Free Republic

Like most Americans, I am a descendant of immigrants and a grateful beneficiary of the opportunities available to our nation's citizens. My grandparents emigrated from Mexico in the early 20th century seeking a better life, and they found it working in the fields and dairy farms of Texas. Diversity is one of the great strengths of the United States -- diversity fueled by the migration of ethnicities, cultures and ideas. Today, however, there is virtually universal agreement that our immigration process is broken. While security on our southern border has improved in the past decade, it remains inadequate in a...

“We want our money back,” Barack Obama has told US banks, announcing a levy on large financial institutions to help repay the notorious bailout he imposed last year. Oh, do “we”? And who gave away the taxpayers’ money in the first place, Mr President? This pretended identification with Joe on Main Street is a favourite ploy of dodgy politicos with their backs to the wall – Wall Street, in this case, which is imminently expected to announce bonuses beyond the dreams of avarice, hence Obama’s nervous anxiety to be seen to be “doing something”. If Obama wants to see the...

The temporary increase in the national debt ceiling approved this month — combined with the prospect of a huge trillion-dollar-plus increase early next year — has once again prompted criticisms of President Obama for runaway spending and record deficits. All this borrowing is only necessary, we are told, because Obama ran up $1.4 trillion of debt in his first year. It's true that the White House is pushing big spending items, not least of which is his multitrillion-dollar scheme for government-run health care. But many critics, either out of ignorance or malice, are blaming Obama for deficits that are not...

Activists are expressing disappointment with President Barack Obama’s plans for the Aids treatment programme in Africa, charging that he has fallen short of the achievements of his predecessor, George W. Bush. Obama pledged to increase Pepfar spending by $1b a year, but in his first budget, called for only $165m in new funds. Gregg Gonsalves, a leading US anti-Aids campaigner, warned an audience in New York last week, “I am about to say something shocking: I miss George W Bush.” “President Obama has all but failed to fulfil his commitments to wage an aggressive battle against global Aids,” a coalition...