Free Republic

"The House Republican Conference vote on Wednesday to restore earmarks was a betrayal of the voters, and undermined one of the remaining legacies of the Tea Party. The vote was close, 102-84, but that is no consolation, especially as it was by secret ballot, preventing voters from holding their representatives accountable."

Tom Cotton at CPAC. Maybe he's not a total fantard of Ditch.

The Swamp is back in business. GOP leader Mitch McConnell announced today he will support Biden nominee Merrick Garland for Attorney General.

A special panel dreamed up by Speaker Paul Ryan to end the constant cycle of government shutdowns crashed and burned on Thursday. The special panel tasked with recommending budget fixes overwhelmingly rejected its own set of proposals, even after lawmakers admitted the package included only modest changes to the way Congress approves budgets and funds the government. The failed vote follows months of amicable work toward a bipartisan deal. In recent weeks, however, partisan feuding divided the group as members from each side of the aisle began accusing the other party's leaders of dooming approval in the Senate. “We got...

Until now, I haven't been too concerned about the Republican Party's difficulties in passing a health care reform bill because delays have resulted in improvements to the proposed legislation. But enough is enough. No more games. It's time to quit the finger-pointing. Neither congressional leaders nor President Trump have done enough to whip votes and sell the bill. A major overhaul of Obamacare, whether a full repeal, or a repeal and replacement, is imperative for Trump and congressional Republicans. More than any other, Obamacare is the issue that has galvanized grass-roots conservatives since 2010, and the Republicans' failure to...

[snip] ...Republican hypocrisy.The Senate GOP may not really want to immunize their own member and staff health plans from their health care policy changes...

WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leaders were poised on Thursday to unveil a fresh proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, revising their bill to help hold down insurance costs for consumers while keeping a pair of taxes on high-income people that they had planned to eliminate. With the revised bill, the majority leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, is trying to keep alive his party’s seven-year quest to dismantle the health law that is a pillar of former President Barack Obama’s legacy.Republicans said the revised bill would provide roughly $70 billion in additional funds that states could use...

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who has played a central role in negotiating the Senate healthcare reform bill, says a new version of the legislation is expected to be unveiled Monday. The revised bill gives Senate GOP leaders a second chance to round up 50 votes to repeal and replace major parts of ObamaCare, after their first attempt stalled before the July Fourth recess because of divisions within the Republican conference. “We’ve got a new version that comes out today. We’ll get new scores from CBO. And there’s a shot of getting to 50 [votes]. Mike Pence breaks the tie,” Toomey,...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is rejecting President Trump's suggestion on how the Senate could promptly pass its ObamaCare overhaul measure -- by immediately repealing the 2010 heath care law and replacing it later. snip He also riffed on Trump’s winning campaign slogan, saying, "It's not easy making America great again, is it?"

(CNN)Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will delay the vote on the Republican leadership's health care bill until after the July 4 recess, two sources told CNN. McConnell told GOP senators that he wants to make changes to the bill, get a new Congressional Budget Office score and have a vote after the holiday. A White House official and a GOP aide on the Hill told CNN that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and Vice President Mike Pence invited all Republican senators to White House on Tuesday afternoon.

This is an Excerpt. Republican Senator Susan Collins of ME said on Sunday she has extreme reservations about the U.S. Senate's healthcare overhaul and does not think it will be able to pass this week. The proposal released Thursday calls for a slower phase-out of the Medicaid expansion than a bill adopted earlier by the House.... Rand Paul, who has rejected the plan along with fellow Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Ron Johnson, said fundamental problems remained that would leave taxpayers subsidizing health insurance companies. So it is possible that Mr. McConnell views the potential failure of a...

