Of course, this isn’t the first time this administration has spent tax dollars to promote Obamacare. Back in 2010, the Obama administration spent $3 million in October alone on TV ads promoting their health care bill. Factcheck.org called the promise made in one of the ads saying Medicare benefits would stay the same “fictional.” Earlier that year, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a mailer, again paid for with taxpayer money, touting the health care law, that was starkly at odds with the CMS actuary’s own skeptical analysis of Obamacare.

Writing about today’s news, Lachlan Markey of The Heritage Foundation points out, “Last year, HHS asked Congress to quadruple the budget for its public affairs office – to nearly $20 million – and nearly double the size of the office’s staff. The department insisted the changes were necessary to ‘help Americans understand and access their benefits and information under the law.’”

The Daily Caller’s Matt Lewis noticed something else interesting about the HHS announcement. “The story [in The Hill] notes that the public relations firm Porter Novelli ‘won the contract after a competitive bidding process.’ Interestingly,” Lewis writes “the managing director of Porter Novellis’ Washington D.C. office is Catherine “Kiki” McLean — a true ‘D.C. insider,’ according to her bio. Indeed she is. Among her other accomplishments, McLean’s bio also notes she was ‘an on-air surrogate for the Obama for America campaign.’ This, of course, raises a few questions, including: Just how competitive was the competitive bid process that went to a senior Democrat? And isn’t this the kind of insider access Obama decried in 2008?

Related:

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Only seven months after critical news stories about unpaid taxes on a private airplane, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill was late paying property taxes on her Washington, D.C., condominium.

Records show that the Missouri Democrat missed the fall 2011 deadline by about three weeks. McCaskill paid $197 in penalties and interest on top of the $1,514 in taxes owed for half the year. Read more…

On another campaign note. With the president’s increasing unpopularity in Missouri, we know that Claire will not have Obama within three states of Missouri during this election cycle. To counter this and to shore up the Black vote for the fall, the campaign has hired an African American, STL County patronage employee, Chalana Oliver.Similar Posts:

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Back in December, though, when the concerns about Jaczko were aired in congressional hearing, he’d said he wouldn’t resign. At the time, The Hill wrote, “Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko told a House committee Wednesday that he has no plans to resign amid allegations from his colleagues that his leadership style could prevent the agency from protecting public health and safety. ‘I have no plans to resign because I continue to believe that under my leadership the agency has performed very well,’ Jaczko, a Democrat, said during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing. . . . The four NRC commissioners — two Democrats and two Republicans — delivered a unified rebuke of Jaczko’s leadership at the hearing, accusing him of ‘continued outbursts of abusive rage’ toward staff and withholding key information from his colleagues.”

According to Reuters, “Jaczko bullied employees, humiliated female workers and blocked information from being shared, the other commissioners told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee [in December]. Commissioners William Ostendorff and Kristine Svinicki said they have lost confidence in Jaczko’s leadership. . . . Jaczko’s ‘extreme behavior’ toward three women in separate instances caused one of the employees to cry in front of male co-workers, Commissioner William Magwood told the committee. Other commissioners told lawmakers that Jaczko had intimated NRC staff.”

And a December AP report added, “The commissioners told Congress the women at the NRC felt particularly intimidated by Jaczko. Commissioner William Magwood told the oversight panel that Jaczko had bullied and belittled at least three female staff members, one of whom told Magwood she was ‘humiliated’ by what Magwood called a ‘raging verbal assault.’ Kristine Svinicki, the commission’s only woman, told committee investigators that she was so uncomfortable around Jaczko that she asked her chief of staff to ‘keep watch’ over a private meeting with the chairman in Svinicki’s office.”

Last month, news reports noted that a new report from the NRC Inspector General is forthcoming. Reuters pointed out, “The NRC’s inspector general is expected soon to issue a report that is likely to focus on the tensions on the commission.” And according to National Journal, “[T]he NRC’s inspector general is still conducting an investigation of last year’s allegations and whenever a report is released, it is sure to reopen some of these wounds. An IG report last June already criticized the chairman for not being ‘forthcoming’ with his fellow commissioners leading up to the shutdown of the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository in Nevada.”

