One would not think the Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee would be all that exciting, and in a normal world, it wouldn’t (it’s a lot of boring insurance stuff with a sprinkling of liquor), but we don’t live in a normal world anymore.
HB1469 is leaving the Commerce Committee with a partisan 10-9 vote OTP/A. This bill will prevent discrimination by banks and other financial institutions based on various non-financial criteria: basically, social credit scores like in China.
Sadly, the passage of this bill is not as easy as it may seem. Too many representatives on both sides look for a history of abuses to which they can refer to justify taking some action. They refuse to recognize emerging threats to prevent abuses in the first place.
When examples were given of the types of discrimination taking place now, those examples were dismissed as lies or that this was just an attempt to protect Republican interests. Democrat Rep. Beaulieu even called me a liar when I said that the United States Surgeon General called for Spotify to censor Joe Rogan!
When given examples of the types of discrimination that could occur here because they are happening in China, I kept hearing, “That will never happen.” Even from the Chair of the committee!
We want to thank NH State Rep. Jeffrey Greeson (R-Grafton 16) for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you would like us to consider, please submit it to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
But if HB1469 only protects Republican interests, it is because only Republicans seem interested in protecting people’s liberties – ALL PEOPLE’S LIBERTIES.
HB-1469 protects everyone’s freedom from 21st Century threats and protects us from becoming like China. To prove that HB-1469 would protect everyone’s freedom (as a hypothetical example, mind you), HB-1469 would protect elected officials who use racial epithets from their bank, closing their accounts simply because they are racists.
HB-1582 would repeal the paid family medical leave program that was just enacted.
Did you know that you were put on the hook for this? This program got signed into law as it was attached to HB-2 at the last minute at the request of the Governor. This provision almost tanked the budget, as many Republican reps. were prepared to vote against the budget because of this provision – myself included.
For one, there was never any public hearing on this program, but secondly, it is a give-away program that will cost taxpayers millions of dollars every year. In a nutshell, it would provide paid family medical leave for all 11,000 state employees at taxpayer expense, and then it would allow private businesses to purchase a plan, taking advantage of the state rate, to provide this same benefit for their employees at the business’ expense. No business will do this because it would wind up incentivizing people not to work.
Do you want to pay for 11,000 state employees to be able to take time off with pay so they can take care of their sick dog – because you and I know that it will go there eventually?
If you don’t, I recommend you bombard the Commerce Committee with your opinion on the matter. Tell them you want HB-1582 OTP to repeal the FMLI – HouseCommerceCommittee@leg.state.nh.us.
