With all the hue and cry and warrant articles set to either take away or put a minority's civil rights to a "popular vote", it is interesting that a recent poll obtained by nhpoliticalreport.com (subscription required) shows
* A whopping 59 percent of Republican voters say they support either civil unions or full on gay marriage as opposed to the 40 percent who don't support any legal recognition.
This is a bi-partisan civil rights issue. Trying to make it a wedge issue and even forcing the article onto town warrants will undoubtably backfire, as well it should.
Also, according to Pindell, the poll tilted towards conservatives (76%) and more males than females.
The red shows the increasing job loss suffered during George W Bush's last year in office, the blue the decreasing job loss during Barack Obama's first year.
It would be great if it could improve at a faster rate, but it is improving, which it would not be under the administration we would have had if Obama had not won.
Shira Schoenberg, at the Concord Monitor, is continuing to report on the effects of recent cuts to the state's Health and Human Services Budget. These are manifold, but one that is not generally understood, except by the wonks among us, is the cost shifting that occurs when the state and federal Medicaid/Medicare reimbursement rates fall below the level of what it costs hospitals, clinics, doctors, nursing homes, to provide care.
Now we can quibble as to whether that cost is justifiable or not, but that is another conversation. Presently, services cost what they cost and when the reimbursement from the government side is lacking, the provider can do one of two things: refuse to care for patients who are insured via these programs (and some cannot do this), or take the difference between cost of care and reimbursement for these patients and shift it to privately insured people and self-payers by raising rates on them. This, of course, raises insurance premiums, deductibles, co-pays, etc. because the for-profit insurance industry will not take the hit, and cause more health care related bankruptcies, homelessness and general poverty.
New Hampshire senate candidates Kelly Ayotte and Ovide Lamontagne, egged on by party chair John H. Sununu, encourage the President of the United States (who is popular in New Hampshire) to resign.
The favorable/unfavorable numbers from the Research 2000 poll last week were interesting:
FAV UNFAV NO OPINION 55 38 7 - Barack Obama 38 49 13 - Democratic Party 32 54 14 - Republican Party
Now the same, but only with self-described independents:
FAV UNFAV NO OPINION 56 37 7 - Barack Obama 34 47 19 - Democratic Party 27 52 21 - Republican Party
So the President is popular in New Hampshire (despite what UNH claims), Democrats less so, and Republicans least of all. What I take away from this poll, then, is that Obama's new, more prominent presence in moving forward the agenda Americans voted for is a step in the right direction. However, it also tells me that he and the Democratic majority in Congress are wasting time with bi-partisan theatre. Pass the big stuff, sign the big stuff, campaign on the big stuff. Show picture of Congresscritter next to President, with caption that they did stuff and made our lives better. Independents notice that President, whom they like, with the help of Democrats, whom they're not sure about, did stuff and made their lives better, while Republicans opposed everything.
Sure, it was ROFL funny to see that Facebook Governor Palin needed a palmprompter to remember her talking points for the Tea People. But for me, it was what was written that was most revealing:
budget cuts
tax
That's pretty much it in a nutshell, isn't it? Don't talk openly about the goal of eliminating things like Social Security - keep the focus on tax cuts instead.
(Said far better than I could. - promoted by Dean Barker)
This is an article I will be sending to our local on-line newspaper The Forum sometime in the next month, so that it appears just prior to the election in March. It was inspired by Dean's posts on the pledge and my friend Chaz, who has been working on this for years.
Our towns are so beautiful. They are filled with lovely landscapes, lakes and rivers, healthy forests and fields, historic homes and stone walls all over the place. We have deer and moose and bears and....an elephant? Yup, there's an elephant in the woods with us..."The Pledge".
President Obama said Sunday that he will convene a half-day, bipartisan health care summit at the White House on Feb. 25 to be broadcast on television, so Americans can see Democrats and Republicans try to break the deadlock on health care legislation.
Would Democrats benefit from another televised session between President Obama and Hill Republicans?
...
