Family Paid Leave. Tell me again? What is the difference between the GOP and the Democrats on a "Free Marketplace"? - Granite Grok

Family Paid Leave. Tell me again? What is the difference between the GOP and the Democrats on a “Free Marketplace”?

NH GOP email logoYou know, that thing that we used to have?  Where the participants involved make their own deals and agreements for mutual benefit?  And Government used to just make sure that all of them would live up to their agreements – and not lord over them like Royal Monarchists or Communist apparatchiks in mandating how they will interact ahead of the transactions?  Silly me, I used to think that the NH GOP really used to believe in its platform.  Like this one (emphasis mine):

We believe that the New Hampshire and United States Constitutions were written by our forefathers to limit our government, not our freedom.

Yeah, limited.  Operative idea that Government should “back off.”  Freedom!  Or this one:

We believe that individual liberty is guaranteed under the Constitutions of the United States and New Hampshire, that the liberty of the people must be protected above the power of the government, and that it is only through an adherence to our founding documents that we will continue to grow as a free, Constitutional Republic.

Yep, so the Republicans are supposed to be the Party that protects We the People in Civil Society from an encroaching Government, right? Ah!  Here’s the one I was looking for!

We believe in free people, free markets and free enterprise.

So how are the Republicans showing us the voters that they actually believe in this Stuff?  Behold the Power of the Bait And Switch!

Paid leave bill clears hurdle, heads on to full committee

A bill to establish a paid family and medical leave program got bipartisan greenlight from a subcommittee of state lawmakers this week and advocates are hopeful this year will finally see paid leave become a reality in New Hampshire. House Bill 628 would create a state-administered insurance program funded by private employees contributing 0.5 percent of their salaries. (Public employees could also get into the program, if participation were written into their collective bargaining contracts.)

Participants would be allowed to dip into the insurance pool to take up to 12 weeks of leave, either to take care of a child, a relative, or for personal medical reasons. They’d receive 60 percent of their salary while away. On Wednesday, a House Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative subcommittee voted 5-0 to recommend the bill to the full committee.

I don’t know who is on the subcommittee, but I have to think that it is made up of a majority of Republicans (but given it is Speaker Jasper (nominally R, I think? D?) doing the assignments, who the heck knows?)?  But the big point, why are Republicans doing acting like Democrats?  WHY do these Republicans feel that they have the Power to decide,  by fiat, that a company MUST spend money on a “benefit” that should nominally be voluntary?  Why are the Republicans sounding and acting like Democrats in mandating “voluntary” benefits?

Shouldn’t it be that if a company’s owners or managers believe that such a program makes economic sense, that they’d already have it in place (or at least contemplating doing so)? That they’d better know what would give them a competitive advantage in the marketplace? Why are these Republicans acting like the Socialist Democrats (who DO believe they have both the Power AND the Moral Right to do this?  After all, EVERYONE should be directed by the State, right?)

But NOOOoooo, these nitwits decided that Government should “give” workers a new benefit – but tax them for it (shades of Von Bismark!).  But it gets worse:

Right now, the bill creates a program employees can’t opt-out of. Discussion by lawmakers will likely center around whether or not to allow employees to do so. Experts say it’s imperative that the program, which will have to be self-funded, have high rates of participation in order to be sustainable.

Somehow, I’m old enough to remember that Republicans used to rail against Obamacare because of its lack of choice, that it took Freedom away from us individuals.  And yet, these self-assured nincompoops have decided to do exactly the same thing all by their onesies. Freedom?  It seems like it is just a throw-away word now – “WE know what is best for you”!

Nice to see that Republicans are following lockstep behind the Democrats in putting Government ahead of people.  “FREEDOM!” is just a line in some old movie and our even older and dustier Revolutionary past.

Way to go, duds and dudettes.

I’ll start believing in the NH GOP again when it actually starts acting like it actually believes in its beliefs. You know, legislating according to its beliefs?  Tell me, WHERE in its Platform does it affirm that its elected officials act like the aforementioned Royal Monarchists or Communist apparatchiks in micromanaging their business, telling them what they can do with their Private Property? And eliminate Individual Freedom?

Here’s HB628 text.  Here are the bill’s sponsors:

Mary Gile (d)                       Donald LeBrun (r)      Mark King (d)
Carolyn Gargasz (r)     John Fothergill (r)       Martha Fuller Clark (D)
Charles McMahon (r) Dan Feltes (d)                     Jeff Woodburn (D)
Cindy Rosenwald (d)         Jacalyn Cilley (d)               Mary Jane Wallner (d)

Here are the committee members:

Chairman: Stephen Schmidt(r)
V. Chairman: Anthony Pellegrino(r)
Clerk: Brian Seaworth(r)

Keith Murphy (r)          Lino Avellani (r)             Fred Doucette (r)
Leonard Turcotte (r)  Michael McCarthy (r)   Philip Bean (r)
Troy Merner (r)            Sean Morrison (r)          John O’Day (r)
Douglas Ley (d)                 Chip Rice (d)                         Michael Cahill (d)
Linda DiSilvestro (d)        William O’Neil (d)               Benjamin Baroody (d)
Janice Schmidt (d)            Hamilton Krans (d)             Mark MacKenzie (d)

And time’s a-ticking:

The full committee will have to report out on the bill by Nov. 16 in order for the bill to come before the House at the beginning of the session.

So WHAT will they do?  How will they vote?  Will they be Democrat Lite?  Or remember what they told their voters?  Will they remember a smidge of the promise of a limited Government they’ve made?  One that let’s US decide?  Or will they turn out to be the Big Government, the get-along-to-go-along types that have no moorings?

Will they let US decide for ourselves?  Or will they force Government down our throats all the while beaming “Look at us – we DID something!”?

Will they figure out that they’re advancing the Democrat agenda of having Government decide it all?  That this is just one more step on that slippery slope?

Or will we find out that the NH GOP elected officials have no limiting philosophy at all?  The results of “bipartisanship” – sure thing.

(H/T: Concord Monitor)

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