Ghost of Meldrim Makes Appearance in NHDP Strategy

by: Dean Barker

Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 06:03:13 AM EDT

"When beginning any discussion, letter to the editor, or interview with a reporter, House members need to first frame the debate using the following terms:

'In these tough economic times, House Democrats have worked hard to create jobs and fix our economy without a broad-based tax.'"

Brunelle says that "voters care about representatives that are going to do everything they can to better our current economic conditions without implementing a broad-based tax. Thus far, the House Democratic Caucus has done just that. Also, if nothing else is printed in a newspaper other than our lead point, we win."

Someday.

Adding: an interesting general question for state or national matters.  If one's party controls the executive branch, does the party's strategy reflect the executive's policy? If policy began to shift on, say, Afghanistan, among the US House in sizable numbers away from POTUS, what does the DNC do?

Meldrim Forever

by: Dean Barker

Thu Jun 25, 2009 at 05:55:13 AM EDT

Car owners will pay an additional fee of at least $30 to register their vehicles after July 1, money that will be used for road repairs. There is a graduated fee system by weight. The $30 surcharge applies to owners of vehicles lighter than 5,000 pounds. The cost of maintaining a vanity plate will jump $15, to $40 a year.

Retired state employees who are under the age of 65 will, for the first time, pay a premium for their state-provided health care. Single people will pay $65 per month; couples or families will pay $130.

...Low-income parents who insure their children through the state's Healthy Kids Silver program will pay $7 or $9 per month more on top of premiums that are now $25 to $45 per month per child, depending on income.

...The Tobey School in Concord, for students with emotional problems, will close Sept. 1.

The Lakes Region Facility will close at the end of this month. Most of the inmates have already been transferred, largely to Berlin, corrections officials said. In total, about 40 corrections employees will be laid off.

After Buddha was dead, his shadow was still shown for centuries in a cave-a tremendous, gruesome shadow. God is dead; but given the way of men, there may still be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown. - And we-we still have to vanquish his shadow, too.

Advantage for whom?

by: Mike Hoefer

Sat Jul 19, 2008 at 17:39:09 PM EDT

I found a nice report (.pdf 2.5mb) (NH only) at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. They review all 50 states regarding their taxation policies. It is going on 5 years old now, but I don't imagine much has changed. Here are a few of the High Lowlights from NH.

• Between 1989 and 2003 household taxes (as % of household income) for the lowest quintile (less than 20k) increased 2.5% while the highest quintile (more than 84k) saw nearly a 1% rate drop.
• At 8.1% the effective rate on the poorest folks in NH (<$20k) is over 4X the effective rate on the wealthiest (>$474) New Hampshire taxpayers.
• The middle quintile ($34k- $55k) pay 2.8x the effective tax rate as the wealthiest (>$474) do.

John Stephen, The "Pledge" and Failed Public Policy

by: Chaz Proulx

Wed May 14, 2008 at 19:57:17 PM EDT

The promise is small government and low taxes. The reality is deficits and debt, a decaying infrastructure, a banking crisis and a middle class that too often must chose between gasoline and health care.

Mr. Stephen stood alongside Grover Norquist the conservative lobbyist and founder of Americans for Tax Reform. Mr. Norquist symbolizes many things to many people. The right sees him as the number one crusader for small government and low taxes, the left sees him as a ruthless shill for special interests.

Former NH Republican Senator Warren Rudman has said this about Mr. Norquist:  "Americans for Tax Reform is a wonderful-sounding name. As far as I'm concerned, it's a front organization for Grover Norquist' lobbying activities."

Senator Rudman knows what he is talking about-he has dedicated many years to the Concord Coalition-a prestigious group of Americans dedicated to fiscal sanity and sustainable budgets.

Senator Rudman is right on the money about Grover Norquist. Mr. Norquist is the king of special interests and K street power politics.

Unfortunately, Mr. Norquist was the chief architect of George Bush's massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations. The scary part is that as the ultra rich get ultra richer and the middle class stagnates, Mr. Norquist considers the past eight years a rousing success.