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House Speaker Steven Tilley makes comments on gubernatorial hopeful Dave Spence’s ethics proposal on May 17, 2012.

* Reports were that the Spence campaign bus left last weekend’s “Rally for Common Sense”  just as Spence communications director Stacy E. Washington took the podium for her remarks

Political Fix: Oops! Dave Spence campaign aide sends reporters internal briefing memo

emissourian.com:

Bill Randles Says He Can Beat Nixon, Spence in Governor’s Race

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Speaking on the Senate floor this morning, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “We’ve got a nearly $16 trillion debt; we’re borrowing more than 40 cents of every dollar we spend; entitlements are going broke; millions are out of work, and Democrats can’t even put a plan on paper for a vote? What are they doing over there? Isn’t anybody over there embarrassed by the fact that they haven’t offered a budget in three years? . . . As far as I can tell, their only plan is to take shots at our plans and hope nobody notices they not only don’t have one of their own. They’re so unserious they won’t even vote for a budget that was written by a President of their own party. It doesn’t get more irresponsible than that. . . . [I]t’s the responsibility of any majority party to put [a budget] together, to stand up and be counted. But since Democrats refuse to do their duty by the nation, Republicans will attempt to do it for them.”

The Washington Free Beacon explains, “The Democratic-led Senate has not formally proposed a federal budget resolution in more than three years, and is not expected to offer one Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) and Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) have made explicitly clear that they have no intention of doing so before the November election. Senate Republicans plan to offer four GOP budgets—authored by Sens. Mike Lee (R., Utah); Rand Paul (R., Ky.); Pat Toomey (R., Pa.); and House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.)—as well as the president’s budget.”

What do Democrats have to say for themselves? Not much, as The Washington Times’ Emily Miller writes today: “[Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s] go-to excuse this year has been that the Budget Control Act, which set lower spending levels in exchange for raising the debt ceiling last summer, was good enough to replace an actual budget. The Senate parliamentarian disagreed, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, insisted that the ruling by the Senate’s procedural referee meant Democrats couldn’t keep the five proposed budgets from being discussed on the floor.”

Politico reports that rank-and-file Senate Democrats aren’t particularly enamored with this excuse. “Senate Democrats are ripping into Republican budget plans but still refusing to offer one themselves — a move that’s frustrating a handful of centrists in their own party. . . . Democratic leaders have defiantly refused to lay out their own vision for how to deal with federal debt and spending, arguing that last summer’s debt-ceiling deal essentially serves as an actual budget. While a budget resolution is non-binding, they say, the Budget Control Act was signed into law. But a few centrists in the 53-member Democratic conference expressed frustration with their party’s budget inaction. ‘Anything we can do to force the Senate to deal with the debt is important to do, and the sooner the better,’ Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who caucuses with Democrats, told POLITICO. ‘I don’t think [Democrats] will offer their own budget and I’m disappointed in that.’ Freshman Sen. Joe Manchin has often said he would have been “impeached” if he failed to produce a budget as West Virginia governor, though he conceded there are differences between the state and Senate budget processes. ‘Sure I have a problem with [failing to offer a budget]. As a former governor, my responsibility was to put a budget forward and balance it, so anyone who comes from the executive mindset has a problem with that. I don’t care if you’re Democrat or Republican,’ Manchin said in an interview. . . . Another Democrat . . . lamented that the budget process has broken down and is in need of a major overhaul. ‘The budget process is just not working around here. We’ve had three years with President Obama where we’re not able to get a budget resolution passed,’ Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) told POLITICO.

And yet, as MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough put it this morning, “The Democrats have decided in the midst of a financial meltdown they’re going to do absolutely nothing…” Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) previously said, “It would be foolish for us to do a budget at this stage,” and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said last year, “To put other budgets out there is not the point.

