Free Republic

Once again, the House Democrats are at odds with the solid recommendations of our top military leaders. After prodding from House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA), the House passed the National Defense Authority Act (NDAA) 220-197 on July 12. The legislation passed without the support of any Republican members and with eight Democratic members voting against the bill.It was a vigorous debate that spanned three days as even Democratic Party leaders were uncertain of the result. Eventually, the House version of the NDAA passed, including $733 billion in defense spending, $17 billion less than the White House requested.The...

The first-ever shipment of oil delivered by the United States for Ukraine is currently being unloaded in the Port of Odessa, the port's press service said on Saturday. "The Hong Kong-flagged 'Wisdom Venture' tanker with the vessel length of 237 meters [778 feet] loaded with 75,000 tonnes of oil from the United States arrived to the Port of Odessa's dock 2H," the press service said. According to the pres service, unloading operations could take about 36 hours. The press service also pointed out that delivered oil was planned to be sent by the Odessa-Kremenchuk oil pipeline to the Kremenchuk refinery....

Amazon isn’t the only one fed up with New York’s ridiculous tax rates. Plenty of companies are packing their bags and looking for office space in states with more business-friendly policies. There’s just one problem: A lot of these top firms can’t stand the conservative laws that make their new homes so successful. AllianceBernstein, another firm fleeing the Empire State’s stifling economy, just announced that it’s relocating its $70 million headquarters to Nashville. But before it moves, the CEO is warning Tennessee: It’s not a fan of religious liberty. And AllianceBernstein is proving it by fighting the state’s faith-based adoption...

After President Trump’s State of the Union Address, there seems to have emerged one common thread that is uniting the two parties. Both agree that the cost of prescription drugs is far too high in the United States. Trump mentioned it in his speech, and the theme has been invoked in countless post-speech interviews by elected Democrats. America spends far more per capita on healthcare than other developed nations, and yet drug prices here dwarf those in other countries. In one analysis carried out by Reuters, researchers found that top-selling drugs in the U.S. cost roughly triple what their counterparts...

The difference is that Harris is the only one who, after I helped her, sent word that I would be indicted if I “so much as jaywalked” while she was D.A. That’s politics for ya.

Elon Musk and his corporate empire, much of it financed by taxpayer dollars, is very much in the news. Most of it is not good. And it may be getting worse. Tesla spends $1 million annually on Washington lobbyists. Its cars are financed by over $280 million in federal tax incentives, including a $7,500 federal tax break and millions more in state rebates and development fees. SpaceX has also received over $5 billion in government support. It has over promised and under delivered. SpaceX rockets, for example, are far less reliable than many of its competitors. This is outlined in...

It is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s glory and burden that she actually believes all the slogans that progressives mouth. She hasn’t yet realized that the Democratic Party coalition has a senior partner, of the ultra-wealthy corporate elite that provides campaign funding and institutional support, and a junior partner, the poor and minorities, the electoral cannon fodder who provide votes and (lately) mobs, and get freebies from the government in return. The junior partners get noisy public support (aka, “lip service”) from the Dem politicians, but the senior partners get the goodies – the regulations, subsidies, and tax breaks – mostly in private.

Brexiteers within the Conservative party met Tuesday as the news emerged of a “technical level” agreement emerged — apparently leaked to Irish journalists sympathetic to the European Union but not to figures within the United Kingdom — and spoke of launching a “coup” against the Prime Minister, Britain’s The Times reported in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Forget all the noise and focus on the big picture. PM is going to recommend daylight robbery: paying £39bn for nothing in return; effectively handcuffing us to the Single Market and chaining us to the Customs Union forever. It is the worst...

The widow of a former dean of the Vatican diplomatic corps has called on Pope Francis to intervene after she lost her life savings with a fund manager recommended to her by one of the Pope’s chief advisers. Martha Alegria Reichmann, the widow of Alejandro Valladares who was Honduran ambassador to the Holy See for 22 years, alleges she and her husband were advised in 2012 by Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, the archbishop of Tegucigalpa, to make the investment with London-based investor Youssry Henien.  But Henien then disappeared with all their life savings.

