Free Republic

Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) called out Senate Democrats following a government shutdown led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and members of the Republican establishment, saying the Democratic Party put the interests of illegal aliens ahead of American citizens. On Friday evening, Senate Democrats, including Schumer and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), along with well as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), voted against a spending bill to prevent a government shutdown because it did not include amnesty for at least 3.5 million illegal aliens and their illegal alien parents. Barletta quickly responded to the decision to...

Former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile has been on a roll recently. She’s ripped into the DNC’s former leadership, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and now former President Barack Obama. In her new book, “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House,” Brazile outlined how Obama leeched off the Democratic Party to further his own causes, even if it meant bankrupting the entire party, The Daily Caller reported. “We had three Democratic parties: The party of Barack Obama, the party of Hillary Clinton, and this weak little vestige of...

In an email to Clinton campaign chair John Podesta from February 2016, released Friday by WikiLeaks, now-acting chair of the Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile gave a frank and honest assessment of the Obama economy — it wasn’t good. “I think people are more in despair about how things are—yes new jobs but they are low wage jobs,” she admits. “HOUSING is a huge issue. Most people pay half of what they make to rent,” she continued.

In my post yesterday about freshly-announced benefits from tax reform -- here's another bummer for Pelosi and friends -- I warned that in spite of Americans' positivity on the economy and growing support for the GOP-passed law, outsized Democratic enthusiasm threatens to make a 'blue wave' inevitable.  I stand by that analysis, but figured I'd keep you posted on data points and trends that push back against the 'doomed GOP' narrative.  One was the Monmouth poll we covered last week.  The latest national survey from Politico is another.  The president's approval rating is up to a respectable level, Republicans have...

<p>Trump tweeted, “Just signed Bill. Our Military will now be stronger than ever before. We love and need our Military and gave them everything — and more. First time this has happened in a long time. Also means JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!”</p>

Maryland will sue the Trump administration for capping state and local tax (SALT) deductions in its new federal tax law, the state’s attorney general said Thursday. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed by President Trump last year contains a provision capping SALT deductions at $10,000, and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said residents across the heavily-taxed state stand to take a hit as a result. “By eliminating the SALT deductions, Trump’s tax bill will jack up taxes for more than half a million Marylanders,” Mr. Frosh, a Democrat, said in a statement announcing his intent to sue the Trump...

Despite everything Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Wednesday following the announcement of a new two-year budget deal — unlike others — Schumer surprisingly hasn't said much on the topic of a possible military parade in Washington D.C. However, back in 2014, Schumer called for precisely what we’ll most likely see Democrats — and some Republicans — rally against in the near future, a military parade. They’ll all call the parade contrary to what a democracy should be. They’ll also try to make it almost completely about how President Trump is just trying to boost his own ego. We’ll hear...

In a daily feature it calls “California Today,” the New York Times expresses concern over the impact of stock market declines on California’s wealthy. It is not out of concern that risk-takers will be disincentivized from making future investments, however. Matt Stevens and Julie Turkewitz write: California has one of the highest top tax brackets in the country, and the state relies heavily on those top earners to fill its coffers. (In 2014, the top 1 percent of earners paid 48 percent of all state income taxes in California, according to a 2016 article in the Economist.) “Since the top...

“Trump in one year is already better than sixteen years of [George W. Bush and Barack Obama] put together,” said former Wall Street Journal editor Brett M. Decker, pointing to a current 17-year high in consumer confidence. Decker, an expert on Asia and the bestselling author of Bowing to Beijing: How Barack Obama Is Hastening America’s Decline and Ushering a Century of Chinese Domination, joined Friday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with Breitbart News’s Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon and Senior Editor-at-Large Rebecca Mansour. “The leading indicator, when you dig into the data on why consumer confidence is high,...

Republicans are understandably nervous about the parallels between the 2010 midterm elections that brought them to power and the 2018 midterms where Democrats envision a return to power. Eight years ago, a polarizing new president was facing his first midterm election. Progressives and conservatives offered wildly different interpretations of his every word. Despite polls showing his major legislative dream was unpopular, that president relentlessly pursued it. His efforts inspired a resistance known as the Tea Party. On top of that, unnerving interim elections rattled the president's party. A Republican won the Governorship in New Jersey, which was about as unusual...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has announced a deal with Senate Democrats to fund the government and set spending levels for defense and nondefense programs over the next two years. The legislation would avert a government shutdown on Friday, when federal funding is due to expire, and boost defense and nondefense programs. It also lifts the debt ceiling to March 2019, which White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders hailed as a decision that would move Congress away from "crisis-to-crisis budgeting." The deal is backed by McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and will almost certainly be...

