Prog Blogs, Orgs & Alumni
Bank Slate
Betsy Devine
birch, finch, beech
Democracy for NH
Live Free or Die
Mike Caulfield
Miscellany Blue
Granite State Progress
Seacoast for Change
Still No Going Back
Susan the Bruce
Tomorrow's Progressives
Politicos & Punditry
The Burt Cohen Show
John Gregg
Krauss
Landrigan
Lawson
Pindell
Primary Monitor
Primary Wire
Scala
Schoenberg
Spiliotes
Welch
Campaigns, Et Alia.
Paul Hodes
Carol Shea-Porter
Ann McLane Kuster
John Lynch
Jennifer Daler
ActBlue Hampshire
NHDP
DCCC
DSCC
DNC
National
Balloon Juice
billmon
Congress Matters
DailyKos
Digby
Hold Fast
Eschaton
FiveThirtyEight
MyDD
The Next Hurrah
Open Left
Senate Guru
Swing State Project
Talking Points Memo
50 State Blog Network
Alabama
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
(Remember when Frank went begging for the stimulus and Kelly called him a "grandstander"? - promoted by Dean Barker)
The picture painted in the UL of Manchester if the Republicans win NH's federal races is bleak.
FALLING OFF A CLIFF. That's how the mayor, aldermen and school committee members have referred to the budget outlook without federal stimulus funding. Politicians have fought over the effectiveness and worthiness of the $787 billion package throughout this election cycle, but the reality on the ground is that school officials will have $4.8 million less to work with when they sit down to craft their budgets.
(Part put below the fold. - promoted by Dean Barker)
October 20 was a wonderful day for New Hampshire and Maine. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood came to Portsmouth with a $20 million grant that will be used towards replacing the deteriorating Memorial Bridge. This bridge, built in 1923 to honor New Hampshire's World War I veterans, connects Portsmouth and Kittery, Maine. It is a foundation of the economic and cultural life of the Seacoast.
Left as a comment on Peach Pundit, a conservative-leaning blog. (Crossposted at DFNH)
The object of the so-called "stimulus" (really just an updated version of revenue sharing) was to infuse money (currency, dollars) directly into the economy, instead of funneling it through Wall Street and the bond market. The reason that had to be done was because Wall Street and our private corporate sector had sequestered or hoarded ($3 trillion in cash at present) the currency, making it very difficult for people to engage in exchange and trade. That's what was meant by the "liquidity crisis." Despite a decade of low interest being charged by the Federal Reserve to make money more readily available, the financial community used it to create a real estate bubble and to float dubious financial instruments, instead of lending to Main Street to finance inventory and small manufacturers to promote innovation.
For example, when asked by a panelist whether he supported $2 million in federal funding for a local transportation project favored by the business community, Guinta said he was concerned that the proposal might not be effective.
Shea-Porter said she was in favor and noted that Guinta hadn't directly answered the question.
"I support the notion of trying ..." Guinta responded, before being cut off.
"Do you support the project?" she asked again.
"Carol, we have a situation where we have debt and deficit ..."
"Do you support the project?"
"I'm being asked to spend more money without knowing whether it's going to be profitable ..."
"We'll take that as a 'No,'" Shea-Porter snapped as the moderator, positioned between the candidates, looked on.
Republican Congressional candidate Frank Guinta told delegates at his party's convention that Democrat Carol Shea-Porter wants to take New Hampshire further down the path to a Socialist society.
Frank Guinta then:
Guinta complained in a front page story about the slow pace the state was collecting stimulus money from the feds and distributing it to the local communities.
That day, Fitch e-mailed Ayotte on the story:
"The fun never ends!"
And Ayotte replied:
"Pressure coming your way....He is such a grandstander."
Former moderate Kelly Ayotte now seems intent on proving she never met a right-wing talking point she didn't like. Yesterday, she expressed support for canceling the stimulus and applying the unspent funds to pay down the deficit.
As the law-and-order candidate delivered fiscally conservative promises, she maintained the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 failed to stimulate private-sector jobs. She said any remaining stimulus money should be applied to the deficit.
As I've said before, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes $288 billion in tax benefits, cutting taxes for 95 percent of working Americans. $65 billion of these tax benefits have not yet been spent. Ayotte's plan to cancel the stimulus eliminates $65 billion of middle class tax cuts.
The right-wing echo chamber has latched onto Sean Mahoney's "Bridge to Nowhere" shtick. Friday night, Mahoney and his web video were featured on the Fox faux business channel. (You can watch the videos on Mahoney's You Tube channel). But as the truth about the historic bridge preservation project comes out, Mahoney is struggling to mold his original hyperbolic rhetoric to the facts.
Mahoney concedes "when it came to this bridge, it was really [a] historical preservation project... This was not a transportation project." If he's conceding the project has value other than for cars and trucks to cross the river, doesn't that negate all the histrionics over fact that "it doesn't go anywhere?"
Mahoney concedes jobs were created to repave the bridge.
