Category Archives: Freedom

There are historic dates in American history that should never be forgotten because in one way or another, shackles of human bondage have physically, or metaphorically, been broken.

While reading online comments about improvements in an local community I was stopped cold by

On July 4, 1776, a group of defiant, courageous colonists cut the umbilical cord to Great Britain by signing the Declaration of Independence. They cited rights of self-governance and freedom on which our country has thrived and prospered.

On Oct. 28, 1886, the United States received the Statue of Liberty from the people of France. The statue symbolizes that America and its ideals are the standard bearer for freedom for the entire world. By accepting this gift from France, the people of the United States accepted the burden of freedom.

On Dec. 7, 1941, the day that lives in infamy, the United States was drawn into World War II by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. As the result of that act, American and its allies rid the world of Nazism and squelched imperialism.

On Nov. 2, 2016, the Chicago Cubs broke a 108-year drought by defeating the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in Game 7 of the World Series. In doing so, the Cubs freed Steve Bartman of carrying more than a century of a citys broken dreams and disappointments.

A brief history lesson Steve Bartman was seated along the left field line at Chicagos Wrigley Field on Oct. 14, 2003. The Cubs were leading the Florida Marlins 3-0 in the eighth inning of Game Six of the NLCS when Luis Castillo lifted a fly ball down the left field line.

First, a disclaimer: I am not, have never been, have never claimed to be and never will be g

Cubs outfielder Moises Alou leaped for the ball near where Bartman was seated. Bartman clearly deflected the ball, keeping the at bat alive. If Alou had caught the ball, it would have been the second out of the inning.

Instead, Florida rallied for eight runs in the inning. The Cubs also lost Game 7, making Bartman the biggest scapegoat in Chicago history since, well, William Sianis, owner of the Billy Goat Tavern, was asked to leave Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series, ostensibly because he smelled like his goat, Murphy.

Upon leaving the park, Mr. Sianis allegedly said, Them Cubs, they aint gonna win no more.

Golf needs another Tiger Woods.

Sianis, Murphy and Bartman were all cleansed of their sins on Nov. 2, 2016 when the Cubs finally won the World Series. The Cubs, in a magnanimous act last week, made that absolution official by presenting Bartman with a World Series ring.

Presenting the ring doesnt compare with the Declaration of Independence or making the world safe for democracy, but hopefully it will free Bartman from the irrational ire of baseball fans. (The World Series win turned Cubs fans from Lovable Losers to obnoxious homers like the rest of us.)

Since the incident Bartman has become essentially a prisoner of his own infamy. Hopefully, Cubs fans will revel in their 2016 World Series victory and accept Bartman for what he is a baseball fan that got caught up in the moment and reached for a playoff game souvenir.

LES WINKELER is the sports editor for The Southern Illinoisan. Contact him at les.winkeler@thesouthern.com, or call 618-351-5088 / On Twitter @LesWinkeler.

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Winkeler: Bartman ring: Victory for freedom - The Southern

The first freedom in the Bill of Rights is the freedom to practice religion without government interference. But it isn't a popular right nowadays. As cases involving religious freedom issues are regularly hammering the state and federal court system constantly challenging that right President Trump has (somewhat) quietly placed two mechanisms in front of the barrage to soften the blow.

Last week, Trump nominated Gov. Sam Brownback to serve in the position of Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, a position within the U.S. State Department. This immediately inspired anger and assertions that the Kansas governor is opposed to LGBTQ rights. This editorial makes note of the fact that while over 20 senior state department positions remain vacant, Trump thought it important to fill this one. This indicates either a soft-spot or an administration priority, depending on your interpretation.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback's nomination as U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom has observers wondering about President Donald Trump's priorities. When 27 senior State Department positions remain vacant, and no ambassadors have been appointed to nations such as South Korea, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, what makes filling a position promoting religious freedom such an urgent, core objective of U.S. foreign policy?

