[VIDEO] Donald Trump Releases Immigration Plan, Including Ending Birthright Citizenship

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Sunday released his campaign’s immigration plan, which includes ending birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants.

“This remains the biggest magnet for illegal immigration,” Trump says in the plan posted on his website.

“We are the only country in the world whose immigration system puts the needs of other nations ahead of our own,” Trump also said. “That must change.”

Here is how Trump describes the three principles of his plan:

A nation without borders is not a nation. There must be a wall across the southern border.

A nation without laws is not a nation. Laws passed in accordance with our Constitutional system of government must be enforced.

A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation. Any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans.

Trump’s plan includes his frequent call to make Mexico pay for a wall across the southern border. “For many years, Mexico’s leaders have been taking advantage of the United States by using illegal immigration to export the crime and poverty in their own country (as well is in other Latin American countries),” Trump says.

Says Trump: “We will not be taken advantage of anymore.”

Trump is also calling for the government to triple the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, mandate nationwide e-verify systems for employers, deport criminal illegal immigrants, end catch-and-release of people caught trying to enter the country illegaly, defund sanctuary cities and implement harsher penalties for immigrants overstaying visas.

Via: Daily Caller

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ORTIZ: WORK ON WASHINGTON’S SCHEDULE, OR ELSE

Washington politicos who keep to a predictable, 9-to-5 schedule seem unwilling to accept that a huge portion of the American workforce not working this way. In our increasingly service-based economy, characterized by such jobs as yoga instructors, restaurant servers, and Uber drivers, the workday of previous generations is gradually becoming a relic of it.

In fact, nearly one-third of Americans work on the weekends, more than one-fourth work at night, and one-fifth work“nonstandard” hours.

But politicians and regulators, beholden to labor unions threatened by this new economy, are waging a full-fledged assault on job creators who don’t conform to their concept of “work.” Their latest front is the so-called “Schedules That Work Act,” recently introduced in Congress.

This bill places limits on “on-call” and “split-shift” work. It would also require employers to post work schedules two weeks early, accommodate most of their employees’ scheduling requests, and limit changes to the work schedule within 24 hours of a shift. If only employers could demand this type of reliability from their customers.

But with the exception of government jobs, staffing needs vary with customer demand, not employee convenience. Trying to mandate scheduling consistency would place yet another burden on American small businesses and hurt the very people it intends to help.

“On-call,” “split,” and last-minute shifts, for instance, are staples of many industries where consumer demand fluctuates throughout the day and week. They allow restaurateurs, for example, to respond to a surge in diners from, say, a concert finishing nearby, and allow for appropriate staffing when the restaurant is busiest (i.e. mealtimes).

Limiting these shifts would lead businesses to understaff, meaning a less enjoyable experience for both the customer and the employee. It would also mean that employees miss out on the last-minute shift opportunity they otherwise would not have had the chance to take. And, where previously an employee could have worked eight hours over a “split-shift,” under this bill they may only have the opportunity to work one of the lunch or dinner rushes.

Too few hours is already a major problem for many American employees. There are 2.2 million employees in the country who receive 35 or fewer hours a week but who would like to work more. This bill would only exacerbate this trend.

Regarding the bill’s requirement to accommodate employees’ scheduling requests: The overwhelming majority of employers already attempt to do this. But guaranteeing them is not always possible. If such a mandate were passed, it would turn the scheduling process into a glorified logic problem, where employers try to match up which employees can work which hours and which days based on their countless scheduling conditions.

It’s not difficult to see who would be most hurt by such a mandate: those with the most onerous scheduling requests. Why provide job opportunities to employees whose scheduling demands create big headaches? In other words, like so many of the recently proposed workplace regulations ostensibly created to protect employees from the new economy, this bill would hurt the very people it is trying to help.

