Columnist.
The president promised that his health care law would grow on us. Well, something's growing all right — but it isn't support. Costs and frustrations are at all-time highs just two days into the new enrollment period that kicked off Sunday. According to insiders, even the cheapest plans on the not-so Affordable Care Act are soaring 13% above last year's prices. With double-digit premium hikes and fewer policy benefits, the options aren't exactly wooing new customers.
America's debt problems are enough to keep people up at night — and [Thursday], they did! While the rest of the country was counting sheep, Congress was counting votes on a controversial budget deal that finally passed in the wee hours of Friday morning. At 3:12 a.m., with the government's credit completely maxed out, the Senate gave its approval to a deal that John Boehner hatched as one of his last acts as speaker.
Plenty of important things happened in 1869 — Ulysses S. Grant was inaugurated, the first college football game was held, even *War and Peace* was published. It was also the last time America had a Speaker of the House as young as Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.). At 45, the Wisconsin dad won't just be putting a new face on the GOP, but an energetic one. Of course, what the former VP candidate lacks in age, he more than makes up for in experience. As the Washington Post points out, he's logged 6,143 days in the House (only 1,000 less than John Boehner) — and he'll need every bit of that practice to help pull Republicans out of the mire they find themselves in.
Who needs horror movies when the Center for Medical Progress is producing such frightening footage from Planned Parenthood? One after another, the videos of the group's organ harvesting scheme sound like something out of a Halloween script. If only it were. Instead, the gory trade — often joked about by the workers involved — is putting an exclamation point on taxpayers' insistence that Congress defund the organization responsible.
Joe Kennedy is a veteran of two wars — but now he's fighting a new enemy: political correctness. The Bremerton football coach didn't spend 20 years defending freedom only to have his stolen, but that's exactly what the school district is threatening. A week and a half after the revered coach put his job on the line by resuming his midfield prayer, the Washington State Education Superintendent is lining up with the opposition.
If you thought your credit was a mess, you should see the government's! With daily payments as high as $60 billion, America has been testing the brakes at the brink of spending crisis after spending crisis. Now, days away from maxing out the government's virtual credit cards, the House and Senate are in a mad scramble to put another financial fire out: the prospect of defaulting on America's loans.
For the first time ever, a President has vetoed funding for our military because of his desire to increase funding for domestic social program.
To most people, the word "reconciliation" means settling a fight. In Congress, it means starting one! This seldom-used budget process has become the center of attention for weeks, as GOP leaders try to tackle two of the most controversial uses of government money: Planned Parenthood and ObamaCare. Although reconciliation isn't used often, it is a powerful tool for the majority party to jump some of the procedural hurdles in the Senate on budgetary issues.
If you thought the 2016 elections were heating up, you should see the House Speaker's race! In the frenzy since John Boehner's (R-Ohio) resignation, the back and forth over who will succeed him has seemed more like a daytime drama with the main characters constantly changing. This week, the saga over the most-watched seat on Capitol Hill took another twist now that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) is seriously considering the job many are drafting him for.
It looks like Texas is seceding — from Planned Parenthood! The second largest state in America is making the biggest statement on Cecile Richards's group this week, by shedding the organization's lucrative Medicaid contract. Governor Greg Abbott (R), who is following in his predecessor's pro-life boot steps, announced the move [Monday] — the same day that a federal judge blocked Louisiana's efforts to do the same.
After two disappointing election cycles, the worst thing about this crop of candidates may be picking one! For evangelicals, it's a good problem to have: a majority of presidential hopefuls aligning with them on key issues. As this weekend's events proved, it's an embarrassment of riches for voters who are sick and tired of the anti-Christian extremism pumping out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
When the Bremerton High School football team takes the field tonight, the loudest cheers will be for the coach. After a public spat over game day prayer, Joe Kennedy has picked up plenty of fans — and not just from conservatives. The former Marine has become a statewide hero after refusing to back down from his seven-year tradition of thanking God at every game. And while he never asked his players to join him, they wanted to. The midfield kneel became part of the team's identity until this year, when Coach Kennedy was told to stop praying or *start* finding a new job.
Don't look for justice to roll down like a river (Amos 5:24) at the DOJ here in Washington. [Wednesday], the department created for justice showed the drought of it in another display of poor judgment. Fueled by a radical agenda that heeds neither the law nor common sense, the Obama DOJ will stop at nothing to marginalize and silence the Americans it disagrees with — a goal it shares with the disgraced Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
There were plenty of takeaways from [Tuesday] night's Democratic presidential debate, but the biggest may be how much conservatives have to be grateful for. On a Las Vegas stage, Americans heard from five liberals bent on furthering the agenda that's put our nation on the financial, moral, and international brink. Together, they showed no remorse for the misguided policies of the Obama administration — and instead seemed to apologize that the president's radicalism didn't go far enough.
God isn't the enemy, but He's sure been treated like one on some military installations. At Marine Corps Base Hawaii, activists have one mission: booting God from base. But thanks to commanding officer Sean Killeen, it won't happen without a fight. For weeks, a secular group with nothing better to do than harass the military has demanded that a sign come down that says, "God bless the military, their families, and the civilians who work with them."
The Pentagon may not have Sergeant First Class Charles Martland's back, but more than 130,000 Americans do! Since the Bronze Star winner came under fire for roughing up a child rapist in Afghanistan, Martland is building his own army of support. More than 130,000 Americans are standing up and demanding the Green Beret's reinstatement for doing what most of them would have done in his place: protect an innocent boy.
There's plenty of uncertainty about *who* will be leading the House — but not quite as much on *where* they'll lead. One of the biggest priorities of the new speaker has already been decided, thanks in part to [Wednesday's] vote to turn up the heat on Planned Parenthood. Now five investigations into the ghoulish organ harvesting business, members say the only thing they're left with is more questions.
In the Obama military, you can celebrate immorality — but you can't confront it. That's the lesson the Army is trying to teach the Green Beret's Charles Martland. A hero by both record and reputation, Sergeant First Class Martland is about to lose his career over something that any parent or decent American would have done: intervene in the violent rape of an innocent boy. When Martland confronted the attacker (a member of the Afghan police), the rapist laughed off the soldier's horror, insisting it was "just a boy."
Houston Mayor Annise Parker (D) promised not to make homosexuality an issue in her administration. Instead, she's made it *the* issue — around which everything else revolves. As the leader of the fourth largest city in America, Parker jumped at the chance to use her power in support of her own personal LGBT agenda. An open lesbian, the mayor has tried to bypass the laws on marriage, declared Valentine's Day "Freedom to Marry Day," and forced through the most radical piece of special rights legislation the city has ever seen.
In the largest security detail in American history, there's no such thing as a "chance" meeting. But that's exactly what the media is claiming took place between Pope Francis and Kentucky's Kim Davis. Frustrated by the pope's obvious support for the jailed clerk, the press is stirring up speculation about whether the conversation even took place.
