February 2009 Archives

“The States should be left to do whatever they can do as well as the federal government”

—Thomas Jefferson

The House returns from its winter break this week to an extremely busy legislative schedule. I hope that you all enjoyed your time away from the State House and are ready to face a heavy calendar during the House Session on March 4th. In fact the speaker has also requested that we also set aside Thursday, March 5th in case we are unable to act on all early bills. It would be necessary to return the following day because of the deadline to act on early bills. The House will also meet the following Wednesday, March 11th.

There are a number of bills coming before us this week that Republican leadership would like to call your attention to, including the first gambling bills to come to the floor of the House this session.

HB-461-FN-A would establish a state-owned casino to provide funds for public education. It came out of the Local and Regulated Revenues committee with a recommendation of ITL (15-4). This bill proposes to establish two state-owned casinos at least 100 miles apart. However, both the majority of the committee and the sponsor of the bill have admitted that this legislation is not ready for passage at this point in time.

HB 593-FN-A, authorizing the licensing and construction of destination resorts with gaming facilities including table gaming and video lottery machines, was also voted ITL (12-8) in committee. It would also authorize gaming facilities at existing pari-mutuel licensees, including table gaming and video machines. There will be some movement on the floor to overtun the ITL and retain this bill in order to further study the issue, especially the economic benefits versus any social impact. By doing this, those in favor of retaining the bill believe that the House would maintain a vehicle through which to recommend the implementation of any future findings.

In his Inaugural Address earlier this year, Governor Lynch warned that the state’s financial difficulties could not be solved by “a mythical pot of gold at the end of a magical rainbow.”

“I remain skeptical of expanded gambling and how it will affect New Hampshire’s quality of life. I urge you to give careful and deep thought to any such proposal, and the long-range impacts it may have on New Hampshire.”

—Gov. John Lynch
Budget Address

Passionate arguments can be made on both sides of this issue. There are those who feel that the revenue projections are unreasonably high and that there is no real correlation between a state having casinos and maintaining a low tax burden. At the same time, the minority of the committee feels that, despite hearing hours of testimony, it has not spent enough time scrutinizing the “salient points and implications” of this legislation. It is a topic that we, no doubt, will discuss fuirther at our Republican Caucus.

There have been a number of op-ed pieces published recently, both pro and con, and I urge you to carefully read and study the issue. Once such op-ed piece, crafted by Rep. David Hess, the Deputy Republican Leader and a member of the Local and Regulated Revenues committee, can be found on the home page of our website (www.nhhousegop.com). We will continue to carefully study any gambling solutions that are presented as a solution to our fiscal crisis in the State of New Hampshire.

The Environment and Agriculture committee has voted ITL on a bill dealing once again with the recurring industrial hemp issue. The majority of the committee had several reasons to oppose this bill. There is no law today in New Hampshire that prohibits a farmer from growing hemp, it is a federal prohibition. Secondly, the bill creates yet another dedicated fund. We ask you to SUPPORT the majority committee report of ITL on HB 399 FN-A. Our policy leader on Environment, Rep. Bob Haefner, suggested that while the goal is to send Washington a message, this might be better served through a resolution; he is right—this is a bad bill with long lasting social and fiscal implications.


Rep. John Reagan wrote an excellent blurb on HB 590, regarding the retirement age for Group II members of the New Hampshire Retirement System. We ask you to SUPPORT the bipartisan majority report of OTP on the bill, as it was one of the retirement reforms the House voted to pass last year but then later acquiesced to the Senate during the committee of conference. This bill will save the state dollars and help to rein in a still troubled retirement system. During our Republican Caucus on Tuesday afternoon (3:30PM) in Representatives Hall, we will have a briefing on the Retirement System and the many bills dealing with this subject that have come to the Executive Departments and Administrative committee this session. I urge you to attend, unless you are tied up with committee work. It will be a good opportunity for us all to have our questions answered with regard to the New Hampshire Retirement System.


Two Judiciary bills on PART I of the calendar will cost the state millions of dollars. HB 344 FN establishes new superior court justice positions at a time when there is a hiring freeze across state government and in fact, at the same time the governor is recommending closing several courts across the state in a cost saving measure. This legislation is going to cost the state three quarters of a million dollars in this biennium alone and should be dealt with in one place— the budget. We will OPPOSE the majority report of OTP and I ask you to join us.

Similarly, HB 682 is going to increase the amount of daily fees paid to bailiffs after we just did this during the 2008 session. The fiscal note on this bill is also troubling because it will cost the state many millions in implementation—and we simply just don’t have the money. We will ask you to OPPOSE the majority report of OTP on this bill as well.

Rep. Bob Rowe, our policy leader in Judiciary has also asked that we oppose the committee report of OTP on HB 281-FN, which increaseses the maximum amount of debt or damages for small claims actions and requires mediation for small claims actions exceeding $5,000. Doubling the small claims limits will result in judgments that will create a burden on lower income citizens and the elderly—those among us who can least afford it.

Tonight, President Obama gave his first speech to a joint session of Congress. The President reiterated many of the talking points he has given the American people the past few weeks about the recently passed stimulus bill and what we must do to get our economy back on track.

The Republican Response was just offered by Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, a rising star in our Party. If you did not get an opportunity to see Governor Jindal tonight after the President's speech, click here now to watch it.