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51% Trust Romney’s Economic Judgment More Than Obama’s

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Holts Summit, Missouri (10:00 am – 6:00 pm)

TICKETS ONLY $10 each

Partial List of Speakers: Herman Cain, Alan Keyes, Gina Gentry Loudon, Michelle Moore, Stacy E. Washington, David Roland, Joseph Farrah -CEO of World News Daily and many others.

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That’s a comment St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley’s Consiglieri John Temporiti made to a St. Louis County councilman a few years ago. We’ve chronicled the many shady and questionable dealings of Mr. Temporiti and Mr. Dooley (here, here, here, and here) so criticism from us is  expected. What’s not expected is this recent criticism form the Carnahan blog.

Polsinelli Shughart law firm announced recently that a host of lawyers, including John Temporiti, paid Rex Sinquefield consultant and former Chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party, was joining their firm.  Temporiti was paid almost $50,000 by Sinquefield from November to March through Rex’s Let Voters Decide committee to “provide a Democratic perspective” Read more…

Remaining beholden to the teacher’s unions and keeping black children in terrible schools outweighs party loyalty we guess. Interesting.

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In stark contrast, Senate Republicans will offer several different budget plans this week for senators to vote on. The Hill writes, “Republican senators are expected to force a vote this week on President Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget plan, while Democrats are relishing a roll call on Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget blueprint.” In addition, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) will all offer budgets for the Senate to consider.

But, as The Hill notes, it’s worth pointing out that Democrats don’t want to support their own president’s budget. “The GOP initiative is intended to embarrass the White House by painting the president’s budget as so weak on fiscal issues that his own party cannot support it, and to highlight the inability of the Senate Democratic majority to produce a budget. It has been more than 1,100 days since the Senate cleared a budget resolution. GOP aides say that if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) tried to rally support for Obama’s budget, he could get a dozen yes votes at best. That estimate may be low, though there is a clear contrast in how congressional Democrats dealt with Obama’s budget in 2009 and this year. Three years ago, the Democratic-led Senate passed Obama’s budget 55-43. Obama’s approval ratings were much higher at the time, which fostered strong Democratic unity on Capitol Hill. Some centrist Democrats, including Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), have said they prefer a budget with deeper deficit cuts than Obama presented. Vulnerable Democratic senators are seen as unwilling to vote for the tax increases detailed in the White House budget. Aides to several Democratic centrists were noncommittal Monday on how their bosses would vote if the Obama budget comes up.”

Last year, of course, Obama’s budget received zero votes in the Senate, and his budget this year received zero votes in the House. Will any Democrat senator vote for it this year? Based on The Hill report, it sounds like Democrats may be getting their excuses ready: “This year, Obama is sticking by his budget, so Democrats are embracing another reason to vote it down. The White House moved Monday to free Democrats to vote no by saying the legislation embodying Obama’s budget is ‘different’ because it doesn’t contain identical policy language.”

This week, no thanks to Democrats, the Senate will finally have the opportunity to vote on at least five different budgets. Will Democrats support any of them, or continue their record of astonishing fiscal irresponsibility?

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Brenda Talent, executive director of the Show Me Institute, speaks at the Your Money, Your Values, Your Vote meeting in Chesterfield, MO. This was a stop on the FRC and Heritage Foundation sponsored Values Bus tour. Brenda talked about the Show Me Institute, a free-market think tank that focuses on driving sound economic policy at the state level in Missouri.Similar Posts:

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The Hill.com:

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), holds a single-digit lead over all three of her Republican opponents, according to a new poll from a Democratic super-PAC.  McCaskill leads former Missouri state Treasurer Sarah Steelman (R) 45-36, businessman John Brunner 46-38 and Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) 44-39 in the survey released Monday by Majority PAC and conducted by Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, a columnist for The Hill.

But McCaskill fails to break 50 percent against any of her potential challengers, suggesting the weakness of the GOP field could have more to say about McCaskill’s advantage in the race than her own popularity among constituents. Read more…
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