Flake makes Tucson campaign swing

U.S. Senate hopeful Jeff Flake, a Republican who holds Arizona's CD6 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, made two stump appearances in Tucson on Friday, championing his plans to repeal health care reform and secure the border.

Flake's first appearance was at Abrams Airborne Manufacturing, where the candidate, his wife and children toured the aerospace and defense contractor's facility at North Romero Road and spoke with employees.

He told the workers that his mission is to "make sure our kids and grandkids have the opportunity for a better life," which involves "repealing Obamacare and shrinking government."

Flake asked a silent crowd how many people had seen their healthcare costs go down since Obama's healthcare plan took effect. No one responded.

At a stump speech at Tucson GOP headquarters later in the day, Flake asked the crowd the same thing, adding only, "and how many of you think [healthcare costs] will go down in two years?"

The largely white, Baby Boomer-plus crowd of 30 or so people generally grunted in agreement.

While some of the programs under the Affordable Care Act are already running, many of the changes, including pre-existing condition reforms, do not take effect until 2014.

One provision of health care reform already in effect calls for the federal government to review health insurance rate hikes.

Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that premium increases in nine states, including Arizona, had been deemed "unreasonable" under the rate review. While the average requested increase in Arizona was about 20 percent, insurance companies here had requested increases of between 14 and 44 percent for various plans.

An 18-percent hike for health insurance offered by Trustmark Life Insurance Company and a series of 17 percent hikes by John Alden Life Insurance Company were both deemed unreasonable by DHHS reviewers. The other requested hikes remain under review.

During his campaign stops in Tucson, Flake also called for a need to secure the border more completely before figuring out how to deal with the 20 million illegal immigrants, the number put forth by the crowd, already living in the U.S.

Numbers released Friday by the Department of Homeland Security show that the number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States has remained around 11 million for the last several years.

Flake said his plan involves encouraging a "military mindset" along the border, saying that "unions interfere with [border security] initiatives by telling agents how and when they can work." The candidate said stationing National Guard troops on the border was much more effective because it did not have the same human resources requirements.

Congressional approval ratings have fallen to all-time lows in the 11 years since Flake first took his seat in Washington. Asked about approval, he said, "I don't know who those 11 percent are. Of course people aren't happy."

Even in acknowledging the body's abysmal approval rating, Flake said that while he didn't accomplish everything he set out to in the House, he accomplished more than many thought he could including limiting what he called "government sprawl."

Flake, regarded by ontheissues.org as a conservative conservative, seeks to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl.

In the August primary, he faces Wil Cardon for the Republican nomination. On the Democratic side, former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona and ex-state party chair Don Bivens are seeking the seat.