Free Republic

But as I said in the first sentence of this article, the biggest issue here is that what Biden is set to do is illegal. There is no federal provision that allows him to “forgive” student loan debt on the backs of taxpayers via the stroke of his pen. Nancy Pelosi is on record saying Biden doesn’t have that power. The Department of Education has said Biden doesn’t have that power. For the president to still attempt this move wouldn’t just be a pushing of the envelope. Rather, it would be a conscious, deliberate decision to commit an impeachable offense....

The goal of this campaign was to downplay health risks across the American public, and to cast doubt on the critical warnings and directions given by the U.S. Government, state and local officials, public health agencies, and experts in the field.”...“This malicious content was seeded into public media in China, and within hours it was rapidly distributed by social media users who believed these narratives and then amplified them...Notably, many of those conspiracy sites are home-grown U.S. disinformation sites that were created for their creators’ own political agendas.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, the most drastic move yet in a governmentwide effort to roll back recognition and protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law. ... the Department of Health and Human Services is spearheading an effort to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans gender discrimination in education programs that receive government financial assistance, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times. The department argued in its memo that key...

Policymakers want to unleash economic growth in America by fixing our broken tax system. Or so they say. Now that the conversation has moved beyond just lowering tax rates, pro-growth tax reform is in danger of losing the stuff that actually makes it pro-growth. That’s because policymakers are caving to big-government advocates and other special interests. Here are the top five worst ideas that would surely dampen pro-growth tax reform. 1. Failing to enact full expensing. Full expensing—allowing businesses to deduct the full cost of their investments when they incur those costs, instead of spreading them out over many years—is...

In its waning days the Obama administration proposed two new wrinkles for the 2020 census: creating a brand new pan-ethnic category for people of Middle Eastern heritage and classifying Hispanics as a race.

There are not enough Latinas in political and elected positions, and those who have gotten there know it takes a lot more than the energy and desire to do it...The Colombian native said her desire to be in a position where she could be "more influential" and "have a stronger voice" to advocate for children is what encouraged her to run..."We want to have the infrastructure in place so that when Latinas decide to do run for office, they can do it, they can do it well and they can excel," she added.

The United States has an abysmal record on women in politics. As of last spring, just 20 percent of national-level seats were held by women, and the local numbers are just as bad. And although that number rose slightlythis election cycle, we’re nowhere close to the 50/50 ratio of nations like, say, Iceland.

Russ Feingold and John McCain largely made their names in the Senate fighting the power of special interest money. But now as McCain fights for re-election in Arizona and Feingold tries to return to the Senate in Wisconsin, the authors of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law are benefiting from the same sources of funding they once scorned. …

<p>Senator Cruz has done very poorly and after his New York performance, which was a total disaster, he is in free fall and as everyone has seen, he does not react well under pressure. Also, approximately 80% of the Republican Party is against him. Governor Kasich, who has only won 1 state out of 41, in other words, he is 1 for 41 and he is not even doing as well as other candidates who could have stubbornly stayed in the race like him but chose not to do so. Marco Rubio, as an example, has more delegates than Kasich and yet suspended his campaign one month ago. Others, likewise, have done much better than Kasich, who would get slaughtered by Hillary Clinton once the negative ads against him begin. 85% of Republican voters are against Kasich.</p>

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sarcastically thanked “the special interests and the lobbyists” for driving his numbers up at a press conference in Jupiter, FL on Tuesday. Trump began by saying, “One of the things I’m most happy about is that the turnout has been just massive, for every week. … No matter where you go, it’s records. I think it’s actually the single biggest story in politics today. It’s what’s happening at the booth. The tremendous number of people that are coming out to vote. Some of the states are getting — in fact, one has 102% increase over four...

Senator Ted Cruz has demonstrated time and time again that he is not afraid to take on the Washington establishment — a powerful bipartisan group of insiders and special interests that benefits and grows regardless of the way the public votes, even when the margin of victory is large or when conservatives control both chambers of Congress. With the Republican Party’s primary now front and center and getting daily headlines and front-page articles in the media, it is past time that Miami learns more about Ted Cruz — the other senator of Cuban descent running for president. I had every...

