SENATE REPUBLICANS BLOCK LEE AMENDMENT, PRESERVE AFFH

The Lee Amendment to defund President Obama’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation failed in the Senate yesterday because not enough Republicans backed it. The Amendment was tabled by a vote of 60-37. Jeremy Carl aptly describes this vote as a defeat for conservatism, community control, and common sense.
Read more at PowerLine Read More......

Time for Senate Geezers to Go

If the United States has any chance of changing the disastrous course on which it is currently embarked, then significant electoral reforms are needed. As things stand, too few politicians wield too much power for far too long.


J.R.R. Tolkien’s Ring of Power is perhaps the best metaphor for actual power found in literature: The more the bearer wears the ring, the more “addicted” to its powers and pleasures he becomes, and the more enthralled to the Dark Lord.


Read more at PoliZette Read More......

Ahead of Senate vote, Ted Cruz & Co. stand athwart bipartisan ‘doc fix’

The Senate is set to take up a bipartisan bill Tuesday that will permanently end the Medicare "doc fix," a yearly legislative headache on Capitol Hill, but some of the Senate's most conservative members are threatening to oppose the legislation crafted last month in the House, citing its price tag.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he expected to bring the bill to the Senate floor later in the day, hours before Medicaid officials say they will implement a 21 percent cut to the rates it pays doctors treating Medicare patients. McConnell said there is "a bipartisan desire" to pass the bill before the midnight deadline.


Read more at the Washington Post Read More......

Senate Dems threaten to oppose deal on Medicare doc fees

Democratic senators would oppose a potential House bipartisan deal preventing cuts in physicians’ Medicare payments if it doesn’t finance a children’s health program for four years, senior Senate Democratic aides said Sunday.

The aides issued the threat as House bargainers try preventing a 21 percent reduction in doctors' Medicare reimbursements scheduled for April 1.

Read more at the Associated Press Read More......

Jim Inhofe flips the script on Democratic climate-change-is-a-hoax vote

The United States Senate voted Wednesday to agree that climate change "is real and not a hoax." That was it, the full extent of the amendment to the Senate's slow-moving Keystone XL pipeline bill. Final tally: 98 to 1. This was one of two traps set up by Democrats to get their opponents on the record as disputing the authenticity of human-caused global warming, a phenomenon nearly universally accepted by the scientific community. But it didn't go as expected.

Read more at the Washington Post Read More......

Conger: $200M wasted, time to shut Cover Oregon down

PORTLAND, ORE – Rep. Jason Conger (R-Bend) renewed his call to shut down Cover Oregon in light of new information showing that $200 million has been spent out of roughly $300 million in federal grant money the state received to build its health insurance exchange.

“Cover Oregon is a train wreck, and the more we learn the worse it gets,” Conger said. “We now know that $200 million has been spent – and the website still doesn’t work.“

Read more at the Oregon Catalyst Read More......

Democrats' Midterm Blues

At the end of 2013, the Washington Post’s electoral number-crunchers calculated that the Democrats had a 1 percent chance to win back the House of Representatives. Barely into 2014, that already seems pretty optimistic. In the last week, several Democratic representatives saw the writing on the wall and voted with their feet — or with their seat — and announced they will be retiring.  One reason for that: The Obama administration is poised to give an incredible gift to the Republican party.

Read more at Real Clear Politics Read More......

Republican doctors running for Congress amid ObamaCare rollout fiasco

Eleven Republican doctors are running for the Senate, hoping that voters will see their medical expertise as an asset amid the administration’s botched rollout of ObamaCare. “Doctors are in a very unique position to look at the financing of healthcare,” Rep. Paul Broun, a family physician running for the GOP nomination for Georgia’s open Senate seat, told The Hill. “We go into medicine for one reason, and one reason only: Because we care about people, we want the people who we serve to have a productive, happy, healthy life,” he added. “That’s the kind of policymaker we should have in place in dealing with healthcare policy.” Doctors running in Senate races from North Carolina to Oregon are all pitching voters on their experience in the medical field.

Read more at The Hill Read More......

Tea party radiologist to primary Kansas Republican for Senate seat

President Barack Obama’s second cousin has confirmed to The Daily Caller that he will challenge Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas in the 2014 primary.