Alfredo Ortiz is CEO and President of Job Creators Network

Via: Breitbart

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[VIDEO] OBAMA SCOLDS REPORTER, SAYS HE’S WORKING ‘DILIGENTLY’ TO GET FOUR AMERICANS OUT OF IRAN

Major Garrett had the audacity to ask Obama why, with all the fanfare around the Iran deal, that he’s content to leave four Americans in Iran. Well, that kinda pissed Obama off and he scolded Major Garrett for suggesting that he’s content:

Obama pretends that if he had made the four Americans part of this deal, that Iran could have used them to squeeze even more concessions out of them. Heh, is that even possible?

In reality Obama could have demanded the release of the Americans as a pre-condition to negotiation, so that before the negotiations had even begun, they would have been home already and wouldn’t be part of the actual negotiations.

So he can scold reporters and feign outrage that Iran is holding these four Americans, but in reality if he really cared, they would be home already.

Via: The Right Scoop

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Poll: One In Four Americans Satisfied With Direction Of The Country

Americans’ satisfaction with the direction of the U.S. has dropped 6 points since the beginning of the year, with government, the economy and unemployment cited as the top problems facing the nation.

Satisfaction with how things are going in the country hit a two-year high in January at 32 percent but has gradually dropped since then to 26 percent, Gallup said.

Fourteen percent of Americans rated dissatisfaction with government the most important problem facing the country today, followed by the economy in general at 12 percent and unemployment at 10 percent.

Race relations (8 percent); immigration (6 percent); a decline in moral, religious and family ethics (6 percent); health care (5 percent); and terrorism (5 percent) were also frequently cited problems facing the country.

“After years of dysfunctional government, the economy and unemployment dominating Americans’ mentions of the top problem facing the nation, fewer mention these problems now than in recent years,” Gallup’s Justin McCarthy wrote. “Still, these three problems remain at the forefront of Americans’ concerns and may be driving Americans’ high level of dissatisfaction with the nation’s direction.”

The survey of 1,024 adults was conducted May 6-10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Via: Washington Times

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Obama Weekly Address: Fighting for Trade Deals that Put American Workers First

In this week’s address, the President laid out why new, high-standards trade agreements are important for our economy, our businesses, our workers, and our values. These new trade deals are vital to middle-class economics -- the idea that this country does best when everybody gets their fair shot, everybody does their fair share, and everybody plays by the same set of rules. The President has been clear -- any deal he signs will be the most progressive trade agreement in our history with strong provisions for both workers and the environment. It would also level the playing field -- and when the playing field is level, American workers always win.

Via: WhiteHouse.gov

7 OBAMACARE NUMBERS THAT HAVE DEMOCRATS PANICKING

As the seemingly endless deluge of negative Obamacare developments continue to mount up, theNational Journal’s “Hotline” reported on Thursday that “disapproval of the health care law” has “put Democrats on the defensive” heading into the November midterm elections. 

Here are seven Obamacare figures that have Democratic insiders sweating. 

1.  56% of uninsured Americans do not like Obamacare.

The Kaiser Family Foundation’s recent polling data reveal that 56% of uninsured Americans--the very people whom Obamacare purports to help--do not like Obamacare.

2.  According to the Obama administration’s own figures, Obamacare will spike premiums on 11 million small business employees.

A new report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services concluded that two-thirds of small businesses that offer health insurance will pay higher premiums due to Obamacare. That, reports the Washington Post, means 11 million workers can expect their premiums to jump because of Obamacare. Worse for Democrats, because many employers renewed their pre-Obamacare health plans before the end of 2013, many of these rate spikes will be timed to hit beginning in the second part of 2014 right before the November 4 midterm elections.

3.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says Obamacare will kill 2.5 million jobs over the next 10 years.

By creating disincentives to work, the CBO says Obamacare will result in a “decline in the number of full-time equivalent workers of about 2.0 million in 2017, rising to about 2.5 million in 2024.”

4.  Obamacare will cost taxpayers between $1.8 and $2.6 trillion over the next decade. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has reported that Obamacare will cost American taxpayers $1.798 trillion. The Senate GOP Budget Committee says those figures are based on overly optimistic economic assumptions and scores the real cost at $2.6 trillion.

