It is appropriate to post this Op-Ed as the NH House of Representatives starts its business.

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While cleaning my garage of junk recently so I could get my car in out of the season’s first snow, my mind was wandering and I started to think about the term “moderate Republican” and what it might mean.

My first thought was that it might be a Republican who was temperamentally willing to reach across the aisle, as they say, to others with diametrically opposed political beliefs to reach a compromise on important issues to get some legislation passed.  Anything, as long as it passed with some bipartisan support.

Then, I thought of the term that a legislator must “go along to get along.”  I have always heard that is one of the first things new legislators must learn.

So, I took a deep breath and with the renewed oxygen in my brain I started really thinking about this issue.  What does it really mean?

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That’s been a big complaint stemming from the time that the Reps held all three branches – they still acted like they were in the minority.  Too scared to stand up and man up to the Principles they gave campaign lip service to – and they wondered why they were kicked to the curb in 2008?  No one trusted them.  It has taken them 8 long years to regain some of it back.  Notice I said “some” – I think much of why they now hold Congress and the Oval Office (well, the later in two weeks) is not the Rs themselves but an unwillingness to let Hildebeast carry on a third Obama term.  But I digress.

So the VERY first thing that they wanted to do was to get rid of the Office of Congressional Ethics?  Yeah, that’s really being “laser focused” on the real problems at hand as this newest Congress gets started.  Sorry, it just showed me that they Haven’t. Learned. A. Dang. Thing.  Business as usual and watching their own backsides. The reasons why they got put there in the first place?

Second place.  Or third.  Or “anything but”.  And then you know what happened that made me think – instead of the Rs keeping Trump in line, it may well be that the best thing that has ever happened to the DC Republicans is Trump:

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Since Obamacare was passed, the Republicans have said “REPEAL!”.  I’ve been waiting for this to happen for real quite some time , again to see if actions would finally match the political rhetoric:

Senate Budget Committee Chair Michael Enzi (R-WY) introduced a budget resolution Tuesday that includes “reconciliation instructions” that enable Congress to repeal Obamacare with a simple Senate majority. Passing a budget resolution that includes those instructions will mean that the legislation can pass through the budget reconciliation process, in which bills cannot be filibustered.

That means Republicans will only need 50 of their 52 members in the Senate, and a bare majority in the House, to pass legislation repealing the Affordable Care Act. According to the Wall Street Journal, the budget resolution could be passed by both houses as early as next week.

To be clear, passing the budget resolutions does not itself repeal Obamacare. But it’s the necessary first step if Republicans are to do that this year, and unless three or more Republican senators defect (or 24 House members do), it’ll be smooth sailing for the repeal effort from there on out.

Live by the sword, die by it.  I just hope that the Rs don’t lose

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On Tuesday, NPR posted a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in which the association cries out over the “gun violence crisis.” They claim that 30,000 gun deaths (over 20,000 which are suicides) is somehow a “crisis” in a country of over 300 million people. They are falsely claiming that all gun deaths are due to violence, as do all gun control pushers. Of course, JAMA doesn’t put a true health crisis on their little chart – medical malpractice.

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Maggie Hassan was paid back to the tune of millions by gun control organizations during the senate election as long as she voted AGAINST the wishes of Granite Staters while she was governor. Clearly, getting money far the senate race was for more important to Hassan than ending decades of abuse of her own constituents.

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(H/T: Animal House, Kevin Bacon)

“The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.” – President Obama, Inauguration (2009)

Apparently, Obama is going to make like George Washington and make his “farewell” speech (sigh….if only).  I do wonder if he’ll mention these two specific things rather than his logic-twisting, alternative-reality pronouncements that he’s been making lately (e.g., how FORTUNATE we’ve been to have him as President).  After all, if he says it seems to be that he thinks it becomes real – you know, like God speaking something into existence:

Medicare?: “The Medicare Actuary says that taxpayers now face a Medicare unfunded liability ranging from $27.9 to $36.8 trillion.”

