This week we tackle regional planning, starting with some very revealing audio that tells us exactly what to expect if we just sign on to a Granite State Future or anything like it.

Guest Lenette Peterson (NH House Rep Hills-21 Merrimack) drops in to talk RPC’s, top down planning, federal strings, personal responsibility, and then about three bill’s she has sponsored in the NH House this session; on Religious liberty, Gun rights, and vulnerable users (see also people run down by Democrat State Senators.

Josh Youseff joins us for the second hour to explore the issue of finding good Conservaitve candidates, the issues with running for office, the various splits in the Republican Party, getting trashed by people you thought were on your side, and how creeping progressivism (is) has polluted the GOP.  All that, guns, laughs, local and national politics, culture, and more.

Listen to the Complete Podcast here (Audio 120m)

Download or listen to the full podcast here

You can help to support this program by making a donation here.

More detailed segment descriptions and links to individual segments follow.

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(emphasis mine, Ayotte’s Letter after the jump)

Senator Ayotte:

Thank you for taking time to reply.

A few questions, if I may:

1. Who shutdown the Government? The House sent over bills funding everything BUT discretionary spending on Obamacare. Senator Reid refused to bring any of them to the floor. What did you do to force a vote on anything sent over? The Democrats were not negotiating, they were bargaining in bad faith, something they have done since 2008. To me, one of your constituents, you hold responsibility for enabling them in this tactic.

2. How much of the government was actually shutdown? Reports ranged from 15% to 20% meaning that 80 to 85% was still open. Are you implying that the current size of the Federal Government can’t function on less than 100%?

3. Who’s money is it? My wife and I work hard for our paycheck, yet the current attitude in Washington is “I didn’t earn that” or “I have enough”. What gives the Government the right to decide that I have enough? It’s my money, my employer feels that I’ve earned it, why do I not get to keep more of it? This pertains directly to the debt ceiling; enough with continuing resolutions, force a budget talk. At this point in time I’d settle for a budget equal to the last budget passed by House and Senate. I have to live in a budget that gets smaller and smaller every day because you (Government) feel that you have more right to my income than I do.

4. Tying in with #3, do you honestly believe that the Federal Government cannot survive on a spending level of 95% of the last passed budget?

I will have more as I have more time to spend on your response; I need to go earn another dollar that I get to keep 50% of.

M. Remski

<redacted>

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That would be the GOP going after the TEA Party – how DARE you try to remove us from our Jr. Party seats?    The Washington Examiner has the take from a 42 year Senator that has no problem in being honest as to what he will be doing upon seeing “barbarians at his gate”.  Forty-two years – certainly long enough to have helped overseen the tremendous growth of the Welfare state.  Well, certainly long enough to have a hand on the lever of power that most TEA Partiers do not have: lots and lots of millions of dollars.  And to keep themselves in power, they are not afraid of using it (emphasis mine, reformatted):

The Republican Party of Iowa was blindsided by the Tea Party movement in the last presidential election, but party officials are already working hard to diminish the conservative movement’s influence by the time the next presidential primary rolls around in 2016, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa said.

“I think the Tea Party people in Iowa caught them off guard,” Grassley said of the state party in an interview on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers.”  Grassley said many Iowa Republicans “have been dissatisfied with the direction of the Republican Party in Iowa and are prepared to get more involved this time to counter the Tea Party influence.”

All Republicans, Mr. Grassley – or just YOUR wing of the party that are, well, feeling rather insecure?  Nice to see that “countering” the wing that has brought the energy and motivation to the Party is of more importance than “countering”, umm, those that are drifting us to a Socialist hellhole. 

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If you think the folks squawking about Granite State Future and the goals and agenda of the Regional Planners in New Hampshire is nothing but fearmongering, conspircay theory, or just tin-foil-hat-nuttery, if you ust want to sign up and take the money without any regard to the strings attached, why not listen to what a respectable guy likeWestchester County New York Commissionar Rob Astorino has to say about the program himself?

Trust me, you are going to want to hear this.

