Free Republic

For “progressives,” the Nanny State never does enough. They always find new social problems and “unmet needs” that, in their view, can only be addressed by further expansion of government. In that vein, we now have a proposal to take the free school lunch program in schools to next level – college. Since the federal government feeds students in K-12 schools via the National School Lunch Program, it should similarly feed college students who are “food insecure,” argues a new policy brief published by the Wisconsin HOPE Lab. According to authors Sara Goldrick-Rab, Katharine Broton, and Emily Brunjes Colo, the...

(Brandon Garabrant is seen in his military uniform in Greenfield, N.H., before he was killed in the line of duty, June 20, 2014, in Afghanistan. When Garabrant graduated from high school he wanted to wear his Marine uniform but school officials said policy bans uniforms and requires graduates to wear blue caps and gowns. A new state law passed this year now allows high school graduates to wear their military uniforms if they have completed basic training.) CONCORD, N.H. — Can the cap and gown worn by high school graduates coexist peacefully with military uniforms worn by classmates destined...

House Republicans are priming the pump for the next president to overhaul much of the financial regulation enacted in the aftermath of the 2008 global market downturn. The GOP plan would repeal and replace most of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul with a more market-based regulatory scheme. As part of the GOP’s “A Better Way Agenda,” House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, was scheduled to unveil details of the simpler, yet stricter, regulation Tuesday morning at the Economic Club of New York. “In a phrase,” he said, summarizing the Republican plan in prepared remarks obtained by The Daily Signal, “we...

New Jersey lawmakers on Thursday sent Gov. Chris Christie legislation to keep Atlantic City from running out of cash, throwing the financially strapped resort a life preserver just before the unofficial start to summer this weekend. The Democrat-led Assembly and state Senate approved the measures by wide margins just as the state’s 127 miles of beaches prepare for the Memorial Day holiday. Republican Gov. Chris Christie, who earlier supported legislation allowing for an immediate state takeover of the city’s finances, has said the bill gives him the authority he needs. He stopped short of saying whether he will sign the...

When Washington took over the beleaguered mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the collapse of the housing market and the financial crisis of 2008, it was with the implicit promise that they would be returned to shareholders after being nursed back to health. But now, with the unsealing of documents this week that were produced as part of a lawsuit filed against the government, new evidence is coming to light on how intimately the White House was involved in the Treasury’s decision in August 2012 to keep all the companies’ profits for the government. That move effectively maintained...

Hope you enjoy. To Sir, With Love

Republicans are waging a battle over the Constitution when it comes to helping Puerto Rico. Supporters of Speaker Paul Ryan’s legislation to help Puerto Rico handle billions in debt before a critical July bond payment deadline point to Article IV of the Constitution in arguing they have a responsibility to help the territory.

Donald Trump says Puerto Rico has "far far too much debt," and the U.S. government shouldn't bail out the island....... Puerto Rico is in crisis mode. It has run up $70 billion in debt, a staggering amount for an island of under 3.5 million people..... "You have to cut the debt way down and get back to business," he said.

UPS, and roughly 270,000 retired truck drivers, construction workers, and other service workers can breathe a collective sigh of relief... for now. As we previously reported, the Central States Pension Fund had submitted a plan to Treasury that if approved would have cut member benefits, and triggered UPS to take an estimated $3.8 billion charge. As the WSJ reports, Kenneth Feinberg (who was appointed by the Treasury to review all such applications) rejected the plan presented by the CSPF. Feinberg cited a few reasons for his decision, one being that it imposed cuts in a disproportionate manner, another was that...

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae posted net income of $1.1 billion for the first quarter, down from a year ago as declining interest rates reduced the value of the financial instruments it uses to hedge against rate swings. […] Washington-based Fannie is paying a dividend of $919 million to the U.S. Treasury next month. Fannie will then have paid a total $148.5 billion in dividends, exceeding the $116 billion it received from taxpayers during the financial crisis. …

Prior to his remarks about Obama’s final days in office, Savage told his listeners he believed Trump would defeat Clinton in a landslide, describing the former secretary of state, senator and first lady as “Fidel Castro in a dress.” If Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination and defeats likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in November, President Obama will sabotage the economy in his final months in office, predicts talk-radio host Michael Savage. “If Trump wins – and I think he will – there will be an economic crash,” Savage told listeners of his nationally syndicated show, “The Savage Nation,” Monday....

