WASHINGTON — Republicans warned Tuesday that President Barack Obama's second-term agenda would bring more tax increases and escalate deficit spending, vowing that they would guard against Washington-centric policies and help middle-class families rebound from years of tepid economic growth.

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett spoke to an audience of around 80 Wednesday at the Chandler chamber of Commerce’s economic update luncheon, attempting to shed light on a sometimes murky, sometimes confusing state budget scenario in recent years.

WASHINGTON — Efforts to save the nation from going over a year-end "fiscal cliff" were in disarray as lawmakers fled the Capitol for their Christmas break. "God only knows" how a deal can be reached now, House Speaker John Boehner declared.

There's some bad news for Obama voters who think their guy swept the table in November and is now entitled to have things his way for the next four years. There were other elections held in states across the nation and most of them didn't go so well for the Big Government tax-and-spend crowd.

“If the Grand Obstinate Party is ever going to win any elections in 2014 or 2016 they need to do three things: Schedule a few sessions with Dr. Phil, privatize elections nationwide and have Koch Industries count the ballots, and, above all, don’t use pollsters that gerrymander. Republicans should know that’s the best way to get the worst information.”

Americans are rightly concerned about going over the fiscal cliff. But they got their eyes on the wrong cliff. The Little Cliff that is in the news is man-made, a mixture of spending cuts and tax hikes intended to be so onerous that Washington politicians would have to “do something” meaningful to reduce the national debt.

I am so tempted to write the words “I told you so” over and over again up to the 500-word limit allowed for a commentary in this newspaper. It would be so easy to gloat about how liberals won and conservatives lost. It would make me giddy to point out how Arizona is so out-of-touch with the rest of the Left Coast.

I am so tempted to write the words “I told you so” over and over again up to the 500 word limit allowed for a commentary in this newspaper. It would be so easy to gloat about how liberals won and conservatives lost. It would make me giddy to point out how Arizona is so out-of-touch with the rest of the Left Coast.

So here in the East Valley, most of our large school districts had overrides -- Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe High School District, and Higley -- on the Nov. 6 ballot.

If Congress lets the country go off the fiscal cliff, how much will it cost you?

Editor's Note: These letters to the editor have been sorted by topic by the Tribune editorial staff in an effort to allow readers to read varied opinions on the issues, candidates, and other circumstances surrounding the 2012 general election. These submissions are the opinions of the author, not the Tribune, and have not been edited for grammar or content.

If the federal government was meant to create jobs, it would have created a surplus of them by now, and unemployment would be far below 7.8 percent — considering the exorbitant amount of money the Obama administration has, as it says, “invested” to do so.

If the federal government was meant to create jobs, it would have created a surplus of them by now, and unemployment would be far below 7.8 percent -- considering the exorbitant amount of money the Obama administration has, as it says, “invested” to do so.

WASHINGTON — For critical Senate races, Republicans are turning to the playbook that served them so well in the 2010 elections. They're saturating the airwaves with political ads detailing the perils of "Obamacare" and the nation's growing debt.

What if I told you that a fundamental component of our success is the ability to “unlearn” various things that we’ve already learned? I know. I know. You’d probably say I was crazy, right? Let me explain.

‘Slightly worse than Alabama.”

Our economy is recovering under Obama’s leadership despite the worst worldwide recession in our lifetime.

Little in Arizona cools off in the middle of August. One exception is the GOP's Senate primary election, where the wealthy businessman who spent $6 million of his own money on the race has scaled back his TV ad presence in what many see as tacit acknowledgment that he's failed to catch up to Rep. Jeff Flake.

It seems almost a certainty that the first paycheck most Americans cash in January 2013 is going to be smaller than their last paycheck in December.

A federal judge on Monday upheld the validity of an Arizona law designed to sharply limit abortions beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The ranks of America's poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net.

Eighty-two-thousand instead of 120,000 this week. One million Americans have given up even looking for non-existant jobs. Obama promised that his stimulus package would keep Unemployment down below 8 percent. The White House and the Democrats in the Senate and Congress said the stimulus would lower unemployment to 6 percent. Folks, we have an America in “free fall.” An America saddled with a $15 trillion Obama deficit. An America headed for the “poor house”, a third-world economy.

On Wednesday, June 6, the stock market staged its biggest rally of the year. The Dow soared 275 points the day after Gov. Scott Walker won a decisive victory in his Wisconsin recall election.

Students, faculty and parents, it is my honor to deliver a commencement speech today. I am about to do something I have never done as president: tell it like it is.