The Becket Fund, a non-profit religious liberty law firm praised the choice. Montserrat Alvarado, executive director of Becket, said in a press release,

Gov. Brownback's legacy of promoting and defending religious liberty both in the United States and overseas is strong. As a U.S. Senator, he was one of the [motivating] forces behind the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, key legislation that ensures that the policy of the United States will be to support religious liberty internationally. His robust experience defending religious freedom for people of all faiths makes him uniquely qualified to lead America's international defense of this most sacred and fundamental of human rights, religious freedom.

That's not the only sign Trump is prioritizing religious freedom. He's also quietly appointing conservative judges to various courts. In fact, he's appointed more judges in his short tenure as president than Obama had at this same juncture in 2009. He has sent up nine nominees for appeals court positions and 17 for the district courts. And yes, one Supreme Court justice, but the high court only settles about 75 cases annually, compared to about 50,000 at the appeals level and hundreds of thousands in federal district courts. So, if Trump wants to continue to ensure religious freedom persists, he must continue nominating conservative judges at all levels.

Nominations such as these might help guide a variety of religious freedom cases, such as this unique one in East Boca Raton, Florida regarding land use for a worship center. According to Texas Law & Tax, a sister publication of Christianity Today, new research reveals the number one reason churches end up in court is no longer sexual abuse of children but property disputes. The Chabad would like to build a synagogue to make room for its growing Jewish community, and despite two court victories (Gagliardi v. The City of Boca Raton, Fla.), they are still battling the city for that right. The case was recently appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

The city used a disagreement about zoning to propel a federal lawsuit that could set a terrible precedent to worship-goers in Florida. Time will tell how the case pans out. Becket represents the Chabad, and in their press release explains, "The suit claims that by allowing a single synagogue to be built on private land, the city is establishing the Jewish religion and discriminating against Christians. But the city ordinance they are suing over requires equal treatment for all faiths to build houses of worship."

Just Wednesday, the country's oldest synagogue, Congregation Shearith Israel, won a lengthy legal battle to maintain ownership of its building and ancient Jewish artifacts. In Congregation Jeshuat Israel v. Congregation Shearith Israel, the court ruling clarifies that houses of worship can establish and enforce property contracts just like any other.

In the meantime, religious freedom advocates must keep watch on cases like this, Gov. Brownback's nomination, and the slew of conservative justices Trump hopes to continue appointing. Religious freedom was the fundamental issue that brought Pilgrims to America hundreds of years ago and repeated violations could seriously damage the country's core imperatives.

Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator's Young Journalist Award.

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Trump moves forward with religious freedom priorities - Washington Examiner

The State governments campaign to make the State completely free from waste will begin on August 15, Independence Day.

The Freedom from waste campaign being organised under the aegis of the Haritha Keralam Mission will be led by local self-government institutions in association with the public.

Arrangements on

Arrangements for the campaign are under way.

On August 15, after the district-level Independence Day functions attended by Ministers, an announcement of Freedom from waste will be made.

The announcement will be made at Independence Day programmes organised by the local self-government institutions. Peoples representatives and volunteers will conduct house visits and sensitisation drives on the day and the next.

Sanitation meets

Sanitation meets will be organised at the ward-level on the day from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The ground-situation reports from house visits from August 6 to 13 will be compiled and presented.

At 7 p.m., a pledge to make the ward completely garbage-free will be taken. Sanitation lamps will be lit in all houses in the ward simultaneously.

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'Freedom from waste' from Aug 15 - The Hindu

Dozens of ninth and 10th-grade students swarmed Michael Bennett following Fridays practice, eager to get an autograph from or picture with the Seahawks star defensive end.

One teenage boy collected signatures not just on his jersey, but also the back of his cell phone and on a $20 bill he will now never spend. One teenage girl got a signature on her arm, then jokingly began reciting her phone number to Cliff Avril, who also paid the group a visit.

