Free Republic

HEALTH CARE affects each person in our country on a personal level. Here in New Hampshire, and throughout our country, families are worried about whether they will be able to pay for routine care, such as doctor checkups or prescription medication, not to mention how they would pay for unexpected large medical costs, such as a life-threatening illness or injury. They are concerned about how to afford staying healthy, or how to cope with medical bills that could bankrupt their families.

Partisan anger flared Wednesday as senators began the public drafting of legislation to remake the health care system. By day’s end, lawmakers had settled in for a long, hard slog that may not fit with President Obama’s goal of signing a bill within four months. ... Another Senate committee, dogged by questions about the cost and complexity of the legislation, postponed its session, scheduled for next Tuesday, until after July 4. Democrats said they needed the delay by the Finance Committee to work on reducing the cost of the bill, intended to provide insurance to millions of people with no...

Is it just me, or did Bernanke say to scale back entitlements? I wonder how that will go over with Dems.

Should the federal government tempt people to cease volunteering at churches and instead be paid to “volunteer” at government-subsidized projects? That’s the essence of the “Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act” which President Obama signed into law on April 21. Sponsored by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), the bill passed the House by a vote of 275 to 149. The multi-billion-dollar spending bill triples the size of federal paid “volunteer” programs including AmeriCorps while killing funds for the faith-friendly Points of Light Institute. The ayes list had 26 Republicans, including Mark Souder (Ind.), Chris Smith (N.J.) and Vern Buchanan (Fla.). The...

Sen. Judd Gregg is perhaps best known for something he didn't do. Two weeks into the Obama administration, he announced that he was leaving the Senate to become commerce secretary. Two weeks later, he withdrew his name, drawing a testy jab from the administration for denying it a bipartisan feather in its cap. It's hard to reconcile the man who nearly boarded the Obama express with the tough-minded Republican senator who sat across from The Wall Street Journal's editorial board at our offices earlier this week. As for the lessons he learned from his dalliance with the administration, he reserves...

WASHINGTON -- Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' nomination as health and human services secretary remained on course Wednesday, even as she became yet another Obama Cabinet candidate with the back tax blues. On the eve of her appearance before the Senate Finance Committee, news she had to pay $8,000 in back taxes didn't appear to trigger a sudden effort to derail her nomination. "We wouldn't be having this hearing if we didn't think the tax things were pretty well taken care of," said Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the committee's ranking Republican. Another committee member, Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona,...

When it came time to introduce his latest amendment to the President's proposed budget, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and his Senate colleagues couldn't resist cracking a few jokes. Gregg introduced an amendment on the Senate floor yesterday that would have required 60 votes, a "supermajority," to pass any budget that would rack up as much or more debt in the next 10 years than has already accumulated between 1789 -- the birth of the federal government -- and Jan. 20, 2009 -- the birth of the Barack Obama presidency. Gregg's office said the publicly held federal debt amassed from 1789...

Last month, New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg agreed to join President Barack Obama's cabinet as Commerce Secretary, but then he abruptly withdrew his name, saying he and the president were "functioning from a different set of views on many different items of policy." Saturday, Gregg drove the point home when he warned that Obama is engineering an "extraordinary move of our government to the left." Gregg, one of the Senate's leading voices on budget issues, charged in the GOP's weekly radio and Internet address that Obama's proposals would "dramatically grow the size and cost of government and move it...

Republicans say the path to prosperity is not the excessive spending proposed by President Barack Obama but limited spending that holds down the growth of government, taxes and debt. ''We believe you create prosperity by having an affordable government that pursues its responsibilities without excessive costs, taxes or debt,'' Sen. Judd Gregg said Saturday in the GOP radio and Internet address. Gregg, who was offered the job of Obama's commerce secretary but withdrew his name, has become one of the toughest critics of Obama's handling of the economy. ''In the next five years, President Obama's budget will double the national...

WASHINGTON – The top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee says the Obama administration is on the right course to save the nation's financial system. But Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire also says President Barack Obama's massive budget proposal will bankrupt the country. Gregg says he has no regrets in withdrawing his nomination to become commerce secretary. He pulled out after deciding he could not fully back the administration's economic policies. The senator said Obama's spending plan in the midst of a prolonged recession would leave the next generation with a country too expensive to live in. Gregg appeared...

