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.”