Red States, Blue Sates, Dissed States

At the 2004 Democratic National Convention, then-Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama famously started his road to the presidency with the speech that included the line: “There are no red states or blue states, just the United States.” If only that were true. Instead, we have a president who not only shows preference to blue states, but also punishes red states and, most damaging, dismisses many other states. Democrats have followed him in lock step, especially when... Read More

Harry Reid’s Loss Is Free Trade’s Gain

Perhaps the most valuable outcome of the midterm election is that it allows Republicans to remove Harry Reid, D-Nev., from his post as Senate Majority Leader, or as I have dubbed him, “Chief Bottleneck for Free Trade.” With his demotion, his ties to labor unions can be minimized, which means that America can earnestly negotiate free trade agreements. This comes at an important time. President Obama is in Asia to participate in discussions about the Trans-Pacific... Read More

Lack of Confidence in Obama’s Handling of Ebola Could Sicken Economy

As the stress level for Americans rises because of the known cases of Ebola in the U.S., it takes me back to November 2002 when I was often visiting and working in Hong Kong. That’s when an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) broke out in the Guangdong province of China, which borders Hong Kong. Little was known about SARS, and it didn’t help that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) discouraged its press from reporting on SARS and lagged... Read More

Who’s Really Waging the War Against Women?

For years, Democrats have accused Republicans of waging a war against women. But women are starting to take notice that the Obama administration has been no friend to women. This was brought home recently when the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that a record number of women —55.6 million — ared 16 years or older are not participating in the labor force. Is it any wonder that President Obama’s approval rating among women is below 49 percent? This is a big drop... Read More

America’s Youth Should Broaden Its Post High School Education Options

I came across a fascinating article in The Wall Street Journal recently that reported that due to Germany’s aggressive promotion of vocational schools and skills training, the German unemployment rate for young people is below 8 percent. Contrast that to a new report that one in four Americans aged 24 to 54 aren’t working. That’s an unemployment rate of 25 percent. For our teenagers it is even much higher. That’s a tragedy. But at the root of the problem... Read More

Sacrificing Immigration Reform on the Altar of Cynical Politics

In February 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama said this about immigration: “Number one, it is important that we fix the legal immigration system, because right now we’ve got a backlog that means years for people to apply legally. And what’s worse is we keep on increasing the fees, so that if you’ve got a hard-working immigrant family, they’ve got to hire a lawyer; they’ve got to pay thousands of dollars in fees. They just can’t afford... Read More

Obama Needs to Lift Crude Oil Export Ban This Year

University of Texas’ annual energy poll found that 58 percent of Americans incorrectly thought that America’s major source of foreign oil is Saudi Arabia and another 15 percent say it’s Iraq. The truth, of course, is that America’s biggest oil suppliers is Canada, which provides 28 percent of U.S. oil imports. If you add in Mexico and Venezuela, that number goes up to 50 percent. How much oil do we actually get from the Middle East? Saudi Arabia and... Read More

American Citizens Are Relegated to the Back of the Line for Jobs

When it comes to President Barack Obama, I have always maintained his race has never been a factor in the rejection of his policies. The color of one’s skin shouldn’t matter in this country. Yet, as our first black president, it appears he has turned his back on America’s black labor force. The black unemployment rate stands at more than 20 percent, and has been at that level for a long time. The unemployment rate for black youth is astronomical. Yet, now as part... Read More

Our Broken Immigration Program Stems From a Broken Trade Policy

The flood of refugees into the United States is not only a sign of a failed immigration policy, but of a trade policy that ignores the underlying reason for this humanitarian crisis. Robert Zoellick, who served as president of the World Bank, U.S. trade representative and deputy secretary of state, recently wrote an Op-Ed in The Wall Street Journal in which he maintained that if President Obama had been paying closer attention to Central America, he could have stemmed the... Read More

Hello New Carbon Tax; Goodbye 250,000 American Jobs

My father was born and raised in West Virginia, and is now buried in the heart of coal country. So President Obama’s war on coal and fossil fuels is not only a terrible policy decision, but it’s one that resonates with me personally. Stephen Moore, founder of the Free Enterprise Fund, was recently a guest on my radio show, Made in America, and predicted that the way the Obama administration is waging war on fossil fuels, the coal industry could be dead in 10... Read More