From CNN’s wall-to-wall coverage of every leak - real or imagined - out of the Mueller investigation to the East Coast elite media’s obsession with trying to turn President Trump’s bull-in-a-china shop approach into obstruction of justice, the media would have you believe that their top concern is the rule-of-law and rooting out corruption in government. But if that were really so, they would be equally interested in investigating the corrupt collusion between Democratic politicians and left wing interest groups that is happening out in the open in blue states on our nation’s coasts. The state and local governments have essentially...

Working for the government is supposed to be public service and nobody is supposed to make a career out of government service – nor are they supposed to use the power of government to enrich themselves. Yet, we are seeing before our eyes many examples of individuals going into government and making far more in salary than the taxpayers and using government power to bilk the system. North Carolina is becoming an example of the new two Americas – government political employees versus the people.The definition of hypocrisy is the audacity to preach integrity while acting like a self-dealer. The administration...

"The Railroading of the American People," Rothbard discusses one of the largest crony expenditures undertaken by the United States up to that point; the construction of the intercontinental railroad.

Shortened title. Full title: Exclusive: Peter Schweizer Reveals Joe Biden’s Son’s Massive Deal with Chinese Company ‘Trying to Steal’ America’s Nuclear Secrets Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and author of the new book Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends, joined SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight on Monday to detail the involvement of Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden’s second son, in a China-backed private equity firm’s investment in a Chinese atomic energy company indicted for “nuclear power conspiracy against the United States.”

President Obama used his executive powers to attack industries to lower the value of certain companies, allowing his friends in the private sector to swoop in and buy them up at reduced prices, according to Peter Schweizer’s new book Secret Empires: How Our Politicians Hide Corruption and Enrich Their Families and Friends. The book, released Tuesday, said Obama and his administration would deem industries either destructive to the environment or exploitative for the financial and professional gain of his friends, including industries such as coal mining, offshore drilling, cash advance companies, and for-profit colleges.

The late great Murray Rothbard gave a series of lectures in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University entitled "The American Economy and the End of Laissez-Faire: 1870 to World War II." Fortunately, somebody recorded them. Lecture 2: The Railroading of the American People.

If conservatives don’t coalesce behind a new repeal plan soon soon, they will find themselves bystanders as their Republican colleagues link arms with Democrats. ... a concoction of two bills. The first, championed by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D., Wash.), would appropriate cost-sharing-reduction payments to insurers. The second, sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins (R., Maine) and Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), would give insurers an additional $10 billion (and perhaps more) in federal cash.

American Airlines has announced an aggressive plan of action to improve diversity and inclusion... “We’re seeing individuals removed because they’re wearing a headscarf,” said NAACP Legal Defense Fund Senior Counsel Ajmel Quereshi... Thursday, the airline announced a plan of action to make American a more diverse and inclusive company....

Despite Whirlpool’s arguments being the corporate equivalent of a child who wants dessert but not to clean his room, the ITC sided with Whirlpool and is now considering which “remedies” to impose. Whirlpool, for its part, suggests a prohibitively high 50 percent tariff on washing machine imports from LG and Samsung. Implementing this tariff, even in a temporary manner, would harm opportunities for thousands of American workers. Samsung is already in the process of building a washing machine factory in South Carolina, expected to employ nearly 1,000 American workers. LG is constructing a factory in Clarksville, Tennessee, which would employ...

Politicians on all sides insist that we can’t have those big “beautiful” tax cuts originally promised by Donald Trump because the cuts have to “pay for themselves.” What they’re really saying is that tax cuts can't be large enough to curtail the government spending. Tax cut opponents like to create the impression that Big Government’s current spending is so critical to our national welfare, it’s simply not feasible for cuts to be made—anywhere. Really? Free Market Central spoke to Adam Andrzejewski, Founder and CEO of OpenTheBooks.com, the non-profit, non-partisan organization whose mission for the last six years has been to...

Politicians often insist government is the only way to increase access to health care. In fact, the opposite is true: For years,“certificate of need” laws at the state level have prevented much-needed medical facilities from being built across the country.