House and Senate races feeling Medicare debates

As the 2012 elections heat up on a local level for congressional seats across the country, candidates from both major political parties are debating who is best to represent their districts in Washington come 2013.

The battle over Medicare and Social Security for seniors and retirees is among those debates and is wasting no time heating up on the campaign trails. Candidates are using mailers, telephones, TV and radio commercials and even door-to-door operations to spread their messages. Which has prompted one senator’s unsuccessful quest to have an attack ad pulled off the air?

Democrats and Republicans are battling each other in a campaign season that can change the political view of the national capitol for the next two to six years. In some races they have not become bitter sweet; instead they have become a bit ugly. Democrats are hammering the republicans for backing Rep. Paul Ryan Medicare plan, and the republicans are hammering democrats over the healthcare overhaul passed into law by fellow democrats and President Obama.

The enacted Affordable Care Act which was passed by the democratic controlled house and senate, and signed into law by now President Barack Obama, is projected to reduce the growth of Medicare by $500 billion dollars over the next 10 years, but some estimate that it would actually increase that same budget over the next 10 years.

Barber a candidate for congress in Arizona is running for his former boss seat Rep. Gifford’s, whom is retiring this year. Barber has quoted to the Hill newspaper the He would never vote for a cut to Medicare benefits. However his opponent Kelly disagrees with Barber claims, by also quoting People need to see the contrast between myself and my opponent, who has made some very disparaging remarks about these programs. He called them both ponzi schemes and said they out to be eliminated and privatized.

Republicans can’t really put the blame solely on democrats, when almost all of the House Republicans voted in favor of Rep. Paul Ryan plan to change Medicare and cost senior’s to lose their healthcare benefits and services back in March.

There is no reason for republicans and democrats to distance themselves from their party beliefs over such issues as this heated issue.

This hot issue has even reached all the way down into the sunshine state of Florida, where Sen. Bill Nelson is defending is record on Capitol Hill to save his current seat. The negative campaign ads that is currently being ran by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has forced Sen. Nelson to act through his attorney to request that the television stations stop airing those political ads, that he claims is false.

It is known that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is behind a lot of this negative campaigning in regards to the Medicare and healthcare legislations that has been proposed and passed on Capitol Hill. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce should not be a driving force in these races, and should let the candidates and their respective campaign face their voters themselves as this campaign season progresses. 

The voters will decide one way or the other, but they should not have to decide off of hearsay rhetoric.

Texas Senate race a test for GOP

The Texas Senate race is heating up with the old –vs- new young blood.

The Republican Senate race in Texas is now a familiar one: A veteran politician supported by the GOP establishment is challenged by a young insurgent backed by national conservative groups.

David Dewhurst is the reserved, self-made millionaire and lieutenant governor facing off against Ted Cruz, the feisty son of a Cuban exile who calls himself "a proven fighter for liberty because his family knows what it means to lose it."

The underdog is former Dallas mayor and businessman Tom Leppert, who offers himself as the no-nonsense alternative to politics as usual.

In heavily Republican Texas, whoever wins the GOP primary on Tuesday is almost a sure bet to replace retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Cruz and Leppert acknowledge that Dewhurst is more familiar with voters and has more cash - he's spent $9.2 million of his $200 million fortune on the primary. But both hope to force a runoff, and if one succeeds, the runner-up could win in July.

Conservative groups that complain many Senate Republicans now in office are too quick to compromise have spent more than $4 million trying to help Cruz. The benefactors include South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund, the anti-tax Club for Growth and former Texas Rep. Dick Armey's FreedomWorks.

Cruz, 41, made his name representing Texas before the Supreme Court in high-profile cases. He has endorsements from former GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in addition to several tea party groups.

Dewhurst, 66, has the backing of Gov. Rick Perry and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as well as support from the state's most influential Republican clubs, anti-abortion organizations and political action committees.

The competition between Dewhurst and Cruz turned ugly early. Each has spent more than $4 million on TV and radio attack ads. Cruz, meanwhile, attacks Dewhurst as a "timid, moderate politician" who too often has compromised with Democrats. Leppert calls Dewhurst a career politician and Cruz a government staffer. Dewhurst says Leppert's record as Dallas mayor is too liberal for Texas Republicans.

Whoever wins the GOP nomination will face one of two Democrats, former state Rep. Paul Sadler and party activist Sean Hubbard. No Democrat has won a statewide office in Texas since 1994

Romney discuss his private-sector days

Mitt Romney says his days at Bain Capital prepared him.

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney likes to portray himself as a better job creator than President Barack Obama, but he may have a hard time backing up those boasts. Establishing himself as a job creator may be hard to do after the fall of Bain Capital a firm he co-founded.

Romeny claims he help created more than 100,000 jobs.