Senate Republican leaders outlined a “very liberal” ObamaCare replacement bill during their weekly lunch with their members on Tuesday, sources said. “The moderates are very happy,” an aide to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), one of the Senate’s most conservative members, told The Post. “It was a very liberal bill.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters that the upper chamber is “getting very close to having a proposal to whip and to take to the floor” on health care. His comments came after the leaders met with President Trump at the White House to discuss health care reform. According...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.) said on Wednesday that he believes President Trump has settled into the conventional Republicanism touted by rank-and-file party members, like Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). "What the administration is doing, not only am I comfortable with it, but I think the vast majority of Republicans in Congress feel that this is a right-of-center presidency, which is what we had hoped," McConnell told Reuters in an interview. "If you look at what the president is actually for, it strikes me as indistinguishable from what a President Jeb Bush or a President Marco Rubio...

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,Why do things never seem to change no matter who we send to Washington? It seems like for decades many of us have been trying to change the direction of this country by engaging in the political process.  But no matter how hard we try, the downward spiral of our nation just continues to accelerate.  Just look at this latest spending deal.  Even though the American people gave the Republicans control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, this deal very closely resembles “an Obama administration-era budget”.  It...

It appears that GOP leaders might actually be completely unfit to be calling the shots in Washington. Everyone in America knows that the Republican Party has control of the White House, the Senate, and House of Representatives, yet there is still serious talk about an impending government shutdown. Earlier today, President Trump tweeted that America needed a “good shutdown” to fix the ailments in Washington. The people of this nation are considerably frustrated by the gridlock and inability of Republicans to make progress with matters like healthcare, the spending bill, tax reform, etc. Placing the blame on Democrats won’t work...

RUSH: We welcome back to the program the vice president of the United States, Mike Pence.(snip) RUSH: If this is what happens, Mr. Vice President, why vote Republican? What is the point of voting Republican if the Democrats are gonna continue to win practically 95% of their objectives, such as in this last budget deal? THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, look, respectfully, Rush, I actually think this was, as the president said a little a while ago, I think this was actually a clear win for the American people. Look, you’ve had Washington, D.C., that has been, you know, paralyzed by...

Paul Rino Ryan has GOT TO GO. Who is in his district that can run against him? Is there any one in the entire country willing to MOVE THERE and run against him? This has to be a national effort, and it has to begin as soon as possible. It is 2017 and he runs again in 2018. I will donate as much to this as I did to Trump campaign. (which was more than I ever donated to any candidate since I was blessed with the wisdom to recognize and support Reagan over Bush I) I will DRIVE THERE...

The Republican base that supported Trump are being betrayed on a scale unimaginable but so very predictable. It is perfectly clear now, the cheap labor, open borders oligarchy in the Republican Party are backstabbing President Trump and never intended to allow any of his agenda supported by the Republican Base and his voters to go forward. They want to give the majority back to the Democratic Party and all in the name of their cheap labor, open borders benefactors, the oligarchy and K-Street. Now the same Republicans have given 1.1 TRILLION dollars to the Democratic agenda, but NOTHING for us,...

The Republican-controlled Senate failed to advance legislation defunding sanctuary cities and increasing minimum punishments for previously-deported illegal aliens caught breaking back into the U.S. on Wednesday, gaining only 53 and 55 votes, respectively; 60 were needed to proceed w/both bills. Sponsored by Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, bill would have stripped funding from jurisdictions refusinh to cooperate w/federal immigration authorities when arresting illegal aliens suspected of committing further crimes and work to prevent lawful deportation proceedings. Immigration enforcement advocates have called Kate’s Law, introduced by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, “mainly symbolic,” with Center for Immigration Studies president Mark Kirkorian...

Bill Kristol, son of Irving, names Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Mitt Romney, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and others on his hypothetical shortlist of third-party candidates that he could run if Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee. The “Weekly Standard” editor and self-styled neoconservative power broker is back to talking about a third party, declaring that a Trump victory in Indiana would force him to re-focus on his so-called “Latter-Day Republicans” independent ticket. A third party could help to split the vote on the Right and elect Hillary Clinton president, which would allow Kristol to stave off the Trump threat and...