So, is NH GOP Platform Chair Jennifer Horn going to take the Platform towards being Democrat-lite? - Granite Grok

So, is NH GOP Platform Chair Jennifer Horn going to take the Platform towards being Democrat-lite?

The present NH GOP Platform is a rather conservative document.  When it comes to spending (something that Government does rather too well unless brakes are applied to it), it works fairly well as a philosophical foundation.  Well, the NH GOP Platorm Committee is now meeting to review the Platform and to make changes to it.  A little birdie let me (and a couple others) know that the following is under discussion:

Simple question about the NHGOP platform: Should it say:
1) We will limit the growth of spending; or
2) We will reduce spending

It now says “Work to limit the growth of state spending”.  Well, for me, THIS is easy: REDUCE!  After all the Repubs in the House and Senate HAD to REDUCE the spending as the Democrats had deliberately left an $800 million deficit to be used as a club for cutting the services that they had put in using the “excessive” Fed stimulus money flowed in via Obama’s “slush funding”.  To go further, I suggest to the Birdie:

 “not only will we seek to reduce the State budget, but we will seek to reduce all of the unfunded mandates that the State requires of towns and cities which will result in reduced local property taxes as well.

A two-fer!  Given that the Republican Party is supposed to be for limited government and not just  “well, we’ll settle for a slightly smaller (and slightly less expensive and taxing) government than the Democrats”, my answer back to the Birdie actually addresses two components of the Platform, so I thought “there, done!”.

And then the Birdie relayed more info, and I went – Here comes the cowards that can’t stand up to the heat!

It seems that answer #2 was proposed and fought for but lost for two reasons:

  • The Taxpayer Bill of Rights is phrased that way!
  • What if NH is hit by a tremendously large natural disaster?

Can you say “looking for cover anyway they can”?  Now, I understand the TBoR, but given that NH was only the second State (Texas being the other) to cut its budget by 11% due to the overall economic straits that Obama can’t navigate out of, why NOT continue to REDUCE instead of “limit growth of spending”?  It’s not like State Govt revenues have taken a serious turn to the plus lately, and if Obama is reelected, there is no reason to believe that he just won’t continue to do the same – meaning the economy continues to be lamer and lamer.

Instead, conservatives ought to be shouting “Lock N load, baby“!  Why?  Words mean things.  Dems talk about cutting all the time, but never do it.  These are just deflections so that when the squishes like Ray Burton, for instance, or Peter Bolster in the House vote to raise spending, they can NOW say “Hey, we aren’t spending as much as we COULD – we STILL are adhering to the platform.”

Shameful.  If we are to be the Party of small, limited Government, spending HAS to be reduced;  we have to TALK that way, we have to WRITE that way, we have to MEAN our actions to be that way, we have to BE that way.  This “limit growth” vs (“reduce spending”) is a direct admission that Republicans are both unable to cut spending in spirit, and helpless in front of the onslaught of Democratic demands and whining.  It is an admission that Republicans are already willing to lose the philosophical battle – the rot about a natural disaster is rather stupid and a act of flailing for justification.  The truth is that people would understand that (and the Democrats do too) if Govt had to replace 100s of miles of road from flood damage (for instance) and if Democrats said “you raised spending”, they’d be skewered.

Then the Birdie brought up another weasel phrase that was tried:

Under promise and over deliver

Crap answer.  Again, it’s a dodge.  Republicans won State government because they said what they were going to do – Cut the spending.  Then, they did it.  LOOK AT THAT LINE:  “We will promise to try to limit the rate of growth, the rate of increased spending”.  You know what that really is?  We’re just a cheaper version of Democrats.  The effective result will be under promise and fail to deliver on that very low bar.

Sure, like I’m gonna believe a whole pack of Politicians on this.  There are ALREADY too many Republican all too willing to jettison the Platform to:

  • Be able to appear to be “doing something”
  • Throw a railroad tie in front of the vote rating organizations.

Face it, the proper translation of that phrase is “under write and never you  mind us”.   It does no good to make the hard efforts to hold elected officials to a crap document that sets the bar so low that only cockroaches can pass under….oh wait!

So, now there are two choices

  • fight now to get the platform committee to change its mind (such as it is)?
  •  try to change it at the convention in a floor fight?

I’m quite sure that the NH GOP wants this kind of thing completely out of the public’s eye, and even out of the knowledge of the rank and file State Party members.

So readers, tell me what you think!

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Here are the members of the NH GOP Platform Committee:

Jennifer Horn, chairman   (Who was appointed by the NH GOP Chairman Wayne MacDonald and she is not a Member of the State Party Committee.)

  • Ken Merrifield, Vice-Chair, Mayor of Franklin
  • Spec Bowers
  • David Chesley
  • Biz Corrow
  • Dan Garthwaite
  • Judy Havenstein
  • Rob Kaspar, Area 4 chair (NHGOP)
  • Jane P Lane
  • Pam Manney
  • Tory Mazzola, NHGOP staff
  • Dan McGuire
    Paul Mirski
  • Lou Vita
  • Jen Wrobleski

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Relevant parts of the NH GOP Platform (emphasis mine):

Republicans realize that low taxes are the result of low spending. We believe that controlling spending and minimizing taxes are the best ways to protect the economic and civic well being of New Hampshire residents.  We believe in promoting lower taxes to attract business development and expand economic opportunities by:

  • Maintaining a locally controlled tax system consistent with our commitment to keep New Hampshire a desirable place for people to live, work, raise their families and locate their businesses
  • Supporting local control of spending and taxes designed to support local services

We reject higher taxes and excessive government spending with the belief that taxes unfairly erode earnings, contribute to the growth of government and provide disincentives for economic growth. To affirm our strong opposition to any broad-based taxes, including an income, sales or capital gains tax, we will:

  • Support cutting or eliminating taxes which inhibit enterprise, earnings and savings and investment, such as the Interest and Dividends Tax and the Business Enterprise/Business Profits Tax
  • Oppose taxation of the Internet
  • Support initiatives that lower property taxes for those in need
  • …Work to reduce New Hampshire’s energy costs and remove New Hampshire from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
  • Work to limit the growth of state spending to not more than the rate of inflation, taking into account population growth, by adopting a taxpayers bill of rights

Sidenote: That second to last item?  Good going NH State Senator Peter Bragdon.  As the head of the Senate, you had the ability to make that happen – but you let that opportunity dribble out of your hands – or was that a deliberate slip?

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