Romney's central theme is that his years at Bain better prepared him "to help fix the economy" than Obama, whose economic performance he calls lackluster.

Obama dismissed Romney's basic premise earlier this week when he told reporters in Chicago that a president's job "is not simply to maximize profits." The president claims Romney would bring back old Republican policies that didn't work in the past in solving the nation's economic problems.

Romney claims that America needs new solutions to get the economy and country back on track. The solution has been tried over and over to try and fix America problems, and none seems to work in favor of a solution. President Obama didn’t create the financial break down in Washington, instead he inherited that problem. The American people know that it is not an easy task to walk in a big government and put in place quick solutions. Republicans had control of both chambers of congress under President Bush administration, and choose to give tax-breaks to the wealthy and big corporations. The republicans never thought about solutions to bring in revenue to the federal government for the American people.

Looking back at the record of Bain Capital, I would question rather the type of leadership prepared Mitt Romney to lead this country.

Romney's jobs assertion rests heavily on relatively small Bain stakes in companies such as Staples and Sports Authority that later grew large and profitable.

Obama strikes at Romney, looking to regain 2008 energy

On Thursday the President didn’t hold back on his republican challenger Mitt Romney, dismissing his challenger's claims as "a cowpie of distortions" while seeking to rekindle the all-but-faded Iowa magic that launched him in 2008. Escalating his criticism of Romney's background as a venture capitalist, Obama said it wasn't adequate preparation for the presidency.

"There may be value for that kind of experience, but it's not in the White House," Obama said.

Obama spoke to a cheering Iowa crowd of about 2,500 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, represented a new intensity for Obama's campaign as Romney begins to hit his stride carrying the Republican standard. It came as Iowa, soured by the direction of the nation and its economy, has drifted away from Obama since his 2008 caucus victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton made him the Democratic front-runner.

While Obama carried the state in the general election by a comfortable margin that year, polls this year have shown voters narrowly preferring Romney, who plans to wage his own major effort in Iowa.

Reacting to Romney's charge last week that Obama had created "a prairie fire of debt," the president countered that Romney's tax plan is "like trying to put out a prairie fire with some gasoline." In a statement issued after the speech, Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said: "A president who broke his promise to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term has no standing when it comes to fiscal responsibility

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has made the struggling economy the centerpiece of his campaign. But Obama can point to comparatively low 5.1 percent unemployment in Iowa, where stable financial services and strong agriculture sectors buoyed the economy while manufacturing has struggled to rebound.

Romney had made the comment about corporations as he argued against raising taxes as a way of shoring up Social Security and Medicare. Members of the audience interrupted, calling for increased taxes on corporations, and Romney responded: "Corporations are people, my friend. ... Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people."

Oh really Romney, do the earning of corporation trickle down to people, did you say that, and do you really believe that. If earnings from corporations ultimately goes to the people, where are the jobs, where is the affordable healthcare insurance for employees, and the list goes on.

Obama's campaign has emphasized episodes in which Romney's former firm closed plants and laid off workers, and has aired a stinging TV ad on the subject in Iowa, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

President Obama approval ratings here has been stuck below 50 percent for over two years, softened in part by criticism from Republicans campaigning for Iowa's leadoff caucuses.

Craig Ford considering Alabama governor's race in '14

Rep. Craig Ford calls his speculations and ideas of running for governor of Alabama in 2014 serious. Rep. Ford is a democrat and currently serves as the Alabama House Democratic Minority Leader.

Ford said he feels that Democrats can win in 2014. Rep. Ford highlighted that he believes that conservative democrats can win in Alabama.  Ford said he's done some polling "and things look good."

"I think the working-class folks that voted with the Republicans last time — people like educators and police officers and firefighters — will be back with the Democrats, particularly after Republicans went after their pay," Ford said.

Ford said he would decide late next year, probably after the presidential election in November, if he would run in 2014.

He describes himself as a "pro-gun" conservative Democrat and family man. "Alabama needs a common working class governor," Ford said.  Ford owns an insurance agency and a community newspaper in Gadsden.

Alabama GOP chairman Bill Armistead said he is confident that Republicans will continue winning in next year's elections and again in 2014.

 But Democratic Party chairman Mark Kennedy shared Ford's optimism about his party's chances in future elections.

"In 2014 our candidates are going to be competitive. A lot of people have buyer's remorse about having voted for Republicans last year," Kennedy said.

Ford's family is well-known in Alabama political and sports, Ford represents the same House seat that his father, the late Rep. Joe Ford, held for 26 years. Ford said he spent much of his childhood watching his father in the House and helping with campaigns. Craig Ford has served in the House since being elected in 2000 in a special election following his father's death.

Ford's aunt is former Birmingham city councilwoman Pat Sewell and his uncle is Danny Ford, a former Alabama football player and former Arkansas head coach.