Speculation that Dr. Milton Wolf, a diagnostic radiologist aligned with the tea party, would challenge the 77-year-old Roberts from the right has been rising in recent weeks, after Wolf sent emails to GOP activists inviting them to contact him. On Monday night, Wolf’s blog promised a major announcement Tuesday.

“I really am concerned about our country, the direction our country is going,” Wolf told The Daily Caller Monday. “The reality is that the career politicians of both parties have failed us. That much is clear and you look around and you think, ‘Somebody has gotta do something,’ and I keep looking for somebody to do something, and no one is. I realized at one point that I’m somebody. I gotta do something. If I want to call myself an American, if I want to think of myself as a patriot, I have to step up.”

Read more at The Daily Caller
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Polls shows likely GOP senate takeover in 2014

A new Landmark/Rosetta Stone poll of the upcoming South Carolina senate primary, released last night, shows incumbent Senator Lindsey Graham to be facing a strong primary challenge in his bid for reelection next year. While Graham polls at 42 percent, that is well below the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. Should a runoff take place, he would run against the second place candidate, and if most of that other 58 percent unified behind the challenger, Graham could find himself being fired by Republican primary voters in his bid for another six-year term as South Carolina's Senior Senator. Aside from that seat, there are 33 other senate seats in contention during this election cycle. With the Democrats finding themselves defending many of these seats, including some in so-called “red” Republican-leaning states, the GOP has an excellent opportunity to regain majority control of the U. S. Senate after the 2014 elections.

Read more at the Examiner Read More......

New poll shows Democrat Sen. Mark Pryor already trailing Tom Cotton, who enters the race today

When U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, R (at right) announces his candidacy for Senate at a barbecue this evening, he will be doing so as an early frontrunner in a 2014 race that could ultimately determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.

A new Conservative Intel Poll of 587 likely Arkansas voters finds that even though 40 percent of Arkansas voters don’t know enough about the freshman congressman to form an opinion about him, he still leads incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor, D, by a narrow two-point margin — 43 percent to 41 percent.

Read more at Conservative Intelligence Briefing Read More......

Oregon Senate Bill 71: Relating to drones; and declaring an emergency

Summary of SB 71 (Current Version): Imposes restrictions on use of drones by private parties and public entities. Creates various crimes for unauthorized use of drones. Punishes by maximum of 20 years' imprisonment, $375,000 fine, or both. ✧ Directs Department of State Police to establish registry of certain drones used by public bodies. ✧ Permits Oregon Department of Aviation to issue licenses for use of drones. ✧ Declares emergency, effective on passage. Read more...

2013 Regular Session
Current: In Senate Committee Read More......

CPI: Opposing More Top-Down Control of Oregon Education

Steve Buckstein of Cascade Policy Institute testified before the Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee on Wednesday, February 8th.

CASCADE POLICY INSTITUTE, 2/8/2012, Testimony of Steve Buckstein - [Excerpt:] "I’m here to oppose SB 1581 because I believe that the legislature is continuing to fall into the “bigger is better” trap. The goal of unifying everything from early childhood through graduate school education can’t be accomplished without pushing power and control even farther away from the people who should matter most—parents and students. This bill, by giving even partial control over a number of positions in Oregon’s public education system to the new Chief Education Officer, simply continues movement into that trap. Read full testimony at CPI...

Related: Oregon Catalyst, 2/13/2012 - Whose education testimony are the Senators afraid of? by Steve Buckstein Read More......

Obama signs debt deal

With just hours to spare before the deadline, President Obama signs the deficit reduction bill into law to raise the nation's debt ceiling after the Senate approved the measure by a 74-26 vote.

Debt Ceiling: Budget Experts See Deal as 'Spit in the Ocean' - [Excerpt] "This package claims to reduce about $2.5 trillion from what the debt otherwise would have been; but the discretionary spending caps I discussed are just slowed growth. ... When we think about how big the problem is, with the retirement of the Baby Boom (generation), with low revenue coming in as a result of the financial crisis and the economic slowdown, we've got a much bigger problem than $3 trillion of vague cuts can address." Read more at Fox News... Read More......

Senate okays in-state tuition for undocumented students

OREGONIANS FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM, 3/29/2011 - [Excerpts] The Oregon Senate voted to pass Senate Bill 742 today. The vote was 18 in favor and 11 (Republicans) opposed. It will now be sent to the House, where the bill will face a far more difficult path. See which Senators voted against SB 742...

