So the NH Dems say they can't do anything about the State budget?
Well, the campaigns are heating up here in NH as Primary Election Day, Sept 9, is fast approaching and both parties are starting to wind up the base and the competitors. Recently, one of the local papers (Laconia Daily Sun) reported on both the Republican and Democrat gatherings. In it, the reporter had news on the Democrat picnic where Democrat Deb Reynolds attempted to tell her fellow Liberals that the 17.5% increase in the budget they engineered really didn't matter - it wasn't their fault!
Uh-huh - sure it isn't! Being so motivated, my response was as follows:
To the Editor,
In the Sun article published 7/28 (Mars v. Venus: Dems & GOP forming battle lines over fiscal and social issues), Democrat Senator Deb Reynolds remarked about the 17.5% rise in State spending under Democrat control being under Republican attack: “It’s not true,” she exclaimed. The senator insisted that “new” spending measures added up to “barely 3-percent”, with the rest of the increase caused by “things we had no control over”, like the cost of state employee insurance benefits.
You know, I'd love to be able to do my family budget the same way this Democrat Senator does for NH taxpayers. Imagine, only being concerned with “new” spending – while ignoring increases in the “fixed” spending that they've helped to create. Sorry, but non-discretionary spending IS part of the overall budget (after all, you are forcing us to pay for it, right?) even if she wants us to ignore that little-bitty fact.
Like all State spending, everything budgetary can be controlled – the Democrats simply chose not to. After all, with control over all branches of government, the Democrats can choose to control funding, expenditures, programs, and staffing – they chose not to. They could change the law and issue executive orders to control how they use your tax money – but they chose not to. Instead, they chose to spend more, not less. I challenge her to show us anywhere in the budget where Democrats chose to spend less, not more.
NH families have to be concerned with ALL of their spending, especially that spending forced by government taxes. Unlike Senator Reynolds, they know how to prioritize their spending and cut where and when necessary when revenues do not meet expenditures. They know what is really important and what is not for their hard earned money and their family budgets. They know that “fixed” costs have to be managed as well as the discretionary costs. And when needed, the former gets cut, too. And that, managing money, is a traditional NH value.
(and yes, I am a partisan kinda guy. For full disclosure sake, I am the Gilford Town Republican Chair, which makes it just that much more fun! Cross-posted at the Belknap County Republicans)