Gregg says Geithner, “You said you’re controlling spending but you’re not. ..You’re not addressing the Spending.”Gregg points out blow by blow the HYPOCRISY riddled through Obama’s Budget entitled ironically, “A New Era of Fiscal Responsibility.” Greg writes, “The argument that this budget doesn’t have tax increases is, I think, an Alice and Wonderland view of the budget.” -Raising the tax rate from 35% to 42%, eliminating deductions on mortgages and on charitable deductions. Small businesses will be feel the burden the most. -“Cutting the debt in half in four years is truly spurious, because you take the deficit and quadruple...

New Hampshire Senator (again) Judd Gregg has been called many things in the past few weeks. With Obama's courting, like a quarterback trying to get his hands in a cheerleader's blouse before never talking to her again, Gregg was placed in a national spotlight he would never attained by being mere Senator of one of our 57 States. But now that he slapped away the quarterback's hand and fled the backseat, what now for poor Judd? It seems there are only three ways to view him: Devious Manipulator, Moral Statesman, or complete Dumbass. Larry Kudlow, in National Review, takes the...

Unfortunately for the Obama administration, Judd Gregg’s withdrawal as commerce secretary has highlighted the effort by the White House to wrest control of the census (and with it, the groundwork for the 2010 Congressional reapportionment). Gregg took a second or third tier issue and vaulted it to the front pages. Since word had broken that the White House intended to take oversight of the census out of the Commerce Department and give it to the hyper-partisan political operator Rahm Emanuel, the Republicans had worked feverishly to raise public awareness. They had hit the Sunday talk shows and written letters to...

(2009-02-13) — With the announcement that Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) has pulled out of his bid to become President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Commerce the Republican National Committee (RNC) today offered Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) as a replacement. “Sen. Specter is a career lawyer and politician, but he’s a fast learner and could be quickly trained to run the Commerce Department,” said RNC Chairman Michael Steele. “Of course, Republicans would miss his stalwart, reliable voting in the Senate. Conservatives never have to wonder how Arlen Specter will vote.” White House insiders suggested Sen. Specter could get the same deal from...

Yesterday brought one of the few bright spots for our side in a while when we heard that Judd Gregg had turned down Obama’s empty offer to appoint him as Commerce Secretary. Conservatives felt a surge of satisfaction that the Senator from New Hampshire had experienced a “St Paul on the road to Damascus” type awakening and realized he was deserting our team at a very critical moment. There was speculation that Gregg had second thoughts about trusting the Democrat Governor of his state actually appoint another Republican as his replacement – as if that ever had a chance of...

Judd Gregg was all but dead to his Republican colleagues just a few days ago, another collaborator drinking the Obama Kool-Aid. But the New Hampshire senator's surprise decision to remove himself from consideration as President Barack Obama’s Commerce secretary Thursday has provided the GOP with a new rallying cry, and a new hero against a foe who just a few weeks ago seemed almost unassailable. Republicans applauded boisterously when Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) opened a closed-door meeting in the Capitol basement Thursday night by announcing Gregg’s withdrawal. "He made a difficult decision to turn down a job that a lot...

Syria's state news agency hustled out an announcement on Tuesday, Feb. 10, saying that the "U.S. Trade Department agrees to provide spare parts for rehabilitating Syrian Airlines..." ... The planes will be overhauled by a Saudi-based Boeing-Saudi joint venture, Alsalam Aircraft Co...

While speaking at the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial in Springfield, Illinois on Thursday, Barack Obama took a shot at Rep. Judd Gregg, who withdrew himself earlier in the day from consideration as the President's secretary of commerce: "Here in Springfield," Obama said, "it's easier.. to reflect on Lincoln the man, rather than the marble giant, before Gettysburg..., before emancipation was proclaimed.... In 1854 Lincoln was simply a Springfield lawyer who served just a single term in congress, possibly in his law office, his feet on a cluttered desk, his sons playing around him, his clothes a bit too small to fit...

Republican Sen. Judd Gregg has withdrawn his nomination for U.S. commerce secretary. The stated reason is his disagreement with the Obama Administration over the stimulus bill. The real reason is probably the humiliation he has suffered over reports Obama is taking the 2010 census away from him. I am sure he disagrees with the stimulus and the partisan way it was rammed through the Senate. However, I doubt that is reason enough to withdraw. The stimulus bill does provide a good cover for his withdrawal over the census issue.

Judd Gregg made clear Thursday he would rather serve in the Senate than in the Obama administration, but the New Hampshire Republican said he “probably” will not seek a fourth term next year. “Will I run? Probably not,” Gregg said at a press conference after withdrawing from the Commerce post. Gregg also told the New Hampshire Union-Leader earlier in the day that he does not intend to seek re-election.