This type of common sense immigration reform needs to be embraced by conservatives. Modernizing our broken immigration system will naturally stimulate a labor force with people revered for the type of small-business entrepreneurialism that will strengthen our economy and raise our GDP.

Former CBO Director and current President of the American Action Forum, Doug Holtz-Eakin (my partner in my role as Chairman of the AFF) penned a compelling study last month that examined just what our economy can expect from immigration reform. While Doug goes into far greater detail than I will here, the economics of the issue from a big-picture standpoint are elementary and proven to be true:  when you increase the population with a group that has higher participation levels than the current population you grow and strengthen your labor force, growing GDP and most importantly growing GDP per capita—the ultimate sign for a growing economy.

In plain English, more people who work hard doing either highly skilled jobs or jobs Americans won’t do creates greater output and more money in our economy. We’re now celebrating job growth of under 200,000 jobs  a month and unemployment north of 7.5%, all the while the participation of work age Americans in the workforce continues to shrink. The economy’s slow improvement is a good sign but it’s not good enough.

Conservatives need to be the small business party. We already stand for principles inherent to small business success but we need to articulate why that is: small businesses are the life-blood of our economy, and the people with the courage to run a small business embody the resiliency that makes us who we are. Over the past several decades immigrants have shown a higher propensity for owning small businesses—conservatives need to embrace policy that ushers in a greater opportunity for our economy to succeed.

Of course there are other issues to address as well and there’s no reason they shouldn’t be. Our border must be secure and immigrants who entered the process the right way must stay at the beginning of the line.

No doubt there are costs associated as well, some of which—emergency medical and child education—have been in place and paid for years; but passing this bill and beginning the true modernization of a broken system is an investment. It’s an investment that Congress should make in the same spirit earlier generations afforded our ancestors.  The investment that allowed immigrants like my Grandfather or my good friend Henry Kissinger to come and contribute to our nation, a nation of immigrants.

From immigration and Medicare reform to jobs and the economy, Hispanics will play a key role in deciding the path forward for our country. And right now, that path looks to be leading in only one direction – away from conservative values. We must change that. And to do so, we need you to join our fight.

Consider immigration reform…poll after poll suggests that a vast majority of conservatives will support a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants who live in our country. That is…as long as we talk about that process in a way in which we highlight the conditions attached to it, including the need for applicants to pass a background check and pay back taxes.

It is important that we communicate that the process, which will take at least 13 years for completion, will be fair to all involved, especially to those who have been waiting in line after legally applying for citizenship. Like Jenny said, what we say is as important as how we say it.

We cannot afford to lose the immigration debate on semantics. We need to be strategic, proactive, and relentless in educating Hispanics nationwide about the principles we believe in and will defend during the public policy debate about immigration reform.

The conversations we will have here today on immigration, the economy, education, and healthcare will hopefully arm you with the tools you need to help us amplify our message. From immigration reform to jump-starting our economy, Latinos must not and should not settle for less than what they deserve.

Since President Obama took office, for example, the Hispanic unemployment rate has remained above 9 percent. For young Hispanics, those 18 to 29 years old, the March unemployment rate figure is a staggering 12.6 percent. That is simply unacceptable. The White House speaks of an economic recovery. What recovery?

To make matters worse, under the president’s budget for FY2014, the national debt would grow to over $25 trillion by 2023. This would further slow the economy and threaten the possibility of a sovereign debt crisis.

I can go on and on, but you get my point. There is a better way forward. Our task, after today, is to ensure that we actively and efficiently communicate that alternative to Hispanics nationwide. We sincerely hope that all of you answer our call to do so.

A man who will be instrumental in ensuring that conservative values prevail and that elected officials are held accountable for their actions during the upcoming public debate on immigration reform is someone who has served the Hispanic community and this country well for more than a decade. He is a tireless advocate for Latinos nationwide and the former Secretary of Commerce of the United States. Mi amigo, and yours, Carlos Gutierrez.

As President Obama hosts yet another bipartisan dinner — one in early March and the latest, a steak and greens feast at the White House, last Wednesday— I can’t help but recall that over the years, I too have hosted many similar dinners at my home. Most often these dinners are with our elected officials from both sides of the aisle. The idea is a good one: it encourages substantive dialogue, can often form friendships and can show us that a lot of the time, we might not disagree as much as we lead on.

