Dillie Nerios is a Florida food stamp recruiter. Her job is to sign up 150 seniors monthly in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Centennials are normally cause for celebration, a chance to applaud some thing or person standing the test of time. But not so for the income tax. Even the IRS is declining to mention that this year is the 100 year anniversary of the 16th Amendment of the Constitution, which authorized the tax.

Arizona legislators are under intense pressure to pass the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. They’re getting it from all sides.

According to the Government Accountability Office, the federal government operates 50 different programs for the homeless. There are 23 programs in housing, 26 for food and nutrition, 130 for at-risk youth. They also operate an astounding 342 programs for economic development, which government is notoriously bad at anyway.

Republicans should get out front for once and lead the movement to legalize marijuana. It makes sense any way you look at it.

Sorry, but Nancy Pelosi is wrong. We do have a spending problem and the heart of the matter is our inability to control medical costs. Spending on health care now consumes an astonishing 18 percent of our total economic output. Rising Medicare and Medicaid costs are the main drivers of our national debt crisis. Yet health care costs continue to shoot up relentlessly.

The pressure from the Obama administration for Arizona to expand our Medicaid program is enormous. Gov. Brewer is on board and even some legislative conservatives seem to be wavering. But legislators should take one more look before they make what could be a fateful leap.

In American political culture, we prove we’re concerned about something by spending money on it. Americans are obviously concerned about protecting schools from more mass shootings after Newtown. But in this case, the best response may not be the most expensive.

There’s no other way to put it. Congress is simply addicted to spending Other People’s Money. The latest evidence of their problem was the bill to resolve the fiscal cliff, which was stuffed with slabs of pork. That’s like sneaking drugs into your rehab counseling sessions.

There's some bad news for Obama voters who think their guy swept the table in November and is now entitled to have things his way for the next four years. There were other elections held in states across the nation and most of them didn't go so well for the Big Government tax-and-spend crowd.

Americans are rightly concerned about going over the fiscal cliff. But they got their eyes on the wrong cliff. The Little Cliff that is in the news is man-made, a mixture of spending cuts and tax hikes intended to be so onerous that Washington politicians would have to “do something” meaningful to reduce the national debt.

Nancy Pelosi once famously advised some questioners to not bother being too curious about Obamacare, then under discussion. "We have to pass the bill to find out what's in it," she told them.

In this highly contentious election season, we all agreed about one thing: This was a big deal. The two presidential candidates offered vividly contrasting visions of America's future. It was taxing the rich versus tax reform, it was redesigning our entitlement programs versus maintaining them as is, it was fiscal discipline versus deficits indefinitely.

It's tempting to think that if we just elect the right people next week, the clouds will part, the sun will break through and everything will be fine again. But it's not that simple. Whoever is president the next four years will face daunting problems. We've dug some big holes for ourselves.

The media have teed up the issue of voter fraud nicely. On the one hand, we’ve been repeatedly told that, try as they might, no journalists can find any evidence of voter fraud. The local Cronkite Center chimed in with a well-publicized report claiming that voter impersonation, and by extension voter fraud, is pretty much nonexistent.

Although the entertainment industry doesn't generally support conservative causes, Hollywood seems to be caught up in the human drama of the school reform movement. The 2010 movie "Waiting for Superman" explored the heart-wrenching experience of inner-city parents whose children's future hung in the balance as they sweated out the lottery for admission into a high-performing charter school. "Won't Back Down" (which I haven't seen yet), released last month, depicts a concerned parent and principal who team together to take control of a failing school using the new parent-trigger law.

In 1980 William Clay, the president of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers union (PATCO) told their convention that they must “learn the rules of the game,” which were “that you don’t put the interest of any other group ahead of your own.” They must be “selfish and pragmatic” and emphasize that “what’s good for the federal employees (is) good for the nation.”

Last December, 1.3 million Americans received SSI disability payments for “mood disorders.” Yes, that’s right, more Americans than the entire population of San Diego received a monthly check from Uncle Sam to compensate for their suffering from such psychic maladies as sleep disturbance, appetite disturbance, decreased energy and feelings of guilt or worthlessness.

Arizonans Disappointed With Election Results – an informal coalition which until now was not even named – are back on the ballot this November.

Do you remember how test scores improved after Gov. Hull’s education tax passed a decade ago? Did you see how passage of Gov. Brewer’s temporary sales tax increase two years ago resulted in better performing schools? Me neither.

Do you remember how test scores improved after Gov. Hull’s education tax passed a decade ago? Did you see how passage of Gov. Brewer’s temporary sales tax increase two years ago resulted in better performing schools? Me neither.

It’s absolutely mind-boggling. President Obama has decided to gut the single most successful public policy of recent decades-- the 1996 welfare reform.

The fate of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will be determined within the next few months. We’ll soon know if America will be saddled permanently with an unaffordable, unworkable, unpopular entitlement when we can least afford it.

The Pew Center on the States, not known as a conservative thought leader, had some bad news for Arizona recently. Our state pension systems are seriously underwater and sinking fast.