5.  According to the New York Times, 800,000 Obamacare enrollees failed to pay their first premium.

Even as the Obama administration attempts to put a happy face on its low four million enrollees—a figure far removed from its seven million goal--the New York Times says at least 20% of all the people who applied for Obamacare never paid their first month’s premium, thereby rendering them still uninsured.

6.  Just 11% of Obamacare customers were previously uninsured.

The purported purpose of Obamacare was to increase health care coverage of uninsured Americans. However, as the Wall Street Journal reported, a McKinsey & Co. study last month found that “only 11% of consumers who bought new coverage under the law were previously uninsured.”

7.  Obama reassured Americans at least 36 times that if they liked their health care plan, they could keep their health care plan.

President Barack Obama’s now-infamous promise, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” was named Politifact’s “Lie of the Year.” Obama stated the claim at least 36 times, and several Democrats running in tight races parroted the president’s comments before millions of Americans saw their health insurance plans canceled due to Obamacare. Political ads have already begun hitting voters showcasing Democratic candidates repeating Obama’s ill-fated promise.

Via: Breitbart

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3 Things You Don’t Know About Obamacare That Could Hurt You

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Nearly one in three Americans have little familiarity with Obamacare, and the ramifications are playing out in the media. Since each day brings headlines highlighting Americans who are surprised by changes in their health care situation because of President Obama’s signature achievement, The Heritage Foundation compiled three Obamacare items that might surprise you:

1. Your doctor could be outside the network of your Obamacare exchange plan. This could be true even if the insurer said that physician is in its health care provider network. The California state exchange, called Covered California, has had a systemic problem with this issue. Earlier this month, the exchange pulled its physician directory for the second time because of all the errors.

Since the health plans took effect January 1, many Obamacare enrollees in California have complained that doctors won’t take their insurance, despite being listed as part of the plan’s network. Insurance expert Edmund Haislmaier, senior research fellow in Heritage’s Center for Health Policy Studies, says it’s a combination of insurers rushing to get information to the exchanges and the exchanges not updating their directories quickly enough.

Some health care providers could be negotiating with insurers over payment rates, which delays doctors from being in plan networks, Haislmaier added. “This will sort itself out over time but it’s an issue that is still playing out,” he said, advising enrollees to call their physicians first to verify participation in plans offered by the Obamacare exchanges.

2. You might get a better deal if you buy insurance outside an Obamacare exchange.Unless you live in the District of Columbia or Vermont, you can buy health insurance outside the exchanges, either through an insurance agent or directly from an insurer. The biggest disadvantage is that such health plans aren’t eligible for Obamacare’s subsidies.

But some Americans don’t qualify for Obamacare subsidies anyway, such as those making more than 400 percent of the federal poverty level (about $45,960 for an individual or $94,200 for a family of four). For them, buying an “outside” plan could be slightly cheaper.

Via: The Foundry

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[VIDEO] "Named one of the Top Scams of 2013" Who Loves Obamacare? Con Artists

Obamacare has been named one of the top scams of 2013.

Scammers are using “uncertainty” over Obamacare to trick Americans into giving them personal information, according to the Better Business Bureau.

Scammers call Americans and pretend to be government workers. The scammers then lie to the victims, telling them that they need a new Medicare or health insurance card. The Do Not Call list, Facebook, foreign currency, medical alerts, and online auctions are all ways that scammers are tricking Americans.

Via: WFB

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House Dems to use longshot tactic to force votes, tarnish GOP in midterms

FILE: Dec. 12, 2013: House Minority Leader, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C.AP

House Democrats are vowing to try a rarely used tactic to force votes in the GOP-led chamber on the minimum wage and immigration reform, a strategy that will likely fail but might hurt Republicans with voters in this year’s elections.

The tactic is known as a “discharge petition." It would require the minority party, in this case Democrats, to persuade roughly two dozen Republicans to defy their leadership and join Democrats in forcing a vote on setting the federal minimum wage at $10.10 an hour.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said fellow chamber Democrats will push the issue when Congress returns from its break Feb. 24.

The attempt to force a vote on a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws could occur in a few months.

Democrats think that a majority of Americans support both issues and that attempting to use the discharge petition will at least portray House Republicans as the obstacle to their success.