But, to be frank, a few nice dinners between Republicans and Democrats isn’t enough to bridge the divides that exist in American politics today.

At my most recent dinner, I found myself having the same conversation over and over again with Republicans and Democrats alike. First, they’re all torn between the constituents who voted them into office, and Washington, where business continues as usual. Second, a lot of times they are torn between trying to govern and risking a backlash from extremists in their own party.

While engaging in dialogue over dinner once or twice every few months is a positive, our leaders in the Executive Branch and Congress need to reinstate a process that affords policy makers the opportunity to deliberate and engage in a legislative structure aligned with what our founders intended.

We need to reexamine what our committee structure has become. I believe the best bills for the most amount of people follow a grassroots approach, arising first from the subcommittee level and working from the bottom up, not the top down. Working from the rank and file legislators on up develops in-depth policy knowledge from committee members and allows for committee chairs and ranking members to exert influence over topics that they know more intimately than party leadership.

Even as the leader of the House, Speaker Boehner often speaks about restoring order to this process. We need more of that willingness from more members. Both parties will often recall the days where committee chairs and members of the Executive branch enjoyed great relationships, even in a divided government. That sort of thing is non-existent today.

The continuous campaign remains one of the deepest thorns in the side of bipartisanship. The looming threat from each side makes it almost impossible to take political risks and the very foundation for bipartisanship, trusting relationships across the aisle, is becoming a thing of the past.

The Executive branch must build better relations on Capitol Hill. Over the past twenty years, both parties have done a poor job of this while in the White House. Better relations between the two bodies are essential to promoting understanding and trust, which will lead toward more meaningful dialogue.

Hopefully President Obama will invite not only Republicans but his cabinet members to the table as well. He must encourage his cabinet to have better relationships with Congress and more of them. Those same cabinet members must also be willing to visit the hill and advocate on his behalf. If he wants to pass any considerable policy in the next three years, he has no other choice.

Setting the table is one thing, keeping people at it for the hard work is entirely another.  Dinner is a start but a restored legislative process with an engaged president and cabinet will be required before we finally address our nation’s problems in a meaningful way.

This was not just a minor win, but instead a major victory in what is frequently considered a blue state. ‪This is an unmistakable signal sent by the people of Wisconsin that the Obama administration’s agenda has failed, and bold, conservative reformers like Scott Walker are what this country needs.

Please read the piece below on the courage of Governor Scott Walker that was originally published on March 7, 2011 in The Daily Caller.

Courage: The Scott Walker story

By Fred V. Malek

On October 28^th, just days before the November general elections I wrote about four gubernatorial candidates to watch as unconventional politicians. Those included New Mexico’s Susana Martinez, Nevada’s Brian Sandoval, Oregon’s Chris Dudley and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker.  Dudley, a terrific man lost but hopefully will be back to fight again.  The other three won and are already showing results.  I wrote how Scott Walker “demonstrated how to balance a budget consistently without raising taxes.” And he is showing that right now as Governor of Wisconsin.

This nation is faced with frightening deficits and unfunded liabilities.  Federal spending is double what it was ten years ago, and this year’s deficit is projected at $1.6 trillion.  States add another $130 billion of shortfalls this year, and almost all states have large unfunded pension and health care liabilities.

I for one am thankful that governors like Scott Walker are showing how to deal with this looming crisis.

Wisconsin itself is facing a $3.6 billion budget shortfall over the next two years and Governor Walker has proposed real solutions that would decrease the state’s structural deficit by 90 percent. As part of Walker’s plan to tackle Wisconsin’s looming budget crisis, he has made the courageous and crucial decision – like Chris Christie in New Jersey – to bring public employees’ benefit packages down to a more comparable level with those in the private sector.

Robert Costrell writes in the Wall Street Journal that Milwaukee teachers receive 74.2 cents on the dollar in health and retirement benefits. An employee in the private sector receives just 24.3 cents on the dollar. In some cases, the benefits package is equal to half of the total employment package. Costrell found that “the average Milwaukee public-school teacher salary is $56,500, but with benefits the total package is $100,005, according to the manager of financial planning for Milwaukee public schools.”

