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Miller Calls Out Begich Duplicity On ANWR

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Photo Credit: SenateDemocratsFairbanks, Alaska. November 14, 2013 –  In response to the junior senator’s statement earlier this week on US Interior Secretary Sally Jewell’s Speech before the National Press Club, US Senate candidate Joe Miller today highlighted the duplicity of Mark Begich’s position on resource development in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
 
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell re-asserted her insistence that ANWR “should remain off-limits to development,” because “there are some places too special to develop.” In return, Senator Begich pledged to “fight any effort by the Obama Administration to make ANWR off limits.”

“I think it is worth noting that Mark Begich’s way of fighting for ANWR development includes voting to confirm Sally Jewell as Secretary of Interior.” Miller said. “It is a mystery to me how Mr. Begich can imagine that he has any credibility on this issue when he is, at least in part, personally responsible for elevating the very people to power who are blocking access to Alaska’s resources.”

Last year the state’s oil production hit a record low of 526,000 barrels a day, down from its 1988 peak when 2.1 million barrels of oil flowed through the Alaska Pipeline daily. Alaska has fallen to fourth in total oil production among the 50 states.

 
It should also be noted that Mr. Begich’s own party platform explicitly opposes ANWR development, as does his choice for president, Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Secretary Jewell, and EPA administrator Regina McCarthy, who Begich also voted to confirm.

Alaskans overwhelmingly support the development of ANWR, but what they are coming to realize is that, as in the case of Begich’s 60th and deciding vote for ObamaCare, the Obama-Reid agenda comes first.

Miller concluded, “Mark Begich runs ads in the state claiming to be ‘as independent as Alaska.’ What he apparently means is that his actions in DC are independent from his rhetoric at home.”  
 

Joe Miller Dismisses Begich Healthcare Move as ‘Political Theater’

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Fairbanks, Alaska. November 13, 2013 — This week Mark Begich announced that he has opted to sign up for Obamacare using Alaska’s federal exchange, purportedly to forgo the subsidy offered by the Obama administration that exempted Congress from the effects of the new healthcare law. He said he wants to “have the exact same experience and go through the same steps as other Alaskans.” 
 
Joe Miller wasn’t impressed.
 
“It’s all political theater,” said Miller. “Where was Mark a few weeks ago when an amendment was offered by Senator Vitter to remove the Congressional subsidy altogether? I don’t recall him jumping on the bandwagon.”

Miller added, “Having said that, the fact that Mark Begich ‘feels our pain’ is of little comfort to thousands of Alaskans who have lost their health plans, or the thousands more who will be paying significantly higher premiums due to Obamacare.”

Senator Begich was the 60th and deciding vote on Obamacare in 2010, and even refused to strike down one of the law’s most egregious regulations. In a straight party line vote, he supported the so-called “grandfather rule,” which negated his and President Obama’s promise that “if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your healthcare plan.” So much for putting Alaskans first.

Alaskans know that he is responsible for the difficulties we are facing, and he’s not going to get extra credit for working to save us from the consequences of his own actions.

“Mark Begich has chosen to spend his years in the United States Senate carrying the water for Barack Obama and Harry Reid,” Miller said. “Unfortunately, his constituents have to pay the price. But if Mr. Begich is so keen on having the ‘exact same experience’ as the rest of us, perhaps we can send him to the unemployment line with the Alaskans who won’t have a job due to the economic fallout from Obamacare.”
 
Miller concluded, “Part of leadership is having the foresight to stop the train before it wrecks, and on that count our junior senator has miserably failed.”

Joe Miller is a husband, father, war veteran, businessman, and Constitutional conservative who believes in limited government, the Right to life, individual liberty, private property, and free markets.

14 Political Races to Watch in 2014

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Photo Credit: Bob LairdIn the 2014 elections, Republicans need to net a six-seat pickup to retake control of the U.S. Senate. They have high hopes, but there is little room for error. In the House, Democrats need a net gain of 17 seats next year to gain majority control and return Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to the speaker’s chair. Here are seven key races to watch in each chamber:

SENATE

•ALASKA: In 2010, Tea Party candidate Joe Miller shocked the GOP by defeating incumbent Lisa Murkowski in a primary; she came back to win re-election as a write-in candidate. Now Miller is expected to be one of three candidates vying for the Republican nomination to challenge Mark Begich, the first-term Democratic incumbent. Other Republicans who could be strong candidates: Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell and Dan Sullivan, former head of the state’s natural resources department.

