplished in large part by pruning money left over from previous years, using accounting sleight of hand and going after programs President Barack Obama had targeted anyway. Such moves permitted Obama to save favorite programs — Pell grants for poor college students, health research and "Race to the Top" aid for public schools, among others — from Republican knives, according to new details of the legislation released Tuesday morning. And big holes in foreign aid and Environmental Protection...

A well-placed and trusted source tells me that, any minute now, Attorney General Eric Holder will issue a statement announcing that it will no longer defend so-called Defense of Marriage Act lawsuits in court. The source believes DOJ had come to the conclusion that heightened scrutiny would apply, and that these cases cannot be defended in court. A 530d letter has been sent to Congress informing it that, if it wants to defend the statute, it is free to do so. A case is pending now that has a filing deadline of March 11. This is huge, folks. By definitively...

Yesterday on FoxNews I heard Geraldine Ferraro say that whoever coined the term ObamaCare was brilliant. She said it took all the negatives of the plan and tied it around Obama's neck. So I know my fellow Freepers will have the answer to the question "Who first coined the word "ObamaCare". Also, since the people clearly regard ObamaCare as negative, how are conservatives going to get us back to FreeMarket Health Care?

A contagious virus may be linked to childhood obesity according to a University of California study. The study showed that majority of the children who tested positive for adenovirus 36, also known as AD36, were obese. Relatedly, First Lady Michelle Obama has pleaded with restaurants to take an active stance against childhood obesity by rethinking the food they offered and using low fat alternatives in their menus. The study conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Schwimmer, principal author of the study and an associate professor of clinical pediatrics, looked for evidence of adenovirus 36 in 124 children ages 8 to 18. The...

ROSELAND, NJ--(Marketwire - September 1, 2010) - Private sector employment decreased by 10,000 from July to August on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report® released today. The ADP National Employment Report, created by Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP®), in partnership with Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC, is derived from actual payroll data and measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month.