Free Republic

A flagship liberal Orthodox synagogue in New York will stop congratulating same-sex couples on their weddings following a complaint by the Orthodox Union. The Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in the Bronx will no longer announce the weddings of its LGBT members in its newsletters in accordance with a policy dictated by the OU, the largest association of Orthodox synagogues in the United States. The policy was set out this month in response to complaints from other member synagogues, which take a harder line on opposing same-sex marriage. Orthodox Jewish law, or halacha, prohibits same-sex marriage, and Orthodox rabbis are not...

The tax overhaul would raise the taxes of some earners and make it harder for states to do the same. The ultimate effect would be to decrease governments’ ability to raise taxes and increase spending – essentially reining in state budgeteers. That is an advantage to conservatives who have long sought to advance fiscal conservatism at the state level and who see the state and local tax deduction as a subsidy for high-spending, high-taxing states – that is, blue states. “This was our point from the start,” said Jonathan Williams, chief economist at the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group...

The House and Senate have now each passed different versions of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act...The bills now head to a conference committee where a unified bill will be crafted. Here are some of the major differences you need to know about.

The House and Senate have now each passed different versions of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Both bills are big improvement to America’s out-of-date tax code and could boost the economy by almost 3 percent, leading to more jobs and higher wages for working Americans. Both bills cut taxes for individuals and businesses, largely repeal the state and local tax deduction, and allow businesses to invest more in the American economy through temporary expensing. The bills now head to a conference committee where a unified bill will be crafted. Here are some of the major differences you need to know...

"With 51 Republican votes, the Senate narrowly approved a massive bill early Saturday that would cut taxes for many Americans, nearly double the standard deduction and dramatically reduce the corporate rate — all while adding more than $1 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. Senate Republicans passed the measure just hours after having to rewrite the legislation Friday evening, providing them with their first major legislative win of the year. GOP lawmakers scrambled to revise their bill after the parliamentarian ruled the deficit trigger — a necessary component to sway key lawmakers to get on board with the...

They have no intention of giving Donald Trump a clear victory even if said victory would be of great benefit to the American Middle Class. Instead, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and fellow GOP Senators Bob Corker and Jeff Flake, among others, are creating further dissention in the hopes of stalling or even halting the proposed tax cuts legislation altogether. McConnell is presently calling the process “challenging” while Corker and Flake are claiming to have concerns over the tax cuts worsening the deficit. That claim is especially astounding from Senator Corker given he was only too happy to allow former...

Overhauling welfare was one of the defining goals of Bill Clinton’s presidency, starting with a campaign promise to "end welfare as we know it," continuing with a bitter policy fight and producing change that remains hotly debated 20 years later. Now, President Donald Trump wants to put his stamp on the welfare system, apparently in favor of a more restrictive policy. He says "people are taking advantage of the system." Trump, who has been signaling interest in the issue for some time, said this past week that he wants to tackle the issue after the tax overhaul he is seeking...

Saudis Are Hoping Mohammed bin Salman Will Drain the Swamp A road trip among ordinary Saudis revealed high hopes, and hardly any worries, about the country's new political era. BY STEVEN A. COOK | NOVEMBER 21, 2017, 12:46 PM We must be doing 80 miles per hour on a rutted road outside the northwestern Saudi town of Ula. It is late and I am tired, but I’ve got one eye on the road and one eye on the dashboard indicator light signaling that the Chevy Tahoe in which I am traveling has low tire pressure. What would happen if this...

A former Dallas attorney hopes to cash in on his hometown family roots, his legal experience and potential turmoil swirling around the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office in his bid to oust District Attorney Abel Reyna. Barry Johnson, 61, who moved back to Waco in March after practicing personal injury law in Dallas since 1989, said he is glad to be back in Waco, where he was born and raised, and said he hopes to serve the residents of McLennan County as district attorney. Johnson, who will challenge Reyna in the Republican primary, is the son of the late Judge...

This fall, Congress’ top legislative priority is tax reform. President Trump, along with the “Big Six” (Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, National Economic Director Gary Cohn, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady) recently released a new framework that lays the groundwork for tax reform. Most notably for CVS Health, the framework would lower the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent. This would help CVS Health create new jobs and invest in new technologies to improve care outcomes and access....

According to White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, “Very few people itemize. I think it’s around 20% of people that actually itemize. Those things will be offset by other tax credits that are part of this plan…”Ms. Sanders would be correct, if she was referring to households earning less than $50,000 per year, a figure which barely skirts the middle-class. However, as you can see in the chart below, 41.7% of households earning between $50,000 and $75,000 itemize. The figure jumps to 58.5% for those earning $75,000 to $100,000, and rises to 78.8% for those earning between $100,000 to $200,000....

