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The House omnibus bill, released last night, includes a provision that would quadruple the number of H-2B visas for low-skilled guest workers. The measure would increase the number of H-2B visa workers allowed in the U.S. in 2016 from 66,000 to around 264,000. The new provision does not increase the current H-2B visa cap of 66,000 but would exclude any worker who has already received an H-2B visa in the last three years. The provision can be found on page 701 of the omnibus spending bill:

My dad used to repeat this quote: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt." That's been an impossible task for me given my 30 years as a columnist. My solution is simple: When I don't know the answer, I just say I don't know the answer. If many people were more honest about a great many things, they, too, would say they don't know the answer. Take the past two weeks, in which I have written about my doubts over man-made climate change. The personal attacks in the comment section...

Sen. Sessions says this hurts wages and reduces job prospects for native-born workers. The upcoming appropriations legislation would massively expand the foreign worker program, quadrupling the issuance of low-wage visas, according to an analysis from Sen. Jeff Sessions' (R., Ala.) office. The H-2B visa program allows employers to hire foreign workers to come temporarily into the United States to work either in nonagricultural labor or a temporary service job. For example, some workers who use the H-2B visa program could be employed as a housekeeper, an amusement park worker, or a landscape laborer. According to the senator's office, the language...

A proposal to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees to the United States has ignited a bitter debate in Washington, but more than 10 times that number of people from the embattled country have quietly come to America since 2012, according to figures obtained by FoxNews.com. Some 102,313 Syrians were granted admission to the U.S. as legal permanent residents or through programs including work, study and tourist visas from 2012 through August of this year, a period which roughly coincides with the devastating civil war that still engulfs the Middle Eastern country. Experts say any fears that terrorists might infiltrate the proposed...

When politicians try to tax corporations to death, the corporations are likely to take rational action. What would the U.S. economy look like if there were eleven new companies the size of Pfizer? A little back-of-the-envelope math: If those eleven companies each employed about the same number of people as Pfizer, that would be the better part of 1 million new jobs, which would take care of about 13 percent of those Americans currently jobless-- and if they got nice Pfizer wages, too, so much the better. There would be an additional $2.1 trillion in the pension funds and individual...

Donald Trump and Corey A. Stewart had never met before the front-runner for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination held a rally in Manassas early this month. But people who know the longtime chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors say it makes perfect sense that Trump tapped him this week to chair his Virginia campaign. Like Trump, Stewart is a blunt and outspoken Republican advocate of cracking down on illegal immigration. A local law he championed that allows county police to check the immigration status of anyone they arrest made him a pariah to liberal Democrats and advocacy...

The $1.1 trillion omnibus bill includes language that would dramatically increase the number of visas available for foreign workers, setting off alarm bells among conservatives and labor unions. Congressional leaders quietly slipped the provision into the 2,009-page funding bill, with rank-and-file lawmakers only discovering it Wednesday morning. The move immediately sparked protests from both ends of the political spectrum.  The provision could more than triple the number of H-2B visas for foreign workers seeking jobs at hotels, theme parks, ski resorts, golf courses, landscaping businesses, restaurants and bars. The move is intended to boost the supply of non-agricultural seasonal...

HARRISBURG - State Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane, who has castigated prosecutors, judges, and others for exchanging offensive emails, failed to disclose that her twin sister - a top prosecutor on her staff - sent and received emails that mocked African Americans and Asians, joked about domestic abuse, and included photos of scantily clad men and women. Kane made public her sister's emails late Wednesday after coming under pressure from a Philadelphia prosecutor, who asserted that Kane's sister had sent or received 58 troubling emails - and Kane herself had received 11. The 49-year-old Democrat and her sister, Ellen Granahan,...

National Security: At one point in the GOP debate, Jeb Bush said Donald Trump gets his foreign policy information from Sunday talk shows. We're beginning to think Jeb's right, which is a serious problem in today's world.

Navy officials say they are going to award the Purple Heart to four Marines and a sailor who were killed, and a Marine who was injured when a gunman attacked a Chattanooga reserve center this past summer. US Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced the decision Wednesday in a news release that also noted that the FBI and Naval Criminal Investigation Service determined the attack was inspired by a foreign terrorist group. That determination was necessary to bestow the award. The Purple Hearts will go posthumously to Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Smith, Staff Sgt David Wyatt, Sgt Carson Holmquist,...

