Author: @SoDakCampaigns

A Five-Year Fight
By Rep. Kristi Noem

For five years, I have fought for the day that we could put a bill on the President’s desk that would repeal Obamacare.  January 7, 2016, turned out to be that day.

From my first day on the job to now, I have spoken to thousands of South Dakotans about the President’s health care law.  The mandates.  The costs.  The plans that have been lost.  Year after year, the problems seem to become more pronounced – and more expensive.  It’s hard to believe, but this year, every single health care plan on the exchange in South Dakota saw a double-digit rate increase, according to analysis from Agile Health Insurance.  It’s too expensive and there seems to be no end to these increases in sight.

The President’s health care law fundamentally failed to do anything that actually drives down the cost of health care in this country.  Instead, Obamacare issued top-down mandates to ensure more people would foot an even larger bill.  It isn’t working.

Nonetheless, President Obama was quick to threaten a veto on our legislation.  That doesn’t mean, however, that we don’t owe it to the American people to take our best shot at repealing a piece of legislation that the majority of Americans oppose.  Moreover, we’ve been able to get some smaller wins by making big pushes in this way.  In fact, we’ve had more than a dozen repeals or delays of Obamacare provisions become law because of our efforts.

We’ve been working toward this for a long time.  I’ve joined the House in passing a number of full and partial repeals, but our efforts have repeatedly been blocked by Senate Democrats.  This time, however, we were able to use a process called “budget reconciliation,” which allows Congress – once a year – to avoid a Senate filibuster and pass legislation with a simple majority in the Senate.  There are strings attached to that process, so we weren’t able to do a full and complete repeal, but we did successfully target major portions of the President’s health care law, including the individual and employer mandates.

We also found significant savings for hardworking taxpayers. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office estimates our legislation would reduce the deficit by $516 billion over 10 years.

I understand it’s not enough just to repeal Obamacare.  Our health care system is broken.  But there is a better way.  We could create competition by letting people purchase insurance across state lines.  Small businesses could be allowed to pool together to purchase more affordable coverage.  You could get a tax break for purchasing insurance, rather than a tax penalty if you didn’t.  There is an alternative – a conservative, patient-centered alternative.

This isn’t the last you’ll hear from me on this, I’m sure.  Even if we can’t replace Obamacare under this administration, I will do everything I can to provide relief where possible until we have a new President.  And in the meantime, I’m grateful that we got a bill through Democrat gridlock and to the President, a small victory.

###

A Big Week For Veterans
A column by Gov. Dennis Daugaard:

As I write this, the 2016 Legislative Session is just four days away. It will be a busy week at the Capitol as lawmakers return to Pierre to start filing their bills and considering proposals. It’s also going to be a big week for South Dakota veterans.

Three years ago, the Legislature passed a bill to build a new State Veterans Home. We had some challenges, and establishing the new home in Hot Springs has not been easy. Our first request for a federal grant was rejected. Then the federal government changed standards midway through our design process, forcing us to redesign the building. Then the bids came in too high.

Lt. Gov. Matt Michels and the South Dakota Department of Veterans Affairs spent many months reviewing our costs and working with the VA. Ultimately, the federal VA agreed to extend our grant, which gave us time to redesign and simplify the building, to reduce the cost of the project without sacrificing quality.

Though we’ve encountered many hurdles along the way, the State Veterans Home is finally finished. It has been completed on time, under budget, and it’s debt-free. Move-in day is Wednesday, Jan. 13, and staff will be holding a grand opening event in the spring.

On another front, for the past two years, the South Dakota Department of Veterans Affairs has been on a mission to contact all veterans in South Dakota. With over 70,000 veterans, this has been a challenging undertaking.

Operation Reaching All Veterans garnered national recognition and was awarded the National Abraham Lincoln Pillars of Excellence Award. Then in 2015 Operation Ketchup was launched, with hopes of locating still more of South Dakota’s veterans.  More recently, the Department has been working on a new effort – Operation Korea – with the Republic of Korea.

Over 60 years have passed since an armistice was signed to allow United States troops to come home from the Korean War. Wedged between World War II and Vietnam, the Korean War is many times referred to as the “Forgotten War.”

In an effort to thank our heroes and to let them know they are NOT forgotten, the Republic of Korea began dedicating Ambassador of Peace medals to all U.S. Veterans who sacrificed for South Korea’s democracy. After I conclude my State of the State Address on Tuesday, the state Department of Veterans Affairs will be holding a Korean Peace Medal ceremony where hundreds of South Dakota veterans will be receiving the “Korean Ambassador for Peace Medal.”

With the first week of session coinciding with these two big events, I am reminded it is because of the men and women who have served that we are a government of the people. Although there’s no way to fully compensate for the service these individuals have given, we must always remember those who have fought for our freedom.