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Even a casual reader of the ‘Grok knows that we have been writing about the Civil War now raging within the NH GOP and the GOP is general; the VA Governor race has brought that to the fore.  Nice to see, on the topic of expanding Medicaid here in NH, that former NH GOP Chair and current National Committeeman Steve Duprey decided to bring the gas and the match; good to know honesty when we hear it:

…just in time to hear an influential member of the board saying (I’m paraphrasing here) what a great plan it was and the only people who would not want to accept federal money for this program are, flat earth TEA partiers, and Ted Cruz fans who don’t want to pay taxes but still want their Social Security.

Sidenote: I guess Duprey missed this (and so much for his negative categorization of TEA Party folks – actually we are more educated than the general population and more affluent – and better read.  Really, no more listening to Harrel Kirstein or Chris Matthews please.):

that is, identifying with the Tea Party correlates positively (r = 0.05, p = 0.05) with scores on the science comprehension measure

My only regret in hearing about this is that when I “ran” for Committeeman at the last election, I did it more as a stunt than as a serious campaign (although I wanted to make a point and did – that just simply coming out of the stands, I (a TEA Partier, Conservative, Constitutionalist, and Evangelical Christan – “hated” categories not just for Democrats but for Establishment Republicans as well) garnered almost a third of the vote.  I toned down the “campaign” speech to be polite – a mistake I would not make again; nice to see that an Establishmentarian holds a large percentage of his Party in such high regard.

Duprey’s words, by the way, were said before the NH GOP Executive Board when it met with NH State Senators Jeb Bradley and Chuck Morse to hear how the Senate Republicans were going to approach Medicaid Expansion.  The reaction by the E-Board to Duprey’s words, were, well, illiminating:

judging by all the grins and giggling around the table I feel pretty confident saying this was the same position held by the majority.

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Yesterday the Democrats in the New Hampshire house forced a vote on SSHB0001_i, medicaid expansion for New Hampshire.  By forced, I mean that no one was given the opportunity to read the bill they were being asked to vote on.  A bill that would tie New Hampshire tighter to the constraints of ObamaCare; a bill that would cost taxpayers millions perhaps tens of millions annually in the long run; a bill that creates dependence rather than encouraging growth and self-responsibility.

What is important about this is not so much the move to create even more dependence on the backs of New Hampshire families, though that is troubling, it is the arrogance of the left; using political force (a Democrat majority) to demand that people accept accountability for something this important without knowing the details.

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As a distraction, someone in NH Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s office has been releasing Facebook Status updates–from time to time–asking you and I to oppose what the Professional left describe as vote suppression, by Republicans.

If you are new to this game, that is code for, expecting someone to present an ID to vote.   It is unreasonable, oppressive (suppressive), to expect anyone of voting age to have some proof that they are who they claim or are a resident eligible to vote in that precinct, before they are handed a ballot.

This from the same Democrats who have been on a tear as of late screaming and yelling for more government programs at both the state and local levels.  Programs, only accessibly, to thee needy and desperate folk, with a state or government issued….ID.

Can you smell the hypocrisy?

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I AM one of the 93 million employer insured employees that Obamacare has come for now that it has all but killed off the private insurance marketplace – something that absolutely delights folks like NH Congressmen Annie Custer, Carol Shea-Porter, and NH’s US Senator Jeanne Shaheen.  They want as little capitalism left as possible: Shaheen has shown it by her disregard for citizen control by SB711 and Chief Cheerleader for Obamacare, CSP by her hucksterism for Obamacare in her town halls her first term, and Kuster’s “I’m more Progressive than everyone else” during her primary race.  For them, NH Citizens getting screwed over by Obamacare is a feature, not a bug (regardless of what they say – ALWAYS look to what their actions have been).

I work for a largish company and today, Obamacare walked up to me and smacked me.  The plan that my employer has been offering (among a small few) and that I had used for almost 15 years (with very small little changes) has been cancelled – Obamacare made it too expensive.  I now have to pick from an even smaller number of other plans but the one that I will be forced to pick that best matches my former plan will cost me 25% more,  double (more or less) my deductible, and more for drug prescriptions.  And God help me if there are no providers “in network” for me here in NH.

Don’t get me wrong – I have a job and I have coverage; I am thankful.  But

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