However, the discharge petition rarely works.

Via: Fox News

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Winter Olympics 2014 medal count: Norway leading after Saturday events

Richard Heathcote

The Norwegians cleaned up in cross-country skiing and have an early lead in the medal count.

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While Canada, Germany and the United States dominated the medal table during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Norway has stormed out of the gates in the Sochi games to take an early lead in the medal count.

On Saturday, five different medal events took place with a total of 15 medals awarded. Norway walked away with four of those medals, including two golds in skiing. First, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen won gold in the men's biathlon 10km sprint. Later on, Marit Bjoergen won gold in the women's skiathlon.

The latest medal count

Be sure to keep SB Nation's beautiful, constantly-updated medal tracker by your side all Olympics long.

The United States also won gold on Saturday when Sage Kotsenburg emerged as the victor in the men's slopestyle snowboarding competition. Still, the Netherlands sits above the United States on the medal table because of a clean sweep in the men's 5000 m speed skating.

Canada had a strong showing in the women's freestyle moguls, securing two more medals thanks to sisters Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe. American Hannah Kearney finished third, failing to defend her Vancouver gold medal.

1. Norway (4) - Two gold, one silver, one bronze

T2. Canada (3) - One gold, one silver, one bronze

T2. Netherlands (3) - One gold, one silver, one bronze

4. United States (2) - One gold, one bronze

T5. Sweden (1) - One silver

T5. Austria (1) - One silver

T5. Czech Republic (1) - One bronze

Via: SBNation

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In God we trust, maybe, but not each other

WASHINGTON (AP) - You can take our word for it. Americans don't trust each other anymore.

We're not talking about the loss of faith in big institutions such as the government, the church or Wall Street, which fluctuates with events. For four decades, a gut-level ingredient of democracy - trust in the other fellow - has been quietly draining away.

These days, only one-third of Americans say most people can be trusted. Half felt that way in 1972, when the General Social Survey first asked the question.

Forty years later, a record high of nearly two-thirds say "you can't be too careful" in dealing with people.

(AP) Bart Murawski, 27 poses at a coffee shop Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013, in Troy, N.Y. You can take our... Full Image

An AP-GfK poll conducted last month found that Americans are suspicious of each other in everyday encounters. Less than one-third expressed a lot of trust in clerks who swipe their credit cards, drivers on the road, or people they meet when traveling.

"I'm leery of everybody," said Bart Murawski, 27, of Albany, N.Y. "Caution is always a factor."

Does it matter that Americans are suspicious of one another? Yes, say worried political and social scientists.

What's known as "social trust" brings good things.

Via: My Way

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Is Health Care A Fundamental Human Right or a Service?

How many Americans believe that health care is a fundamental human right? How many Americans believe that it is just a service that must be paid for just like any other service? Good doctors and nurses who train a long time and invest a lot of money in their education expect to be paid well for their expertise and unique skills.

Respectable hospitals cannot operate on the basis of a “fundamental human right,” invented by “progressives,” somebody must pay for health care. Life-saving medical equipment and drugs are expensive.

There is a reason why the best medical care, equipment, drugs, anddoctors in the world exist in capitalism and not in socialist countries. Individual thinking, creativity, and entrepreneurship rewarded by profit have improved our lives and our health. Collectivism resulted in the death of 100 million individuals. Developing each drug cost at least $950 million and researchers and investors expect to be paid for their financial risks, research, and ideas.

Americans have always supported the development of life-saving expensive drugs which were then sold to other nations for much less than we paid at home or were given away for free. Americans have thus subsidized the medical treatment of citizens of many nations.

Via: Canada Free Press

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62% FEAR JOB LOSS DUE TO ECONOMY

A new Washington Post-Miller Center poll finds that a record 62% of Americans worry they will lose their jobs due to the dour U.S. economy. Roughly one in three people (32%) said they worry "a lot" about job loss, another record high. 

Strikingly, the survey found that America's growing economic anxiety no longer tracks with political ideology or partisanship; economic fears span the political spectrum. 

