President Obama’s State of the Union address – coupled with recent troubling decisions by his administration to expand a pattern of de facto amnesty for illegal immigrants – cemented the unfortunate reality that this president continues intentionally to abdicate a responsibility to advance serious immigration reform. Empty rhetoric, repetitive platitudes and continued support for the already-rejected Dream Act do not make up a comprehensive proposal to this complex policy issue.

These remarks follow the administration’s decision to ease certain regulations on the visa program and move to release some deportation cases by focusing solely on whether a person poses “a national security threat,” only the latest addition to a list of blatant unilateral White House orders intended to curry favor with Hispanics.

The politics is conniving: Portray reform-minded Republicans and conservatives as unsympathetic to this fastest-growing demographic sector and bolster the president’s re-election chances in swing states with significant Hispanic votes, such as Florida, New Mexico, Virginia, Colorado and Arizona.

This scheme is not only misguided, but to someone who legally entered this great nation as a youth, it’s appalling.

I join most Americans, especially fellow Hispanics, across the political and ideological spectrum who understand the importance of legal immigration as vital to sustaining the greatness of America’s economic and cultural fabric.

Read More at The Washington Times By Al Cardenas, The Washington Times

The debate about the Fed is under way, and thank goodness. But as with many policy debates, there really shouldn’t be a debate at all. That’s because, if you think about it, the idea of central banking makes no sense.

We don’t have a government-created central repository that plans and manages shoe distribution. The market takes care of that. We don’t have one for cabbage, keyboards or curtains. Somehow, we get books, clothes, tree-cutting services and everything else we need and want without a central planning agency that manages the quantity available, fixes the prices of the products and bails out the firms when they overextend themselves.

Why should money and banking be any different? Money is a commodity. Banking is a business. They both originated in the market, not the state. They should have been left that way, so that the quality of the product could be subject to market discipline. In a market economy, things work themselves out. There is supply and there is demand. Entrepreneurs take notice of profit opportunities and jump in to pull the two together.

This is how the world works for us. This is how it has always worked. This is how we get our software, coffee, sheet music and beef. It’s how we get our cars, the parts that keep them running and the gas that fuels them.

The world is man-made in every respect, and the hands that made it productive, efficient, dynamic and socially beneficial operated within the market matrix. The simple relationships of learning, exchanging and competing gave rise to a glorious system that manages to sustain a global population of 7 billion people.

Read More at Whiskey and Gunpowder By Jeffrey Tucker, Whiskey and Gunpowder

Mitt Romney is being forced to revise his federal ethics forms after it was
pointed out that he had omitted several offshore accounts held in
Switzerland, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and Ireland.

Interest from the accounts was listed on Romney¹s tax return which he
released on Tuesday, but was missing from his financial disclosure forms
that he filed with the Federal Election Commission last summer.

The former Massachusetts governor’s campaign admitted what it described as “trivial” and “a minor discrepancy” and said the disclosure would be
amended, reported the Los Angeles Times .

The campaign said it was making “some minor technical amendments” to the
multi-millionaire’s financial disclosure. It said the changes will not alter
the overall picture of his finances.

The Times says it discovered at least 23 funds and partnerships that were
listed on Romney’s tax returns that were not included in his disclosure
filings. Half of them were held in what the paper called “low-tax foreign
countries such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg.”

Read More at Newsmax By Martin Gould, Newsmax

It’s the most important election of our lifetime. Now, more than ever before, it is important to understand what the Presidential candidates believe, what their policies are, and the differences between themselves and the current administration. The Republican National Committee knows this, yet they have decided to turn over the entire process of informing the populace to the Democrat Media Complex. Rather than answering questions about job creation, executive orders, energy, or Fast & Furious, our candidates are spending precious time on the national airwaves discussing Terri Schiavo, sugar subsidies, and the Everglades Project.

Take a look at the questions from the past debate (just the questions). Is this really helping send the message the RNC must to deliver to win in November?

Read More at Big Government By Meredith Dake, Big Government