Free Republic

No argument for Obamacare’s repeal can top the simple fact that Members of Congress do not want it to apply to them. Today’s Politico reports that the House and Senate congressional leadership—both Democrats and Republicans working in cahoots with Obama Administration officials—have been secretly negotiating for months trying to find a way to exempt Members of Congress and their staffs from being forced into Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges. Beginning on January 1, 2014, these exchanges, to be run by the federal government or the states (under federal rules) will offer federally “qualified” insurance coverage for millions of Americans. Ordinary Americans...

Greece wants a solution to its crippling debt that applies to all its sovereign bonds expiring up to 2035, a government source said on Monday, adding that the process should remain voluntary and any deal must include the European Central Bank. This would be a marked expansion from a previous, now defunct, plan agreed by the EU in July, under which Greece's debt burden would be lowered through a bond exchange involving paper maturing up to 2020. "We are looking at the entire Greek debt, expiring through to 2035... It does not stop at 2020 as the previous model did,"...

Unions representing around half of Greece's 4 million-strong workforce have called a 48 hour general strike for Wednesday and Thursday to protest against a sweeping package of austerity measures due to be passed in parliament this week. A wave of smaller strikes over recent days by groups ranging from rubbish collectors to tax officials, journalists and seamen has given a foretaste of this week's protest which will culminate in mass demonstrations in front of parliament, the scene of violent clashes in June. The protest, dubbed "the mother of all strikes" by the daily Ta Nea newspaper, is expected to be...

HENRICO, VA (WWBT) – NBC12 has uncovered one of those stories that makes you think: "How in the world does that happen?!" A truck filled with President Obama's podiums and audio equipment was stolen in Henrico just days before his visit to Chesterfield. We confirmed an investigation with the U.S. Defense Department. There are still a lot of questions. The biggest one being did the thieves intentionally target the President's truck or did they take advantage of a crime of opportunity and give a big "uh-oh" when they saw what was inside. When you see President Obama speak, there is...

Senate Republicans tried to make Democrats hold a quick vote on President Obama's jobs-stimulus bill Tuesday, but were blocked by Senate Majority Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is sponsoring Mr. Obama's bill but who said other matters take priority.

The Environmental Protection Agency has said new greenhouse gas regulations, as proposed, may be “absurd” in application and “impossible to administer” by its self-imposed 2016 deadline. But the agency is still asking for taxpayers to shoulder the burden of up to 230,000 new bureaucrats — at a cost of $21 billion — to attempt to implement the rules. The EPA aims to regulate greenhouse gas emissions through the Clean Air Act, even though the law doesn’t give the EPA explicit power to do so. The agency’s authority to move forward is being challenged in court by petitioners who argue that...

It's a prank favoured by kids and college students but today President Obama was an unwitting culprit. He committed the ultimate photographic faux pas while posing for pictures with other leaders during the Open Government Partnership event at the United Nations, accidentally blocking the face of the man to his right while waving. The act of hijacking somebody's photograph is known as 'photobombing' and the most common example is for a person who is not supposed to be in the picture to pull a silly face behind the people posing.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, and fellow Americans: Tonight we meet at an urgent time for our country. We continue to face an economic crisis that has left millions of our neighbors jobless, and a political crisis that has made things worse. This past week, reporters have been asking “What will this speech mean for the President? What will it mean for Congress? How will it affect their polls, and the next election?” But the millions of Americans who are watching right now: they don’t care about politics. They have real life concerns. Many have spent months...