"Americans' economic perceptions often divide along political lines," reported the Post. "But that's not the case with this new anxiety. Once you control for economic and demographic factors, there is no partisan divide." 

The Post added, "There's no racial divide, either, and no gender gap. It also doesn't matter where you live." 

The poll also found that 70% of Americans believe reducing the federal budget deficit is a "very important" or the "most important" factor in making America economically competitive.  

Via Breitbart

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Nicole Hopkins: ObamaCare Forced Mom Into Medicaid

My mother is not one to seek attention by complaining, so her recent woeful FacebookFB 0.00% post caught my eye: "The poor get poorer." It diverged from the more customary stream of inspirational quotes, recipes and snapshots from her tiny cottage in Pierce County, Wash.

The post continued: "I just received a notice: 'In order to comply with the new healthcare law, your current health plan will be discontinued on December 31, 2013.' Currently my premium is $276 and it is a stretch for me to cover. The new plan . . . are you ready . . . projected new rate $415.20. Now I can't afford health insurance."

The unaffordable ObamaCare-compliant plan that her insurer offered in a Sept. 26 letter is not what makes my mother's story noteworthy. Countless individually insured Americans have received such letters; many are seeing more radical increases in premiums and deductibles.

But most of these people are still being offered the chance to choose what health-care insurance they will receive, or to opt out before they are automatically enrolled in a state program. Not so my mother, Charlene Hopkins, as I soon discovered when I called after seeing her Facebook post.

Via: WSJ

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RAND PAUL: OBAMA THINKS AMERICANS ARE STUPID

BACK TO BREITBART TV

Via: Breitbart

“Barack the Incompetent”—It Has a Nice Ring, Doesn’t it?!!

Historians will look back upon Obamamania with a sense of disbelief and humor, every bit as much as those studying the Tulipomania (see Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds). That Obama’s powers to mesmerize, amaze and compel have dissipated is the most pedestrian observation, recalling Lord Byron’s famous lines;

The spell is broke; the charm is flown!
Thus is it with life’s fitful fever:
We madly smile when we should groan:
Delirium is our best deceiver.

But politics, much like society, requires displays of the symbols of civil religion—sacraments and sacrifice. So it is fitting that since Barack has violated the sacred trust of Americans by misusing the authority loaned him by the people, he be removed. His astonishing incompetence, added to his annoying chutzpah and insipid bombast have left a residue of distrust and cynicism at the workings and authority of government.

While Barack’s endless pratfalls have left a warning about the dangers of neo-liberalism, there must still be a public atonement for all of his reckless, selfish and disastrous actions. Obama must be removed from public office. ObamaCare must be officially repudiated as much as the cult of Stalin, and the terrifyingly corruptDemocratic Party must be de-Liberalized. This means they must surrender all of their ruinous and anti-American policies or be forced from public life.

I. Obama Must Resign, or Be Judged Incapable of Fulfilling Duties of Office

Via: Canada Free Press

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Lying about Lies President Obama is now dishonestly defending his dishonest assertions.

The cancellations will affect only a small number of people, those who buy individual policies.

In making this claim, the president focuses on the individual market, which he accurately notes covers about 5 percent of Americans. Still, that is about 14 to 15 million people. So far, as of mid November, roughly 4.8 million individual insurance plans have been canceled, with most estimates suggesting that as many as 10 million will eventually lose their current coverage.

But the same conditions that are causing the cancellation of individual policies will eventually result in thecancellation of millions of employment-based policies as well. The only reason that hasn’t happened yet is that the employer mandate was postponed for a year, so employer plans don’t yet have to be ACA-compliant. But they will. Even the Congressional Budget Office estimates that as many as 20 million workers will lose their current employer-sponsored plans. Combine that with those losing individual plans, and more than 30 million Americans cannot keep their current insurance.

It could be far more. As Avik Roy of the Manhattan Institute points out, some 51 percent of the employer-based insurance market will lose grandfathered status and need to make changes to comply with Obamacare provisions. That could mean that, in total, as many as 93 million will lose their insurance. That’s not exactly “a few.”

The policies being canceled are “substandard,” offering few if any real benefits.

Via: NRO

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