Yet as much as these students, who attend Rainer Beach High School, were excited to meet Bennett, as well as Avril, who joined the group later, Bennett and Avril were equally impressed with the group of kids who are part of Washington Building Leaders of Changes Freedom Schools, a six-week literacy and social justice leadership development program.

Im inspired by you guys, Bennett told the group of students. You guys are the future of this country, the future of your communities.

Later, Bennett further expressed his admiration for a group of students who are dedicating six weeks of their summer to better themselves and their communities.

These are kids who are growing up seeing there are problems in their community making changes, Bennett said. Theyre just out every single day trying to make their communities better. Its super inspiring. Theyre so young, we can learn something from them. They are kids from all over the world, Cambodia, Israel, Palestine, theyre all these different kids working together within one community, doing so much change. For me to be able to support them is super cool. Its just super inspiring to be around kids who have that type of mindset at that age. Those kids are going to be leaders one day because theyre already making change at this age.

Bennetts support includes not only interacting with the kids after a practice and a $5,000 donation, he has also gotten involved in the Seattle community himself in a number of ways, most recently hosting a benefit for the family of Charleena Lyles, a local mother who was killed by police officers who were responding to a call at her apartment.

We connected with Michael, hes got a big passion for social justice as well as literacy, so it has been a great connection, said Laura Wright, a servant leader educator with WA-BLOC. He is very active in our community, so he has been a great model for our scholars.

Our scholars are really hard at work making a difference in their community. every day were having deep conversations about roots of injustice and racism, so to have an athlete as high profile as him thats also in the community doing work, were really proud of Michael for all the advocacy he has been doingthe Charleena Lyles case, thats something weve been talking about. We really appreciate having someone like him. It just affirms them and affirms the message that they can make a difference when they see someone like Michael doing that. And its not just the message, we actually see him in the community, which makes a big difference.

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Seahawks Defensive End Michael Bennett Hosts Local Students From Freedom Schools - Seahawks.com

Tony Vocca gave up three first-inning runs and the Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, were forced to play catch-up in an eventual 6-4 loss to the Southern Illinois Miners on Friday at UC Health Stadium.

Southern Illinois (29-41) raced out to an early lead in the top of the first, as Craig Massey led off the game with a double to left-center before coming around to score on a single by Romeo Cortina. Nolan Earley then deposited a Vocca (6-5) breaking ball into the Freedom (44-27) bullpen, pushing the Miners in front, 3-0.

The Freedom pulled within two in the bottom half of the first, as Taylor Oldham singled off Miners starter Chris Washington (2-3) before stealing second and third, and crossed the plate on an Andre Mercurio bunt-single.

Leading 3-1 in the top of the fourth, Southern Illinois used a Ryan Lashley single and a double by Anthony Critelli to set-up a Ryan Sluder sacrifice fly and an RBI-groundout by Massey to extend their lead to 5-1.

Following a pair of singles by Jordan Brower and Keivan Berges in the bottom of the fourth, Garrett Vail laced a double in to the left-center gap, scoring Brower to make the score 5-2. Berges attempted to score from first but was thrown out at the plate to end the frame.

Daniel Fraga made the score 5-3 in the bottom of the seventh with a solo home run to right field off Miners reliever Kyle Tinius.

One more insurance run would score for the Miners in the top of the ninth on Cortinas second RBI-single of the game. In the bottom half, Fraga drew a one-out walk and scored on a two-out bloop double to shallow left field by Jose Brizuela to bring the tying run to the plate. But Mercurio flew out to center, ending the game.

Brower led the Freedom with three hits, while Berges, Brizuela, Fraga and Mercurio each collected two. Florence, however, left nine runners stranded in the game, including at least one in each of the first five innings.

The Freedom loss handed the Miners their third straight victory, and was Florences fourth consecutive loss of a series opener.

The series continues Saturday with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 p.m. at UC Health Stadium. Jordan Kraus (8-4) will start for the Freedom against a yet-to-be-determined starter for Southern Illinois.

