To the Editor:
Those protesting the new House budget in Concord last week have one thing in common, they want NH taxpayers to open their wallets for their personal benefit.
Most protesters were public employees demanding no changes to their cushy, secure, low stress, highly compensated (compared to similar private sector) jobs, nor to the corrupt system that maintains their great jobs, benefits, and consequently grows the cost of government .
The politicians want power, they use your tax money to buy support from special interest groups. The special interests protested because their spending didn’t work so well this time, and they want power back.
Even though the new budget protects the most vulnerable, protesters presented sympathy inducing people who suggest great harm from the tiny cuts in the new fiscally responsible budget. A 16 year old speaker worried about rehab cuts. Another speaker worried about possible service cuts for a person disabled in a motorcycle accident. (Note: across this country private businesses endure 10-20 percent cuts without affecting the services they provide. Only in government could a three percent budget cut impact its ability to provide essential services, it would be by Executive Branch choice.)
While I don’t expect any impact to these services, I wonder who decided these were the responsibility of NH taxpayers? Did NH Citizens consider and decide to accept financial responsibility in these situations, or did politicians decide that they could buy votes from beneficiaries and government workers from placing this burden in NH taxpayers? Who should be responsible for children‘s behavior and needs? Where were parents when the child became addicted? Shouldn’t parents fund their child’s rehab?
We all have great sympathy for the disabled, but when did NH taxpayers accept responsibility for the care of people injured engaging in high risk activities, e.g., motorcycling, skydiving, bungee jumping, high-risk mountain climbing, car racing, airplane acrobatics, or other high risk behavior? Americans believe in personal responsibility. Shouldn’t people engaging in high-risk behavior have insurance, assets or family to support themselves in case of accidents? We all wish the disabled the best possible lives, but should responsible NH taxpayers have to pay for it no matter how the disability occurred? Maybe yes, but NH Citizens should have these discussions.
There is nothing wrong with protesting for one’s own personal interest. My letter is something similar, although my hope is to protect all taxpayers from irresponsible politicians and greedy public employees. Their objective is to divert for their benefit the results of the efforts that you expended for your family’s well being.
Democrats irresponsibly increased spending nearly 24 percent in the last two budget cycles, when the government said there was nearly no inflation (e.g., no social security increases for the last two years). Democrats irresponsibly left the new legislators with about an $800 million hole in the 2012 budget.
Despite the howls of special interest groups, the new Republican House responsibly made the necessary cuts and passed a fiscally responsible budget. The budget is forward looking, maintains existing levels of aid to communities, doesn’t raise taxes or fees, doesn’t downshift costs to local property owners, protects the most vulnerable, and creates an environment fostering job creation.
There is no natural mechanism fighting uncontrolled government growth, we depend on our elected representatives to do this, and that is what the Republicans did. The Republicans who created and passed this budget deserve our support and appreciation.
Don Ewing
