"WASHINGTON – With gasoline prices hovering at $4 a gallon nationally, many Americans are making tough choices: scaling back summer vacations, driving less or ditching the car altogether. Some seniors are choosing a tank of gas over their prescriptions.

"An Associated Press-GfK poll shows the share of Americans who say increases in the price of gasoline will cause serious financial hardship for them or their family in the next six months now tops 4 in 10.

"Overall in the poll, 71 percent said rising prices will cause some hardship for them and their family, including 41 percent who called it a 'serious' hardship. Just 29 percent said rising prices are not causing a negative impact on their finances."

"Why, 28 months into the Obama presidency, is there now a sudden push to pass 'comprehensive' immigration reform? After all, from 2009 to early 2011, Obama had large Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate. Why hasn't Obama already rammed through his own immigration bill, as he did with health care?

"The answer, of course, is that about 70 percent of the American people consistently poll against the president's initiatives on illegal immigration. Obama simply did not want to sign an easily passable bill that would earn him further unpopularity.

"But now he has lost the House. A close re-election bid looms. The president is enjoying a sudden bounce in popularity after the capture of Osama bin Laden. He needs to firm up his base of Latino supporters. Presto: time to blame Republicans for his own past unwillingness to get a bill through his Democratic Congress."

"Mitt Romney has been stalwart in his defense of the individual mandate — the obligation to buy health insurance that is at the heart of both the law he signed in Massachusetts in 2006 and the federal version President Obama enacted last year.  Ironically, his firmness on this issue may cost him more dearly with Republican voters than his reputation for conveniently reversing past positions ever did."

"We could definitely use another Abraham Lincoln to emancipate us all from being slaves to words. In the midst of a historic financial crisis of unprecedented government spending, with a national debt that outstrips even the debt accumulated by the reckless government spending of the previous administration, we are still enthralled by words and ignoring realities. 

"President Obama’s constant talk about 'millionaires and billionaires' needing to pay higher taxes would be a bad joke if the consequences were not so serious. Even if the income-tax rate were raised to 100 percent on millionaires and billionaires, it would still not cover the trillions of dollars the government is spending."

"Despite Washington coming to grips with the fact that the debt threat is real, policymakers still are not having the debate Americans deserve. 

"The talk is too often restricted to 'shared sacrifice.' This sets up a debate where we are really just arguing over whom to hurt and how best to manage the decline of our nation. It is a framework that accepts permanently higher taxes and bureaucratically determined access to health care as givens."

"Americans are a generous people. Upon receipt of objective and reliable evidence that the border is secure — not Obama’s infinitely manipulable interdiction statistics — the question would be settled and the immigrants legalized. 

"Why doesn’t Obama put such a provision in comprehensive immigration legislation? Because for Obama, immigration reform is not about legislation, it’s about reelection. If I may quote the president: I understand that. That’s politics."

"Democrats blithely act as if big labor, pro-illegal-immigration, pro-government union policies combined with massive government red tape and huge socialist programs will have no effect on jobs.

"They incessantly repeat 'gutsy call' for 'you'd have to have been brain-dead not to make the call to kill bin Laden,' hoping the Democratic Party will suddenly seem macho.

"Then, after a few weeks of robotically chanting 'gutsy call,' they can get back to their true passion -- destroying jobs -- at which point they will robotically chant Bush's name to explain why millions of Americans have lost their jobs under Obama.

"How gutsy."

"The public relations campaign for President Obama's latest revival of 'immigration reform' makes one thing crystal clear: This is not, and never has been, about homeland security. This is not, and never has been, about economic security. It's about political security, plain and cynical."

"Washington’s arrogance has triggered a political rebellion in our country. I don’t think ‘rebellion’ is too strong of a word.  The revolt we have seen by ordinary citizens over the past few years is like nothing we’ve seen in our lifetime.  And it’s happening in part because the arrogant habits of Washington are having real economic consequences."

"Do President Obama and Democrats want to cut spending? There's not much evidence they do. They have acquiesced to some cuts -- but only under political duress. ... 

"In revising his 2012 budget, the president proposed a clever mechanism for avoiding spending cuts. He called it a 'debt fail-safe.' If the debt burden doesn't shrink as a percentage of the economy, it would require 'additional savings with more spending cuts.' Except that as much as 90% of spending would be exempt, leaving little room for cuts and lots for raising taxes.  

"The response of the president and Democrats to the message from the November election is now pretty clear. The voters asked for spending cuts. Mr. Obama and company have said no."