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The House Finance Committee has recommended that the state restore $314,394 in funding to the Claremont, Colebrook, Keene and Milford District Courts. Oh, the hypocrisy!
Rep. Chris Nevins, R-Hampton, has introduced a bill to create a state "aeronautical fund" which would finance maintenance and capital improvements at all airports open to the public.
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Andrew Cline has been editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader since October of 2001. His writing has appeared in more than 100 newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and National Review.Death by stimulus: Obama's 'Raw Deal' for taxpayers
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Reader commentsPresident Obama's astounding, near-trillion-dollar emergency spending plan isn't likely to "stimulate" the economy so much as it is likely to cause its death when our grandchildren inherit it along with other federal debt.
Instead of addressing the very real and looming entitlement crises in Social Security and Medicare, the Obama plan adds to entitlement expectations in new and dangerous ways in everything from health care to education to unemployment aid for parttime workers. Separately, the Democrats keep right on spending. Witness last week's expensive expansion of children's health programs.
Leave it to the Democrats to engage in social engineering and government meddling while they are ostensibly trying to save the economy.
As columnist George Will pointed out last week, the Obama bill empowers the government to in effect ration health care by deciding what medical "items, procedures and interventions" it deems ineffective or too expensive. Such things "will no longer be prescribed" by federal health progams. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, is said to be behind the inclusion of $335 million for programs to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. Somehow, too, $50 million is included for the National Endowment for the Arts.
When it is not monkeying in such areas or just shamelessly throwing pork around, the Obama bill is content to continue previous congressional meddling in areas it has no business. It adds millions of dollars more to subsidize converter boxes for people whose analog TVs won't work soon because the Congress and federal bureaucrats decided that the marketplace and consumers weren't demanding this change fast enough on their own.
The one good thing we heard about this last week was that Obama's demand for a months-long delay in the switch to digital had been defeated in the House. Television stations, which have been planning and paying for this mandated change, no doubt breathed a sigh of relief at that news. We are sure they were joined by TV viewers, who can recite, ad nauseam, the incessant announcements about the switch.
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YOUR COMMENTS
Stimulus? This is nothing more than a boondoggle of epic proportions!
Less than 20% of this bill is for infrastructure which is supposedly the main purpose of the bill. It is so laced with pet project spending it is silly. 50 MILLION for the arts? Please, how many jobs will that produce? 335 MILLION for STD prevention? That will produce a lot of jobs I am sure (HAHAHA!)
This bill is so bad even some of the democrats are jumping ship on the chosen one!
- Jesse, Orford
Thank goodness we have the Union Leader. With other media outlets, to criticize Obama is to be "partisan". But to criticize Republicans is fair game since the bulk of the media always declares open season on Republicans. Sure, Obama meets with Republicans for the cameras, but says effectively "I trump you" when revealing his policies. Obama is just as partisan as all politicians.
Well done, Union Leader. Keep up the good work.
- Nick, Manchester
Obama's "stimulus" bill is an outrage, a perverse case of bait-and-switch being perpetrated by a master demagogue trying to play on fear and ignorance. If the Senate Republicans are not able to get this bill into an acceptable form, which means basically dumping everything but the tax cuts, then they should refuse to support it, let the Obamacrats pass it and be held accountable for it. The American people are dead set against Obama's "stimulus", and will be even more so after it fails to produce the promised 4 million jobs - at nearly $300,000 per job! - by mid-2010.
Obama "won" right?
- Tom, Campton
So now that Reagan ran the deficit from $1 to $4 trillion and G.W.Bush ran it from $4 to probably $8 or $9 trillion we are supposed to worry about Obama adding a trillion or so trying to repair the damage Republicans have done? Talk about pork, how about the 6300 earmarks that was in the last Republican transportation bill. Just how much is enough to feed Republican greed? Now we hear of $18 billion in bonuses to the Wall Street brokers - good job Browney.
- Robert, Deerfield
I hope people will read
"A 545 Billion Private Stimulus Plan
Let's bring home foreign earnings without tax penalty." by Allen Sinai located at http://www.wallstreetjournal.com
Businesses need capital to stay in business. Businesses need capital to pay their employees.
The more businesses that fire people the more businesses that will probably fire people.
I think it makes sense to NOT have individuals and businesses pay social security taxes on wages below $30,000 for the next 2 years so they will have more money to spend and be better able to reduce their debts. This would make it easier for many businesses to stay in business and may reduce the numbers of people who are fired. If unemployment significantly increases, many more people will not being paying into Social Security and Medicare. If unemployment significantly increases, many more people may need food stamps and Medicaid. If unemployment significantly increases, many more homes may be foreclosed.
The social security tax could be placed on all wages a person makes in a year. If this is done, businesses should NOT have to match employee contributions on wages above $100,000 a year.
If the federal government wants to reduce the probability of very high unemployment, it should have businesses stop paying the social security tax. Many businesses may fire fewer people, many businesses may hire more people, many workers may make more money, and many businesses may increase dividends.
I discuss several ways of paying for Social Security and Medicare on my myspace.com website which you may find by typing stremsky on a search engine
The federal government and state governments should immediately stop taxing interest from savings accounts, dividends, capital gains, and estates. Businesses especially small businesses may have an easier time obtaining loans and investments for hiring workers, research and development, and plant and equipment.
It makes more sense for the federal government and many state governments to increase many of their sales taxes.
I graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1992 with a BA Degree in Political Science and a minor in Economics.
I ran for United States Senate in 2002.
I hope people will read Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution on a regular basis.
- Ken Stremsky, Manchester, NH
Spike the Associated Press reported late last night that Republican GOP Governors have broken with the Republican Party over Obama's stimulus plan and are pushing for passage of it. See, they have actual budget shortfalls and cannot afford to play politics even as the House and Senate GOP are trying their best to be the Party of "no," after their President destroyed our economy.
President Obama had a mess dumped into his lap by the outing going Republican President as a result of two wars (one which was a lie), deregulation, and tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans at the expense of the Middle Class. And what do we get from the Right? "The Audacity of Nope." All the right has to offer for a solution is "more tax cuts please." It's truly sickening and disgusting that the GOP is putting their Party over their country. But they will be held accountable in 2010, just as they were held accountable in 2006 and 2008. Republicans are slow learners apparently. America has moved beyond your "party before country" politics and is preparing to tackle this problem with or without you.
Oh and one other thing, neither Deval Patrick or Jane Swift have ever been President.
- Mike Lane, Manchester
JFK had the Hundred Days. Obama starts with a gigantic bill of pork, favors, and payback, a repeat of the October horror that made many Republicans stay home. Add the incessant petty scandals and this "historic" era might become a smaller-than-life President, on the order of Jane Swift or Deval Patrick in Massachusetts.
- Spike, Brentwood NH
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