More Questions Than Answers

Surely I can’t be the only person who has a hard time falling asleep at night, thanks to all the unanswered questions floating around in my head.  For instance, after seeing Juan Williams constantly trying to pooh-pooh away questions about the Benghazi cover-up on both Bret Baier’s “Special Report” and O’Reilly’s “The Factor,” I keep wondering if he’s been required to register as a lobbyist for the Obama administration.

For instance, how is it that ...

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House Speaker Can Start with a Select Committee on Benghazi

It is time for House Speaker John Boehner to step away from the microphone, grab the gavel, and start leading as House Republicans move to investigate the Obama scandals and block the implementation of Obamacare.

The House is now awash in investigations and legislative proposals over the Benghazi and IRS scandals. Boehner needs to take charge.

The Speaker can start by supporting the effort to create a Select Committee to investigate Be...

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Speaking truth to power as few others can, Judge Jeanine Pirro devastates Barack Obama for his scandal trifecta of the past week — namely, the Benghazi Betrayal, IRS Harassment, and the AP Phone Records Seizure.

The administration’s strategy through it all continues to be:

1. Shrug, deny, delay, dissemble, obfuscate, rationalize, and blame-shift.
2. Own up to nothing while throwing a few underlings under the bus.
3. Ascribe statist thuggery and gross negligence to lack of funding.

Fl...

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The Obama White House has released the latest installment of its ongoing and self-congratulatory video series, West Wing Week. But despite touting itself as “your guide to all things 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,” the new episode seems to be missing some of the key stories that have hit the headlines over the past few days.

There’s no mention, for instance, of Benghazi or the AP phone tapping – and the IRS scandal is barely mentioned in passing.

Perhaps the White House is just...

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In case you missed it, the Arizona Executive and Legislative branches are embroiled in a battle over expanding Obamacare’s Medicaid program in Arizona. Here is the latest Friday poll gauging our reader’s position on this issue. Votes are scheduled in the Arizona House next week.

Lots more:

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So budget bills got through the Arizona Senate Thursday, which were surprisingly decent, and the Medicaid expansion won a decisive majority vote. Political strategist and former legislator John Loredo said it best on his Facebook page:

Tonight Senate Democrats along with a handful of courageous Republicans passed a reasonable, responsible budget. Dems learned that when you have serious leverage, you can hold out for some pretty amazing victories – if you don’t throw in the towel too ...

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Obamacare: A Study in Broken Promises

From Cathy McMorris Rodgers and the House Republican Conference:

CHARGE: “You should know that once we have fully implemented, you’re going to be able to buy insurance through a pool so that you can get the same good rates as a group that if you’re an employee at a big company you can get right now — which means your premiums will go down.”(President Obama, speech in Cincinnati, Ohio July 16, 2012)

RESPONSE: Nothing could be further from the tru...

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After $1 trillion in new taxes and more than $2 trillion in new spending, three years later the Democrats’ law has failed to deliver on the promise of affordable health care for Americans.

Instead, American families and businesses are facing the tough and costly realities of ObamaCare: higher health insurance premiums, the loss of the health plan you have and like, lower wages, and less hiring and business expansion.  Now, on the eve of the 37^th vote in the House to repeal all or some of t...

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And “now the story of a dysfunctional Democratic majority that’s costing American jobs, and the one president who had no choice but to make it worse.”

From Speaker Boehner’s office:

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The Obama administration’s tax policies have been an attack on farm and ranch families. The tax and spenders fail to understand that taxes punish the very things we want more of: productive work, risk-taking and success. In essence, this administration wants to see less productive work, fewer goods and services provided, fewer jobs created, and ultimately less success in our country.

Beginning this year, Obamacare or what I sometimes refer to as the Un-affordable Care Act, will impose enormous...

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It’s Already Over for the Obama Administration

Second term presidents usually get almost two years to pursue their agendas before the midterm elections and the next presidential election cycle slams the door.

For President Obama, the second term timetable has been cut short. Next week marks only four months since Obama took the oath of office to begin his second term and it is already over. He’s a lame duck walking way before his time.

This is no idle prediction. The administration is mired ...

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Survey reveals Arizona entrepreneurs’ deep skepticism of federal funding promises

PHOENIX, Ariz., May 14, 2013 — In a poll released today by their leading association, small-business owners overwhelmingly oppose the high-stakes effort at the Arizona State Capitol to expand Medicaid coverage to all Arizonans at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level as envisioned by the federal healthcare law.

The recent survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB/Ariz...

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HHS Seeks Insurance and Healthcare Industry Funds To Promote Obamacare

In Barack Obama’s Washington it’s a new scandal every day, with the Secretary of Health and Human Services joining the chorus-line led by the former Secretary of State and the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.

Kathleen Sebelius, the boss at Health and Human Services, is responsible for implementing Obamacare. It’s a tough job, with a deadline of October 1 to have the insurance exchanges up and running and ...

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AZ Eagletarian has a concise run-down of a rumored deal by AZ Senate President Andy Biggs (which I hinted at on my Sunday Square Off appearance) to ram a budget through the Senate by tacking a Medicaid expansion amendment on it and dangling some district pork in front of a few Dem Senators to get their votes.

Here’s the scenario as it was set forth to me earlier this evening:

Senate President Andy Biggs, who has been declaring all along that he is dead set against the Medicaid expansion, w...

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Spending Daily | May 13, 2013

IRS Targeted Groups Lobbying to “make America a better place to live”

The Wall Street Journal reports, “The Internal Revenue Service’s scrutiny of conservative groups went beyond those with ‘tea party’ or ‘patriot’ in their names—as the agency admitted Friday—to also include ones worried about government spending, debt or taxes, and even ones that lobbied to ‘make America a better place to live,’ according to new details of a government ...

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Christine Bauserman, whose Facebook page proudly boasts all her conservative and Republican affiliations, believes that poor people getting health care in Arizona is a Marxist plot. She wrote a hilarious LTTE to the AZ Capitol Times about it.

Just how desperate are Gov. Jan Brewer and political wizard Chuck Coughlin to force Obamacare on an unwilling Arizona? Dwindling resources, loss of votes, and lackluster public support seem to be a reason for the fraught Republicans to enlist the support of...

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The Hot Spot is Western Free Press’s forum for letters to the editor and opinion pieces submitted by readers. If you would like to submit a piece for consideration, email us at hotspot@westernfreepress.com. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of Western Free Press.

By Michael Cahill

The unintended effects of Obamacare

On Jan. 1, 2014, President Obama’s Affordable Care Act will fully take effect, and whether or not it’s the right move for ...

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