The Florence Freedom are members of the independent Frontier League and play all home games at UC Health Stadium located at 7950 Freedom Way in Florence, KY.The Freedom can be found online at FlorenceFreedom.com, or by phone at 859-594-4487.

Florence Freedom

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Freedom dig early hole they can't climb out of, fall to Miners in series ... - User-generated content (press release) (registration)

Satirists have repeatedly drawn on the similarities between President Donald Trump and Middle Eastern and African dictators, for installing his family in senior advisory positions in the White House as much as hisexcessive self-regardand his respect formilitarytough men.Nowcritics can tick off another point on the autocrat checklist followingAttorney General Jeff Sessions's announcement Friday ofanew crackdown onleakersthat will include a Justice Department (DOJ) review of policies governing how the department deals withmedia outlets that publish leaked information.

Sessions and National Intelligence Director Dan Coats announced at a press conference that more DOJand FBI resources would be directed towards pursuing leakers, particularly those who pass information on to the press and foreign officials.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., July 20, 2017. Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters

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The moves comes after a wave of leaks hit the White House, exposing, among other things, contact between Trump officials and Russian government officials, with alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia the subject of multiple investigations.

Trump allies accused a deep state of security officials of orchestrating the leaks in a bid to unseat the president.Trump has railed against leakers, and placed Sessions under pressure to prosecute more of those who disclose classified information. He has also attacked what he has called the fake news media for publishing illegal leaks.

In an escalation of the administration's campaign against what it claims are hostile branches of the media, Sessions announced that part of the focus of the new anti-leakers crackdown would be the press.

Sessions said Friday the administration had tripled the number of illegal leaks cases over the previous administration, and said that after meeting intelligence officials, the DOJ would review its policies affecting media subpoenas.

We respect the important role the press plays and well give them respect, but its not unlimited, Sessions said. They cannot place lives at risk with impunity. We must balance the press role with protecting our national security and the lives of those who serve in the intelligence community, the Armed Forces and all law-abiding Americans.

The statement did not spell out which aspects of its policies are under review, but currently the DOJ will only compel journalists to disclose confidential sources as a last resort.

He added that the FBI would create a new counterintelligence unit to manage the cases.

It is not the only way the Trump has threatened to muzzlethe press, pledging on the campaign trail to open up libel laws to make it easier to sue publications. Former chief of staff Reince Priebus and press secretary Sean Spicer have also indicated the administration was investigating ways to review the First Amendment laws protecting press freedom.

Experts have also warned that the administration could use the 100 year-old Espionage Act, used to prosecute dissenters in World War I, to prosecute journalists.

However some Democrats joined Republicans in criticizing theWashington Post for publishing transcripts of Trump's conversations with foreign leaders this week.

This is beyond the pale and will have a chilling effect going forward on the ability of the commander in chief to have candid discussions with his counterparts, Ned Price, a former National Security Council official under PresidentBarack Obama, told The Hill.

The Freedom of Press Foundation warned thatthe DOJ crackdown threatened the press' capacity to hold the government to account.

In a statement Friday, director Trevor Timm said, Journalists cannot do their job without sources willing to talk with them sources that often put their livelihoods at risk in order to get information to the public. And the coming leak crackdown has the potential to upend accountability journalism in the Trump era.

Writing in the New York Times, law professorsRonNell Andersen Jones ofthe University of Utah andSonja R. West of the University of Georgia, have warned that First Amendment protections of press freedom are flimsier than some believe.

"We cannot simply sit back and expect that the First Amendment will rush in to preserve the press, and with it our right to know. Like so much of our democracy, the freedom of the press is only as strong as we, the public, demand it to be," they wrote shortly after Trump's inauguration.

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Trump Administration Threatens Freedom of the Press in New Leaks Crackdown - Newsweek

Forgiveness. Forgiveness. Even if, even if you dont love me anymore.