•LOUISIANA: Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu has been called vulnerable in each of her three prior Senate races, and her fourth run is no different. Louisiana regularly votes Republican in presidential years, and Landrieu’s support of the Affordable Care Act has not helped boost her popularity. Her opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, staunchly opposes the law although he introduced health care legislation while a state senator in Louisiana.

•ARKANSAS: Mark Pryor is a moderate Democrat hoping for a third term. His voting record on the Affordable Care Act in increasingly conservative Arkansas, coupled with a strong Republican challenge, may hamper that. Republicans have quickly coalesced around Tom Cotton, a young freshman congressman who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. This race will be a huge spend for partisans on both sides of the aisle.

•KENTUCKY: Americans are frustrated with Washington, and Mitch McConnell is one of its best-known faces. The five-term senator is facing a primary challenge from Tea Party candidate Matt Bevin and, if he survives, an Election Day challenge from Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. Major ad buys are already taking over the airwaves – eight months ahead of the primary.

Read more from this story HERE.

Is Mark Begich Becoming a “Knucklehead?”

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Photo Credit: APFairbanks, Alaska. — U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller is pleased to learn that Senator Mark Begich has apparently changed his mind and now embraces delaying Obamacare’s individual enrollment mandate. According to news reports, Begich has joined with other “red state” Democrat Senators – who are coincidentally up for re-election next year – in signing a letter to Kathleen Sebelius calling for an open-ended delay in the deadline to enroll for Obamacare until the much-publicized website problems are resolved.

One of the Republican compromise proposals to fully fund the government earlier this month called for a one-year delay in the individual mandate. Senator Begich called those who offered this compromise “a small band of knuckleheads” who are “holding the country hostage over the health care law.”

Miller said, “I am happy to learn that Senator Begich has taken off his rose-colored glasses long enough to see one of the glaring flaws of Obamacare. Interestingly enough, the senator promised the people of Alaska that the healthcare exchange would function like buying airline tickets on Expedia. Well, let’s just say that was a little overly optimistic.”

Over two weeks after the launch of the exchange, not a single Alaskan had been able to sign up. Now after nearly four weeks, major systemic problems continue to plague the Obamacare website.

Miller opposed the passage of Obamacare because it created another entitlement program the federal government did not have the Constitutional authority to undertake. Further, with the nation already experiencing trillion dollar plus deficits, it could in no way afford the program. The so-called Affordable Care Act also did not address rising healthcare costs. Instead of introducing more free market principles into the heavily regulated health insurance industry, Obamacare does just the opposite, adding over 20,000 pages of new regulations to-date.

“If the federal government cannot even set up a website, why should the American people have any confidence it can oversee healthcare for an entire nation? Nobel prize winning economist Milton Friedman’s words come to mind: ‘If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there’d be a shortage of sand,’” said Miller. He added, “Too bad Mark Begich could not have been more of a ‘knucklehead’ back in 2010 when he was the 60th and deciding vote for Obamacare’s passage.”

In Restoring America: The Harder the Conflict, the More Glorious the Triumph

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Nothing could be clearer to me based on what we all witnessed in Washington during these last few weeks and these last five years, than Barack Obama and the Democratically controlled Senate have no interest in making anything approaching a “grand bargain.”

The Democrats in Congress have had several opportunities to be the sort of statesmen and stateswomen that the times require, but they would not do it. They are ideologically committed to not only maintaining but growing the entitlement state, regardless of the perilous fiscal consequences to our country.

Although I haven’t given up on my party, I must admit that it is looking more and more like Glenn Beck may be right: we are living under a one-party system.
 
The Washington establishment continues to muddle blithely on as though all is right with the world, seemingly oblivious to the impending train wreck just over the horizon. 

 
Establishment Republicans are so deluded as to think that everything will be all better with a little more technology, better messaging, and milquetoast candidates who are acceptable to Democrats and the press. 
 