True fiscal conservatives don't turn the country they love into a debtor nation with a straight face.

Mr. Stephen has now saddled himself with the Norquist/Bush world view.

He not only wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, he is parroting Norquist, Limbaugh and Bush in claiming that failure to make them permanent amounts to the "Largest tax hike in history."

Since when does the end of a temporary tax break become a tax hike? If someone told me I would get huge tax break for the next eight years, I think I'd be pretty grateful and use my time wisely.

Give somebody else a chance? Not this crowd.

Thematically too the event was telling. It took place in a boardroom high above the Merrimack River. I stepped out onto a balcony and it really was breathtaking.  There's nothing wrong with boardrooms per se, I've served on boards that met in comfortable rooms. But there was no mention of the middle class whatsoever. Not even a touch of lip service. There was no mention of recession, the national debt, the huge Bush Deficits or the healthcare crisis. And there was no mention of Iraq and the price to America in blood and treasure.

In fairness to Mr. Stephen he was very cordial to me. He and I talked both before and after the public part of the event. I enjoyed talking with him. I had a very nice chat with his wife too. I wish the three of us could have talked longer.

So this isn't personal. What is personal though, is the lives that Americans live.

We've squandered too much of our precious time. We've squandered too much of our money. We've weakened our military's effectiveness. In short, Bush Norquist policies have created problems that will haunt the next five generations of Americans.

The policies that have failed us so badly have no place in our future.  

Visualizing Change

by: Mike Hoefer

Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 00:08:18 AM EDT

Why I support "the pledge" ...

by: Tony Schinella

Sun Mar 16, 2008 at 17:14:30 PM EDT

Coming soon to a Town Meeting near you...

by: Mike Hoefer

Mon Feb 11, 2008 at 20:48:39 PM EST

One of the main efforts of the organization is getting the "Take No Pledge" resolution on the warrants of Town Meetings one month from today.

We the citizens of this town believe in
a New Hampshire that is just and fair.
The property tax has become unjust and unfair.
State leaders who take a pledge for no new taxes
perpetuate higher and higher property taxes.
We call on our State Representatives, our State Senators
and our Governor to reject the "Pledge",
have an open discussion covering all options,
and adopt a revenue system that
lowers property taxes.

Today they have released the names of the 87 towns where activists were successful in getting the resolution on the ballot.  I certainly plan to vote "Yea", it should be an interesting discussion here in Richmond!

Follow the jump to see if your town is on the list.

Anything eles of interest on your town warrants this year?

Property Tax Relief vs. "The Pledge"

by: Mike Hoefer

Sat Jan 19, 2008 at 00:02:15 AM EST

I helped them "YouTube" their video and it is now up and running. It's about 24 minutes long and does a great job of summarizing and illustrating the issue. Required viewing for all true Blue Hamsters.

A couple of the money quotes

If you are against a broad-based tax, are you for a narrow-based one?

Live Free or Die is not a Fiscal Policy

Solutions are not provided. IIRC the initial goal of the org is to kill "The Pledge" dead. They feel until that happens solution talk is premature.

Enjoy!

Note To Candidates: Three Good Reasons For Tuesday, January 8th As New Hampshire's Primary Date

by: Rep. Jim Splaine

Thu Nov 22, 2007 at 20:52:57 PM EST

That scenario perhaps isn't the best we could have, but was the best we could get.  With our New Hampshire Primary date-setting flexibility, we can choose a date that fulfills our law of having our event "...7 days or more..." before a similar election, but we can't tell other states what to do.  That's where the national political parties and our friends in other states -- we do have some -- help by opening up a favorable slot for us.  

That's also where our own strategies of patience in date-setting, and discussing possibilities like "The December Option" to warn other states how determined we are to be first in the process, come into play.  Once again, all that worked to our advantage.  It's a well-tested success story for New Hampshire going back to the 1970s when other states really began challenging our lead-off status.  By giving the authority to one person, our Secretary of State, to set our primary "...7 days or more..." ahead of other states, we can maneuver in ways others cannot.  