-30-

From the Argus Leader, Mark Mickelson is profiled, with discussions surrounding his potential entrance into the contest for Governor in 2018:

The stars are aligning for a gubernatorial run in 2018, with Mickelson already building his war chest through a political action committee for a possible Republican primary showdown with attorney general Marty Jackley and perhaps U.S. Representative Kristi Noem.

“There are things you need to prepare for if you feel like that’s something you would be good at and find rewarding,” says Mickelson carefully, mindful of his 2016 House re-election bid. “I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t have an interest in running (for governor), but it’s premature to talk about it.”

And just as Mickelson stresses that he must make his way politically as more than just a famous name, legislative colleagues agree that any future laurels will be merit-based.

“His name recognition is good, but I still don’t think a lot of people truly know who he is,” says Dean Wink, a West River rancher and current House speaker. “He’ll have a chance to win them over.”

Lee Schoenbeck, a Watertown lawyer and longtime state legislator, agreed that Mickelson still has work to do to prove that he’s more about leadership than legacy.

“With the populist nature of South Dakota, nobody gets to inherit anything in politics,” said Schoenbeck. “He may have found some early opportunities in the legislature because of who he is, but the governor’s race is going to be won by somebody who earns it.”

None of this is news to Mickelson, whose passion for economic development, technical schools and agricultural modernization has him excited about becoming more than the grandson or son of a famous governor and simply someone who can make South Dakota better.

Read it all here.

What are your opinions on Mickelson’s chances if he gets into the race? If there a favorite among he, Marty Jackley, Congresswoman Kristi Noem, or anyone else who might enter the race?

Had this sent to me yesterday. And if I’m reading this correctly, former South Dakota US Senate Candidate Annette Bosworth managed to have one court appearance last year that wasn’t live-streamed on KELO.

In fact, it’s been kept pretty quiet until now.

Annette Bosworth Haber and the big credit card bill

So, “Annette Marie Bosworth-Haber,” debtor, acting as a pro se litigant (acting on her own behalf), was sued in Lincoln County (Case 41CIV15-000215) by American Express Bank FSB, Creditor. And on July 15th, AMEX had judgement awarded to them in the amount of $55,283.02.

Interesting.

From a release:

The South Dakota Democratic Party announced today it has expanded staff in preparation for the 2016 election cycle and hired South Dakota native Michael Ewald to fill the new role of Communication Director.

A graduate of Watertown High School and the University of South Dakota, Michael Ewald returns to South Dakota from Chicago, IL where he previously served as Director of Debate at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and legal assistant at the law firm Baker & McKenzie, LLC.

Read it all here.

Secretary of State Certifies 6^th Ballot Measure

Pierre, SD – Today, Secretary of State Shantel Krebs announced that an initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution establishing Nonpartisan Elections was validated and certified to be on the November 2016 general election ballot as a ballot measure the citizens will vote on. The sponsor turned in 44,095 signatures to the Secretary of state’s office. A Constitutional Amendment requires 27,741 signatures from South Dakota registered voters. Once the signatures were delivered to the Secretary of State’s office, a 5% random sampling was conducted. It was determined that 67.8% or 29,924 of 44,095 signatures were in good standing. This will be Constitutional Amendment V.

This is the sixth initiated measure to be approved by Secretary of State. A total of 8 measures were submitted for review. This office will continue the signature validation process of the remaining 2 measures in the order they were submitted to the Secretary of State. A total of 275,000 signatures were submitted among all petitions.

Those looking to challenge the Secretary of State’s certification of a ballot measure have 30 days from the date they are certified, which would be February 8, 2016.

Challenges to all statewide initiatives and referendums must be brought within 30 days after the petition has been validated and filed by the Secretary of State (SDCL 12-1-13)

I kind of like this. It’s good.

In case it disappeared below the horizon before you noticed, here’s one last chance to vote on our completely unscientific SDWC Reader sales tax poll. I’ll report on the results shortly:

Today in a press release, the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT organization, sent out a preview of what it is predicting in state and local legislative battles in the year ahead, noting that the anticipate bills contrary to their agenda will be considered in at least 27 states.

In 2016, HRC expects more than two dozen state legislatures to consider anti-equality measures. These include legislatures in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

The full report can be read at www.hrc.org/2016legislature.

(From a press 1/8/16 press release)

According to the report, the group expects two major areas of legislative measures for South Dakota:

In South Dakota, the group is likely focusing on legislation such as HB 1008, which makes certain school bathrooms and locker rooms gender specific based on biology.

However, no measure has been pre-filed as of yet for 2016 allowing for the ability to refuse service because of religious objections, as championed as a result of lawsuits against bakers, photographers, etc, for declining to provide services for same sex marriages.

During previous sessions, measures underlining our ability to reject business on a religious basis had been introduced and failed. However, they failed before the US Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states this past June.   Which takes lawsuits from those objections from the arena of speculative possibility into potential reality in South Dakota.

State Attorney General Marty Jackley has been up front in saying “Under the law, constitutional rights are required to coexist.”  The question is what form that coexistence is going to take in South Dakota as a result of this upcoming legislative session.