The following Senators voted against giving in-state tuition to illegal aliens:

• Sen. Jason Atkinson R- Central Point
  
• Sen. Brian Boquist R-Dallas
  
• Sen. Ted Ferrioli R- John Day
  
• Sen. Larry George R- Sherwood
  
• Sen. Fred Girod R-Stayton
  
• Sen. Jeff Kruse R-Roseburg
  
• Sen. Alan Olsen R-Oregon city
  
• Sen. Bruce Starr R-Hillsboro
  
• Sen. Cris Telfer R-Bend
  
• Sen. Doug Whitsett R-Klamath Falls
  
• Sen. Jackie Winters R-Salem.

Read Statesman Journal article Oregon Senate passes bill granting in-state tuition regardless of immigration status Read More......

SB 255 will weaken Oregon's Charter Schools

Oregon Conservatives/fb, 3/16/2011 posted by Jeff Reynolds - Statement from Rob Kremer - Don't be deceived by OR SB 255, which will WEAKEN CHARTER SCHOOLS IN OREGON.

Don't be deceived by the Education Lobby's "less controversial" charter school bill! ∴ SB255, a bill that makes some changes to the charter school law, passed out of committee yesterday. ∴ This bill is the product of interim meetings held by all the usual education lobby groups, who want to change the charter school law in ways that further empower school districts and further tie the hands of charter schools. ∴ On the House side, Rep. Wingard sponsored HB2287, which went down on Monday 32-28. THAT bill was the one that would empower charter schools and parents and children. ∴ The two bills are basically opposites, but the media is calling the Senate bill the "less controversial charter bill." Sure. Less controversial, because it does what the OEA, OSBA, COSA and ODE want it to do - make life harder for charters. ∴ Don't criticize the Republicans who voted for the bill in committee, because they were not lobbied on the bill. That was my fault - I was tied up and did not know the bill was being heard. I should have told them the truth about the bill. ∴ But if you have a chance, let everyone in your circle of influence know that SB255 is a bill that hurts charter schools. We need to kill this bill on the House side.

Thanks!
Rob Kremer

Read More......

Karl Rove updates 2010 Senate races

KARL ROVE'S NOTES (fb), 5/26/2010 - "New polls in the wake of last week's primaries have led to a slew of changes on the Senate map. Pennsylvania moves from leaning Republican to a toss-up after new polls show Sestak (D) closing on Toomey (R), and despite a primary battle between Sen. Bennet (D) and Romanoff (D), Colorado also moves from lean GOP to toss-up. California shifts from toss-up to lean Democratic as new polls show Sen. Boxer (D) ahead of her prospective Republican opponents. But Washington becomes a bright spot for Republicans as new polls show the entry of Rossi (R) to the race against Sen. Murray (D) shifts the state from leaning Democratic to a toss-up."

***Click map for larger view*** | (To download PDF map, visit http://bit.ly/dzSr7H)

Mr. Rove won't mind if we prove him wrong on Oregon's Senate race. --bc Read More......

Senate Democrats Out of Touch with American Public

From Bob Tiernan, Oregon Republican Party Chair
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Sorry, just received this. --bc)
Tuesday November 24,2009

Senate Democrats Out of Touch with American Public - According to new polling information, a majority of Americans oppose Democrats’ health care reform - Portland, Ore. – “The health care bill which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid passed on Saturday, with the help of Oregon’s Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, brings America dangerously closer to government-run health care,” Oregon Republican Party Chairman Bob Tiernan said today.

“The 2,074-page bill was created behind closed doors and is filled with new taxes on small businesses and the middle class, cuts to Medicare and increased bureaucracy that will put the government between you and your doctor,” Chairman Tiernan continued.

According to polling information released yesterday by Rasmussen Reports, 56% of Americans oppose the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. In the same report, support for the plan fell to an all-time low of 38%. Additionally, only 16% of respondents believe the plan will lead to lower health care costs as the Democrats are claiming, while nearly four times as many, 60% of respondents, believe the plan will increase health care costs.