Mahoney states a preference for the "local community" raising money for the project through a bond issuance. So it's an absurd waste of taxpayer money in one case, but appropriate in the other?
Host David Asman repeats Carol Shea-Porter's response that "...the local community and the people of both political parties who reviewed this project supported it" and then asks, "Is that true, Sean?" The correct answer is "yes," local voters overwhelmingly approved the bridge repair in March. So here's how Mahoney answered: "The reality is that my opponent Carol Shea-Porter has voted over 95% of the time with Nancy Pelosi..." Nice.
The arched stone bridges of the Contoocook River Valley of New Hampshire are the earliest examples of dry-laid masonry vaults that became the dominant form of stone construction for engineering structures in New England during the 1830s.
The largest and oldest single concentration of arched stone bridges ever built in New Hampshire is in the town of Hillsborough which has five of the historic gems. The bridges are registered as historic structures by the Historic American Building Survey and have been recognized as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, the second in New Hampshire, after the Cog Railway.
$150,045 in stimulus money was awarded to the Town of Hillsborough to preserve and maintain the one bridge, the Sawyer Bridge, that will no longer support vehicular traffic and will now become home to a small garden park for picnicking.
Sean Mahoney says there's a problem. "It doesn't go anywhere... The politicians in Concord asked the politicians in Washington for $150,000 to pave a real 'Bridge to Nowhere'. He issued a press release. He made a web video. He got a write-up on Andrew Breitbart.
It's a cheap shot that tells you more about Sean Mahoney than all of his position papers and web videos ever will.
Those tax-and-spend Republicans are at it again! 1st Congressional district candidate Sean Mahoney
wants to cut government spending...stopping payment on the so-called stimulus law, which has failed to create jobs, and using the money to pay down the federal debt.
He repeats it like a mantra, over and over on the campaign trail.
His plan raises middle class taxes.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes $288 billion in tax benefits. These benefits include the Making Work Pay tax credit (which provides up to $400 to working individuals and $800 for working married couples this year), COBRA Continuation Coverage Assistance, and tax incentives for businesses. The benefits cut taxes for 95 percent of working Americans.
$65 billion of these tax benefits have not yet been spent.
Sean Mahoney's plan to cancel the stimulus eliminates these tax benefits and raises middle class taxes. So much for "common sense solutions."
We should repeal the stimulus, and use the balance to cut taxes on income temporarily, which will quickly produce real jobs.
FAIL! As this chart from Moody's Analytics Chief Economist, Mark Zandi indicates, tax cuts are a much, much less efficient method of growing the economy. Charlie's plan doesn't make the grade.
New Hampshire has used its $708 million in federal stimulus funding to create more than 2,000 jobs, pay for scores of road projects, upgrade health centers, fund research projects at universities and provide public schools with computers and supplies.
...Chris Clement, director of the state Office of Economic Stimulus, said New Hampshire used $146.5 million specifically to prevent state employee layoffs.
Called the "State Fiscal Stabilization Fund," this pool of stimulus money created or saved 1,264 jobs in education and 463 jobs in other state government agencies last year, he said.
...Mark Charbonneau, president of Continental Paving, said the funding helped him keep a full staff of 300 employees.
"If it wasn't for that we'd probably be down 70 to 80 people," said Charbonneau. "We feel it saved 75 jobs at our company last year."
To the Guinta-Ayotte-Bass crowd, it's job killing socialism! Or something.
On the other hand, to all mainstream economists, and the very few remaining reality-based conservatives, such as John McCain's former economic advisor, the stimulus worked.
One of my favorite Daily Kos bloggers, teacherken, has a diary up this morning on a column by Bob Hebert about the dreadful state and dreadful cost of maintaining or fixing the basic infrastructure that keeps civilization running in this country.
"Instead of spurring the economy by supporting private sector growth, Washington Democrats piled up mountains of unsustainable debt through a trillion dollar economic 'stimulus' package that did little to stimulate job growth - but plenty to stimulate the size of federal government."
From today's New York Times:
Judging Stimulus by Job Data Reveals Success
Let's say this bill had started spending money within a matter of weeks and had rapidly helped the economy. Let's also imagine it was large enough to have had a huge impact on jobs - employing something like two million people who would otherwise be unemployed right now.
If that had happened, what would the economy look like today?
Well, it would look almost exactly as it does now. Because those nice descriptions of the stimulus that I just gave aren't hypothetical. They are descriptions of the actual bill.
Just look at the outside evaluations of the stimulus. Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody's Economy.com. They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million jobs. The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency, considers these estimates to be conservative.
You are entitled to your own opinions, Charlie. You are not entitled to your own facts.
Adding: Is it too much to expect that someone in the state media actually will ask Charlie why his stimulus claims run counter to multiple independent analyses?
Nearly three out of four Americans think that at least half of the money spent in the federal stimulus plan has been wasted, according to a new national poll.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday morning also indicates that 63 percent of the public thinks that projects in the plan were included for purely political reasons and will have no economic benefit, with 36 percent saying those projects will benefit the economy.