The reason for these nice gold-plated benefits packages are that in the past politicians never had the courage to stand up to unions and insist that benefits be tied to market realities.  Quite simply it was too easy to kick that political can down the road and let the next Governor or the next generation of taxpayers deal with the mess.  That is not only radically irresponsible; it is a recipe for our country’s ruin.

Charles Krauthammer writes in the Washington Post that “in the public sector, the politicians who approve any deal have none of their own money at stake. On the contrary, the more favorably they dispose of union demands, the more likely they are to be the beneficiary of union largess in the next election. It’s the perfect cozy setup.”

In light of this, Scott Walker has decided to tackle his state’s budget deficit not by raising taxes on hard working Wisconsonites in the midst of an economic downturn but by making desperately needed changes to the state’s benefit and entitlement system. The rising cost of retirement packages and insurance has been identified as a threat to not only states like Wisconsin, but also the United States as a whole.

The response to Scott Walker’s budget from Wisconsin Democrats has been to flee the state and shut down the Senate, halting all floor debate and discussion – one of the hallmarks of our American democracy. In another courageous step, I am pleased to say the The Republican Governor’s Association has wisely decided to support Scott.  For years, the RGA has been a hot bed of ideas and action for practical, conservative governance.  While it has showcased some of the great laboratories of our American democracy, its main function was to get Republican governors elected – and it’s done that quite well over the years.  In an unprecedented step, after seeing millions of union dollars and thousands of outsiders pour into Wisconsin to fight Governor Walker’s good governance, The Republican Governors Association decided that is was time to show the country and the union bosses that we have Scott Walker’s back by launching a an advertising campaign in support of his efforts on TV and online.  This is one of the most important fights of our time and it will impact the lives for generations of Wisconsinites and American to come.  Our leaders must show courage and conviction to take on the tough fights and make the right decisions – and when they do, we must show them our strong and unwavering support.

Gov. McDonnell was on hand May 29 as Marymount University celebrated the formal renaming of its School of Health Professions in honor of Fred and Marlene Malek.

“There’s going to be an explosion in the need for people trained in health professions – this school is going to do its part in graduating nurses and other people in the applied science who will go on to do great things,” the governor said at the ceremony.

McDonnell noted that both Virginia and the nation are facing a shortage of health-care professionals, and the gap between the need and the ability to meet it is expected to grow in the future.

The generosity of the Maleks, residents of McLean, is an example of their “giving generously back to bless countless generations of new young Americans who will walk through these halls and learn,” said the governor, who long has been a friend and political ally of the couple.

The Malek family has a lengthy association with Marymount – Marlene Malek is a 1979 graduate of its nursing school and a member of the university’s board of trustees – and the 600-student School of Health Professions was renamed “Malek School of Health Professions” to honor their financial support and ongoing commitment to the university.

“The Maleks have given us a name that represents commitment, compassion, leadership and integrity,” said Dr. Jason Craig, an associate professor of physical therapy at the university.

Marymount president Matthew Shank noted that the Malek School becomes the first of the university’s four schools to receive the name of a benefactor.

“Having a name creates an important distinction,” Shank said. “The recognition and respect engendered by the Malek name now belong, by association, to Marymount.”

Marlene Malek is well-known among health-care philanthropists. She is president of the nonprofit Friends of Cancer Research, served on the board of the Duke University Cancer Center and is a member of the Cancer Leadership Council at the Mayo Clinic.

Additionally, she is a trustee of the M.D. Anderson Comprehensive Cancer Center in Houston, and is a member of C-Change, formerly known as the National Dialogue on Cancer.

The endowment created by the Maleks also funds an annual Malek Lecture on health, along with a professorship.

Gov. McDonnell, Marlene Malek, Fred Malek, Matthew Shank and Lynne Shank were among those on hand during ceremonies honoring the Maleks for their work in support of the university's health-care facilities and initiatives. (Marymount photo)

So what has Scott Walker really done in Wisconsin?  Well, he has restricted, not ended, collective bargaining, which will protect taxpayers from way over the market benefit packages that have resulted from the past alliance of politicians and the unions who fund them. We have seen the damage these spiraling and uncontrollable pension and benefit liabilities can do to states many years after they are adapted. Prime examples include Illinois and California where huge unfunded liabilities have led to budgetary crises, threatened credit ratings, and increased interest rates on public debt.  Walker also has brought public employee benefit packages into line with the rest of Wisconsin workers, changing the benefit plans so that state workers will pay into their pensions and healthcare benefits.

