ThinkProgress Logo

Stories tagged with “Mark Begich”

Immigration

Mark Zuckerberg’s New Political Group Spending Big On Ads Supporting Keystone XL And Oil Drilling

By Josh Israel and Judd Legum on Apr 26, 2013 at 11:56 am

Mark Zuckerberg

Credit: Guillaume Paumier

Mark Zuckerberg’s new political group, which bills itself as a bipartisan entity dedicated to passing immigration reform, has spent considerable resources on ads advocating a host of anti-environmental causes — including driling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and constructing the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

The umbrella group, co-founded by Facebook’s Zuckerberg, NationBuilder’s co-founder Joe Green, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, Dropbox’s Drew Houston, and others in the tech industry, is called FWD.US. Its initial priority is the passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill, including enhanced border security, more visas for workers with special skills, and a pathway to citizenship for those living in the U.S. without legal status. Other long-term priorities for the group include education reform and expanded scientific research.

FWD.US is bankrolling two subsidiary organizations to purchase TV ads to advance the overarching agenda — one run by veteran Republican political operatives and one led by Democratic strategists. The GOP-lead group, called Americans For A Conservative Direction, has created an ad in support of Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) which praises him for supporting construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and expanded drilling elsewhere. The ad, which does not mention immigration policy, also attacks Obamacare, “wasteful stimulus spending,” and “seedy Chicago-style politics.” Politico reports the group plans a seven-figure buy with this and other ads.

Watch the ad:

The other group, called Council for American Job Growth and purportedly intended to appeal to liberals, lauds Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) for “working to open ANWR to drilling.” The ad also does not mention immigration reform but does highlight Begich’s support of a balanced budget amendment.

Watch the spot:

The group’s forceful advocacy for expanded drilling and pipeline construction is surprising given Zuckerberg’s public statements about the purpose of the group. In an introductory column, Zuckerberg said that the group would be dedicated to “building the knowledge economy,” which he contrasts to “the economy of the last century… primarily based on natural resources.” Zuckerberg adds, “there are only so many oil fields, and there is only so much wealth that can be created from them for society.”

Both ads appear to be trying to give political cover to vulnerable centrists, in hopes of ensuring their support for major immigration reform — though Graham’s support seems certain as he is a member of the Gang of Eight pushing the measure. But the proposals already enjoy broad popularity among both Republicans and the public overall.

In the past, Zuckerberg has emphasized the importance of moving from dirty fossil fuels to clean renewable energy.

Update

Kate Hansen, communications director for FWD.US told ThinkProgress: “FWD.us is committed to showing support for elected officials who promote the policy changes needed to build the knowledge economy. Maintaining two separate entities, Americans for a Conservative Direction & the Council for American Job Growth, to support elected officials across the political spectrum – separately – means that we can more effectively communicate with targeted audiences of their constituents.”

Justice

NRA Touts Bipartisan Bill To Trick You Into Thinking They Support Background Checks

By Igor Volsky on Apr 6, 2013 at 11:41 am

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) has pulled his name off of an NRA-backed bill that purports to strengthen background checks for gun purchases, following reports that the measure would make it easier for individuals who were involuntarily committed to mental institutions to obtain firearms. Sens. Mark Begich (D-AK) and Mark Pryor (D-AR) are the two remaining Democrats still associated with the measure, which is being touted by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) as a bipartisan approach to strengthening the existing background check system.

On Friday, the Washington Post reported that Blumenthal was withdrawing his support, “saying in an interview that he was no longer comfortable with the bill because of ‘serious unintended consequences‘ related to provisions governing the mentally ill.” The NICS Reporting Improvement Act (S. 480), which was “drafted in consultation with the NRA,” clarifies existing regulations prohibiting mentally ill people from purchasing weapons from federally licensed dealers — the bill specifies that people who are incompetent to stand trial, plead innocent by reason of insanity in a criminal trial, or pose an imminent danger to themselves or others must be included in the federal background check database used by federally licensed gun sellers. But it defines that term narrowly and would allow patients who had been involuntarily committed and treated for mental illness to pass a federal background check and purchase guns.

Current law prohibits people who are ordered by a court into involuntary treatment from buying weapons — even though individuals can petition to have their rights restored in 22 states. Under the bill, individuals who are released could seek to have their name removed from the federal database immediately and “would not have to go through a formal adjudication process to prove worthiness to buy a gun.” From the text:

During an interview with KNWA in Fort Smith, Arkansas on Friday, Pryor touted his support for the measure and stressed that it would allow individuals to remove their names from the database. “I am a co-sponsor of a bill that I think is actually endorsed by the NRA,” Pryor said, “making sure that the right mental health data is in the background check database and also making sure you can get your name out when it’s time to get your name out.”

Politics

Why Are These Six Democratic Senators On The Fence About Universal Background Checks?

