Free Republic

The White House declared victory Wednesday over congressional Republicans in the budget negotiations that concluded lateTuesday night, saying Democrats beat back the GOP across the board. White House officials cited a long list of wins over majority Republicans on individual budget items ranging from funding for Planned Parenthood to an overall increase in spending beyond previous “sequestration” caps.

The House on Thursday took the first step toward resuscitating the White House’s trade agenda by passing legislation granting President Obama fast-track authority. The bill now goes to the Senate, where the White House and GOP leaders are seeking to strike a deal with pro-trade Democrats. The House vote was 218-208, with 28 Democrats voting for it. This is the second time in a week the House has voted to approve the controversial fast-track bill. On Friday, the House voted 219-211 in favor of fast-track, which would make it easier for Obama to complete a sweeping trans-Pacific trade deal. In...

House Republican leaders are cracking down on rebellious members after a near-disaster on a trade vote last week, but another imperiled rule coming to the House floor Tuesday is making it difficult to punish the members who leaders need to pass the measure. Reps. Cynthia Lummis, Steve Pearce, and Trent Franks have been removed from the whip team after they sided with GOP rebels to vote against a rule governing debate on a trade bill, according to sources close to the team. Lummis, a deputy whip and a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, was perhaps the whip team's...

The Chinese economy just surpassed the U.S. economy to become the world’s largest in terms of purchasing power, according to the International Monetary Fund.The IMF measures economic strength by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in both market exchange rates and average purchasing power, the latter being where China has overtaken the U.S. with a GDP of $17.6 trillion by the end of 2014 — 16.4 percent of the world’s purchasing power. The U.S. will close out the year with a purchasing-power adjusted GDP of $17.4 trillion, or 16.2 percent of the world’s total.Financial Times predicted the change in April and illustrated...

House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan told his local newspaper that Republican leaders do not have the votes yet to pass a rewrite of the nation’s immigration system. “We don’t have the votes right now,” the Wisconsin Republican told his local newspaper, the Janesville Gazette, in an interview Monday. “Right now, we’re working hard to find where that consensus lies.” Ryan said both the right and left are holding up an overhaul. A poll of House Republican offices by CQ Roll Call found that just 18 members, including Ryan, publicly support the immigration principles Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio...

Grover Norquist, who founded Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)... his connections to Muslim Brotherhood groups and individuals in the U.S. is irrefutable. One such individual is Abdurahman Alamoudi. Another is Suhail Khan, whose father helped found the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim Students Association (MSA). His mother sat on the board of a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) chapter... Norquist helped Khan become the White House gatekeeper relative to selecting Muslim leaders who the Bush administration partnered with before and after 9/11. Those Muslim leaders belonged to Muslim Brotherhood front groups. ... Last year it was...

In a striking about face, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will no longer seek the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, working instead to correct what it sees as its flaws. It was three years ago this month, during his annual State of American Business address, that the Chamber’s president and CEO, Tom Donahue, labeled the ACA “unworkable” and called for its repeal. During last week’s address he softened his views, calling instead for business-friendly adjustments to the new law. “The administration is obviously committed to keeping the law in place, so the chamber has been working pragmatically to fix...

As close observers of history and human nature, James Madison and the other Founders of the U.S. Constitution knew that the equal and unbiased application of the law to all people, especially elected officials, is essential to freedom and justice and one of the primary safeguards from authoritarianism and oppression by a ruling class. And so, referring to the members of Congress, James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 57: "[T]hey can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of the society." Today, elected officials need...

The National Security Agency pays AT&T T -0.38%, Verizon and Sprint several hundred million dollars a year for access to 81% of all international phone calls into the US, according to a leaked inspector general’s report, which has been reported by the Washington Post, AP, and the New York Review of Books. In fact., this secret report says that “NSA maintains relationships with over 100 U.S. companies, underscoring that the U/S. has the “home-field advantage as the primary hub for worldwide communications,” the New York Review of Books reported in its August 15 issue.... AT&T charges $325 for each activation...

Not much is truly known about where House Speaker John Boehner stands on immigration reform. He says he wants it done, but has barely waded into the policy. But in a closed meeting with his closest Capitol Hill allies — a group informally known as Team Boehner — he’s giving more clues. Rubio talked about the Senate Gang of Eight immigration bill, according to sources familiar with the meeting. Boehner didn’t heavily weigh in on the legislation, but the fact that he would welcome Rubio in to talk about the bill. shows that the speaker is actively gaming out the...

