Free Republic

@BasedMikeLee I just finished speaking for four hours on the Senate floor, offering amendment after amendment to the Ukraine bill. After promising a “fair and open” amendment process, Democrats objected to every one of my half-dozen attempts to make my common-sense amendments pending. From real border-security protections to measures to prevent non-citizens from voting in federal elections to a measure preventing U.S. funds from flowing to Hamas to restrictions on paying the salaries of Ukrainian bureaucrats (among other amendments), Democrats refused to let the Senate consider my proposed changes. Their reasoning in essence: “Republicans had their chance, but lost their...

STATE OF TEXAS PROPOSITION NO. 1 "The constitutional amendment protecting the right to engage in farming, ranching, timber production, horticulture, and wildlife management." STATE OF TEXAS PROPOSITION NO. 2 "The constitutional amendment authorizing a local option exemption from ad valorem taxation by a county or municipality of all or part of the appraised value of real property used to operate a child-care facility." STATE OF TEXAS PROPOSITION NO, 3 "The constitutional amendment prohibiting the imposition of an individual wealth or net worth tax, including a tax on the difference between the assets and liabilities of an individual or family." STATE...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security panel, abruptly walked out of a committee markup Wednesday morning after clashing with the panel’s chairman, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), over amendments. Paul vented his frustration over Peters’s use of procedural tactics to effectively shield Democrats on the committee from voting on Republican amendments to the Fire Grants and Safety Act. Peters offered second-degree amendments to the Republican-sponsored amendments that completely gutted their content. At one point, Paul suggested that all the Republican members walk out of the committee meeting. “If this is the way you’re going to...

HARRISBURG — When Republican state legislator Jim Gregory nominated his Democratic friend and colleague Mark Rozzi to be speaker of the Pennsylvania House this month, the move stunned close political observers and seemed to offer new hope for bipartisanship. As with the nation, politics in this critical swing state, the country’s fifth-most populous, have become bitterly divided in recent years along ideological, geographical and racial lines. Donald Trump won the state in 2016, and Joe Biden took it back in 2020. False claims over the legitimacy of the 2020 contest became prominent Pennsylvania GOP rallying cries in 2022 and reinforced...

HARRISBURG — If House Republicans are successful in getting the special elections for two Allegheny County-based House districts delayed until May, the results of a Senate special election could lead to a whole new level of chaos in the power struggle in the state House. Republicans are clinging to a 101-99 advantage, with three special elections looming in seats vacated by Democrats. If Democrats win all three of those races, as expected, the Democrats will reclaim the majority in the chamber for the first time in more than a decade. One of those special elections — to fill the vacancy...

The Republican governor’s opposition to the ballot measure pits him against Republicans in the legislature, with both House Speaker Roger Hanshaw (R) and Senate President Craig Blair (R) advocating for the amendment. At issue is whether the state constitution should be amended to give the legislature authority over—and potentially the ability to scale back or repeal—tangible personal property taxes. An inability to touch these taxes has bedeviled tax reformers in the state for years. Most states tax tangible personal property—essentially, property that can be touched or moved—to some degree, but West Virginia is unusual in its heavy taxation of machinery,...

This Fourth of July, watching people fight over what the Constitution means, I ask people, if you could change the Constitution, what would you change?"The forefathers knew what they were doing," said one woman.But the Constitution originally accepted slavery. It's good that we can amend it.So what should we change?"Add a balanced budget amendment," suggests Glenn Beck.David Boaz of the Cato Institute recommends 18-year terms for the Supreme Court. "Maybe confirmation fights would be less bitter and partisan."Others suggest term limits for Congress. Stossel TV's Mike Ricci takes the idea further. "If your father, mother, siblings, uncle, cousins were elected...

The proposed amendments by the U.S. to the International Health Regulations do not degrade the sovereignty of the United States. The proposed amendments will reduce the power of a country to prevent the World Health Organization from declaring that a public health emergency exists in this country. There is nothing in the proposed amendments that obligates the U.S. to accept any such declaration by the WHO.

Amendment I1. The government cannot make you believe in a religion.2. The government cannot keep you from practicing any religion you choose.3. The government cannot keep you from saying what you wish.4. The government cannot keep you from writing what you want.5. The government cannot stop you from publishing what you want.6. The government cannot keep you from joining together peacefully with others to express your views.7. The government cannot prevent you from complaining about what the government or others are doing to you.Amendment II8. The government cannot take away your right to own and keep guns.Amendment III9. The government...