"Theatre is nice, but Americans will be more motivated to vote for Democrats who pass bills that make their lives better, rather than simply highlighting the GOP's Party of Never 2010 electoral strategy. There's only so long you can play the victim card when you are in the majority."
I hope I am wrong. But all I see is yet another opportunity for Republicans to kick the health care reform can down the road and make the President look weak.
We have the votes in place to help Americans right now. All that's lacking is discipline and leadership. How many families have faced financial ruin, sickness, and death from the murder-by-spreadsheet system since Max Baucus accidentally on-purpose went into the weeds on this months and months ago?
President Obama needs to take stock quickly. Read the Luce piece. Be honest about what is happening. Read Plouffe's smart book again. Send Rahm Emanuel back to the House in a senior role. Make Valerie Jarrett an important Ambassador. Keep Axelrod -- but balance him with someone like Plouffe, and get back to putting good policy before short term politics.
The Concord Monitor is reporting the cuts that the state Department of Health and Human Services has had to make to close a $43 million budget gap. The reason for this gap? The broken economy has caused more people to seek social services. But the more people need services, the less they can receive.
The biggest impact for individuals will likely come from reduced subsidies for child care, as the Monitor reported earlier this week. The state increased the amount of money that approximately 4,700 low-income families will have to pay, beginning in March. Families making below the poverty line (about $18,300), for example, currently pay $1.78 a week and will soon have to pay $9.33 a week. The cost was also shifted from a per-family cost to a per-child cost, so a family with three children that formerly paid about $2 a week will now pay about $27.
I hope that we shall always ax
a bill for sales or income tax.
A tax whose broad-based mouth will suck
the vigor from New Hampshire's pluck.
A tax that kills the jobs we seek
but builds the psyche of the chic.
A tax that Reds do castigate
and use to seal the Blues' sad fate.
This bill must die so Reds can reign,
their issue still - to make their gain.
Poor Blues! Their 'yea' supports their cause
but puts them square within Reds' jaws.
I love this. Kurk is openly honest about the partisan underpinnings behind Pledge Politics, or:
In versu veritas!
Comment on the proposed change to make the language in the NH constitution gender neutral:
"There is a lyric quality, a literary quality, that expresses the ideals of the founding fathers,'' said Representative Jordan Ulery, a Republican. "The bland gray socialist language just destroys all that.''
I do not think "lyric," "literary," and "socialist" mean what Representative Ulery thinks they mean.
I keep checking my Google Alerts, but something must be wrong.
I don't see anything from Kelly Ayotte, Ovide Lamontagne, Bill Binnie, and That Other Self-Funder about whether they support the GOP House plan to privatize Social Security.
I find this odd, because:
a) the aforementioned Republican senate candidates are always talking about our out-of-control federal deficit, and
b) our previous Republican junior senator, John E. Sununu, was not just a supporter of privatization, but a champion of it, and
c) they want to be our next Republican junior senator.
Because if you have to write "Washington DC" in the location, it's not really for you:
NRSC UPCOMING EVENTS MEMO:
...
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
KELLY AYOTTE - Candidate for Senate (NH)
Fundraising Reception at 5:30 p.m.
Location: Morton's 1050 Connecticut Ave NW
Hosted by: Jeff Walter & Clint Robinson
Cost: $1000 per PAC/$500 per Individual
RSVP: Please RSVP to Jon Graham at 202-XXX-XXXX or jon@XXXXXXXXX.com
Funny. Nothing in that NRSC email about Ovid Lamontagne, Bill Binnie, and that other self-funder.
On the other hand, those who aren't Village lobbyists, and who actually live in New Hampshire, might have something to say about the pre-coronation party:
Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 2/1-3. Likely voters. MoE (for primary) 5%.
Kelly Ayotte 36%
Ovide Lamontagne 27%
William Binnie 4%
That's right. Ovide Lamontagne, who has raised a fraction of the money that DC establishment candidate Kelly Ayotte has, is within the margin of error (see Laura's post for the rest of the dKos R2K details). And then there's Bill Binnie, who actually has the most to spend and is just getting started raising his profile.
