Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
President Barack Obama has “essentially ordered the Border Patrol to stand down,” Rep. Steve King says. The Iowa Republican, speaking with me at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, said Americans shouldn’t be surprised that more illegal immigrants seek to enter the country. “That’s what law is about, a deterrent. So when you reward people…
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., says it’s one thing to be anti-establishment and another to know how to ensure that America remains great for future generations. President Obama “has wreaked such havoc on America,” Sasse said in my interview with him. “America is in dire times,” the freshman U.S. senator told me, fresh off his speech at…
The role of colleges and universities in America used to be to encourage intellectual thought and discussion. But Charles Kesler, one of America’s most prominent conservative professors and a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, says free speech and thought are under assault on campuses around the country. Today’s liberal campus protesters, Kesler says in…
A film based on the young life of country music legend Dolly Parton, which aired on NBC in December, was the most watched television movie on a broadcast network in almost four years. Drawing nearly 13 million viewers, “Coat of Many Colors” shows that faith- and family-themed movies can deliver big audiences. I spoke with Parton and child actress…
After nearly two months of debate, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a new resolution (2270) to punish North Korea for its most recent violations of previous U.N. resolutions. The document augments earlier U.N. measures against Pyongyang, reflecting growing international concern and resolve to confront the regime’s defiance and expanding nuclear and missile capabilities. The…
Wednesday, while a huge crowd of protesters stood in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building, the justices heard oral argument in the first major abortion case in nearly a decade. In Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the Supreme Court is considering whether Texas’ H.B. 2 law—a commonsense reform intended to increase women’s health and…
South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard, a Republican, officially has no problem with boys in girls’ locker rooms. There’s no other way to say it. Special interests and big businesses effectively lobbied the governor to veto a good bill because of the threats they made. Welcome to cultural cronyism at the bathroom. Welcome to cultural cronyism at…
President Barack Obama will soon nominate a justice to fill Antonin Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court. Senate Republicans have vowed to ignore him until after the voters decide in November who will serve as our next president. That’s exactly what should happen.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt on March 2. This is the most important case regarding abortion to be argued before the Supreme Court in almost a decade. Nationally, an estimated “26,500 women experienced complications and approximately 3,180 required hospitalization in 2011” for first-trimester abortions alone. In…
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this week in a case challenging a Texas law that places commonsense health and safety regulations on abortion clinics and abortion clinic doctors. Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt involves a Texas law, known as H.B. 2, that was passed in response to the conviction of late-term abortionist Kermit…
The Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt this week, a case challenging a Texas law that requires the abortion industry to follow commonsense health and safety regulations. Passage of the Texas bill was spurred by the discovery of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the now infamous late-term abortionist who ran a…
There have been many over-the-top liberal reactions to the 2013 Texas law known as House Bill 2. Some have even gone so far as to call it a “a calamity for all women.” But this legislation is anything but. It actually protects the health and safety of women through requiring abortion facilities to meet the…
Do we need a national energy plan? Many politicians think so. In fact, the Senate is considering a massive new energy bill that’s more than 400 pages long. But energy is one of the last sectors of the economy that needs help from the federal government. The bipartisan bill illustrates why bipartisanship isn’t always a…
Could you imagine being a business owner; selling a legal, functional product; and being sued every time an individual who buys your product uses it to commit a crime? Should a rope manufacturer be liable when someone is hanged by that rope? Should a knife manufacturer be liable when someone is stabbed? Should a rope…
In an example of how not to negotiate national security issues, Secretary of State John Kerry triggered confusion and consternation for key ally South Korea on U.S. deployment of the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missile defense system. Just as Washington was finally gaining momentum for deploying a system that would significantly improve anti-missile…
With state legislatures entering the busiest time of their legislative calendar, a number of states are considering Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRA) that would protect citizens’ fundamental rights from unreasonable and unnecessary government coercion. West Virginia and Georgia are among the states that have introduced state-level versions of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, which prohibit…
It’s another day, and another tantrum from Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. But it doesn’t matter how much he jumps up and down and stomps his feet—we aren’t going to let the far left get away with denying the American people the opportunity to be heard. Letting the American people decide this question is the reasonable approach….
There are few ideas today that seize the minds of liberals more than equality. It is the central tenet of progressive liberalism. It drives practically everything liberals do and believe in, from income equality to marriage equality. We usually think about the problem as an economist or sociologist would—as in whether everyone has the same…
How do you get rid of cronyism in Washington? In my interview with Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Media and a former Republican presidential candidate, he makes the case that complexity gives power to Washington and that there is no better example than the IRS. Forbes says if you throw out the current tax code and go…
Former Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes sat down with The Daily Signal on the eve of Super Tuesday to talk about what it’s like to run for office and the very difficult decision most candidates eventually face: how to know when it’s time to drop out. Forbes ran for the White House in 1996 and 2000…