The new surge of illegal immigration at the southern border is being driven by the U.S. election and the related debate over whether to ease or tighten immigration laws, according to representatives of border agents and border-state sheriffs.
The last few months have seen a dramatic rise in apprehensions of illegal immigrants, on a scale that rivals 2014, when members of both parties agreed it became a humanitarian crisis. That crisis abated in 2015, but the numbers have spiked again, and federal officials have mostly been silent on why.… Continue Reading
One of the fundamental questions that have divided the U.S. this election year — and, in fact, since its founding 240 years ago — concerns the appropriate role of the federal government. A new update of a longstanding Gallup trend shows that Americans continue to favor a smaller role for government, with 54% saying the government is attempting to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses, and 41% saying it should do more to solve the country’s problems.… Continue Reading
Pastors across the country will protest Internal Revenue Service restrictions on them not to talk politics in the church as they observe the annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday, days after the introduction of the Free Speech Fairness Act in the U.S. House to reinstate pastors’ and churches’ rights to speak freely.
“The IRS has no business acting as the speech police of any non-profit organization, as its many scandals over recent years have made clear,” said Erik Stanley, senior counsel of the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, which started Pulpit Freedom Sunday in 2008.
Former Speaker of the U.S. House Newt Gingrich (R-GA) is scheduled to speak at the annual fundraising dinner for the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) this Wednesday, September 28. LCR has a long history of promoting homosexualism in the GOP and opposing most of the pro-family planks on “gay” issues that Gingrich supports.
LCR supports homosexual “marriage” and strongly opposes a federal constitutional amendment preserving marriage as between a man and a woman.… Continue Reading
Sometimes I like to think back to the olden days, when it was easier for politicians to tell a good old-fashioned fib. Think of the age of the majestic woolly mammoth, for instance. Trudging along on a typical Ice Age morning, a caveman named Og could blithely tell his rivals Garglon and Thag that he had just run an ultra-marathon, clubbed the neighborhood’s fiercest saber-tooth tiger, and invented the Internet, all in one morning.
Sadly, we live in the era of the low-information voter. The second edition of Ilya Somin’s Democracy and Political Ignorance (2016) documents widespread political ignorance among today’s public, including voters. Although nonvoters are abysmally ignorant of politics, voters are not walking, talking political encyclopedias either. Americans are more likely to be well-informed about celebrities, such as the Kardashians, than about political leaders.
Consistent with earlier research, Somin estimates that nearly a third of the American public are “know-nothings,” who possess “little or no relevant knowledge” about public affairs.
The New York Times Style Section recently ran a report called “UNEASY BEDFELLOWS,” describing marriages that reached the point of dissolution because of arguments concerning Donald Trump. When I discussed the subject on the air, one astute caller noted that none of the couples featured in the story seemed to share a religious outlook, and he suggested that if they did, they could far more easily handle their political disputes.
Unfortunately, far too many Americans now use politics as a substitute for faith, treating party loyalty as a matter of uncompromising identity that provides meaning, transcendence and morality.
In a rare area of agreement, both presidential candidates want to help working families with childcare expenses. Donald Trump recently proposed a tax deduction for parents who place their kids in daycare; Hillary Clinton backs an even more costly plan, providing a refundable tax credit that would send daycare reimbursement checks even to families paying no income tax.
Both candidates, however, fail to recognize the unfairness of such arrangements to parents who decide to leave the workforce or cutback hours to care for their children themselves.… Continue Reading
As we watch the Republican Party tear itself to shreds over Donald Trump, perhaps it’s time to take note of another conservative political phenomenon that the GOP nominee has utterly eclipsed: the Tea Party. The Tea Party movement is pretty much dead now, but it didn’t die a natural death. It was murdered—and it was an inside job. In a half decade, the spontaneous uprising that shook official Washington degenerated into a form of pyramid scheme that transferred tens of millions of dollars from rural, poorer Southerners and Midwesterners to bicoastal political operatives.… Continue Reading
Donald Trump, shortly after securing the GOP nomination, attached a name to Hillary Clinton, just as he did to his opponents throughout the primary process. She was Crooked Hillary, based on a lifetime of playing fast and loose with finances, ethics, and honesty. After photos surfaced this past week showing Mrs. Clinton struggling to ascend a set of steps, as well as reports of possible seizure activity, Trump may want to rename Mrs.… Continue Reading
Federal Issues | David E. Smith | 
October 12, 2016 4:00 AM | 
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