I am relieved and hopeful that the saga of the 2003 foul ball incident surrounding my family is finally over. Steve Bartman, Cubs fan, hated by every other Cubs fan, is going to receive a World Series ring. Full circle for Steve, who stole a foul ball from Moises Alou and had his life stolen that same night extended the Cubs curse another 13 years and felt the scorn of an entire city. Breathe Steve. Other fans now up for consideration are Jeffrey Maier and Spike Lee (what ring?).

Rocky Mountain low high for the Mets this afternoon. The Rockies German Marquez put the Nationals bats to sleep on Saturday. Pitched 5 / perfect innings en route to a seven inning gem. Registered 28 Ks over his past three starts. Trouble for the already troubled Amazins. 10 units on Colorado.

Os crowned the Royals 6-0. Jason Vargas was the victim of a three-run second inning and K.C.s bats never responded. Loss puts us at 1,019 buckners.

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Stitches: Let Freedom Ring - New York Post

Police officers respond to a protest in Minnesota at which several student journalists were arrested, following the acquittal in June of former police officer Jeronimo Yanez in the shooting death of Philando Castile.

Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

You likely remember that, in May, then congressional candidate Greg Gianforte body-slammed a reporter for The Guardian for asking too many questions. You may not have heard, though, that as part of Gianforte's ultimate settlement, Montana's newly elected representative made a $50,000 donation to the Committee to Protect Journalists. And now that money has been funneled directly into the US Press Freedom Tracker , a newly launched website that intends to document press freedom violations in a place that hasn't historically required it: the United States.

After finding out about Gianforte's unexpected donation, Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, called up the head of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Trevor Timm, to see if he'd be interested in using the money to underwrite the project. According to Simon , Timm "liked the irony" of using Gianforte's donation to help document violations like the one he'd just committed, and the US Press Freedom Tracker was born.

While Freedom of the Press Foundation takes care of the day-to-day operations of the site, 20 different press freedom groups help support its mission, including a steering committee headed up by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Groups like CPJ and Reporters Without Borders already work to catalog press freedom issues in other parts of the world , of course, but it usually takes a journalist being imprisoned or killed to register as a violation.

"That doesnt really work in the United States, where fortunately we have very few journalists who are actually imprisoned, and very few who are killed," says Peter Sterne, the site's senior reporter and managing editor. "What you do have in the US is a lot of journalists being arrested at protests . Increasingly you have journalists being stopped at the border. You have leak investigations into journalists sources, which really accelerated under the Obama administration and has continued under the Trump administration. You have seizures of journalists equipment and forced searches of their equipment. And increasingly you have physical attacks."

The site assembles these various press-freedom violations into neat categories that include "arrests of journalists," "equipment searches and seizures," "physical attacks on journalists," and "border stops of journalists." At the time of publication, the tracker has documented 19 arrests, 12 seizures, 11 attacks, and four border stops.

The broadness of the categories encompasses wide-ranging incidents. The physical attack category, for instance, includes items titled " Fox News host soaked with water at Brooklyn bar ," " Alaska state senator slaps journalist ," and " OC Weekly intern Frank Tristan attacked at pro-Trump rally ."

The US Press Freedom Tracker bases its numbers off of data collected from journalists' submissions, professional organizations, and other press-freedom groups. Those behind the project hope to use the information as a reference point in its work advocating for journalists' rights. But deciding what does and does not count as a violation isn't an exact science, and each category offers a detailed explanation of its methodology.

"There were a lot of questions that we had to consider. Like, if someone is detained but they are not actually charged, then is that considered an arrest? What if theyre kettled at a protest, does that count as a physical attack?" says Sterne, referring to the police practice of containing a crowd in a small area.

Sterne also emphasized that, while the group hopes the data will come in handy for legal briefs and other official uses, it serves an equally important role as public data that anyone can access. The groups paid special attention to ensuring that the site was easy to use and intuitive enough for the general public.

"I think is a great idea whose time, unfortunately, has come because of growing threats to press freedom in the United States,"says Leonard Downie, former executive editor of The Washington Post , who supervised the paper's Watergate coverage. "So it will certainly be useful to the news media as they share information about and combat these threats. What remains to be seen is whether it can also help educate the public."