I have a word for them: It’s the debt, stupid!
 
Going along to get along in Washington is simply not going to fix the problem. As Senator Ted Cruz recently pointed out, it took a whole lot of bipartisan cooperation to get us $17 trillion into debt.
 
If we stay on our current trajectory, the National Debt will have nearly doubled on President Obama’s watch, to say nothing of the estimated $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. This Administration will have committed your children and grandchildren to as much debt in eight short years as all the previous presidents combined. 
 
Common sense tells us that we can no longer afford the status quo. Not only does it threaten our children’s future, it is an existential threat to our security here and now.
 
In 2010 the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs declared the National Debt as our number one National Security threat, and the debt has since increased by more than thirty percent.
 
During Mark Begich’s short 5-year tenure in the United States Senate, the deficit nearly quadrupled, and the national debt has risen by more than 60 percent.

Alaskans must never forget that Senator Begich was the 60th and decisive vote for Obamacare: a vote he continues to staunchly defend. He does so despite virtually none of the promises about the new entitlement program proving to be true. Further, the estimated costs of the so-called Affordable Care Act have skyrocketed from $900 billion when the bill was passed in 2010 to a CBO projected $1.6 trillion last year to the most recent projections finding it may cost upwards of $3 trillion.
 
All this has resulted in the downgrading of our credit rating, massive quantitative easing from the Fed, and the consequent devaluing of our currency. 
 
Just this week it was reported that the United States faces the possibility of another credit downgrade if we do not squarely face our massive debt and deficits. 
 
This news comes amidst Democrats most recent bargaining position calling for an end to the Sequester cuts: the only fiscally rational action that has been undertaken during the entire five years of the Obama Administration. 
 
Yet the junior senator continues to march in lock-step with Harry Reid and Barack Obama as they bring us ever closer to fiscal collapse.  
 
Make no mistake about it, Senator Mark Begich is part of the problem. It’s time to send him packing! 
 
We need a senator who can make the hard choices, and confront the challenges facing our nation in these turbulent times. There’s too much at stake to settle for pyrrhic victories.
 
Now is no time milquetoast candidates more interested in holding a position than linking arm-in-arm with those committed to bringing about a restoration of common sense to American politics. We have the words of Thomas Paine to spur us on in the fight:

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.”
 
If you are ready to remedy the crisis of leadership in Washington, I need your help today!
 
This is our moment. Let’s return Washington to fiscal sanity, and save the future of the country we love.

For the Future,

Joe

Miller Welcomes Dan Sullivan Into the U.S. Senate Race

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Fairbanks, Alaska. October 15, 2013 — Today U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller welcomed Dan Sullivan into the U.S. Senate race in Alaska.

Campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto stated, “Competition is good for the Republican Party. We look forward to a healthy debate about how to best restore what has been our nation’s true birthright: to live in a land where our constitutional freedoms are secure and where the American dream is alive and well. We trust during the course of this campaign the primary voters will learn the clear distinctions between the candidates and their views of the role of government in our daily lives.”

Sullivan joins Miller and Mead Treadwell, who officially announced his candidacy last month. John Jaramillo and Kathleen Tonn have also indicated they will seek the Republican nomination.

Joe Miller Offers Mark Begich An Economics Lesson

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Fairbanks, Alaska. October 10, 2013 – Senator Mark Begich is currently running ads in Alaska questioning the intelligence of those who do not see matters as he does regarding the economics of Obamacare and the National Debt. Joe Miller thought it might be helpful to ensure the junior senator is fully apprised of some important facts concerning both.

“Obamacare is not only bad public policy, it is bad economics,” said Miller who received his masters in economics from the University of Alaska, where he also taught as an adjunct professor in political science. “Mr. Begich would do well to exercise a little independence and just do the math.”

When Democrats pushed the so-called Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act through on a straight party-line vote in 2010, they told us that the ten-year projected cost to taxpayers was $900 billion. The CBO has now projected those costs have doubled to $1.8 trillion. And just as Senator Begich is doubling down on his vote for the ill-conceived program, it was reported this week that by some projections it may cost up to $3 trillion.

