Free Republic

(CNN)—Sorry Mitt Romney fans: He's just not that in to running for president. Fresh off a new Washington Post report that GOP establishment leaders are calling on Romney, who has run and lost twice before, to reconsider his decision to stay out of the 2016 race, associates of the 2012 Republican presidential nominee tell CNN there are a lot of "in bound" calls but that there are "no signs" he's changed his mind. One friend of Romney's said there were some calls to Romney confidant Beth Meyers and others in his circle asking him to consider being a lifeline to...

NEW YORK — A key federal program designed to cushion health insurers’ risks in the Obamacare exchanges has a massive shortfall, which could throw some insurers into financial turmoil. Insurers requested $2.87 billion in so-called “risk corridors” payments for 2014, but will only receive $362 million, or 12.6%, said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees Obamacare. The risk corridors program’s goal is to help insurers transition into the individual exchanges, which opened in 2014. Insurers had a tough time setting premiums since they didn’t know how sick their new customers would be. Under the three-year program, insurers...

Stating flatly that the oppression black slaves faced has not changed in 400 years, progressive hero Noam Chomsky said that the time is now to pay descendants reparations for using Africans to build up the U.S. economy. Asked at a Harvard University forum about supporting reparations, he said: "Would I? Very much so. Not just African Americans. We ourselves didn't own slaves, but we -- me -- are rich and privileged because of the torture of blacks for centuries. And yes we own them reparations," said Chomsky, the Institute Professor of Linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. JFK Jr. Forum...