The two Hispanic senators in the Republican presidential race - Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida - battled over immigration in the debate on Tuesday, competing to show who is tougher on border security. Mr. Rubio is vulnerable with conservatives on the divisive issue because of a bill he sponsored in 2013 that would have given people in the country illegally a pathway to citizenship. After Tuesday's debate, readers asked us to look into whether the two candidates had accurately portrayed their own records on immigration: 'Cruz and Rubio exchanged conflicting claims on whether Cruz has or...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is being honest about his position on the Gang of Eight immigration reform bill in 2013. He opposed the bill, and he introduced an amendment to allow illegal aliens to gain legal status as long as they never became citizens with the right to vote. He did so to show that Democrats were more interested in new votes than in helping illegal aliens. He also did so to show there were conditions under which conservatives would accept immigration reform. That is the story Cruz is telling, and that is exactly how it happened. But Bret Baier...

CHICAGO (AP) — The latest on developments surrounding a federal civil rights investigation of the Chicago Police Department (all times local): 8:45 p.m. A grand jury has indicted a white Chicago police officer charged in the shooting death of black teenager Laquan McDonald. According to a copy of the indictment posted Wednesday on the Chicago Tribune's website (http://trib.in/1T2Batl ), Officer Jason Van Dyke was indicted Tuesday on six counts of first-degree murder and one count of official misconduct. The indictment alleges Van Dyke shot the 17-year-old knowing it "created a strong probability of death or great bodily harm." Van Dyke...

Is Jeb Bush secretly preparing to support the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton if Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination? According to a report in Politico, Bush may go rogue and issue a public statement announcing his refusal to back the GOP front-runner if Trump is the eventual nominee. According to two sources close to the Bush campaign, senior aides are now examining whether such a statement by Bush would disqualify him from certain state primary ballots, some of which demand candidates sign a loyalty pledge declaring that they will support the eventual Republican Party nominee, reports Politico. Trump responded...

Mexico will work with any U.S. administration, including one headed by Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, but firmly rejects racism and xenophobia, the country's foreign minister said on Wednesday. The billionaire businessman, who has made headlines for calling for a wall along the border with Mexico and a ban on Muslims entering the United States, is leading in opinion polls ahead of the November 2016 elections. In an interview with Reuters, Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu said she was certain such comments did not reflect the views of the majority of U.S. citizens.

"..........Anti-trade groups on the political right use similar methods. The easiest target for these groups has been apprehension among conservative voters over the intentions of President Obama,focusing on things like immigration and gun control. Conservative protectionists adopted the term "Obamatrade" to refer--interchangeably,in order to profit from confusion--to the TPP,trade promotion authority,and even the WTO. During the debate earlier this year over trade promotion authority,a number of politicians fell for the simplistic but inaccurate argument that TPA would enable Obama to secretly liberalize America's immigration laws.The most recent right-wing,anti-trade boogieman is the idea that the TPP will enable Obama to implement...

Jim Quinn is back! - and in better form than ever!! The Quinn in the Morning Show airs from 6:00am to 9:00 am, Monday thru Friday. To listen online, go to www.warroom.com and sign up for a monthly fee. Or you can listen on the radio locally in the upstate NY area on 1040 WYSL Rochester, NY or 1480 WCNS in Latrobe, Pa. If you sign up online, be sure to choose the auto-renew option in order to have full access to archived shows and podcasts.

Rose is back! Formerly the Rose half of the Quinn & Rose Morning Show, she is back on the air and ready for the fight! Catch her on Pittsburgh's 1250 AM The Answer WPGP, from 8AM to 10AM Monday through Friday or via live stream at www.am1250theanswer.com, where you can also get the podcasts. Join us for real no-nonsense conservative talk with a passion that only Rose can deliver! Grab a cup of joe and lets discuss Rose's latest show. Lots of good guests and and a round table discussion on Fridays!!

At what point in Donald Trump's inaugural address do you figure the GOP establishment will finally grasp what's been happening? The establishment -- not "elites," because they're mostly bland functionaries who went to third-rate schools -- have thrown absolutely everything they have at Trump. I've never seen so many Republicans featured on MSNBC. At least no one will be able to say the Republican National Committee didn't give it the old college try (and, again, that would be third-rate colleges). Trump is a runaway hit with Americans for the simple reason that he's the only candidate saying anything Americans care...

There are certainly some good things in the Omnibus Spending/Tax Extenders bills that dropped early this morning (though I thought this Congress was elected to stop this kind of legislation-by-crisis). Unfortunately, what's not in the bill suggests Congress missed several opportunities to rein in the Obama administration's regulatory overreach. My tax policy colleagues think the good outweighs the bad. The provision preventing taxation of Internet commerce is good. The oil export language is good. There are some very good things reinforcing First Amendment rights (which shouldn't need reinforcing in the first place). Yuval Levin has written about the complexities of...