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Begich, Other Senate Dems Join Call to Delay ObamaCare Mandate Amid Website Failures

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Photo Credit: APSeveral Democratic senators are calling on the Obama administration to delay enforcement of the health care law’s individual mandate, joining their Republican colleagues in saying it would be unfair to penalize Americans for failing to buy insurance when the primary sign-up website doesn’t work.

The Democratic dominoes began to fall quickly Wednesday, after Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., circulated a letter urging President Obama to extend enrollment beyond March 31, 2014.

Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., in a statement released late Wednesday, said: “I believe, given the technical issues, it makes sense to extend the time for people to sign up.”…

The White House, while defending the health care law and vowing to fix the problems with the website, has not explicitly ruled out the possibility of delaying the individual mandate. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, also backed Shaheen’s call in a written statement Wednesday.

“I have repeatedly said this law is not perfect and have proposed changes to make it work for Alaska families and small businesses,” he said. “Given the recent website issues, I also support extending open enrollment season. I want to work with the administration to ensure that individuals are not unfairly penalized if technical issues with the website continue.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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

Alaska Has Zero Obamacare Enrollees

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Though Alaska’s Sen. Mark Begich (D) promised an “aggressive strategy” to assure the success of ObamaCare in his state, not one Alaskan has been able to sign up for his state’s exchange.

In June, Senate Democrats who voted to approve ObamaCare vowed to double down in their support of the law that has proven to be a disastrous nightmare in its rollout.

“I don’t run from my votes,” Begich told the Associated Press. “Politicians who sit around and say, ‘That’s controversial so I better run from it,’ just ask for trouble. Voters may not always agree with you, but they respect people who think about these issues and talk about them.”

Begich reminded voters that, as a 2008 candidate, he called for an end to insurers denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, an end to lifetime coverage limits, and an easy transition for workers to leave their jobs and still have insurance under the new exchanges.

“There’s a lot of good that people will realize as this all comes online,” Begich said of ObamaCare’s exchanges.

Read more from this story HERE.

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.

Sen. Mark Begich Laughs Off Notion of Voting to Defund Obamacare

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Mark BegichWhile pushing an effort to defund Obamacare or risk a government shutdown, congressional Republicans have insisted they might have some unlikely allies on their side: Senate Democrats up for reelection in red states.

But at least two of those Democrats, Sens. Mark Begich (Alaska) and Mark Pryor (Ark.), laughed off the suggestion Thursday that they would vote for a continuing resolution that permanently strips the Affordable Care Act of its funding.

“We’re not going through another [vote to repeal Obamacare], 43rd or 44th — no,” Begich told reporters on Capitol Hill. “Do I have issues with Obamacare? Yes. We’ve proposed multiple amendments and ideas to fix it, to make it better and take out things that aren’t working … but we’re not going through this process.”

When The Huffington Post asked Begich to respond to the idea that Democrats facing tough reelection battles in conservative states might favor House Republicans’ strategy, which ties Obamacare funding to a continuing resolution to keep the government running past Sept. 30, Begich laughed and shook his head.

“No — I think those guys over there should focus on what the American people want, and that is a budget done,” he said. “Quit playing with the continuing resolution, putting the debt at risk, and causing this great economy that’s moved in the right direction to falter again.”

Polling consistently shows a majority of Americans disapprove of Obamacare. A new poll finds that 54 percent want to return to the healthcare system in place in 2009, while 35 percent want to keep Obamacare.

Read more from this story HERE.

At a recent town hall in Anchorage, Senator Begich vowed Obamacare will never be repealed.

Sen. Mark Begich Vows Obamacare Will Never Be Repealed (+video)

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Photo Credit: SenateDemocrats

Photo Credit: SenateDemocrats

Alaska Senator Mark Begich (D-AK) held two town hall meetings in Anchorage earlier this week and pledged his unwavering support for the unpopular Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare.”) The Obamacare raiment will prove a heavy weight to bear as he enters the re-election season of 2014.

