Kathy Dunton | GrokWatch News Desk
I went to Frank Guinta’s 5th Town Hall Meeting in 2 months. I may have bones to pick with him right now, but I have to say there is no one who interacts with their constituents, better than Guinta. You can count all of Shea Porters Town Halls on… no hands.
This Meeting was to be geared towards Veterans. Congressman Guinta wanted to hear from them and answer their questions. That was the way it was promoted.
There were 45 in attendance counting his people and the press. There were many older Veterans in attendance. NH has the third largest population of Veterans, in the nation. This was an opportunity for them to talk to their Congressman.
Guinta opened the meeting by talking about bills that have passed the House with bipartisan support. 85% of all the bills that have passed through the House since this Session began did so with bipartisan support. Among those were ‘The Keystone pipeline’, ‘A return to the 40-hour work week’, and something to do with ‘high energy costs’. Apparently NH has some of the highest energy costs in the country.
He went on to share about some bills that he is co-sponsoring. A repeal of the Cadillac tax. This will hit municipalities hard first, then businesses in 2018. Another bill he is co-sponsoring would eliminate duplicating programs within government agencies. He mentioned that in his 2010-2012 term in Congress he discovered 70 programs that were duplicated~ in one government agency. (government efficiency, not.) It’s interesting that many of the bills he mentioned were to undo the damage that Obama has done in the last 6 years.
He shared that the entire NH delegation, Annie Kuster and he, Jean Shaheen, and Kelly Ayotte are all co-sponsoring legislation.
Last year, the mismanagement of the Veterans Administration came to light, complete with false reporting and secrets lists. Veterans were dying while waiting for care while others waited months for medical services. In NH, many of our Vets must travel at least 3 hours to get medical treatment as we don’t have a full-service Veterans hospital in our state. If I remember correctly, Obama first learned about the Veterans plight on the news. He kick started a fix by allocating 10 million to build facilities, over a 3 year period and vowed to get to the bottom of this mess. This year, he cut the funding from his budget. The legislation that the NH Delegation is sponsoring is to make the funding permanent.
Because a Town Hall is designed for feedback from those in attendance and usually last about an hour, he opened up for questions. The first question asked was not about Veterans Affairs. This guy asked him about 4-year-old FEC charges that were brought against him by the Democrat Party. I think this guy is a troll because of the way that Guinta answered him. He said, “As I have explained to you on other occasions…I have been cleared by the Ethics Committee.” This wasn’t good enough for this guy, and he continued to chew up time that was supposed to be for the Vets.
There were a couple of questions about the Medical ID cards that, when the idea was conceived, would allow Vets to go anywhere they choose for service. Unfortunately, not all Vets have received them, and one younger Vet in attendance, who currently needs physical therapy three times a week mentioned that he is still required to travel to Manchester for that service. He has received the card. In other words, not much has changed for these people in the last year.
The next question was from someone concerned about educational mandates that cost the districts serious money. While he apologized for the line of questions, he still took up precious time from the Vets. Guinta, who doesn’t shy away from issues, began to speak sympathetically to the mandates and when appropriate, Matt Mayberry, who hosted the event and had previously tried to reign things back to questions from Veterans, tried once again.
The next question from a woman who wanted to talk endlessly about the Letter that 47 Senators sent to Iran. Gee whiz. Really? Congressman Guinta, then attempted to answer her questions, but whatever he said wasn’t good enough. She wanted him to condemn Kelly Ayotte, who was one of the signers of the letter. He said he wouldn’t do that. Mayberry then had to close the meeting as the hour was up. Guinta, apologizing to those that didn’t get to ask all their questions, offered to stay after and talk to them one on one, and to his credit did so for almost half an hour.
This blogger has several things she wants to talk to the Congressman about, like when you hold the purse strings to things that our dictator is trying to control, stick to your damn principles! Stop caving. Stop going along, to get along. But this forum was not the time or the place. There will always be another time. Frank Guinta, is that guy, and although he may not vote the way I want, he doesn’t hide in DC. He makes himself available to his constituents, all the time.
In conclusion to this Town Hall, I am disappointed. Not with Guinta, but rather with people that have their own agendas that once again pushed our Veterans to the back of the line.
Kathy Dunton is a GrokWatch News Desk Contributor.
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