While the United States is often held up as the epitome of the free press, Sterne emphasized that things here aren't ideal, and may even be getting worse. The problem, though, was that no one has had any of the data to back any of those conclusions up. Or, at least, they didn't until now.

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A Crucial New Site Tracks Attacks on Press in the US - WIRED

Last Wednesday evening, as the nation reeled from his shameful Twitter attack on transgender service members, President Donald Trump took his assault on equality one step further: He announced his nomination of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback as ambassador at large for international religious freedom. The magnitude of the announcement fell largely under the nations radar. The exception was here in Brownbacks home state of Kansas, where his constituents have experienced firsthand the serious implications of such a nomination.

The American Civil Liberties Union takes no position either in support or opposition on presidential nominations of any kind, including this one. However, as someone who has had a front row seat for the war on equality that Brownback has tirelessly waged in Kansas throughout his entire political career, I feel compelled to shine a light on the destructive policies he has championed and likely plans to propagate on an international scale from his new platform.

Gov. Brownback proudly considers himself an expert on religious liberty issues. After his nomination was announced, he tweeted, Religious Freedom is the first freedom. The choice of what you do with your own soul. I am honored to serve such an important cause.

The problem? The governor has consistently and unapologetically misinterpreted the First Amendments guarantee of religious liberty. His religious freedom policies have not been about protecting an individuals right to decide when, where, how, and with whom to worship, as intended by the Constitution. Instead, they have been about giving people the ability to pick and choose whether they will respect the fundamental human rights of their fellow citizens, based on their own particular religious views. That approach is not only constitutionally and legally suspect, it also rejects our shared values of equality, freedom, and justice.

The discrimination that Gov. Brownback tolerates by cloaking it in the language of religious liberty discriminates against many groups, but LGBT Kansans have been the most consistently and systematically targeted group. Throughout his tenure as the nations most extreme anti-equality governor, Brownback has acted to strip LGBT Kansans of their rights and to protect no, encourage blatant discrimination against these individuals by businesses, universities, and government.

For years, Gov. Brownback and his administration fought to prevent same-sex marriage from being legally recognized in Kansas. Even after the ACLU of Kansas prevailed in litigation brought against the state to force it to recognize the freedom to marry, Brownback kept up his crusade against same-sex marriage. That does not distinguish him from many of the nations other governors. What does set him apart, though, is that he continued his opposition even after the U.S. Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states in June 2015. Gov. Brownbacks opposition was so extreme that a federal judge put the state on probation. Doubting that the state would treat same-sex couples fairly, a federal judge is monitoring every aspect of the states implementation of same-sex marriage for the next three years!

In February 2015, Gov. Brownback, without any warning, rescinded an executive order that had been enacted eight years earlier to protect state employees from employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity. In one fell swoop, he cruelly and recklessly ripped the security and safety of LGBT Kansans out from under their feet and dragged the entire state a major step backward on our path to achieving true equality under law. Thanks to the governor, in Kansas an LGBT state employee could be married over the weekend but fired on Monday for displaying a wedding photo at work.

Brownback struck again just a few months later, issuing a religious objection executive order allowing taxpayer-funded social service organizations to deny services to LGBT citizens. The implications of the order are jarring: A homeless shelter that receives a state contract or grant, for example, could refuse family housing to a gay couple with a child, or a foster care agency could refuse to place a child with a family member in a same-sex relationship. The governors enthusiastic support of a law designed to deprive certain segments of the population of services vital to survival is evidence of his misguided belief that religious liberty means the freedom to treat other people as second-class citizens.

But the governor could not, of course, rest after his attacks on Kansan adults and families. He next targeted LGBT college students with his Campus Religious Freedom Bill, which became law in March 2016. Under the law, public colleges and universities in Kansas are required to recognize and fund, with student fees and taxpayer dollars religious student associations, even those that discriminate in their membership. The law essentially creates a new right to public funding for religious student groups, including those that discriminate against LGBT people, women, African-Americans, students with disabilities, or anyone else. So long as the student groups discrimination is rooted in a religious belief, the law permits any form of discrimination at all and requires Kansas taxpayers to foot the bill!