Approximately 50,000 GM factory workers will each get a profit-sharing check totaling $11,750 later this month, according to company statements as reported in the Detroit Free Press and USA Today. In addition, about 40,000 union workers at Fiat-Chrysler will get profit-sharing checks of $5,500, as well as $2,000 bonuses. Also, about 54,000 workers at Ford will get profit-sharing checks of $7,500 each. GM made $12.8 billion in pre-tax profits in 2017, said USA Today. Fiat-Chrysler earned $4.4 billion in pre-tax profits in 2017, and Ford pulled in $8.4 billion in pretax profits. "The actions we took to further strengthen our...

Full Title: Billions of Crumbs: Over $3 Billion in Bonuses Given to American Workers So Far Because of Tax Cuts and Jobs ActWASHINGTON, D.C. - Over $3 billion in bonuses have already gone out to American workers all over the country thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act's enactment less than two months ago, with over 300 companies passing on the savings they see under this bill to their employees with bonuses, pay raises, better benefits, and more job opportunities.These billions in bonuses come as 90% of workers across the country will begin to see higher paychecks as their...

With the stock market nearing correction territory Monday, former Obama White House Press Secretary Jay Carney suggested on Twitter that President Trump should have learned something from his predecessor and be careful not to tout optimistic looking stocks. It is just too risky.The Dow Jones plunged almost 1,600 points and essentially erased its gains for the year. It was the worst loss in six and a half years.The Obama administration, Carney claimed on Twitter, was careful to never boast about the stock market as Trump has often done. Good time to recall that in the previous administration, we NEVER boasted...

The defense of free speech has always been a bedrock bipartisan principle. So it’s unusual to hear a veteran liberal politician excuse campus outrage squads that shout down dissent. But that’s exactly what former Vermont governor and Democratic National Committee head Howard Dean did in a recent appearance.. Dean’s take on this was that there are “consequences to free speech.” He caricatured Erika Christakis’s thoughtful, sensitive letter as an ugly screed mocking “snowflake” students and defending racist costumes. He also described the protesters as well-behaved, despite their screaming and bullying. ... Dean is hardly alone...progressives on and off campus are...

WASHINGTON -- Almost six in 10 Americans do not want another federal government shutdown over the Republican refusal to allow unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to remain in the country, according to a poll released Monday. With the current temporary spending bill set to expire Thursday, 59 percent in the Monmouth Poll said it would be unacceptable for congressional Democrats to oppose a budget deal even if the so-called dreamers remain in limbo for now. Just 36 percent said it would be acceptable for the Democrats to do so. (Snip) " By 82 percent to 14 percent,...

The unseemly sight of nearly the entire Democratic congressional delegation sitting on their hands and clinging to their chairs throughout Donald Trump's State of the Union speech is further evidence that they want America to fail on Trump's watch. Hundreds of American companies are bringing jobs to America and paying American workers bonuses: Democrats sat stone-faced. The lowest black unemployment rate in 40 years: Democrats smirked. We are defeating ISIS in the Middle East: Ho-hum. Many on the left are suffering from a severe case of anti-Trump derangement syndrome. ATDS sufferers crave bad news. In a bright, sunny economic sky,...

From the moment President Trump took office, many Democrat politicians, celebrities, and media mavens have worked to stop anything Trump. Democrats, hoping to capitalize on the anti-Trump excitement in their base, staged a coordinated "Summer of Resistance" across the country aimed at countering the agenda of President Trump and the GOP-led Congress. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi kicked off the effort at a rally in Dallas saying, "This Trump complained, “I hope that Democrats will stop the obstruction and resistance – in fact that’s what they have, they have a sign ‘resist, resist’ - they want to resist everything,...

Congressional Republicans once bracing for the possibility of a Democratic “tsunami” in this year’s elections now appear on the offensive -- bolstered by new polls suggesting Americans like their recent tax cuts, and the opportunity to pounce on Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi remark about the bonuses and paycheck increases amounting to “crumbs.” “Nancy Pelosi has stayed in the spotlight. Her 'crumbs' comment is something I think we can use pretty effectively,” Ohio Rep. Steve Stivers, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said at this week’s GOP policy retreat at the Greenbrier resort, in West Virginia. To be sure,...

New Jersey residents could be forced to give their hard-earned tax dollars to the nation’s largest abortion chain for the first time in eight years. The state Senate passed legislation Thursday to send $7.5 million to Planned Parenthood and other groups that do abortions in the state, NorthJersey.com reports. The legislation now moves to the state Assembly. Pro-abortion Gov. Phil Murphy promised to sign it. The bill would reverse decisions by former Gov. Chris Christie to block $7.5 million tax dollars to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business. Christie, who is pro-life, vetoed Planned Parenthood funding numerous times and...