By Aviva Shen and Adam Peck on Mar 26, 2013 at 11:00 am

After axing the assault weapons ban from the Senate’s comprehensive gun violence prevention plan, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is struggling to scrape together enough votes to pass the centerpiece of the plan: universal background checks. Republicans are refusing to vote for it, and even several Democrats in red states are wavering on their support. According to Greg Sargent at the Washington Post, these key votes include Senators Kay Hagan (D-NC), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND).

Universal background checks are considered essential to the gun bill. They would close the “gun show loophole” that currently allows anyone to skip a background check if they buy a gun through a private sale. “Private” transactions between individuals or at gun shows are the origin point for 80 percent of guns used in crimes.

ThinkProgress examined data from the home states of six Democratic senators currently on the fence: Arkansas, Indiana, North Carolina, Louisiana, Alaska, and North Dakota. According to the most recent data available, these six states had: 1) 1,462 gun murders in 2010; 2) 351 gun deaths since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre at the end of last year; and 3) widespread support for universal background checks (following the national trend). Meanwhile, 152 gun shows are scheduled to take place in these states this year, providing criminals who can’t pass background checks in stores with ample opportunity to stock up on guns. All of the states, with the exception of North Carolina, allow individuals to buy guns at these shows without any review:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his pro-gun regulation group Mayors Against Illegal Guns recently launched an ad blitz to encourage residents in 13 key states to lobby their senators to support the proposal. Sen. Donnelly (D-IN) is reportedly considering “a bipartisan compromise on background checks.”

LGBT

Senators Rockefeller And Begich Add Their Support For Marriage Equality

By Zack Ford on Mar 26, 2013 at 10:43 am

Two more Senators have expressed their full support for marriage equality, joining Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who endorsed the freedom to marry earlier this week.

Alaska Sen. Mark Begich (D) issued a statement Monday night supporting same-sex couples’ rights to marry:

BEGICH: I believe that same sex couples should be able to marry and should have the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as any other married couple. Government should keep out of individuals’ personal lives — if someone wants to marry someone they love, they should be able to. Alaskans are fed up with government intrusion into our private lives, our daily business, and in the way we manage our resources and economy.

Similarly, Sen. John “Jay” Rockefeller (D-WV) told ABC News that government should not discriminate against couples based on their sexual orientation:

ROCKEFELLER: Like so many of my generation, my views on allowing gay couples to marry have been challenged in recent years by a new, more open generation. Churches and ministers should never have to perform marriages that violate their religious beliefs, but the government shouldn’t discriminate against people who want to marry just because of their gender.

Younger people in West Virginia and even my own children have grown up in a much more equal society and they rightly push us to question old assumptions — to think deeply about what it means for all Americans to be created equal. This has been a process for me, but at this point I think it’s clear that DOMA is discriminatory. I’m against discrimination in all its forms, and I think we can move forward in our progress toward true equality by repealing DOMA.

Rockefeller joins 21 other Senators who originally voted for the Defense of Marriage Act and later opposed it.

Economy

Democratic Senator Introduces Bill To Lift Social Security’s Tax Cap, Extend Its Solvency For Decades

By Jeff Spross on Nov 16, 2012 at 5:15 pm

Democratic Senator Mark Begich of AlaskaSocial Security, the government entitlement that provides support to seniors in retirement, the disabled, and other Americans, has long been in the cross-hairs of budget reformers. The program’s trust fund currently won’t be spent out until 2033, and after that it would still pay 75 percent of scheduled benefits.

Most of the proposed solutions to the shortfall involve cutting back benefits and raising the minimum retirement age. Both are deeply problematic; at its current level of benefits Social Security kept over 20 million people out of poverty in 2011, many Americans in demanding manual labor jobs already take early retirement and thus reduced benefits as it is, and lower-income Americans have not particularly benefited from the average rise in lifespans .

This week, however, Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) put forward a reform package that goes in the opposite direction, while still financially securing the program’s trust fund for roughly the next seven decades. The Washington Post’s Dylan Matthews laid out the details:

The Begich bill would lift the current payroll tax cap, which exempts wages in excess of a certain amount ($110,100 this year) from the tax. In turn, it would give high earners, who would pay more, additional benefits upon retirement, just as benefits increase as wages do for workers below the cap. […]

It also increases benefits across-the-board. While Bowles-Simpson and Domenici-Rivlin adopt a stingier “chained CPI” measure for inflation, Begich adopts “CPI-E,” or a measure that specifically captures inflation in goods that seniors buy.

Due to deteriorated health and other considerations, goods seniors buy tend to be more expensive than those younger people purchase. Begich’s CPI-E change would mean, effectively, a 4.5 percent benefit increase for the program’s beneficiaries, including not just seniors but their designated survivors and disabled Americans as well.

The Congressional Research Service ran the numbers back in 2010 and concluded that eliminating the payroll tax cap — while also paying out the new benefits to wealthier Americans in accordance with their new taxes — would eliminate 95 percent of the trust fund’s shortfall over the next 75 years.