It is the thesis of this monumentally argued book that the United States Supreme Court - largely through abuses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, has embarked on "a continuing revision of the Constitution, under the guise of interpretation." Consequently, the Court has subverted America's democratic institutions and wreaked havoc upon Americans' social and political lives. One of the first constitutional scholars to question the rise of judicial activism in modern times, Raoul Berger points out that "the Supreme Court is not empowered to rewrite the Constitution, that in its transformation of the Fourteenth Amendment it has demonstrably done...

Republicans have criticized Democrats for continuing to push their pandemic stimulus package while accepting little to no Republican input. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Wednesday out of 286 amendments proposed by Republicans for the $1.9 trillion spending package, only two were accepted. “Republicans offered 286 amendments to President Biden’s massive $1.9 TRILLION spending blowout. Democrats accepted 2 of them. So much for Biden’s calls for ‘unity,'” McCarthy said in a statement. On Feb. 19, Democrats unveiled the full text of a 591-page bill (pdf) titled the “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.” House Republicans held a press conference...

WASHINGTON, DC, Feb 12 – “We’re not giving up on our efforts to eliminate the unfair income tax on Social Security benefits. The Senior Citizens Tax Elimination Act is being reintroduced and the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC] will be doing what it takes to encourage lawmakers to support the measure,” says Bob Carlstrom, president of AMAC Action, the association’s senior advocacy affiliate. The original Social Security and tier 1 railroad retirement benefits were specifically exempted from income taxes when they were created in the mid 1930s. “After all, workers pay for them with taxes that are taken out...

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A bill that would require doctors and other health workers to provide life-sustaining care for an infant born alive after a failed abortion attempt was approved by the Kentucky Senate on Monday. The measure sailed through the Senate on a 32-0 vote and heads to the House next. It's the latest in a series of abortion-related bills to surface in the Republican-dominated legislature in recent years. The bill would require health-care workers to give “medically appropriate and reasonable life-saving and life-sustaining medical care and treatment” to protect the lives of newborns, including any infant born after...

On a warm September day in 1787, Benjamin Franklin emerged from Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Franklin was leaving what has come to be known as The Constitutional Convention. Originally it was simply the Philadelphia Convention, which was intended solely to improve upon the Articles of Confederation, the prevailing government of the time. As legend has it, a man approached him and demanded, “What have you wrought?” to which Franklin succinctly replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” Franklin, known for so many famous quotes he could make Yogi Berra appear to be a mute, delivered that day what might...

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again—or just hide your idea in a giant piece of legislation, where you hope it won’t get noticed. The National Popular Vote campaign hopes that Minnesota voters won’t see its sneaky maneuver until it’s too late. Perhaps National Popular Vote supporters feel desperate. They’ve been trying to get their controversial interstate compact approved in Minnesota since 2009, but the legislation always flounders. This year, National Popular Vote is trying something new in Minnesota. Its compact has been introduced as standalone legislation, just as it normally is. Meanwhile, the compact also has been...

SALEM—Governor Ralph Northam today announced amendments to Senate Bill 1716 and House Bill 2718, legislation passed by the General Assembly providing $151 million in dedicated funding for the Interstate 81 Corridor Improvement Plan. The amendments would ensure that the $2 billion program approved by the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) in December 2018 is implemented, while also generating critical revenue for interstates across the Commonwealth. The amendments create equity in transportation funding by bringing Virginia’s truck registration fees, and diesel and road tax rates more in line with those of the other states along the 855-mile I-81 corridor. The funding mechanisms...

Left-wing pop icon Barbra Streisand laments the absence of a New Zealand-style gun ban in the U.S. and blames the “gun lobby” for failure to secure one.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Most Florida felons who have finished their sentences will be able to vote again in future elections. Voters on Tuesday approved Amendment 4, which says that most felons will automatically have their voting rights restored when they complete their sentences or go on probation. The amendment exempts those convicted of sex offenses and murder.

TALLAHASSEE When Floridians head to the ballot box in November, they will encounter a list of candidates asking for their vote for seats in the state House to the U.S. Senate. Among the choices they must make will also be one of the longest lists of proposed constitutional changes in decades, from betting on dog racing to implementing a ban on public officials lobbying for six years after they leave office. The 12 constitutional amendments on this year’s ballot are the most since 1998, when the state’s Constitution Revision Commission — which meets once every 20 years — put nine...

LAPORTE — Law enforcement in LaPorte County is preparing for the possibility of an already-congested and dangerous U.S. 20 being overrun with more semi-trucks as drivers avoid the 35 percent cost increase of traveling the Indiana Toll Road. Much of that stretch of highway being down to one lane in each direction for resurfacing adds to the concerns. LaPorte County Sheriff John Boyd said he’s reached out to Indiana State Police to help patrol U.S. 20 if an increase in truck traffic becomes too much for his staff to handle alone. “We’re going to prepare for it,” Boyd said. “We’re...