And while Tuesday, January 8th isn't the best of all worlds for New Hampshire, that date does have its benefits:  

#1.  Our Primary is 5 days after Iowa.  Why's that a benefit?  Well, we could have been 3 days after Iowa, if the Iowa Democrats had gone to Saturday, January 5th, which was very possible, or even 1 day after Iowa, if they had chosen Monday, January 7th.  We were being squeezed quite a lot two months ago, and I think that the discussion of the possibility that we might have to move into December, and the perseverance of our Democrat and Republican Party friends here and elsewhere, helped make sure we would have 5 days after Iowa.

While 5 days after Iowa isn't a whole lot, it does give New Hampshire voters enough time -- a full weekend plus -- to absorb the results of the Iowa Caucuses in each party so that we can make our own judgements.  Remember, too, that the Democratic National Committee wanted TWO caucuses before New Hampshire -- Iowa, and the other was to be Nevada.  Now Nevada is stuck on Saturday, January 19th.  (So much for the dictators of the DNC.)  But remember the Republican National Committee has played that game in years past too, so it's not just the national dems who have had their binoculars aimed our way.

#2.  Our Primary is 7 days before any other event -- not just a "similar" event.  The next event after New Hampshire's First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary is Michigan, a week later.  Michigan itself will be important, and that's good because our job should not be to disenfranchise the voters of Michigan -- that was one reason why I wasn't a fan of "The Pledge."  Candidates should be able to run anywhere, including Florida and Michigan -- we should just want to be sure they run here, too, and that we do have 7 days or more before they run anywhere else.  Now we have those 7 days, so our relevance and impact in the presidential election process is preserved yet again.

#3.  Our Primary will have more impact than in years.  What?  Why?  Well, let's look at the schedule.  Iowa is Thursday, January 3rd.  Whatever the results -- whomever "wins" or does "better than expected" there has five days to use those results to pull off a victory in New Hampshire on Tuesday, January 8th.  

Then, as soon as the results are known here on or about 8:00 PM on our Primary Election Night, those Democratic and Republican candidates who do well here -- who either win or do better than expected -- have up to three weeks to benefit from New Hampshire's Primary.  The next really big stop is Florida on Tuesday, January 29th, and then the country's "mega-primary" is on Tuesday, February 5th, when over a dozen major states vote, including New York, California, New Jersey, and Connecticut. During those 3 weeks after our primary, New Hampshire's impact from January 8th's results will be known, heard, and felt.

From the time of the New Hampshire Primary on Tuesday, January 8th, until Tuesday, January 29th, the only bumps in the road for any of the candidates of either party are Michigan (January 15th), Nevada (January 19th), and South Carolina (January 19th and January 26th). So, leading up to that very important set of primaries on February 5th, the candidates really, really, REALLY need to do well in New Hampshire -- and since they know that, we're seeing them campaign more heavily here than ever.

I think that the Iowa Caucus will be old news very quickly this election cycle.  The results of the New Hampshire Primary -- which is a "real election" where voters actually go into the privacy of voting booths to cast their vote -- will offset any discussion about whatever happened in Iowa. The results of the New Hampshire Primary will be the center of political analysis for the most part of three weeks until the series of large primaries to be held on January 29th and February 5th.  In other words, what happens here will have a lasting and lingering memory on the media and the voters.  That's good for New Hampshire's importance in 2012 and beyond.

Oh, and I'll add a 4th reason why the January 8th date is good:  it will allow us to have the Presidential candidates here as we celebrate the beginning of our Civil Unions.  The effective date of the law passed by the New Hampshire Legislature is January 1st. Maybe some will be on the guest lists?

And by having the candidates moving on from New Hampshire by Wednesday morning, January 9th, we will all be able to enjoy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day commemorations in peace and quiet.  What a state we live in!