While the left attempts to portray the removal of collective bargaining as un-American, the simple fact is that residents entrusted the state with making the right decisions with their tax dollars.  Yet for decades, these states opted to give public unions pensions that would eventually spiral out of control and cause major fiscal disruption to state governments.  For example, Ohio’s unfunded liability could be as high as $166 billion dollars or 35% of the Gross State Product.  

When these plans were awarded, politicians justified these deals because they were literally playing with someone else’s money, and they never contemplated the fiscal damage unfunded pensions could cause down the road.  Now states across the nation are facing fiscal ruin because of these well intended but fiscally reckless deals. Worse, some are calling for the federal government, facing its own ballooning deficit due to entitlement spending like Social Security and Medicare, to bailout these states.

Governor Walker has also taken away the Holy Grail for public employee unions – automatic union due deductions.  With the removal of the automatic deduction, now public employees can make their own decisions on whether or not to pay union dues. Walker is ultimately giving workers the ability to be pro-choice with their union dues and have a fair choice about their union. While this is great for public employees, this is terrible for union bosses.

Governor Scott Walker has shown leadership and courage through a rancorous time, having to deal with an ironic hijacking of the democratic progress by Wisconsin Democrats while fighting the union establishment, unsympathetic media and well-organized progressive groups.  Governor Walker could have followed many other politicians down the road of subservience towards the unions and raised taxes to balance the budget.  Instead, Scott Walker campaigned on fighting for Wisconsin residents who don’t have the luxury of a taxpayer-funded union machine.  And because of his fight, he won, and so did we.

On October 28^th, just days before the November general elections I wrote about four gubernatorial candidates to watch as unconventional politicians. Those included New Mexico’s Susana Martinez, Nevada’s Brian Sandoval, Oregon’s Chris Dudley and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker.  Dudley, a terrific man lost but hopefully will be back to fight again.  The other three won and are already showing results.  I wrote how Scott Walker “demonstrated how to balance a budget consistently without raising taxes.” And he is showing that right now as Governor of Wisconsin.

This nation is faced with frightening deficits and unfunded liabilities.  Federal spending is double what it was ten years ago, and this year’s deficit is projected at $1.6 trillion.  States add another $130 billion of shortfalls this year, and almost all states have large unfunded pension and health care liabilities.

I for one am thankful that governors like Scott Walker are showing how to deal with this looming crisis.

Wisconsin itself is facing a $3.6 billion budget shortfall over the next two years and Governor Walker has proposed real solutions that would decrease the state’s structural deficit by 90 percent. As part of Walker’s plan to tackle Wisconsin’s looming budget crisis, he has made the courageous and crucial decision – like Chris Christie in New Jersey – to bring public employees’ benefit packages down to a more comparable level with those in the private sector.

Robert Costrell writes in the Wall Street Journal that Milwaukee teachers receive 74.2 cents on the dollar in health and retirement benefits. An employee in the private sector receives just 24.3 cents on the dollar. In some cases, the benefits package is equal to half of the total employment package. Costrell found that “the average Milwaukee public-school teacher salary is $56,500, but with benefits the total package is $100,005, according to the manager of financial planning for Milwaukee public schools.”

The reason for these nice gold-plated benefits packages are that in the past politicians never had the courage to stand up to unions and insist that benefits be tied to market realities.  Quite simply it was too easy to kick that political can down the road and let the next Governor or the next generation of taxpayers deal with the mess.  That is not only radically irresponsible; it is a recipe for our country’s ruin.

Charles Krauthammer writes in the Washington Post that “in the public sector, the politicians who approve any deal have none of their own money at stake. On the contrary, the more favorably they dispose of union demands, the more likely they are to be the beneficiary of union largess in the next election. It’s the perfect cozy setup.”