Not only is the price tag astronomical, virtually every promise made about the program is already proving to be false. Instead of “bending the cost curve” as the President promised, insurance premiums have skyrocketed. Instead of Americans being able to “keep the coverage you have,” a recent survey finds up to 30 percent of employers plan to drop coverage in 2014. Further, instead of having no detrimental economic impact, many employers plan to freeze hiring or cut back on their number of full-time employees to avoid the law’s onerous mandates.

This unneeded stifling of job creation comes as our nation continues to experience unemployment numbers well above historic averages. The current unemployment rate of 7.3 percent does not include millions of Americans who have left the workforce altogether. Four years into the “Obama recovery,” only 63.2 percent of Americans are employed in full-time work, which matches numbers not seen since the severe recession of the early 80s and harkens back to the Great Depression.

And this all comes against the backdrop of the largest and most reckless spending spree in American history. During Mr. Begich’s short 5-year tenure in the United States Senate, the deficit nearly quadrupled, and the national debt has risen by $7 trillion, more than 60 percent.

This unprecedented deficit spending coupled with no will to address it has resulted in exactly what Miller predicted in 2010: the downgrading of our nation’s credit rating. The Federal Reserve, in turn, has engaged in massive quantitative easing, to the tune of over $3 trillion, to buy up treasury notes with money printed out of thin air, which has led to the devaluing of our currency. This insidious, unseen tax on all Americans is felt everywhere from the gasoline pump to the grocery store. Yet the junior senator continues to march in lock-step with Harry Reid and Barack Obama as they bring us ever closer to fiscal collapse. And he has the audacity to call the adults in the room “knuckleheads”?

“If Senator Begich cannot see the dire economic consequences of Obamacare and profligate federal government spending with all the facts in plain view, he never will,” said Miller. “If Mark Begich is more interested in serving the flawed economic policies of Barack Obama and Harry Reid than the people of Alaska, it is time for him to find a new line of work. I believe Alaskans will assist him in that endeavor in 2014.”

End the Tyranny

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Over the last week we have witnessed unprecedented steps taken by our imperial President and his allies in the Democratically-controlled Senate to inflict pain on the American people.

Consider the spectacle of the administration spending money and resources in this time of dire fiscal crisis to enforce a shutdown of the World War II and Marine Corps Iwo Jima memorials, going so far as to threaten our elderly veterans with arrest if they dared to visit these monuments built in their honor.

Undoubtedly, these actions have consumed more time, energy and resources than would have been expended by simply leaving them open to the public.

On Saturday, Todd Starnes of Fox News reported that the administration has threatened to arrest contract chaplains for the military should they offer religious rites to our soldiers.

And across the country, national forests, parks and boat landings are closed to public use, including barricades set up to keep tourists from viewing Mount Rushmore. How patriotic is that?

Here in Alaska the federal government is denying hunters access to federal lands, which have remained open during previous shutdowns.

In North Carolina, the Mt. Pisgah Inn, a family-owned business on land leased from the federal government on the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway, was ordered to close despite the fact that the Parkway remained opened.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Saturday that private citizens were forced by federal agents to evacuate their own homes inside the Lake Mead National Recreation area.

Armed Rangers at Yellowstone National Park detained tourists in their hotel, in order to keep them from catching a glimpse of the “closed” Old Faithful. Foreign visitors with the group thought they were being arrested.

Federal agents also prevented their tour bus from stopping to take pictures of buffalo on their way out of the park, and forbade the use of private restroom facilities during their 2.5 hour drive.

It was further reported recently on the Mark Levin radio program that federal employees were expressly told to “make the shutdown as painful as possible.”

Make no mistake about it, we are witnessing the birth-pangs of 21st Century tyranny!

We cannot allow “the last best hope of man on earth” to be subjugated to the whim and will of despotic government action, be it by the Congress, the President, or an overreaching federal bureaucracy.

Our Founders knew that the object of JUST government was the protection of God-given Rights.

Sadly, Alaska’s Senator Mark Begich has joined Barack Obama and Harry Reid’s contemptible campaign to make this government shutdown as painful as possible.

When constituents tried to reach out to his office this past week, they received only a voice mail telling them that there would be no service until the government was funded.

