December 2011
31 posts
2 tags
Dickens on Christmas and the Ninety-Nine Percent
“But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that —as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up...
3 tags
Quote of the Day: Kiss of Death
This week, House Speaker Bill O’Brien endorsed Newt Gingrich for president. Recently, he lost every special election for the House, and he backed Bob Giuda for Congress and Jack Kimball for Governor.
— James Pindell, WMUR.com Political Director
4 tags
Jobs & the Economy to Take a Backseat in N.H....
When the state legislature reconvenes next year, Senate President Peter Bragdon says the Senate will be focused on jobs and the economy. The House has, um, other priorities.
“I think we want to continue with what we worked on: jobs, the economy, taxes and spending.” Bragdon said at a lunch with State House reporters this week.
The House is expected to begin with a bill to repeal the...
3 tags
"Reneging on Promises and Shedding...
An editorial in the Concord Monitor details the downshifting of costs to cities and towns and explains how it is resulting in a lower quality of life for all Granite State residents.
The state of New Hampshire has been reneging on promises and shedding responsibilities faster than a deadbeat dad, and that means two things: a lower quality of life for the state’s residents and higher...
2 tags
Twas the Week Before Christmas
A Christmas poem from Team Shea-Porter.
It was the week before Christmas and all through the House Guinta wasn’t stirring, nor was anyone else.
The Senate had passed tax cuts with bipartisan care In hopes that the House soon would be fair.
When House Republicans closed down with the gavel, it caused such a clatter Dems sprang to the floor to say wait—the middle class does matter!
Away to...
3 tags
Quote of the Day: We Don't Buy It
Romney has distanced himself from his signature achievement, arguing that while near-universal health care was right for Massachusetts, it is not right for the nation and individual states should decide what is best for their citizens. We understand the political need for him to say this, but we don’t buy it. Reducing the number of uninsured in Massachusetts made good economic sense for...
6 tags
House "Breathtaking Disrespect" for N.H....
The New Hampshire House is moving forward with a plan to bypass the Governor and send its redistricting plan directly to the Secretary of State for implementation. Rep. Paul Mirski, chair of the House Special Committee on Redistricting, says lawmakers will accomplish this by submitting the plan in a House Concurrent Order rather than a House Bill.
Rep. Steve Winter, sponsor of the HCO, points to...
2 tags
Sorg's Laughable Argument Against "One Man, One...
In a letter to the House Special Committee on Redistricting, state Rep. Gregory Sorg argues that the Supreme Court’s “one man, one vote” standard is “fundamentally wrong” and criticizes Chief Justice Earl Warren for his lack of experience with, and hostility to, the political process.
Chief Justice Warren was fundamentally wrong — as judges almost always are...
3 tags
The Partisan Makeup of the House Redistricting...
Wednesday, the House Special Committee on Redistricting released the House leadership’s redistricting plan. The plan, which creates new voting districts for the state’s 400 House members, reflects population shifts measured by the 2010 census.
This plan varies dramaticially from the current plan due, in large part, to a 2006 constitutional amendment that requires every town and city...
4 tags
Dante Scala: The Yankee Republican Has Disappeared
UNH political scientist Dante Scala analyzes Granite State voting data in presidential elections from 1960 to 2008 and concludes that the “Yankee Republican, that rural stalwart of New England conservative values, has slowly but surely disappeared from the scene.”
The must-read study from the Carsey Institute documents the state’s “slow motion realignment” from...
5 tags
Charlie Bass Milks Presidential Candidates for...
New Hampshire Congressman Charlie Bass has been one of the most successful lawmakers in Congress at leveraging his influence in the presidential race for campaign fundraising.
Prior to his endorsement of Mitt Romney last month, Bass raised $10,000 from Romney and $20,000 from Newt Gingrich. The Center for Responsive Politics reports that of the 223 lawmakers who have received donations from one...
3 tags
Ask Congressman Bass, Whose Side Are You On?
Ann Kuster says extending the payroll tax cut is a “no-brainer.” If Congress refuses, she says, nearly one million Americans will lose their jobs, economic growth will slow and the country could fall into another recession. “So why does Bass want to raise taxes on hard-working New Hampshire families?” Kuster asks.
We can cut payroll taxes for hardworking New Hampshire...
4 tags
Kevin Smith Misreads Committee Report &...
The inability of the Republican majority in the legislature to manipulate the state Attorney General has been a bone of contention for some time now. The latest attempt to spank the AG comes in a committee report studying issues around the collapse of Financial Resources Mortgage, Inc. (FRM).
The committee, chaired by Rep. Ken Weyler and four other Republicans, issued a particularly...
3 tags
Balanced Budget Amendment "Deeply Flawed"
Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives failed in an attempt to pass a proposed constitutional amendment requiring the federal government to balance its budget. Former Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter says the amendment was “politically motivated and deeply flawed.”
If this balanced budget amendment passed, small businesses and the economy would suffer because people would be...
4 tags
Taking Stock of New Hampshire's GOP Budget
Rep. Cynthia Chase takes a look at how the state is faring under the budget, opposed by Democrats and moderate Republicans, that cut funding for many state services that formed our social safety net.
[T]he finance committee decided to keep the federal [Medicaid] reimbursement funds. … The net result: a $250 million cut to our hospital operating budgets over two years.
A recent report by...
