In essence, that’s what both Bob Guida and David Starr are saying in this report on HB183. Yet they are claiming that they are Republicans in affiliation – and holding the second-highest elected office in NH (being State Senators).
One would think, knowing they are supposed to be ‘role models’, they’d actually be supporting the NH GOP Platform instead of fully participating in Crony Capitalism – you know, using Government in a rent-seeking way so as to benefit the few at the expense of the many. In rejecting competition in the marketplace but rejoicing in competition using Government Force in gaining a profit advantage by disadvantaging their competitors via political connections.
A reminder (emphasis mine, showing Guida’s and Starr’s heresy):
- We, the people of the New Hampshire Republican Party, do stand united in our dedication to preserving freedom, limited government and unlimited opportunity for all.
- We believe that the New Hampshire and United States Constitutions were written by our forefathers to limit our government, not our freedom
- 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.
- We believe in free people, free markets and free enterprise.
- We believe that economies flourish when all people retain as much of their hard earned income as possible, to spend and invest as they see fit.
So, NH State Senators Bob Guida and David Starr, why does GraniteGrok throw these Planks into your faces and challenge you as to WHY I might be wrong? Your own words – pray tell, how do they comport with the above:
Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed a bill that would have required electric utilities to buy power from New Hampshire’s six biomass power plants.
Great news and the right thing to do. If a company can’t make a profit on its own, support itself on its own, why should taxpayers be forced to prop them up? Nobody ever wrote legislation to keep DEC going when the mini-computer market place imploded with the introduction of the PC (and no small amount of mismanagement of a multi-billion dollar corporation), nor any of the other startups I was a part of afterwards.
I guess the difference is that these teeny-weeny businesses are very politically connected. Isn’t that right, Tom “Axe the Tax (until I need that tax money)” Thomson?
The bill aimed to deliver three years of subsidies for six of the wood-burning plants. A 2018 law meant to deliver similar subsidies is bogged down with federal regulators after a petition to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from a Massachusetts-based advocacy group was created.
The group of Republican and Democratic legislators who supported the bill said they would work to override the veto.
“This is a blow to the North Country,” said Sen. David Starr, R-Franconia, of Sununu’s veto of the bill, known by its number HB 183. “We need to override the HB 183 veto,” Starr said in a statement.
Sen. Bob Giuda, R-Warren, said the veto would hurt businesses and jobs in his district.
“Our two biomass plants are critical elements in the region’s timber-based rural economy, both for direct suppliers and for the many supporting small businesses that keep them running,” he said in a statement.
In written statements, some legislators referred to out-of-state lobbyists — an apparent reference to the Massachusetts-based New England Ratepayers Association, which petitioned for federal regulators to block a biomass bill from last session and has advocated for the Northern Pass and natural gas pipelines.
“We can’t be held hostage by an out-of-state lobbying group,” said Rep. Bob Backus, D-Manchester. “If we lose biomass power plants and the homegrown power they generate, we will pay more for increased generation capacity in the future.”
First off, Backus, no, we won’t pay more – and you can’t prove that on a Megawatt level. You’re just posturing for a sound bite.
Then let we, those that have elected you, hold you “hostage“, shall we? How are you three acting any differently than a tin-pot, Third World banana Republic? Is this the doings of a LIMITED Government, Senators Guida and Starr? Is this instance of Crony Capitalism, where an industry has now colluded with politicians in order to enrich themselves? By forcing the rest of us to support a failing business model with higher electricity rates (a hidden tax) that will artificially raise our electrict bills simply to make yourselves 1) feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and 2) appear to “being doing something” at the expense of all of the rest of us including those constituents of your’s that AREN’T in that sub-sub industry. Is this truly your definition of a “free market”?
Go ahead, if this is merely an exception (gross enough in its own right), what are the other exceptions that lurk around the corners of the Government halls you inhabit? What kinds of “Crony-cides” must we bring to kill that most nasty “bug” dead?
Unless you wish to adopt the politics of the Democrats, who have NO problem in Government taking control of the economy (as we have listened to Democrat politicians over and over through the years), how IS this a “Republican” idea? How is this showing a difference, ANY difference, between how Democrats and Republican view taxpayers and their money?
It seem you both no longer have the sense to realize that OUR money is not YOUR money in order to make it SOMEBODY ELSE’S money. Because, in effect, that’s what you want us to do – provide corporate welfare to the few….
…and make the rest of us mere ATM’s for your desires. You take our economic freedoms away at the same time. You’ve swapped free enterprise (which ALSO means the freedom to go broke and fail). You’re supporting one set of providers over others – aiding and abetting the process of Government choosing winners and losers – and rejoicing in your parts therein.
Great, just freaking great.
Go ahead, here’s a chance to plead your case – submit your Op-Eds explaining why you have no problem in participating in Crony Capitalism. THESE oughta be doozies!
And how convenient that there are no Roll Calls from the NH Senate on this bill.
Cowards.
(H/T: Union Leader)