The VA?: “One year after outrage about long waiting lists for health care shook the Department of Veterans Affairs, the agency is facing a new crisis: The number of veterans on waiting lists of one month or more is now 50 percent higher than it was during the height of last year’s problems, department officials say.”

Let’s take the latter one first as this has been totally under his control and it has only gone from worse to abysmal.  

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This is the year that Republicans in both Concord and DC have absolutely are out of excuses to get things that the base has been demanding for years.  The excuses started after the Democrats won the House, Senate, and the Corner office(s) – we can’t get anything done as we don’t have a majority!  Safe to to say, they didn’t go into much detail as to WHY they lost – they had everything before and didn’t get it done then.

They said – things will be different if we get the House.  So, we gave them the House.  Then the whining started in on “what do you expect from us – we only have 1/2 of 1/3 of Government.  We need the Senate, too”.  So we did – and the whining didn’t stop even then: “that Obama, he keeps blocking everything we try to do….Waaaaaa” (but in the meantime, they gave Obama all the funding for all the stuff they campaigned against).  GIVE US THE OVAL OFFICE (and here in Concord, the Governorship, even as the turncoat Republicans GAVE Maggie “The Red” Hassan the Obamacare Medicaid Expansion she and other Dems wanted (and not just a few Republicans, too).

So now both sets of Rs have a complete run of the three branches twice over.  There can be no more excuses.  Right?  Am I right?

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Put down your safety pins ladies and pick up some knitting needles.

The Pussyhat Project was started by two Los Angeles women who published designs for the hat online. The movement spread and now thousands are getting together to knit the hats to distribute at the marches.

You are meant to wear one in protest of Trumps’ inauguration. A sea of pink pussyhats. That’s the goal. And this is a good thing. We’ll know who all the hypocrites are so you can ask them…

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The Jerusalem Post has a great article on what it views as the machinations of Obama against Isreal, through the U.N. You should read the whole thing, but I wanted to share this tiny bit because it contrasts nicely against the murky silhouette of Nobel Peace Prize Obama. (Formatting changes, mine)

UN Security Council Resolution 2334 was the first prong of outgoing President Barack Obama’s lame duck campaign against Israel. US Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech on Wednesday was the second.

On January 15, stage 3 will commence in Paris. At France’s lame duck President François Hollande’s international conference, the foreign ministers of some 50 states are expected to adopt as their own Kerry’s anti-Israel principles.

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LSR 2017-0950 from State Senator Bette Lasky requests “a general fund appropriation for continued project development for the capital rail corridor.” She wants money for another rail study. We’ve had more of those than I care to count.

But Lasky represents Nashua, and Nashua wants someone to pay for another rail study. And Lasky is a Democrat. And Democrats loves them some commuter rail, mostly, I think, for the money they lose and the tax hikes they require. Or maybe Bette is hoping her spur is named the Lasky line, which would make sense. Her mere presence is an opportunity to waste tax dollars just like commuter rail.

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The entire purpose of Government is providing services to its citizens.  We can quibble or argue over what services and in what quantity but they must be paid for. It is becoming increasingly clear that services must be paid for in the now but that past services are ALSO being paid for now and in the future.  Which as many towns, cities and States are coming to grips that those past services are very expensive indeed.  Especially out in California, services for the present are being drastically in many places due to the high price, via pensions, of those past services.

And now Nashua is feeling the price of former politicians giving too much to former government employees as they are seeing the cost of kicking that can down the road – only a snippet from the Telegraph (pay wall):

NASHUA – With the city facing a likely budget crunch in fiscal 2017-18, caused in large part by increasing pension costs, lifting the spending cap is seen as an unlikely way out of trouble.

The city’s spending cap can be lifted with a vote of 10 of the 15 members of the Board of Aldermen. That figure is out of reach given the current makeup of the board, said Brian McCarthy, president of the board…

Back to California, from Reason.com:

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