In a Spanish-language interview Sunday with the network Univision, Sen. Marco Rubio, the leading Republican on the Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform group, made his strongest statement yet that legalization of the nation’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants must happen before any new border security or internal enforcement measures are in place, and will in no way be conditional on any security requirements. “Let’s be clear,” Rubio said. “Nobody is talking about preventing the legalization. The legalization is going to happen. That means the following will happen: First comes the legalization. Then come the measures to secure the border....

Marco Rubio is preparing to go all in to support sweeping immigration legislation, offering himself up as the public face of a bill that will split the Republican Party — but that his allies hope will propel him to the front of the GOP presidential sweepstakes. After offering lukewarm support until now, Rubio is preparing to fully embrace a measure that is the most significant of his political career so far. The gambit could pay off in spades by crowning a leading presidential contender in 2016, or it could permanently damage the Republican’s brand with conservatives. Rubio is planning a...

Sen. Mark Kirk says the real driving force behind the gun deal that was hatched by bipartisan work was booze and boat retreats. The Illinois Republican said to reporters that visits to the Black Tie, a yacht owned by Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin, played a large role in the Democratic-Republican come-together over background checks and other legislation related to gun control, Roll Call reported. “You guys really ought to go out to National Harbor and see the Black Tie, which has been much of the reason for much of the bipartisan cooperation around here,” he said, as quoted in Roll...

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Tuesday voiced support for the work of a secretive bipartisan immigration coalition in the House, but he said Republican lawmakers must be educated on the issue before legislation can advance. A group of eight lawmakers — four Republicans and four Democrats — has been meeting privately for years to craft a comprehensive immigration overhaul, and they told Boehner and other Republican leaders last week that they were close to a deal. He also refused, as he has before, to weigh in on the contentious question of a path to citizenship for the illegal immigrants now...

President Obama and Republican senators had a “good exchange of ideas” Wednesday evening during their roughly two-hour-long dinner at the posh Jefferson Hotel, just blocks from the White House, according to a senior administration official. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., gave the meeting a thumbs up as he exited the hotel, saying it was “just fine,” “great” and “wonderful.” McCain told reporters gathered across the street that it was a “very enjoyable evening,” but declined to discuss specifics.

For all the pissing and moaning over the fiscal cliff, there was never much of a "cliff" in the first place. Worse yet, every delay made matters increasing irresponsible in terms of addressing the deficit. The final result, as passed by the Senate, watered down budget cuts from $600 billion to a mere $12 billion. Moreover, the extension of the tax cuts will add almost $4 trillion to the deficit over 10 years according to CBO analysis of the American Taxpayer Relief Act. Nonetheless, that was not enough for liberal democrats who thought they did not get enough out of...

Alert! The entire GOP elite seems to be trying to sell out en masse on immigration. Not only Boehner, but Cantor. And Hannity  (who works for pro-amnesty world citizen Rupert Murdoch). Even Krauthammer. …Maybe these people are convinced the larger GOP project can be saved simply by caving on just this one issue...[Snip]. But by then there will be another wave of new, instinctively Democratic illegal immigrants (lured by the Boehner Amnesty) for Dems to appeal to. [Snip] The larger point is that “Comprehensive Immigration Reform”–which is supposed to be a simultaneous combination of an amnesty plus enforcement measures–is a terrible idea. It’s...

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) introduced three amendments to the recently passed Energy & Water appropriations bill that would have eliminated a slew of business subsidies at the Department of Energy. Unfortunately, House Republicans once again teamed up with their Democratic colleagues to keep the corporate welfare spigot flowing.

Mitt Romney trotted out a pair of big-name GOP endorsements Thursday to urge Republicans to close ranks around him — but his main rivals refuse to abandon their own White House dreams. Romney received the blessing of powerful Republicans past — former President George H.W. Bush — and present - popular Florida Senator Marco Rubio — in a 24-hour span, further signaling that the GOP establishment wants the grueling primary process to end. Romney even met with opponent Newt Gingrich over the weekend in New Orleans to ask for his support, but no deal was brokered, advisors to both men...

Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s … a drone, and it’s watching you. That’s what privacy advocates fear from a bill Congress passed this week to make it easier for the government to fly unmanned spy planes in U.S. airspace. The FAA Reauthorization Act, which President Obama is expected to sign, also orders the Federal Aviation Administration to develop regulations for the testing and licensing of commercial drones by 2015.