Gov. Brownbacks record is clear. When he speaks about religious freedom, he is not using that phrase in the sense the Constitution intended. He does not mean the freedom to worship without the destructive intervention or interference of government. He does not actually mean the choice of what you do with your own soul. What he really means is that he believes you should have the right to discriminate against other people as long as there is a religious reason for doing so. What he really intends to do is to use the noble language of the Constitution, the deeply held value of religious freedom shared by Americans, and our strong conviction that government should never dictate what we think or believe in order to advance an extremist agenda that pits people against each other and devalues the basic human dignity of some Americans.

The irony of President Trumps nomination of one of the countrys leading proponents of intolerance to champion the cause of religious freedom is stark and unmistakable.

MICAH KUBIC is executive director of the ACLU of Kansas.

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Sam Brownback Is an Appalling Choice for Religious Freedom Ambassador - Advocate.com

The conservative House Freedom Caucus is focusing in on one key demand for the debt ceiling talks that are expected to develop over the next few weeks, one that focuses on restricting borrowing and spending as the government gets closer to the debt ceiling.

In July, the group of about 40 conservatives laid out three possible demands they could make in talks to raise the debt ceiling, which are expected to conclude in September because the government is already at its borrowing limit.

Those options were $250 billion in spending cuts, a bill to repeal Obamacare, and a third possibility that aims to change the way the government spends and borrows money as it approaches the debt ceiling.

A House aide told the Washington Examiner that there is now little expectation that the Freedom Caucus could realistically demand such a large spending cut and the idea of passing any kind of healthcare reform bill seems dead given the Senate's failure in July.

That leaves the third option as the "most realistic," and the aide said the group of conservatives are expected to insist on spending and borrowing management changes as a condition of getting their vote in September.

The aide said many in the caucus would still prefer cuts, but said the lesser demand of asking for improved money management on the part of the government is one they hope Republican leaders can accept.

By moving away from the demand for spending cuts, the Freedom Caucus has "made it pretty easy" for GOP leaders to negotiate a deal, the aide said.

The changes being sought by the House Freedom Caucus are reflected in a bill introduced by Rep. Dave Schweikert, R-Ariz., called the Debt Ceiling Alternative Act. Under that bill, the government would only be allowed to issue debt to pay off principal and interest on the debt.

It would also call on the government to rescind unobligated funds and sell off assets in order to stay under the debt ceiling.

Those are the sorts of management changes that appeal to conservatives, who have long sought ways to get the government to reduce spending and borrowing when it approaches its borrowing limit. Conservatives have complained that it's too easy for the government to simply raise the ceiling again and again and have sought to impose speed bumps that at least force a discussion about the growing national debt, which is now just short of $20 trillion.

But it's not clear if GOP leaders in the House or the Senate will accept that language. Leadership and committee aides had little to say this week about what sorts of ideas they might accept, and it's possible that they could decide to pursue a simple debt ceiling hike with no strings attached that would pass with support from Democrats.

The Trump administration has also made it clear it wants a "clean" debt ceiling increase. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has said that explicitly, a sign U.S. officials are not in the mood to negotiate spending and borrowing limits as part of the package.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. Mnuchin has said the debt ceiling needs to be resolved by September, when the House is in for just a few weeks to deal with legislation. Several aides indicated it's not clear at all what the plan is yet and said there's no sign of a bill at this point.

"I'd be shocked if we saw the text of anything until the second week in September," one House aide said.

This aide said there is some talk of attaching a debt ceiling bill to some other popular bill, such as one dealing with veterans, but the plan seemed to be unsettled when the House left for August recess last week.

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House Freedom Caucus narrows down debt ceiling demands - Washington Examiner