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The Wall Street Journal Spins for the Senate Immigration Bill

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

The Wall Street Journal editorial board took a strong stance Monday in favor of the Senate immigration bill, arguing that “immigrants will be crucial” to saving Social Security. The proof: a projection that immigrants will contribute $4.6 trillion (in today’s dollars) towards the Social Security trust fund over the next 75 years–nearly half the $9.6 trillion shortfall (for some reason, the Journal cites last year’s $8.6 trillion estimate.)

Even if true, that does not dispose of Social Security’s problems–and it may be misleading to consider the effects on Social Security alone, when new immigrants will also be making use of a host of other entitlement programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, and now Obamacare.

That is not an argument against immigration, but reminds us that using immigrants to shore up failing welfare state programs may be a recipe for failure.

It certainly has been in Europe.

Read more from this story HERE.

John McCain Tears Into Mike Lee on Senate Floor, Lee Responds (+videos)

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Photo Credit: YouTubeSen. John McCain provides yet another reason why many feel the “old bull” should be put out to pasture when he tore into fellow Republican Sen. Mike Lee on the Senate floor Thursday over Lee’s objection to negotiate the debt limit increase as part of the budget resolution.

“Perhaps the senator from Utah doesn’t know about that — the fact that even if they did raise the debt limit, it could not become law because it doesn’t go to the president of the United States,” McCain said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Senate Rejects Firearms on Army Corps of Engineers Lands, Boosting Gun Control Supporters

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Photo Credit: APThe Senate rejected an effort Wednesday to expand the use of firearms on some of the nation’s most frequently visited federal lands, handing gun control advocates a modest success.

The measure, backed by the National Rifle Association, represented one of two efforts Wednesday by gun rights supporters to take the offensive in Congress. Across the Capitol, a Republican-run House committee voted to make it easier for some veterans with mental difficulties to get firearms.

The rejected Senate proposal would have let people use guns for any legal purpose on lands managed by the Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees nearly 12 million acres that abound in lakes, rivers, campsites and hiking trails. Currently, guns on those properties are limited to activities like target-range shooting and hunting, and weapons must be unloaded while being carried to those activities.

Senators voted 56-43 for the proposal by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., but it fell short of the 60 votes needed for passage.

Eleven Democrats and one Democratic-leaning independent voted for Coburn’s plan, underscoring the party’s divisions on the gun issue.

Read more from this story HERE.

Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform

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Photo Credit: National Institutes of HealthThe immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system.

Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation (.pdf) is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named “photo tool,” a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID.

Employers would be obliged to look up every new hire in the database to verify that they match their photo.

This piece of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act is aimed at curbing employment of undocumented immigrants. But privacy advocates fear the inevitable mission creep, ending with the proof of self being required at polling places, to rent a house, buy a gun, open a bank account, acquire credit, board a plane or even attend a sporting event or log on the internet. Think of it as a government version of Foursquare, with Big Brother cataloging every check-in.

“It starts to change the relationship between the citizen and state, you do have to get permission to do things,” said Chris Calabrese, a congressional lobbyist with the American Civil Liberties Union. “More fundamentally, it could be the start of keeping a record of all things.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Disgusted ICE Agent Faces Down ‘Gang of Eight’ in Dramatic Senate Testimony; Goes Off Again on Huckabee Show (+videos)

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Photo Credit: Stand with ArizonaLast week, ICE union chief Chris Crane won a stunning initial court victory in his lawsuit against the Obama Administration. As we reported, Federal Judge Federal Judge Reed O’Connor told the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that they had no power to refuse to deport illegal aliens, and that he was likely to strike down Obama’s virtual “DACA” amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. The ruling stunned Washington, and Crane’s lawsuit could derail Obama’s four-year effort to undermine immigration enforcement nationwide.

In Senate testimony (video below), President of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council Crane slammed the Obama administration and the Senate’s Gang of Eight for including advocates for illegal aliens, but excluding law enforcement from providing input on the new ‘immigration reform’ legislation.

Here’s what Mr. Crane said on Huckabee:

Read more from this story HERE.

Sequester Madness: Obama Admin. Reportedly Spending Millions to Set Up Labor Unions in Foreign Countries

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Photo Credit: Reuters Senate Republicans say the Labor Department appears to be spending millions in taxpayer dollars to establish labor unions and promote collective bargaining in foreign countries and are asking top Obama administration officials for a full audit.