Sailors aboard the cruiser Shiloh during the 26-month command of Capt. Adam M. Aycock often worried about the CO’s use of one of the Navy’s most arcane punishments: confinement for three days in the brig while being fed only bread and water. Over time, Aycock’s proclivity for using bread and water to punish junior sailors became well-known on the Yokosuka, Japan, waterfront, where the Shiloh is based, according to sailor comments in three of the ship’s command climate surveys. “I do not wear my ballcap at the (Navy Exchange store),” one sailor wrote. “Even the taxi drivers on base know...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Our Education Establishment, no matter how many millions of children end up illiterate, is able to suppress debate and elude public outrage. Critics are typically ignored. After all, if they disagree with the Education Establishment, they must be wrong. “So it was a strange surprise,” Bruce Price explains, “ when education reformers in Italy contacted me for help in their fight against sight-words in public schools. Must be a mistake, I thought. American experts constantly stress that a phonetic language would never need sight-words. Oh, they wail, if only English were perfectly phonetic like Italian!! Here’s a...

President Trump is launching an all-out effort to move tax reform through Congress, quickly. In two tweets on Wednesday morning, President Trump urged Congress to get going: "The approval process for the biggest Tax Cut & Tax Reform package in the history of our country will soon begin. Move fast Congress!" the president wrote. And then: "With Irma and Harvey devastation, Tax Cuts and Tax Reform is needed more than ever before. Go Congress, go!" The president wants the biggest corporate tax cut he can get, and it doesn’t have to be revenue-neutral, White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told...

Ahead of President Trump’s push for tax reform in Springfield, Missouri, Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., published an op-ed demanding that Congress’ bill include real tax cuts and that the details of the bill be debated in the open. Decrying the talk from “wonks in Washington,” Paul argued that tax reform must not be “revenue neutral” through offsets elsewhere in the tax code. “Revenue neutral ultimately means that someone pays more for someone else to pay less. It means tax ‘reform’ without real tax cuts,” Paul wrote. “I fear that tax reform that mandates revenue neutrality will result in those with...

President Donald Trump said today that he believes America now has a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” for real tax reform and explained the four principles he believes that tax reform should stand upon. “So this is our once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver real tax reform for everyday hardworking Americans, and I am fully committed to working with Congress to get this job done,” Trump said in an address in Springfield, Mo. “And I don't want to be disappointed by Congress, do you understand me? Do you understand?” Trump said. “I think Congress is going to make a comeback. I hope so,” said Trump....

During a rally in Springfield, Mo., President Donald Trump called on Congress to reform the U.S. tax code, including the business tax, saying it puts American companies at a disadvantage compared to countries like China, the United Kingdom, and Canada, which have lower corporate tax rates. The United States is “dead last” when it comes to the business tax, the president said. We have gone from a tax rate that is lower than our economic competitors, to one that is more than 60 percent higher. We have totally surrendered our competitive edge to other countries. We have totally surrendered. We're...

It had not been in mind to comment on the latest chapter of papagate, in which Pope Francis has declared, we are told, that the liturgical reform is irreversible. Many commentators have weighed on the papal address, not least Frs Z and Hunwicke, Christopher Altieri at Catholic World Report and Phil Lawler at Catholic Culture. Though they share the same general interpretation of the papal speech they are not identical in their approach to liturgy; so reading them together makes for a balanced orthodox approach to the situation. (Feel free to add others you have found in the comments’ section...

Liturgical reform is “irreversible,” Pope Francis says. If he means that history cannot be undone—we can’t rewind the tape—his point is beyond dispute. But surely he does not mean that we are stuck forever with the status quo. It is noteworthy that in speaking on the liturgical reform, Pope Francis invoked his magisterial authority: something that he has been reluctant to do when he speaks on doctrinal matters. But it is also profoundly confusing. What does it mean to speak with magisterial authority about a process? Insofar as he is saying that the Church is committed to the process that...

The goal is to remove what critics of the criminal justice system call an unfair disadvantage for poor people and people of color, who reportedly pay disproportionately higher amounts for bail. “Nationally, African American men pay 35 percent higher money bail amounts than white men, and Hispanic men pay 19 percent higher money bail amounts than white men,” part of the Harris-Paul bill reads. The individuals who would be exempt from bail are described as “low-risk individuals” awaiting criminal trials.