The Pew Center on the States, not known as a conservative thought leader, had some bad news for Arizona recently. Our state pension systems are seriously underwater and sinking fast.

On Wednesday, June 6, the stock market staged its biggest rally of the year. The Dow soared 275 points the day after Gov. Scott Walker won a decisive victory in his Wisconsin recall election.

New York City charter schools this year had 51,473 applicants for 12,917 new seats. That leaves almost 40,000 heartbroken families who wanted their children to have a shot at the American dream that only quality education can provide.

New York City charter schools this year had 51,473 applicants for 12,917 new seats. That leaves almost 40,000 heartbroken families who wanted their children to have a shot at the American dream that only quality education can provide.

Americans gape with fascination at the slow-motion implosion of the Eurozone. But it’s a fabulous opportunity to learn from others, if we will, and avoid at least some of the misery enveloping Europe.

Americans gape with fascination at the slow-motion implosion of the Eurozone. But it’s a fabulous opportunity to learn from others, if we will, and avoid at least some of the misery enveloping Europe.

Here we go again. In 2010, desperate Americans returned control of the U.S. House back to Republicans hoping that they would do the heavy lifting necessary to avoid our looming fiscal meltdown.

Here we go again. In 2010, desperate Americans returned control of the U.S. House back to Republicans hoping that they would do the heavy lifting necessary to avoid our looming fiscal meltdown.

John Blundell, the English writer and biographer of Margaret Thatcher, was asked what advice the Iron Lady would have had for today’s presidential candidates. She would have been concerned with mounting debt, he said, but her first priority would have been to avoid, at all costs, a government takeover of health care. She knew that once you have a government-run system, you can never get rid of it, no matter how ruinous it is.

John Blundell, the English writer and biographer of Margaret Thatcher, was asked what advice the Iron Lady would have had for today’s presidential candidates. She would have been concerned with mounting debt, he said, but her first priority would have been to avoid, at all costs, a government takeover of health care. She knew that once you have a government-run system, you can never get rid of it, no matter how ruinous it is.

Barack Obama’s open-mic comments to Russian President Medvedev gave us a terrifying insight into the true mindset of our president.

Occupy protesters, Rick Santorum, Barack Obama and college students everywhere agree. College costs are too high and student debt unbearable. They only differ in what to do about it.

President Obama has done us all a great favor by putting out a detailed budget proposal. He has laid down an important marker over which the next campaign will be fought.

It’s ironic that the question would be raised about a system that has brought economic freedom and prosperity to so many. But the public image of capitalism always suffers during economic downturns. This time, populist conservatives have teamed with traditional enemies to slap around capitalism pretty badly.

I'll admit it. My heart sank when I read recently that unemployment fell to 8.3 percent. Yes, long-term unemployment and climbing poverty rates are devastating too many families. But we can't afford a cyclical uptick just now if it would mean that Barack Obama might be president for four more years.

I'll admit it. My heart sank when I read recently that unemployment fell to 8.3 percent. Yes, long-term unemployment and climbing poverty rates are devastating too many families. But we can't afford a cyclical uptick just now if it would mean that Barack Obama might be president for four more years.

In my career as an emergency physician, I seldom discussed costs with patients. That's because they weren't interested.

How can we get the very most qualified Arizonans to run for the Legislature?

Why in America do we defend the right to insulting speech that would be prosecuted in other countries? Why do women in many Muslim countries tolerate being treated as legal inferiors? Why do Asian-American school-children vastly outperform other minorities academically?

The Obama administration is pulling out all the stops to kill the naturally occurring oil and gas boom in North America — but it’s not going well. Too much relatively clean, inexpensive fuel has been discovered. We could definitely use the energy and more jobs would be great.  No viable alternatives have appeared.

The national media has orchestrated a fire storm of criticism at Sen. Jon Kyl and the other members of the congressional Supercommittee, charged with reducing our national debt by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years. The members' partisanship and unwillingness to compromise cost us another chance to trim the deficit, or so the story line goes.

Andrei Cherny, the chairman of the state Democratic Party and unsuccessful candidate for state treasurer, believes he has finally cracked the code for creating those new jobs that have proved so elusive to members of his party.

Andrei Cherny, the chairman of the state Democratic Party and unsuccessful candidate for state treasurer, believes he has finally cracked the code for creating those new jobs that have proved so elusive to members of his party.

Andrei Cherny, the chairman of the state Democratic Party and unsuccessful candidate for state treasurer, believes he has finally cracked the code for creating those new jobs that have proved so elusive to members of his party.

Demagogues cry “they’re trying to take away your Social Security” whenever reforms are proposed to this unsustainable program. Years ago, I tried to give up my Social Security but I wasn’t allowed to. I would have been better off without it. Here’s the story.

The United States Postal Service has been an American institution since the beginning of our nation. But time and change recently have not been kind. Today the USPS has made itself into an expensive anachronism. It’s time to let it go.