Speaker Ryan has made it crystal clear that House Republicans' number one priority is to shield American taxpayers from a bailout of Puerto Rico My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.—Errol Flynn Due to Puerto Rico’s gross habits, the commonwealth has amassed a total debt of over $72 billion and has already defaulted on $221 million of its’ debt. When unfunded liabilities (pensions) are included, these additional costs bring the total value of their debt closer to $165 billion, approximately $150% of its’ GDP.

Illinois’ college and universities received a much-needed lifeline Friday when lawmakers approved a $600 million short-term funding fix for the institutions, which have been struggling without state funding during the months-long budget stalemate, even laying off employees. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is expected to sign the bill, which is a one-time deal and includes nearly $170 million in tuition grants for low-income students. But state Comptroller Leslie Munger said she wouldn’t wait for the Republican’s signature, instead immediately begin processing payments for schools. The rare bipartisan deal comes at an especially crucial time for Chicago State University, which has been...

Please insert a big fat TOLDYASO right here. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is lashing out at opponents to his Puerto Rico bailout bill demanding they stop calling it a “bailout”. Instead Ryan demands his opposition use the gaslighting term “restructuring”. Hogwash.

The special inspector general for the TARP bailout, said that "Goldman took $10 billion in TARP bailout funds knowing that it had fraudulently misrepresented to investors the quality of residential mortgages bundled into mortgage-backed securities.

Years of fiscal irresponsibility have caught up to Puerto Rico. Its government has long lived beyond its means and today the bills are coming due, but the island’s economy has also been hampered by costly local and federal mandates. Rather than reward Puerto Rico’s spend-happy politicians with a bailout as legislators are currently contemplating, Congress should remove impediments to economic growth so that the island can prosper. As the third-largest issuer of municipal bonds in the United States, Puerto Rico has racked up $73 billion in debt under the mistaken notion that borrowing and spending are the path to prosperity....

Here are a few that I believe all Americans want. Limit Congress from serving more than two terms. That is all that presidents are allowed. Stop Congress from voting for their own raises. How did that ever get started? Stop paying for lawmakers' high-priced insurance premiums. After all, they are only part-time employees. They might pass some law changes on the insurance companies, if they had to find one. Stop paying lawmakers their full salary after serving just one term, or at retirement. We need to get rid of that pension plan; they've let other companies get rid of theirs....

The Republican presidential primaries have been chaotic thus far. And the chaos could continue. Nearly a third (31 percent) of likely GOP caucus goers say they could change their vote before Monday, according to a fresh survey from Public Policy Polling. The new data suggest that “there are still a lot of votes on the table," PPP wrote in a release accompanying the results. What the numbers imply, though, is a mixed bag. On the one hand, Trump may be insulated from such fickle caucus goers, as 80 percent of his supporters say they're "firmly committed to him". Compare that...

Shanghai (AFP) - China's central bank said Tuesday it was injecting 440 billion yuan ($67 billion) into the money market, seeking to ease tight liquidity ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday when demand for funds surges. The injection through the regular open market operations of the People's Bank of China (PBoC) was the largest since 2013, Bloomberg News reported. Chinese companies typically pay salaries and bonuses before the holiday, which falls in early February this year. People also traditionally exchange cash and gifts during the period. The PBoC last week flooded the financial system with more than 1.5 trillion...

President Barack Obama took to the Detroit auto show today for a victory lap around the industry his administration saved in the depths of the financial crisis. There’s no doubt that the American car business today reflects the goals Obama set seven years ago. Detroit automakers enjoy record sales and huge profits, while employing more workers and building more efficient models. The question now is: How long will it last? During his visit, Obama noted how unpopular his plan was at the time: putting General Motors and Chrysler through bankruptcy in 2009, merging Chrysler with Fiat and spending $50 billion...