In New Hampshire, Only the Illusion of GOP Control of State Government - Granite Grok

In New Hampshire, Only the Illusion of GOP Control of State Government

GOP Marionette

By Ed Mosca

On paper, the GOP controls every branch of State government in New Hampshire except the judiciary. But the reality is that in the aggregate the State has moved leftward despite nominal GOP control of the political branches.

I discussed how Governor Sununu has moved the State leftward in this post, but there is plenty of blame (or if you like the idea of New Hampshire moving leftward – credit) to go around.

Earlier this week, the House passed a bill to create a new entitlement – paid family leave.

Private employers are required to pay .67 percent of the wages of participating employees into a fund maintained by the State.  Employees can opt out of and back into the program on an annual basis.  Once an employee has paid in for six months, he or she is eligible for six weeks of leave.  See the free-rider problem?

An employee can plan a knee replacement surgery for July of the following year and opt into the program in January, which entitles him to six weeks of paid leave following the surgery. But he will have only paid .67 percent (.0067) of his wages or not even a day’s worth of wages by that point. So who is going to make up the difference? Look in the mirror, Mr. or Ms. Taxpayer.

The House also voted to ban “conversion therapy” for anyone under eighteen years of age. I initially thought the House was banning procedures such as electroshock therapy, but I looked at the bill and discovered that conversion therapy “means any practices or treatments that seek to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” In other words, the House has banned a category of speech with which it disagrees based on the rationale that such speech is so harmful that parents do not have the right to decide whether their children should hear it.

I would not send my children to “conversion therapy.” But who am I to dictate to other parents how to raise their children when we go beyond proscribing procedures such as electroshock therapy and into the realm of holding a different moral viewpoint?

 

Image not in original – Originally Posted at Ed Mosca.com

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