You can listen to the voice message below

One might be able to excuse Mr. Begich if other senators weren’t still serving their constituents, even under the funding shortfall.

Senator Mike Lee’s office informed us that every office was given the choice of whether they would provide constituent services. Senator Lee has made the choice to do exactly that, as has the rest of Alaska’s Congressional delegation.

If Mark Begich is more interested in playing political games than serving the people of Alaska, it is time for him to find a new line of work. With your help, we can send Senator Begich packing.

Senator Begich is now running radio ads calling the patriots who would save us from the devastating consequences of Obamacare “knuckleheads.”

It’s time for new representation in Washington. It’s time to serve the good of all, including our children who will pay the steepest price for Congress’ reckless behavior.

If I am elected to the United States Senate, I will confront the increasingly lawless Obama Administration and work tirelessly to restore the birthright of all Americans: to live in a land where our Constitutional freedoms are secure, and all are free to pursue their God-given dreams to the best of their ability.

I can’t do this without your help; but together, we can accomplish great things for the country we love.

Thank you for your support.

Miller Blasts Begich, Democrats For Holding Americans Hostage To Obamacare

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Photo Credit: SenateDemocrats

Photo Credit: SenateDemocrats

Fairbanks, Alaska. September 30, 2013 — Joe Miller today blasted President Obama, Harry Reid and the Democrats for refusing to take up consideration of a second US House Resolution to fund the government. The US Senate voted to table the resolution on a straight party-line vote.

“It is unconscionable for Senator Begich to blatantly disregard the will of Alaskans regarding Obamacare,” Miller said. “Our junior senator is making it abundantly clear that when push comes to shove, he’s not going to look out for his constituents. He’s going to work with Barack Obama and Harry Reid to hold America hostage to their failed socialist agenda.”

With the specter of a partial government shutdown just hours away, it is now unlikely that Congress will come to a resolution on funding before the deadline.

Mark Begich was the 60th and deciding vote for Obamacare and continues to support and defend it rather than his constituents and the Constitution he has sworn to uphold. The senator stands by his flawed vote despite the many ills the Affordable Care Act is in the midst of foisting upon the American people including: skyrocketing healthcare costs, higher unemployment, underemployment (due to the 30 hour week cap incentivized by the law), doctor shortages, and the very real possibility of rationed care.

Joe Miller will work side-by-side with reformers like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul to stop Washington politicians from busting the budget, hiking the deficit, destroying our Constitutional rights and leveling our economy. He will work tirelessly to repeal Obamacare, and restore a health care system based on the free-market system.

“It’s apparent that Mark Begich is more interested in carrying the water for Harry Reid and Barack Obama, than working for Alaska,” said Miller. “Since the senator will not listen to Alaskans now, I believe they will send him an unmistakable message next fall.”

Another Alaska U.S. Senate Race, Another Attack on Free Speech

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Photo Credit: aflcio

Photo Credit: aflcio

For the second U.S. Senate election in a row, the incumbent campaign is threatening Alaska television stations over political ads it doesn’t like.

In 2010 while fighting for her political life after losing the Republican primary to Joe Miller, Sen. Lisa Murkowski had her legal counsel send letters to Alaska television stations warning them that they were putting their Federal Communications Commission licenses at risk by running ads against her that were paid for by the Tea Party Express.

Murkowski’s counsel claimed the ads constituted “false advertising” and the stations could lose their FCC license by continuing to run them. Of course, Murkowski’s lawyers knew (or should know) full well that as a public figure, her chance of proving slander or libel were virtually nil and the stations were in no danger of losing their broadcast licenses.

But that didn’t stop them from trying to put the arm on Alaska media stations — “nice FCC license you have there, be a shame if something happened to it” — and thankfully no one pulled the ads based on the Murkowski campaign threats…

So here we are again almost three years to the day later, and Sen. Mark Begich had his lawyers at Perkins Coie in Washington, D.C., fire off a letter to Alaska TV stations Sept. 5 demanding they “immediately” stop running ads sponsored by the American Energy Alliance accusing Begich of wanting you to believe “a carbon tax is a good idea.”

Read more from this story HERE.