A question regarding the measure at the first town hall held Wednesday night at Campbell Elementary School drew the most lively response from the crowd. Despite the strong sentiment expressed against the law, Senator Begich emphatically promised those in attendance, “If you’re thinking it’s going to get repealed. Whoever tells you that ain’t giving you the truth. It’s not going to get repealed.”

Begich went on to state he would work to repair or replace unpopular portions of the ACA such as the tax on “Cadillac” plans and that he had already voted to repeal a tax on manufacturers of medical devices.

The Senator will have his work cut out for him taking this approach however because the Affordable Care Act itself is very unpopular. A recent CBS News poll found 54 percent of Americans disapprove of the law, while only 36 percent approve.

Begich sought to identify with those in attendance saying, “Just as you do, I [will] join the exchange come October 1st. I have to join it just like everyone else.” What he failed to mention is that members of Congress and their staffs have generous healthcare premium support plans already in place covering much of the cost, thereby exempting themselves from the rate shock most Americans will feel.

The overall estimated cost of Affordable Care Act to American taxpayers over the first 10 years has ballooned from the $0.9 trillion promised by President Obama in 2009 to a CBO projected cost of $2.6 trillion earlier this year.

The high cost is not the only thing causing grave misgivings about Obamacare among the American people. At a second town hall event at the Anchorage Senior Center, a grandmother expressed a concern many have regarding the ACA’s employer mandate, which dictates that businesses with fifty or more employees must fulfill all the law’s requirements. She believes Obamacare will make it harder for her grandchildren and others to find full-time employment.

The evidence appears to be on her side. A CNBC poll of small business owners earlier this summer found 41 percent have frozen hiring because of the law and 38 percent indicated they have pulled back on plans to expand. Begich admitted at the town hall that the ACA incentivizes underemployment by moving people from full to part-time.

At both town hall events, Begich took great pains to point out he is doing everything he can to fix what ails Obamacare. He ballyhooed legislation he introduced last month to delay the employer mandate for two years rather than the one year promised by the President. In other words, the Senator wants to pass legislation to save Alaskans (temporarily) from the ill-effects of the law he voted whole-heartedly to pass. Of course, this magnanimous gesture by the first-term senator would conveniently push the job-killing effects of the ACA until after next year’s re-election cycle.

Senator Begich knows he is vulnerable in 2014. His seat is among those judged to be in-play. A recent survey by the liberal leaning Public Policy Polling showed his job approval at a paltry 42 percent, down from 49 percent in February. This precipitous drop comes in spite of a statewide paid media push over the last several months and before the first salvo of the 2014 campaign has even been fired.

A vital measure of congressional leadership must be foresight: the ability to see a train wreck before it happens. By this standard, Senator Begich misses the mark. Rather than accepting the Senator’s small gestures of Affordable Care Act relief, Alaskans would do well to relieve themselves entirely of his services come next November.

GOP Targets Alaska’s Mark Begich Over Carbon Tax

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The National Republican Senatorial Committee Wednesday will launch a robo-call campaign in Alaska targeting Sen. Mark Begich for his support of a carbon tax.

NRSC plans to call nearly 70,000 households statewide about what it calls the Alaska Democrat’s “steadfast support for the costly carbon tax,” according to a script of the calls provided to POLITICO. A carbon tax means “more EPA red tape regulation,” says the script, which cites National Association of Manufacturers’ data to contend it would increase electricity, natural gas and gasoline prices and hurt Alaskan jobs.

“Sen. Begich didn’t paint that picture for you did he?” says the script. “Higher taxes, higher energy costs and Sen. Begich just don’t work for Alaska.”

The NRSC is aiming the calls at all female voters and likely male swing voters across the state.

The claims are based on Begich’s support for a non-binding amendment to this year’s budget resolution by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) that would have called for any revenue generated by a carbon tax to be “returned to the American people in the form of federal deficit reduction, reduced federal tax rates, cost savings or other direct benefits.”

Read more from this story HERE.