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Joe Miller: Begich Empowers Washington, Blames Alaskans

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Photo Credit: SenateDemocrats U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller today called into question Senator Mark Begich’s “independence” for engaging in hyper-partisanship in Washington and, through his actions, undermining our republic.

In a naked power grab last Thursday Democrats broke with a long-standing Senate tradition requiring a 60-vote majority in order to confirm judges. In so doing, Democrats have abandoned all pretext of governing by consensus, instead seizing more power for unelected government bureaucrats and judges who regulate, tax, and wield arbitrary power over Americans lives.

And what did Senator Mark Begich do? He abandoned bi-partisanship to carry the water for those he truly serves in Washington–Barack Obama and Harry Reid–and then had the gall to blame his constituents for his own outrageous actions. The Los Angeles Times quoted the senator as saying, “. . . the American people are asking us to fix this system.”

US Senate candidate Joe Miller responded:

“The fact that Mark Begich is continuously pushing his ‘independence’ in Alaska, while at the same time engaging in hyper-partisanship back in Washington is bad enough,” said Miller. “But to go a step further and blame his constituents for this naked power grab is, in my opinion deeply cynical.”

Senators Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch, who are both longstanding members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, note there are far more pressing vacancies in the other federal courts nationwide. The DC Circuit has the lightest caseload in the country, and filling its vacancies is simply unnecessary. Incidentally, Democrats made similar arguments in opposition to President George W. Bush’s appointees to the same court.

The junior senator’s move is all the more troubling when one considers the fact that the impetus behind the rules change appears to be an attempt by the White House to stack the DC Appellate Court in hopes of saving the Obama agenda, including Obamacare – a bill Begich was the 60th and deciding vote on.

In recent days, Begich has feigned outrage over the failed healthcare roll-out, even engaging in faux attacks on the White House in an attempt to distance himself from political fallout. But Alaskans can now see to what lengths he will go to save the president’s failed socialist experiment.

While Begich has voted for the Obama-Reid agenda 91% of the time during his tenure in the United States Senate, Joe Miller will work tirelessly to repeal Obamacare, and fight every day to restore our liberties and keep Washington outsiders from meddling in our lives.

Joe Miller concluded, “Mark Begich’s ridiculous claim that there is some public consensus out there to justify his vote to give unaccountable judges more power over our lives is disingenuous in the extreme, and it’s anything but independent. It is partisan, divisive, and deeply troubling for the future of liberty in America.”

This is How Liberty Ends

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Photo Credit: Susan Walsh/APDear Friend of Liberty,

Earlier this week, the Senate, in almost a straight party line vote, chose to end the filibuster with respect to most Presidential nominees. 
 
This shocking power grab strips the ability of the minority party to provide a check to elevating those to places of authority in the executive or the judicial branch, who lack the qualifications, temperament or respect for the liberties of all Americans to hold such positions of trust. 
 
Though voting to end this right of the minority, which dates back to the mid 19th century, is deplorable, no one should be too surprised given the unprecedented pattern of the abuse of power seen under this Administration with its willing accomplices in the Democrat controlled Senate, Harry Reid and Mark Begich.
 
Where will this end? Will Congress hold those responsible to account?  

If the past is any indication, we can say with confidence that the Washington establishment will once again turn a blind eye to the blatant and systematic abuse of power.

At the IRS, many of those responsible for political profiling have not only kept their jobs, they have been promoted. Crickets on the Justice Department’s illegal monitoring of the press.  
 
Congress has yet to get to the bottom of the debacle at Benghazi, as this Administration stonewalls efforts by House Republicans. Meanwhile, the NSA continues to trample on the rights of ordinary Americans.
 
Not to mention . . . Obamacare!  We were lied to. Period.
 
It is time to hold this Administration and its shills in Congress accountable! That’s why I’ve filed to run for US Senate in 2014.
 
Senator Mark Begich may grandstand during an election cycle, but he’s never going to hold this administration accountable. Let’s face it, he is part of the problem. He was the 60th and deciding vote on Obamacare, and frankly, he sold us a bill of goods.
 
One thing we know, Mark Begich will keep carrying the water for Barack Obama and Harry Reid.
 
Enough is enough. Alaskans deserve better. Let’s give our junior senator his pink slip before he does any more damage.
 
