Et Tu, Republicans? No Meaningful Tax Cuts For Arkansans

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For many weeks, the people of Arkansas have been led to believe that once the legislature passed Medicaid expansion, it would then produce significant tax relief. We have documented these assurances in our previous coverage -- and repeatedly emphasized that the cuts were in no way linked to Medicaid expansion as a matter of policy, but perhaps only as a matter of politics. Boy, were we right. As you probably know, the Senate signed off on funding for Medicaid expansion yesterday, signaling … [Read more...]

“I Want to Believe” This Isn’t Obamacare

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X-Files fans are familiar with the poster in Fox Mulder’s office. If you weren’t an X-files watcher, you probably don’t know that Mulder, an investigator of paranormal phenomena, gradually uncovered an interplanetary alien conspiracy to take over our planet. It’s a free country: people are entitled to believe in interplanetary alien conspiracies, or indeed to believe in whatever they want. But if Fox Mulder were in the Arkansas state senate, that would be a problem. When people who are … [Read more...]

Pryor: Liberal When No One’s Looking

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Earlier today, Senator Mark Pryor voted against cloture on a gun control bill in the Senate. That's wonderful, except he voted for the assault weapons ban in 2004 and previously supported the Brady Bill in 2002. Perhaps this new ad demonstrates Pryor's wobbly record better than anything I could say: … [Read more...]

Voter ID Veto Override Delayed Despite 77% Support

77 percent support voter ID

Two days ago, the Senate overrode Governor Beebe’s veto of the voter ID bill, SB2. The House was scheduled to vote on the override yesterday, but the vote was delayed. On Twitter, Rep. Stephen Meeks -- who carried the bill on the House side -- told me the vote was delayed due to a “LONG calendar.” A previous tweet from Rep. Meeks said the issue was not being brought up in order to allow legislators to get home early for Easter weekend. Perhaps, however, there is more to the story. On … [Read more...]

Senator Teague’s Building Implosion

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Several weeks ago, I wrote a piece about Senator Larry Teague’s proposal to require all public construction projects in Arkansas to use “American-made” products. At that time, Senator Teague told me he thought the bill would “be law by the end of the week.” After that, the bill sat in the Senate for several weeks with no action until it was finally passed out of Senate Committee this week. Today, the full Senate voted on the bill. It received 17 votes, one shy of the 18 needed to pass. … [Read more...]

FACT CHECK: Club for Growth Launches Ad Against “Obama Ally Mark Pryor”

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The Club for Growth (or “Club for Greed,” as a famous Arkansas governor once called it) has released a new ad targeting Obama BFF Senator Mark Pryor. As I’ve learned from Max Brantley, this type of targeted (conservative) brainwashing represents everything that’s wrong with American politics. I mean, how can unions ever hope to compete with this? So, out of fear that innocent Arkansans might be misled by billionaires with the sinister motive of promoting freedom, we are going to fact … [Read more...]

Church Protection Act Passes the House, Heads to The Beebe

Rep. Bell, the Gnome of Mena, wielding his fully automatic Glock assault rifle.

Yesterday, the House passed SB71, “The Church Protection Act,” which we have been following for a few weeks now. It was a landslide: 85 for and only 8 votes against, with 7 not voting. See how your legislators voted by clicking here. I would remind you (at the risk of sounding like a broken record) that the bill will not mandate that churches allow concealed carry. In fact, the bill's default rule is that concealed carry is still prohibited unless a church specifically decides to allow … [Read more...]

Church Carry Clears Senate Committee, Senator Flowers Says Some Words

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Today, SB71, “The Church Protection Act,” cleared its first hurdle towards becoming law. It was passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning without a dissenting vote. However, there were some theatrics involved. SB71 is the law commonly referred to as “church carry.” To be quite clear, the law does not allow unprohibited concealed carry within churches or other houses of worship in Arkansas: it allows churches to decide for themselves whether or not to allow CCL permit … [Read more...]