Begich may not hit that goal exactly, depending on how the legislation is written. In particular, his change to CPI-E also lifts the overall benefit level, on top of the changes in CRS’ scenario. But his reform would probably come very close.

Climate Progress

Begich: As The Arctic Melts, Let’s Drill, Baby, Drill

By Brad Johnson on Jan 12, 2011 at 4:20 pm

Yesterday, Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) said that the rapid warming of the Arctic because of oil pollution means that more Arctic drilling should commence. Begich was responding to the presidential oil spill commission’s report, which recommended new drilling around Alaska, subject to stronger standards. The Democratic senator from the state most changed by global warming pollution used the commission’s report to emphasize his desire for more “Arctic development“:

As many of us have been saying for years, more resources and research are needed for Arctic development as warming temperatures make far north resources more accessible.

“Producing the enormous energy resources available within our borders is vital for our economic and national security, but we must develop these resources in a safe and environmentally responsible manner,” Begich continued.

Like the rest of the nation, the future of Alaska is already unsafe because of global warming, as Begich himself has explained. “We are feeling its near-term effects far more than the residents of any other state,” wrote Begich in a March 2010 letter, “including retreating sea ice, rapidly eroding shorelines, thawing permafrost, ocean acidification, and changing fish and wildlife migration patterns.” Since then, the world has continued to rapidly heat up, making 2010 the warmest year on record. National security experts are worried about global warming pollution’s impact on everything from spread of disease to displaced people.

The now-melting Arctic permafrost contains over 1.5 trillion tons of frozen carbon, about twice as much carbon as now contained in the atmosphere. The warming Arctic Ocean similarly contains vast reserves of methane. If the thaw continues and creates a feedback loop of Arctic greenhouse emissions, unimaginable global catastrophe will ensue. Apparently without irony, Begich proposes to accelerate that process by further extracting fossil fuels that are buried below the ocean floor, in the name of “economic and national security.”

The Wonk Room contacted Begich’s office to ascertain what the senator believes is a “safe and environmentally responsible manner” to extract fossil fuels made available by global warming, but has not yet received a response.

Health

1099 Issue Moves Forward: Democrats Introducing New Offsets

By Igor Volsky on Sep 17, 2010 at 3:00 pm

Since the last two attempts to fix the 1099 provision in the health law failed, Democrats are planning to introduce several measures that would repeal the entire reporting requirement — despite the broad agreement that sole proprietors are not paying their fair share of taxes. The crux of the argument is how to offset the estimated $17 billion that the extra reporting was estimated to have brought it.

Democrats have introduced several options:

- SEN. MARK BEGICH’s (D-AK) AMENDMENT: Repeal entire reporting requirement and makes up for the revenue (approximately $17 billion) by using unspent stimulus funds. But as Pat Garofalo explains, there are about $280 billion in stimulus spending that haven’t been paid out. “But much of the money has already been allocated, including $65 billion in funding for tax breaks, which are intentionally going out the door a little bit at a time.” Therefore, “canceling unspent stimulus funds would mean increasing taxes on the middle class.”

- HOUSE DEMS: Measures would repeal the reporting requirement and make up for the shortfall by “changing the inheritance tax (which is likely to get some GOP support) or a tax on carried interest (which is likely to be opposed by nearly all Republicans and some moderate Dems).” Garofalo is actually really excited about that latter offset.

- GOP RECALL PETITION: Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) is circulating a discharge petition to force a vote on his amendment to repeal the 1099 provision. The petition has 93 signatures.

POLITICO’s Pule suggests that these early difficulties in identifying adequate offsets bode poorly for the GOP’s repeal effort. If they want to repeal the entire health care law, Republicans would have to make up for the billions of dollars in deficit reductions; agreeing on set of uniform pay fors will prove challenging. In fact, beyond the deficit problem, repealing the health care law will also create problems in the Medicare program and continue the upward trajectory of health care spending (the health care law begins to bend the health care cost surve beginning in 2015). Expect all of this to cause major headaches for conservatives as their base holds them to their repeal pledge and watch as they turn to defunding the measure instead.

Yglesias

Begich After All

By Matthew Yglesias on Nov 18, 2008 at 9:41 pm

542389539_cc186cc1eb_1.jpg

Of all the Election Day results, Ted Stevens’ re-election in Alaska was probably the one that surprised me most. Except now the recount’s done and it seems that Stevens has lost. It’s a pretty earth-shattering event in Alaska politics, as Stevens has been in office for almost the entirety of Alaska’s time as a state and they haven’t sent a Democrat to congress in decades.

Given the overall nature of Alaska politics it seems unlikely that Begich will be an especially reliable progressive vote. Liberals have basically no leverage in the state and natural resource extractors who tend not to take a very enlightened view of things are vital to the local economy. Still, Stevens was quite the bad actor so almost anything would be progress.

Switch to Mobile
ThinkProgress Signup Overlay Skip and Continue to ThinkProgress Skip and Continue to ThinkProgress

Sign Up