“As this poll demonstrates, it’s clear that this is not the kind of ‘change’ Oregonians and Americans want. As voters in New Jersey and Virginia showed on Election Day earlier this month, they oppose bigger government, more federal spending and higher taxes,” continued Chairman Tiernan.

“I urge Senators Wyden and Merkley to stand up to Senator Reid and the liberal special interests, start representing the views of Oregonians, and oppose this dangerous health care experiment,” Chairman Tiernan concluded.

### Read More......

House and Senate Republicans highlight plan for Oregon jobs

BUILDING A BETTER OREGON - With more than 236,286 Oregonians looking for work, House and Senate Republicans presented a ten point plan to create lasting and local jobs Tuesday. While Oregon's unemployment rate is the highest in over 25 years, House and Senate Republicans have been pushing proposals to create and sustain jobs for the past two months. ∴ "While the mortgage, grocery and heating bills continue to pile up, jobs are becoming Oregon's newest endangered species," said Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli (R-John Day). "These proposals are built on the idea that when we empower small businesses and give families extra breathing room in their budgets, they make decisions that are best for them and best for the economy."

House and Senate Republicans spoke about four of the proposals in detail:

1. Reduce income tax withholding tables by 4.2% to immediately put $100 million back into Oregonian's paychecks and create 2,500 jobs, without costing government a penny.
2. Implement the Main Street Incentive Program to encourage home and business owners to engage in capital improvement projects. Creates more than 5,000 jobs.
3. Provide matching funds for public and private airports to improve facilities through a Flight Plan for Local Jobs. The improved facilities will create economic development opportunities for local communities. Using $7.7 million, more than $128 million can be leveraged. The plan would create 2,214 jobs.
4. Reconnect to the federal tax code so Oregonians receiving unemployment benefits won't be taxed. This would give unemployed Oregonians an additional $15 million to help make ends meet.
   

Senator Brian Boquist (R-Dallas) stressed the needs of working and unemployed Oregonians.

"Oregonians are hurting as they face reduced hours and record unemployment," said Boquist. "Every extra dollar in the average Oregonians' paycheck helps pay for winter coats, school books, the heat bill or rent."

Infrastructure investment is a key to long term job growth, according to Senator Chris Telfer (R-Bend).

"These projects are planned and ready to go, all they need is the seed money," said Telfer. "This is a small investment for a big return both now, in construction jobs, and into the future when the finished projects will bring tremendous economic benefit to communities all around the state."

Read More......

Oregon Senate Week in Review

Below is the weekly report from the Senate for 9-13 Feb 09. You may be interested in this [YouTube] link to my speech opposing HB 2157, the federal tax disconnect and de facto tax increase on Oregon’s unemployed.

Regards,
Brian J. Boquist
State Senator (SD-12)

Senate Week in Review
Introduction: The Senate passed a $96 million tax increase with another major fee increase scheduled next week. Despite multiple calls to freeze state spending, out-of-state travel, new programs, and new capital spending nothing was done to curb deficient spending yet in Salem. Further calls to address the location of $19 billion in fees from the Other Funds Budget have been unsuccessful.

Floor Actions: HB 2157 passed 17 to 13 with one Democrat joining the Republican minority. So, next week Oregon’s unemployed will start paying an additional $15 million in taxes on their unemployment benefits. The Democrat led bill raises state government revenue by $96 billion by disconnecting with the federal tax code. Additionally, the bill will no longer allow state credit for special expensing and depreciation as proposed by President Obama and the Democrat Congress.

Committee Actions: Judiciary reviewed bills on increasing penalties on horse abandonment, cockfighting and other animal crimes. Environment & Natural Resources passed out SB 76 which allows for the collection of $180 million in electric surcharges to pay for the removal of four dams on the Klamath River. The bill may make Oregon liable for another $1.5 billion in removal and clean up costs. Your Senator voted NO as the cost liability was to great, and no know power replacement source was identified.

Legislature 101: The Floor debate on this week’s tax increase was quite lively as one Democrat Senator called a Republican a liar for claiming HB 2157 was a tax increase. Technically, on the day of the vote the bill was revenue neutral but once President Obama signs the law passed by Congress on Monday the tax increases happen in Oregon. The bill was made a Special Order of Business in order to get it passed this week before Congress and the President acted thus they could claim it was not a tax increase until next week. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck then it is a tax increase.


Read More......