Free Republic

TEXAS The Texas Legislature kicked off the new year with an attempt to roll back the state’s ill-advised law granting in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens. While Texas has been at the forefront of efforts to ensure that immigration laws are enforced, and has sued to stop unconstitutional policies by the Obama and Biden administrations, the state was the first to grant in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens in 2001. Bills in both houses of the legislature have been introduced to repeal the 2001 law. The timeline for repealing this expensive benefit for illegal aliens, however, is short as the...

Bye bye Blaine? In oral arguments yesterday, the Supreme Court questioned the litigants in a challenge to a Montana constitutional provision that bars any government benefit from flowing to private schools run by churches — even tax breaks for contributions. While it’s sometimes dangerous to assume a direction from the Socratic style of questioning used at Supreme Court hearings, NPR detects a significant drift in yesterday’s debate for Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito compared the exclusion of parochial schools from taxpayers-funded aid programs to unconstitutional discrimination based on race.That view...

In September 2018, activist groups around New York rushed to denounce the Trump administration for considering making changes to the “public-charge” rule for immigrants. The publicly funded New York Immigration Coalition, or NYIC, staged a protest outside the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side. Leaders of the organization were arrested after they sat down in the middle of Delancey Street and blocked rush-hour traffic. New York City has long been fertile ground for political protest. Civil-society groups, along with elected officials, activists and unions, typically organize these protests, which run the gamut from standard rallies to civil disobedience. What...

The opening of any new hotel carries a certain amount of optimism and symbolism. That went double for the March debut of Sagamore Pendry, the latest high-end hotel to open in Baltimore. It wasn’t just the luxurious look of the 128-room hotel—complete with a steakhouse, whiskey bar, outdoor pool, and nods to horse racing, a reference to Maryland’s history of raising thoroughbreds—that made news. The building, once featured on the television show Homicide, part of the string of true-crime dramas that have given many an unsavory impression of the city, has a certain symbolic resonance, and its renovation is a...

You would think a state with such dire financial problems couldn’t even consider spending such a large sum of tax dollars on something that’s usually built with private money. Luckily, the Illinois House has backed off the idea for the moment. USA Today reported… Illinois shelving $100M gift to Obama library A plan to offer $100 million in tax dollars to lure Barack Obama’s presidential library to Illinois is on the shelf, with lawmakers prepared to wrap up their spring session without advancing the idea. Democrats in the president’s home state pushed the proposal to compete against rival bids from...

<p>Nov. 4, 2013 (FRC) - If the White House told insurance execs to "keep quiet" about ObamaCare, they certainly listened when it came to abortion coverage. Last week, even the boss of the entire system, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, managed a surprised expression when Congressman John Shimkus (R-Ill.) asked her why the agency was hiding coverage details from pro-lifers. Without skipping a beat, the HHS chief insisted she didn't know what she so clearly knew in 2009, which is that ObamaCare is the biggest expansion of taxpayer-funded abortion in U.S. history.</p>

Here is a thing it is difficult to remember in the midst of its box office tidal wave: Les Misérables owes its birth to a debate over public arts funding. We think of blockbusters as antithetical to the high arts that public funding might typically support, but in Les Miz’s case at least, the relationship was symbiotic. Some might say parasitic, of course, but the story reveals that we don’t quite know who was leeching off of who. Les Misérables was originally staged, in 1985, under the auspices of the Royal Shakespeare Company, a large portion of whose budget was...

Ms. Sandra Fluke is attached to an organization with high moral values, that places an emphasis on ethics, honesty and integrity. There is in fact not only a student code at Georgetown University, there also an ETHOS CODE , and there is also the history, tradition and mission statement of the Catholic university guiding certain behaviors (both on and off campus as stated and each student is to be aware of this).It is this very essence and aspect of core institutional values which "15-Minutes-of-Fame Sandra" very publicly whined about, mocked and assailed on national TV and also asserted that the...

The Supreme Court has tossed out an Arizona law that provides extra taxpayer-funded support for office seekers who have been outspent by privately funded opponents or by independent political groups. A conservative 5-4 majority of justices on Monday said the law violated free speech, concluding the state was impermissibly trying to "level the playing field" through a public finance system. Arizona lawmakers had argued there was a compelling state interest in equalizing resources among competing candidates and interest groups. The cases are McComish v. Bennett (10-239) and Arizona Free Enterprise Club's Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett (10-238).