In 2014 we’ll have a chance to replace liberal Democrat Mark Begich and rein in Barack Obama’s failed socialist agenda. But it is not going to happen if we replace him with another “me too” Republican. We’ve already tried that brand, and it’s not working out so well.
 
We need a fighter in Washington who will confront this lawless administration, and work tirelessly to restore liberty and economic prosperity. With your support, that’s exactly what I intend to do.
 
This week we celebrated the immortal words of our nation’s first Republican President Abraham Lincoln. At Gettysburg 150 years ago, he eloquently re-stated the vision and mission of the United States of America. 
 
In our day, “this nation, under God” must have “a new birth of freedom” once again so that “government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
 
Together, we can begin to make that happen.
 
Thank you for standing with me and your financial support during this crucial hour in our nation’s history.
 
In the Fight,

Joe

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.

Begich and Other Red State Senate Democrats In ObamaCare Damage Control Mode

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Photo Credit: Alex Wong/Getty ImagesThree of the most vulnerable red-state Democrats are scrambling to neutralize the growing political threat that President Obama’s health care law is posing to their reelection campaigns.

This week, Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, and Mark Pryor of Arkansas have undertaken a series of unusually aggressive maneuvers designed to distance themselves from the health care law, whose botched rollout has raised concerns it will become a major liability for the 2014 midterm elections. The defensive steps are a smart political play from lawmakers already preparing in earnest for their reelection campaigns, but also amount to a tacit admission that Obamacare has already become a major headache.

Hagan is preparing to ask the inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department and the General Accounting Office for a full investigation into the health care law’s rollout, Politico first reported Monday. Begich, meanwhile, announced he personally enrolled in Alaska’s health care exchange the same morning, declining to take the federal government’s contribution to his plan. In a statement, he also called for a “full and transparent accounting of how the vendors contracted to build the site failed to launch it successfully,”

Pryor, considered the most vulnerable Senate Democrat next year, took the most aggressive action of the three. His campaign criticized a senior adviser working for Republican Rep. Tom Cotton for supporting a deal to implement Obamacare in Arkansas, according to The Hill. John Burris, who is a state lawmaker, voted earlier this year to effectively expand Medicaid in the state by helping poor citizens buy private insurance.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama, Biden Meet with Begich, Other Senate Dems Up For Re-electiion

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A group of 15 Senate Democrats–all up for re-election in a year–met with President Barack Obama Wednesday to get an update on the beleaguered website where Americans are supposed to be able to register for exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act.

The Democrats, along with Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Sen. Michael Bennet, met with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to discuss progress made to HealthCare.gov, a White House official said, adding that security and privacy concerns were also raised during the session.

Democrats on Capitol Hill, many who vocally supported the Affordable Care Act during the lead-up to its passage in 2010, have grown increasing wary of the rollout of Obama’s signature legislation, particularly as technical concerns with the website have prevented Americans whose insurance plans are canceled from enrolling online…

Some of the most vulnerable Democrats up for re-election in 2014 – including Mark Begich of Alaska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Kay Hagan of North Carolina – attended Wednesday’s meeting…

A congressional source with knowledge of a meeting between Obama and the group of Democratic Senators told CNN concerns about the impact of Obamacare on next year’s mid-term elections were a part of the reason for the gathering at the White House. “There would not have been this meeting if you didn’t have this group of Senators up in 2014,” the Democratic staffer with knowledge of the meeting told CNN.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska’s Catholic Senators have Backed Bill Aimed to Enshrine LGBTQ Rights; Believed to Violate Religious Freedoms

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Photo Credit: catholicanchor.orgA bill that would make it a federal crime to “discriminate” against homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgender people — including forbidding men to use the women’s restroom or locker room – passed a key vote in the Senate Nov. 4.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) passed a test vote by 61-30, a critical margin that will allow the controversial bill to overcome any potential filibuster. Senate rules require 60 votes to cut off debate. The vote means the bill will almost certainly pass the full Senate without delay.

Photo Credit: catholicanchor.orgAlaska Sen. Mark Begich voted for the measure, while fellow Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski was absent for the test vote. However, Murkowski, who supports same-sex marriage, helped Democrats vote the bill out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee earlier this year.