The Trumpinator went on the march via phone through the Sunday morning shows, and then he tweeted this to mock the candidates who went to a Koch Brothers event this weekend: "I wish good luck to all of the Republican candidates that traveled to California to beg for money etc. from the Koch Brothers. Puppets?" BOOM! I guess. The five who went to the event were Ted Cruz, Jeb! Bush, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina. This is the advantage that Trump has – as a billionaire he can fund his own campaign while the other candidates have to...

Critics demands answers from chairman Mike Rogers after claims that committee failed to share document before key vote The leadership of the House intelligence committee is under growing pressure to explain whether it withheld surveillance information from members of Congress before a key vote to renew the Patriot Act. A Republican congressman and government ethics watchdogs are demanding that the powerful panel's chairman, Mike Rogers of Michigan, responds to charges that the panel's leadership failed to share a document prepared by the justice department and intelligence community. The document was explicitly created to inform non-committee members about bulk collection of...

The polite word is pivot. For two years, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch cozied up to the tea party — scoring perfect ratings from the American Conservative Union — and avoided getting dumped in a primary like former colleague Bob Bennett did in 2010. But now, after winning his late-June Republican primary, Hatch is pushing a bundle of special-interest tax breaks that hard-core conservatives liken to handcuffs on the free market. He wrote the bill with Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and watched Thursday as five of the 11 Republicans on the panel voted to kill it. The bill stops...

Divide et impera. Divide to conquer. Julius Caesar knew it. He wasn't the first. He's certainly not the last. Robert A. Heinlein made use of the concept in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress: "Manuel, you wish to see Luna free." "You know I do." "You also know that Terra can defeat us." "Sure. No projection ever gave us anything close to even money. So don't see why you set out to antagonize-- "Please. Since they can inflict their will on us, our only chance lies in weakening their will. That was why we had to go to Terra. To...

Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday blasted police handling of a racially charged case in which a neighborhood watch volunteer shot dead an unarmed black teenager in Florida, accusing local law enforcement officials of botching the investigation. The lawmakers, speaking at a congressional forum attended by the parents of the slain teenager, called for the immediate arrest of 28-year-old George Zimmerman, the white Hispanic who shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on February 26 in what he said was self-defense. Florida law enforcement officials have faced intense criticism in recent weeks from civil rights activists and others for not arresting Zimmerman, who remains at...

Sometimes, good intentions bring bad results. Such is the case with the so-called Stop Special Interest Money Now initiative – a promise to fix what ails California politics by unconstitutionally muzzling someone else's freedom of speech. What could go wrong? . . . The Stop Special Interest Money Now initiative is another well-intentioned infringement of Americans' basic rights. There is a reason freedom of speech was part of the first amendment to the Constitution. The freedom to speak on political matters, especially when offensive to those in power, was one of the basic rights American revolutionaries fought and died for....

The desperate search for an acceptable Republican Party presidential candidate continues. Republican leaders apparently are pushing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who previously said no, to jump into the race. The GOP's frustration is palpable. Mitt Romney has been running for four years but generates little enthusiasm. Rick Perry was an instant front-runner before losing much of his support after unimpressive debate performances. Michelle Bachmann briefly streaked across the political firmament but now barely registers in the polls. Newt Gingrich committed political seppuku shortly after announcing his candidacy. Ron Paul's support is fervent but limited. However, the real Republican problem...

When voters passed a union-backed measure last year to reduce the legislative vote on the state budget from two-thirds to a simple majority – thereby eliminating Republican leverage – skeptics said it could foster legislative mischief. Proposition 25 applied not only to the budget but "trailer bills" that the Legislature deemed necessary to implement the budget. And all budget bills would take effect immediately with a governor's signature, making any challenge via referendum legally doubtful. That legislative loophole, this column and other analysts pointed out, would make it easy to push major pieces of policy legislation through the Capitol with...

Second in a series (I hope- it's a lot of work to make them) on this awful town, the result of decades of liberal rule. A microcosm for the USA today. I tried to post this earlier, but the link didn' work, so I'm trying again. Hope that is ok.