In light of this, Scott Walker has decided to tackle his state’s budget deficit not by raising taxes on hard working Wisconsonites in the midst of an economic downturn but by making desperately needed changes to the state’s benefit and entitlement system. The rising cost of retirement packages and insurance has been identified as a threat to not only states like Wisconsin, but also the United States as a whole.

The response to Scott Walker’s budget from Wisconsin Democrats has been to flee the state and shut down the Senate, halting all floor debate and discussion – one of the hallmarks of our American democracy. In another courageous step, I am pleased to say the The Republican Governor’s Association has wisely decided to support Scott.  For years, the RGA has been a hot bed of ideas and action for practical, conservative governance.  While it has showcased some of the great laboratories of our American democracy, its main function was to get Republican governors elected – and it’s done that quite well over the years.  In an unprecedented step, after seeing millions of union dollars and thousands of outsiders pour into Wisconsin to fight Governor Walker’s good governance, The Republican Governors Association decided that is was time to show the country and the union bosses that we have Scott Walker’s back by launching a an advertising campaign in support of his efforts on TV and online.  This is one of the most important fights of our time and it will impact the lives for generations of Wisconsinites and American to come.  Our leaders must show courage and conviction to take on the tough fights and make the right decisions – and when they do, we must show them our strong and unwavering support.

With only days to go until Election Day, most Beltway reporters and bloggers are focusing on races that will affect what will go on inside the Beltway. Will Republicans come up just short in the House, or will there be a complete landslide? Is the Senate within reach for the GOP? What does a Republican Congress mean for President Obama’s chances in 2012?

All these questions are fine and good. But a lot of political analysts are missing where the real action is for Republicans: in the states with gubernatorial races.

For Republicans in these races, what are important to notice aren’t the usual cliches of using states as laboratories of conservative ideas or how this is laying the groundwork for potential presidential or vice-presidential candidates.

In fact, it’s simpler than that: It’s about the injection of new blood into the Republican Party with so many new faces in these gubernatorial races. And this new blood isn’t just about giving the Republican Party a different look; it’s also about playing in states that pundits only a couple of years ago thought were turning blue or were permanently blue.

There are four Republican candidates for governor who are making waves because all of them have something unconventional to offer:

• Susana Martinez, New Mexico: In June, she became the first Hispanic woman nominated by a major party for governor anywhere in America. One could have thought otherwise, but Mrs. Martinez has a very strong stance against illegal immigration, seeking to get rid of laws that provide driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. It’s no surprise, though, when you look at her background: district attorney and New Mexico’s prosecutor of the year in 2010.
• Brian Sandoval, Nevada: Another crime fighter, he is running against Sen. Harry Reid’s son. He’s had political experience before as a chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission and as Nevada’s attorney general earlier this decade. But he took a break from politics and was appointed a federal judge for the state of Nevada in 2005. When was the last time someone gave up a lifetime appointment for the prospect of a four-year term? And, oh yes, he’s also of Hispanic heritage. Isn’t it appropriate that the party of Lincoln would have two outstanding gubernatorial candidates of Hispanic heritage?
• Chris Dudley, Oregon: Mr. Dudley spent his career blocking shots and rebounding in the NBA, while his post-basketball career included the successful opening of a charity organization devoted to diabetic children as well as becoming a wealth-management adviser. With no political experience, he’s taking on a former governor in what should be a very close race.
• Scott Walker, Wisconsin: Unlike the previous three Republicans, Mr. Walker has plenty of political experience: He has been a member of the Wisconsin state Assembly for a decade and Milwaukee County executive for the past eight years. That’s right: a Republican county executive in a very Democratic county. And an executive who has demonstrated how to balance a budget consistently without raising taxes.

But notice the one thread that ties all of these gubernatorial candidates together: None of them is a current or former member of Congress. If there’s any reason to believe in the power of the Tea Party movement and the conservative shift that many independent voters have undergone, I believe this is the most stark. Conservatives and independents (and even some Democrats) aren’t interested in anybody with experience in Washington. Americans are interested in candidates who live, work and raise their families among themselves. Yes, this all comes from an anti-Washington sentiment, but it has produced a young, pro-conservative slate of candidates who can start to do great things within the states they plan on leading.