Should political candidates get their campaign costs covered by the government? What if a candidate chooses not to take taxpayer money? And should taxpayers give more money to his opponent if a candidate raises more money for his campaign? Those are the questions that the Supreme Court is discussing today as they hear oral arguments in McComish v. Bennett, a case challenging Arizona’s taxpayer-funding for political campaigns. Supporters claim that such public financing encourages political debate. They contend that giving everyone the same amount of money ensures all points of view will be heard. The argument seems simple enough, but...

Sesame Street residents, beware. State funding for public broadcasting is again on the chopping block in the package of budget amendments Gov. Bob McDonnell plans to submit to the General Assembly for consideration in 2011. The governor is proposing a $2 million reduction in the next fiscal year and a full phase-out by the close of the following year to save $4 million, according to administration figures. McDonnell included public broadcasting funding cuts in budget amendments he submitted to the legislature in the spring as part of a four-year plan to eliminate state support. They were rejected. While the governor...

John McCain's campaign is still being audited by the Federal Elections Commission, while Obama – the only presidential candidate in history since the public finance system was established to decline public funds during the general election – may have escaped similar scrutiny by the FEC. An FEC spokesman told WND that the commission is obligated to complete an audit of McCain's campaign because he received public funds during the general election. "Under regulations, that is automatically audited by the FEC once you receive public funds," he said. "For the Obama committee, there's a possibility, just like with any other committee,...

???Somebody answer quick!

The Illinois Senator makes the announcement Thursday morning in a video sent out to his supporters.

Topic: Globalism The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is planning on building a new super highway system called the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC). The Trans-Texas Corridor will not be just another interstate and will it will be used by more than just automobiles. It will include 10 lanes for traffic, two high speed rail tracks, four standard rail tracks, utility lines, oil pipelines, and gas pipelines. The Trans-Texas Corridor will consist of many corridors segments that are 1,200 feet wide, with each mile consuming 146 acres of land. This land is currently ranch and farm land that is being taken by...

""There must be public funding for abortions...I disagree with President Bush's veto...of public funding for abortion."

Unalloyed good news is rare, so rejoice: The foremost achievement of the political speech regulators -- aka campaign finance ``reformers'' -- is collapsing. Taxpayer financing of presidential campaigns, which was in parlous condition in 2004, will die in 2008. In 2000 and 2004, George W. Bush declined public funding -- and its accompanying restrictions on raising and spending money -- for the primaries, as did Howard Dean and John Kerry in 2004. In 2004, candidates accepting taxpayer funding were restricted to spending $45 million before the conventions. Bush and Kerry raised $269.6 million and $234.6 million respectively before the conventions....

We need PBS, but we could do without the politics. You know what would be fun, and actually helpful? If in the latest struggle over funding for public television, people said what they know to be true. The argument, once again, is about whether PBS has a liberal bias. There are charges and countercharges, studies, specific instances cited of subtle partiality here and obvious side-taking there. But arguing over whether PBS is and has long been politically liberal is like arguing over whether the ocean is and has long been wet. Of course it is, and everyone knows it. Not...

Dear Mr. Moyers: I’ve been meaning to write you for quite some time, in fact, if the truth were known, I originally intended to communicate with you in 1964, when as Special Assistant to Lyndon Johnson, you approved that television ad showing a small girl picking daisy petals as a nuclear blast in the background foreshadows, not only her demise but also, the deaths of thousands. Johnson’s voice then came on to tell us, “…We must love each other or we must die.” [!] Were you trying to set new standards for your successors in coming elections? At any rate,...

So, are you a David? I love that question. I ask it to whoever will listen anytime we stroll past a random sculpture in a city square of a well-endowed man slumped over, lost in thought. Then I wonder, often aloud and to the amusement of those in the pleasure of my company, “Geez, I wonder how much that cost us….” Conduct a quick search on the Internet and you will find dozens of articles arguing against continued funding of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA). Some offer appeasement solutions by playing the middle ground. Others call for slowly...