3 tags
Buddy Roemer: "Congressman Guinta is Wrong"
I guess Gov. Buddy Roemer isn’t too worried about landing Rep. Frank Guinta’s endorsement in his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. Roemer, an advocate for campaign finance reform, lashed out at Guinta today over his vote to end voluntary public financing of presidential campaigns.
“It is not lost on Granite State voters that Congressman Guinta was the subject of 2 FEC...
4 tags
The Lobby: "Are Bully-O's Days Numbered?"
The Lobby’s Mr. Snitch recently interviewed 17 GOP state House representatives. They’re conservatives who voted for Right-to-Work, but who say House Speaker Bill O’Brien’s obsession with the anti-union legislation could be their undoing — and his.
All of them — all seventeen (17) — said Bully’s got their butts tied up in a PR disaster that has them...
2 tags
"We Wish You an Occupation and a Happy New Year!"
3 tags
Frank Guinta's Tax Giveaway to Big Corporations
New Hampshire Congressman Frank Guinta has a solution to reduce the deficit and create jobs “without borrowing a single dime or raising taxes.” All we have to do, says the freshman lawmaker in a letter to House leadership, is offer a tax holiday to U.S. companies that have more than $1 trillion in profits stashed in overseas subsidiaries.
“The freshman class was elected last year to...
5 tags
Keene Sentinel: Thugs in the State Capital
The Keene Sentinel looks back at the near-riot by New Hampshire legislators that followed the failed ”birther” challenge heard by the Ballot Law Commission. The blame, say the editors, begins with the “goonish behavior” by House leadership that now pervades the legislature.
The principal revelation from this day was not about birthers. Instead, it was about apparently...
3 tags
Andy Smith Predicts 2012 Election Results
The new state House and Senate district lines have yet to be drawn, and the election is almost a year away, but that doesn’t stop the director of the UNH Survey Center, Andy Smith, from predicting the results. Republicans will hold their majorities in both chambers, he says, winning 220 to 240 seats in the House and 13 to 15 seats in the Senate.
Republicans are likely to maintain a...
3 tags
HB 219: Emasculating the State Board of Education
Bob Sanders continues his excellent review of the 56 bills retained by the House that have been flying “under the radar” but could come up for a vote in January. One that caught my eye is HB 219 (as amended), a brazen attempt to both usurp the role of the executive branch and continue the process of gutting public schools, one bad bill at a time.
HB 219 started out as a study...
3 tags
Concord Monitor: "Guns on Campus Is a Maniacal...
When the New Hampshire House returns in January, they’ll take up HB 334, a bill that would prohibit the state’s community colleges and state universities from enacting any regulation restricting gun use and possession. The Concord Monitor states the obvious: “guns on campus is a maniacal idea.”
The year 2011 is shaping up to be the Year of the Gun in New Hampshire, and...
3 tags
Quote of the Day: The Quandt Party
I’ve invited [Rep. Gary Hopper] to become part of the Quandt party that puts people first, keeps their word and serves with pride; the party is getting larger and we think that the so called House leadership (or lack of it) should tend their resignations and lets get the state back on track to serve all the people of NH and not just those who are trying a power play to take over government from...
4 tags
Grover Norquist Fails to Sway Right-to-Work Vote
Kevin Landrigan has the latest story detailing the extraordinary effort from House Speaker Bill O’Brien in his failed quest to override Gov. Lynch’s veto of Right-to-Work legislation.
Two days before the vote, Right-to-Work opponent Rep. Frank Sapareto received a personal call from Grover Norquist. Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and godfather of the “Taxpayer...
4 tags
Op-Ed: O'Brien Favors "Corporately Funded...
The Portsmouth Herald calls on House Republicans to repeal the tobacco tax cut. And while you’re at it, they write, get rid of Speaker Bill O’Brien and Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt.
The tortured logic used to justify New Hampshire House Speaker Bill O’Brien’s insistence on cutting the state’s tobacco tax by 10 cents a pack has cost the state $11 million since...
4 tags
GOP Gov. Candidate Kevin Smith: Anti-Gay Lobbyist
Tuesday, GOP gubernatorial candidate Kevin Smith registered with the New Hampshire Secretary of State as a lobbyist with the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).
NOM, believed to be largely funded by the Mormon and Catholic churches, works to oppose the legalization of civil unions and same-sex marriage and to prohibit same-sex couples from adopting children. The organization was labeled...
3 tags
Quote of the Day: O'Brien's White Whale
Let’s see now: He fiddled, diddled and finagled for five months to override Governor Lynch’s right-to-work bill veto. Didn’t work, thanks to votes by some of his own party members. And a new BIA survey says right-to-work is way down on the bottom of businesspeople’s concerns. But the speaker insists he’s going to try again next year. Is RTW O’Brien’s...
6 tags
Fernald: GOP Not Serious About Deficit Reduction
Mark Fernald, 2002 Democratic nominee for Governor, blames the failure of the serious deficit reduction on Republican lawmakers whose concern is ”ideology, not governing.”
Five changes to our federal tax code — allowing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to expire; eliminating preferential tax rates for dividends and capital gains; eliminating tax breaks for oil and gas; plugging the...
2 tags
Keene Sentinel: Anti-Labor Fights Have Only Begun
One day after New Hampshire pro-labor supporters were victorious in their long and emotional fight to kill right-to-work legislation, the Keene Sentinel warns anti-labor fights in the legislature “have only begun.”
Bills lined up for the legislative session that starts in January will call for the end of agency fees … for public-sector unions, will try to establish which issues...
3 tags
N.H.'s Epic Win Over Right To Work -- The Video