Opponents, however, say the bill (S. 815) would deny traditional religious business owners the right to practice their religion. Its religious exemption is excessively narrow, according to a letter from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In an Oct. 31 letter to Congress, three leading U.S. bishop explained that they do not support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act because it “does not justly advance the dignity of all workers and authentic non-discrimination.”

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Can Win by Waiting: Make Democrats Clean Up their Own Mess

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Photo Credit: National Review Democrats are pleading for help, in the face of the implosion of Obamacare. House Republicans confronted with these pleas should listen to those who say: “Don’t do something; just stand there.”

It was Obama and the Democratic Senate who caused the disaster now unfolding. Specifically, Democratic red- or swing-state senators such as Mary Landrieu (La.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Mark Begich (Alaska), Mark Pryor (Ark.), and even Al Franken (Minn.) provided key votes to adopt the monstrosity without a single ballot to spare. Let them face the music; let them reap the consequences. And let them try to fix what’s utterly unfixable.

If they want to delay the individual mandate, fine: They can go first. If they want to fix the grandfathering rules so that people who want to keep their plans really can do so, fine: They can go first on that, too. Let them figure out the details. Let them try to make it work. The House can always vote to add its assent once the Senate has acted — all while noting, accurately, that even the delay or the grandfathering fix won’t make the whole of Obamacare successful or popular.

But with each fruitless effort to correct the uncorrectable, the vulnerable Senate Democrats effectively will be acknowledging that they were wrong to begin with.

The likelihood is that the Senate won’t act. It’s likely that the White House won’t let it happen. It’s likely that the vulnerable senators won’t even be able to get the more liberal members of the Senate Democratic caucus to go along with them. It’s likely that the Hagans and Pryors will be left to look both wrongheaded for having passed Obamacare and ineffectual for being unable to convince their leaders to try to improve it.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mark Begich’s Lie Costs 5,360 Alaskans Their Insurance

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Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield, Alaska’s Largest Health Insurer, Is Cancelling More Than Half Of Its Individual Policies Due To ObamaCare. “The largest health insurer in Alaska has sent cancellation notices to more than half its individual members in the state because their existing policies do not meet requirements of the new federal health care law. Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield spokeswoman Melanie Coon said Friday that of its more than 9,000 individual members in Alaska, fewer than 3,800 were on “grandfathered” plans. Those are plans that were in existence before March 23, 2010, and have changed very little.” (Becky Bohrer, “Premera Sends Alaskans Health Policy Cancellation Notices, Will Offer New Plans,” Anchorage Daily News, 11/1/13)

5,360 Alaskans Will Lose Their Existing Plans. “Coon said discontinuation notices have gone to about 5,360 other members, who have been told they will be matched to new plans that are closest to what they had before in an effort to keep anyone from losing coverage.” (Becky Bohrer, “Premera Sends Alaskans Health Policy Cancellation Notices, Will Offer New Plans,” Anchorage Daily News, 11/1/13)

BEGICH PROMISED ALASKANS THEY “CAN KEEP” THEIR CURRENT PLANS; BUT REFUSED TO HONOR THAT PROMISE WHEN GIVEN THE CHANCE

On July 27, 2009, As Health Care Reform Was Being Debated, Begich Promised Constituents That “If You’ve Got A Doctor Now, You’ve Got A Medical Professional That You Want, You Get To Keep That.” BEGICH: “If you got a doctor now, you got a medical professional you want, you get to keep that. If you have an insurance program or a health care policy you want of ideas, make sure you keep it. That you can keep who you want. That we keep that patient-doctor relationship very strong.” (Sen. Mark Begich, Remarks At iTownHall, 7/27/09)

After Voting To Pass ObamaCare, Begich Claimed “Alaskans Who Have Health Insurance Now, And Are Happy With It, Can Keep It.” “Alaskans who have health insurance now, and are happy with it, can keep it. While the thousands of Alaskans who do not have health insurance, or have insurance they can’t really afford, will have access to an insurance exchange offering affordable health insurance choices. An estimated 52,000 Alaskans will quality for tax credits to help purchase affordable health coverage.” (Press Release, “Sen. Begich Statement On Passage Of Health Reform Bill,” Sen. Mark Begich, 12/24/09)

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.”