Tonight, we will hear President Obama give a defense of big-government liberalism and make an argument that growing government is good for America. He couldn’t be more wrong. Our nation was founded on the principle that the people needed to be protected from the government, and the one initial campaign promise that Obama has kept is that he is fundamentally transforming America.

U.S. Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) today reintroduced legislation that would transform Congress’ broken budget process. The Budget Reform Act of 2013 (S. 280), based on a plan first introduced by Thune in 2010, would require Congress to establish a biennial budgeting timeline in which Congress would pass a two-year biennial budget and appropriation bills in the odd numbered years, and in even numbered election years Congress would concentrate on oversight of government spending.

South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard today signed Senate Bill 26, an act to update terminology for individuals with intellectual disabilities and similar terms. “A nationwide movement to promote respectful and inclusive language is developing, and I believe it’s important for South Dakota and its citizens to be part of it,” the Governor said.

Why do some conservatives seem to take political divisions so seriously these days? Are they being overzealous? Are they extremists? Or is it that they clearly see what is at stake, and desperately hope to avoid losing what Abraham Lincoln once called “the last best hope of earth”?

Criminals aren’t stupid. They are shrewd and they know how to take advantage of a population that has become complacent and vulnerable. The surest defense against an armed criminal is to be armed yourself. In the end, we the people are responsible for our own safety and that of our families, neighbors, and loved ones – and we have a constitutionally-protected right to the tools necessary to secure that safety.

Tonight President Barack Obama is expected to declare that the job of debt reduction is almost done in State of the Union speech. Combined with his campaign arm, slyly called Campaign for America’s Future, sending an email alert out with the subject line, “Don’t let Republicans destroy the economy” you would think that Obama had turned the corner and he was moving the budget toward balance.

Dr. Benjamin Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon with Johns Hopkins Hospital, recently made waves for speaking the truth about the liberal rot that is destroying America from within-and for doing it while standing within a few feet of a listening President Obama. Carson was on the Neil Cavuto show yesterday to talk about the occasion.

It seems Barack Obama plans to continue his illegitimate use of executive orders to act outside the authority of congress in a number of areas: gun rights, illegal immigration, and student loan payments, to name a few. How much more this enemy of the United States will be allowed to get away with, mostly unchallenged by Congress and the courts. Will no one hold the Obama administration accountable for its lawless actions?

With uncontrolled illegal immigration, our country is in danger of becoming no more than a hotel, where citizens could come in, enjoy the freedom on the house, then leave without paying for any of the amenities. Companies come in, use and abuse our hospitality, and then turn around and head back home richer, while we are left to clean up messes.