Time's Joe Klein agrees with Americans it was wasted alright - on them:
Indeed, the largest single item in the package--$288 billion--is tax relief for 95% of the American public. This money is that magical $60 to $80 per month you've been finding in your paycheck since last spring. Not a life changing amount, but helpful in paying the bills.
...It is very difficult to have a democracy without citizens. It is impossible to be a citizen if you don't make an effort to understand the most basic activities of your government. It is very difficult to thrive in an increasingly competitive world if you're a nation of dodos.
But Mr. Klein, I do make an effort to understand government - I look to CNN!
But political analyst Jennifer Donahue thought the [SOTU] speech was "very underwhelming."
...Donahue said the speech would have resonated better if it focused more on "tax cuts that have teeth" instead of deficit reduction over the next 10-20 years.
We strive to be, if anything, a participatory space around here, and I've had a question come to my inbox that is very much deserving of our attention.
To make a long story short, our questioner wants to know why, on the one hand, despite the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, also known as the "stimulus"), unemployment in the construction industry continues to increase, and, on the other hand, why there is such a giant disparity, on a state-by-state basis, in the cost of saving a job?
They're great questions, and, having done a bit of research, I think I have some cogent answers.
I saw a report today that our state led the US in receiving Federal aid in the recently completed Cash for Clunkers program (at least on a per capita basis).
This is pretty unusual. Normally NH's relative wealth and lack of a large lower-income population puts us near the bottom when it comes getting federal money. But we recieved about twice as much per person from the Cash for Clunkers program as the average state. For what it's worth, Vermont was second. The usual suspects- Mississippi. Alabama, New Mexico, and West-by-God Virginia- were near the bottom.
(Stealth Candidate Blues: Reality-based analysis edition. Part put below the fold. - promoted by Dean Barker)
As Dean wrote earlier, Kelly Ayotte continues to take heat from key Republican activists for the positions she held while Attorney General. This time it's regarding her stance on the Second Amendment.
According to NHPoliticalReport.com, last Friday Ayotte was "told off in front of hundreds of influential primary voters" by a former state Representative who publicly railed against her record of suppressing the rights of gun owners.
Citing her opposition to the "Castle Doctrine", a law which justifies the use of deadly force against an intruder on one's own property, former state Representative Richard "Stretch" Kennedy said Ayotte was not "good on guns." Kennedy told NHPoliticalReport that he spoke with Ayotte after his remarks and that "she was upset, but didn't deny the facts." He went on to say, "she is a nice kid, but she has no legislative experience and it is clear she has a lot to learn."
On Monday, Kelly Ayotte released a statement announcing that she had filed the appropriate paperwork to run for U.S. Senate but neglected to tell anyone why she's running. While it's clear she is interested in advancing her political career, it is very unclear why the people of New Hampshire should support her candidacy without knowing who she is or where she stands on the issues.
As Attorney General, Ayotte was a vocal supporter of President Obama's plan for economic recovery. Just last week, Ayotte publicly endorsed a program to solve cold case crimes which is funded by money from the federal Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In May, Ayotte also released this statement in support the Recovery and Reinvestment Act:
"in times of economic uncertainty and with the potential for increasing crime, we need to continue to support these programs."
Now that she is running for Senate, will she change her position and stand in the way of President Obama's economic recovery plan?
As Attorney General, Ayotte used her role to argue against a woman's right to choose and marriage equality. She took an assault on a woman's right to choose all the way to the Supreme Court and lost. Will Ayotte stand behind her anti-choice past now? Ayotte also filed a court brief to delay marriage equality in California. With polls showing that a majority of Granite Staters support marriage equality, will Ayotte favor equality now?
(Posted by Victoria Bonney, Communications Director at the New Hampshire Democratic Party)
CONCORD-New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley today released the following statement regarding Kelly Ayotte's filing for U.S. Senate:
"It's troubling that Kelly Ayotte announced her candidacy today without saying a word about why she's running or who she is. With so much at stake, the people of New Hampshire deserve to know where she stands on the issues.
"Does she still support the President's plan for economic recovery? Where does she stand on a woman's right to choose? Is she for or against providing health insurance to the nearly 45 million uninsured in America?
"It's time Kelly Ayotte stop talking about her political ambitions and start talking about the issues."
(Posted by Victoria Bonney, Communications Director at the New Hampshire Democratic Party)
What will Jennifer S. Palin-Horn's Twitter account make of this news?
Palin rejects over 30% of stimulus money
...The biggest single chunk of money that Palin is turning down is about $170 million for education, including money that would go for programs to help economically disadvantaged and special needs students. Anchorage School Superintendent Carol Comeau said she is "shocked and very disappointed" that Palin would reject the schools money. She said it could be used for job preservation, teacher training, and helping kids who need it.
I lack the words to describe the shameless cruelty of the GOP governors who are choosing their presidential ambitions over the well-being of the people they were elected to serve.
But I can only hope that on every inch of ground Sarah Palin covers in the First-in-the-Nation primary state in the near future, this "public servant" will be asked why she kept millions of dollars away from Alaska's public schools.
