The term "human trafficking" may bring to mind the image of someone in Eastern Europe being tricked into reporting for a job as a maid, only to find herself trapped in the Red Light District of Mumbai; or destitute parents in the developing world selling their daughter.

Imagine for a moment that instead of just the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 16 federal agencies were responsible for administering the federal food stamp program. Also imagine that each of these agencies had unchecked taxpayer resources and no public oversight.

Each year, I have the privilege of nominating a handful of South Dakota students for admission into one of our nation's military academies. I'm always amazed by the integrity, grit, and intelligence of these students. They are the best South Dakota has to offer and there's no doubt their accomplishments will be great.

There are aspects of healthcare on which everyone can agree. Healthcare can be expensive and chronic and debilitating diseases contribute to its skyrocketing cost.

While the country as a whole has been paralyzed from years of slow economic growth, Fort Worth and Dallas haven't let that blur their visions for their own futures.

By this time, most of us have gathered all the forms from our employers, our banks, and others. We've found and filled out the confusing tax documents – or more likely, bought software or hired a professional to fill them out for us – and sent it all in to the IRS, hoping we don't hear from them about it again.

Our federal forests are withering away from neglect, insects and disease, and nowhere is this more true than in Eastern Washington. A staggering one-third of our country's national forest land managed by the U.S. Forest Service is diseased or dying. In the Colville National Forest alone, 300,000 of the forest's 1.1 million acres are bug-infested.

Generic drugs saved Americans $1.2 trillion in pharmaceutical costs over the past 10 years, and $217 billion in 2012 alone. 84 percent of all prescriptions in the U.S. are filled with generic drugs. The success is due in large part because they have the same strength, dosage and active ingredients found in their brand counterparts, and yet they are more affordable.

There is much talk about the "winners and losers" under Obamacare. Many of the losers are obvious – the millions upon millions of Americans suffering from cancelled insurance plans, skyrocketing premiums and out of pocket costs, and those losing access to the doctors, hospitals and medications they know and trust.