The request was sent by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the leading Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, and Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, the top Republican on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

“At a time when our federal budget is deteriorating rapidly … it is troubling to us that the department appears to be spending millions of dollars of taxpayer funds to establish labor unions and promote collective bargaining in foreign countries,” they said in a letter to acting Labor Secretary Seth Harris.

The purported activities were conducted by the agency’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs.

The bureau for the past several years has purportedly made numerous awards — worth millions of dollars — to the United Nations, the Solidarity Center and other similar groups, “whose stated objective is to help establish labor unions in foreign countries,” the senators said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Immigration Bill Guts E-Verify For Years

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Photo Credit: J. Scott ApplewhiteThe Senate’s complex immigration bill would instantly gut the popular E-Verify system that is widely used to exclude illegal immigrants from jobs, and then create an enforcement gap for several years before the arrival of a replacement system.

“There’s no doubt that the bill eliminates E-Verify immediately upon signing,” said Kris Kobach, secretary of state of Kansas, told The Daily Caller.

“If there’s no statutory authority for E-Verify, there’s no E-Verify,” said Kobach, a lawyer trained at Harvard, Oxford and Yale universities, and a prominent advocate for reduced immigration.

The claim is vehemently disputed by the bills’ advocates, including staffers working for Sen. Marco Rubio.

However, Rubio staffers were unable to show TheDC any text in the legislation that gives the current E-Verify system legal backing until the new system is mandated in several years.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Taking Executive Action on Guns after Senate Vote

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Photo Credit: Svadilfari

Blocked by Congress from expanding gun sale background checks, President Obama is turning to actions within his own power to keep people from buying a gun who are prohibited for mental health reasons.

Federal law bans certain mentally ill people from purchasing firearms, but not all states are providing data to stop the prohibited sales to the FBI’s background check system. A federal review last year found 17 states contributed fewer than 10 mental health records to the database, meaning many deemed by a judge to be a danger still could have access to guns.

The Obama administration was starting a process Friday aimed at removing barriers in health privacy laws that prevent some states from reporting information to the background check system. The action comes two days after the Senate rejected a measure that would have required buyers of firearms online and at gun shows to pass a background check. That’s already required for shoppers at licensed gun dealers.

Stung by the defeat, Obama vowed to keep up the fight for the background check expansion but also to do what he could through executive action.

“Even without Congress, my administration will keep doing everything it can to protect more of our communities,” Obama said from the Rose Garden shortly after the Senate voted. “We’re going to address the barriers that prevent states from participating in the existing background check system.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Senate to Open Debate on Charging National Sales tax on Online Purchases

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Photo Credit: Getty

Fresh off last week’s bitter battle over gun control legislation, the U.S. Senate is slated to delve into another divisive issue: legislation to tax Internet sales.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is expected to begin debate on the Marketplace Fairness Act as early as Monday with a possible vote on the measure by the end of the week.

The bill would allow states to require online retailers of a certain size to collect sales tax, even when the seller is from a different state. States now lose about $11 billion in tax revenue because online sales are not taxed, according to a 2011 report by Fitch Ratings.

Under current law, online retailers must collect taxes only in states where they have a physical presence. The legislation would compel those retailers to collect in all states, with an exception for retailers with annual sales of less than $1 million.

Support for the legislation crosses party lines but so does the opposition in the Senate.

Read more from this story HERE.

Why GOP Must Have a Senate Majority in 2014: Harry Reid Promises to Bring Back Gun Control Bill

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday announced that the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate would shelve its gun control legislation — for now.

“Yesterday, President Obama said it was a shameful day for the Senate, and it probably was, I agree,” Sen. Reid said. “But we should make no mistake: This debate is not over, in fact this fight is just beginning.”

The Nevada Senator said that the legislative body would “take a pause and freeze the background check bill where it is” and “return to it at an undetermined date,” according to the Washington Post.

“We’re going to come back to this bill,” Reid said…

“The underlying bill hasn’t been defeated and is still technically on the legislative calendar. As majority leader, Reid can bring up the bill again at a moment’s notice,” the report explains.

Read more from this story HERE.