Governor Jindal makes some excellent points:

• To solve our current economic problems, Washington must lead -- but the way to lead is not raising taxes and putting more money in the hands of Washington, D.C. politicians. The way to lead is to empower the American people -- the strength of America is not found in Washington, but in the enterprising spirit of our citizens.
• Democrat leaders say their legislation will grow the economy. What it really does is grow the government, increase your taxes down the line and saddle your children and grandchildren with debt.
• To strengthen our economy, Republicans believe we must keep energy prices down, improve education, and promote confidence in America by ensuring we have the most ethical and transparent system in the world.

Let me make this clear upfront: The Republican Party stands ready to work together in a bipartisan manner with the Democrat leaders in Congress and the President to open new markets to American exporters, create more jobs at home and grow the economy.

But we will not march lock-step with the President and Democrats when they are wrong. The recently passed "stimulus" bill was one such example. Republicans were unified in our disagreement with Congressional Democrat leaders and President Obama on this bill. It comes down to this: The Democrat plan focused on putting Americans on the public dole, while the Republican plan focused on putting America back to work.

Skip, the RNC needs your help to elect more Republicans like Governor Jindal in the 2009 state and 2010 congressional elections who will stand up to the Democrats when they are wrong -- and who are committed to our values of fiscal discipline, shrinking the size of government, personal responsibility and national strength.

Please make a secure online contribution of $2,000, $1,000, $500, $100, $50 or $25 today to support the RNC's party-building and candidate recruitment programs. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Michael Steele
Chairman, Republican National Committee

I certainly hope that you are enjoying the legislative break week and are getting the opportunity to rest up for what should be a very hectic final few months of this session.

Now that we have had the opportunity to more closely scrutinize the governor’s budget proposal it is becoming more and more clear that, indeed, the “devil is in the details.” As Rep. Neal Kurk, our Policy Leader on Finance has pointed out, the governor’s budget is neither balanced by traditional standards nor is it sustainable into the future. Despite this, it is still our intention to work closely with the governor and Democrats in the legislature to arrive at a budget that is truly balanced.

When you take a closer look at his numbers, it is also clear that through a fiscal shell-game, the governor is attempting to balance the budget on the backs of our cities and towns, which ultimately will affect every taxpayer in this state.

Thanks to the hard work of Rep. Norm Major, our Policy Leader on Ways and Means, we have published within this report some of the governor’s proposed budget initiative highlights. A full report is available in our office for those of you who could not make it to our most recent Republican caucus.


The governor has proposed tax and fee increases of $126M for the General Fund and an additional $32.8M for the Highway Fund. He has proposed to increase our Rooms and Meals Tax by nearly 10%, from 8% to 8.75%, which he anticipates will bring in an additional $40M. He has proposed to raise the tobacco tax by another $.35 and expects to realize an additional $70M in revenue as a result. On April 1, the federal government will also raise the tobacco tax by an additional $.61. He has also proposed a 10% tax on gambling winnings over $600, which is expected to raise $16M.

The highway fund expects an additional $32M in revenue through a $10 increase in the fee to register a vehicle and changes to the E-Z Pass system.

From TheNextRight:

This should help you evaluate the rhetoric you hear from Republicans as they dicker over the future of the Republican Party.

   1.  [BAD] Bargaining: "If you return us to power, we'll stop the Democrats!  And

behave better!"

   2.  [INADEQUATE] Apology: "We've learned our lesson"; "We lost our way.";

"We need to return toprinciples."; You can tell we've learned because we're voting against Democrats!"

   3.  [GOOD] Repentance: "I was wrong to [fill in the blank with specific votes,

decisions and opinions],because[fill in blank with specific reason] and I pledge not to do that again."

   4.  [BETTER] Acceptance: "You have absolutely no reason, none, to trust our

word or our actions at this point." -RNC Chairman Michael Steele, acknowledging the Republican Party's failures, lack of credibility and responsibility for same.

   5. [BEST] Reform: "We abused the power we were given, and we should not be

trusted with the majority again until we have taken steps to reform ourselves.  To that end, we are unilaterally adopting transparency, ethics and procedural rules for the Congressional Republican Caucuses.  What's more, the RNC, NRSC and NRCC are adopting strict accounting rules to protect donations and expenditures, and strict communications accountability rules, including disclosure of evidence for independent review and verification, that will ensure the integrity and accuracy of any message we communicate to the public.  We hope the Democrats will join us in these reforms, but we will not wait for them to act before we get our own house in order."

If Republicans still believe in Trust, but Verify, then rebuilding the Republican Party does not begin until Republicans make real progress on step #5

While speaking to elected Republicans at the Federal level, it probably is good at any level.

CONCORD -- Former New Hampshire Governor and Republican State Committee Chairman John H. Sununu released the following statement on Governor John Lynch’s budget proposal:
 
“It is always difficult to comment on a complex budget without having time to examine all the details. However, some aspects of Governor Lynch's budget are readily apparent, and can be addressed after a first review.
 
The Governor is to be commended for applying fiscal discipline to the spending side of the budget. He made some of the hard decisions required at this time.
 
However, there are serious issues on the revenue side, even beyond concern over his increases in taxes, tolls and fees. Tapping the long standing malpractice fund for $110 million over three years is very questionable, as is covering school building aid by $83 million of bonds. Serious problems are created for future budgets by counting on a one-time federal bailout program to make up for short changing the cities and towns of $167 million due to them from rooms and meals taxes and direct aid. And the additional $230 million in one-time federal stimulus money also included on the state revenue side is a serious concern for future budgets. These one-time patches on the revenue side completely undermine the integrity of the fiscal system of the State of New Hampshire.
 
But of course the Governor's biggest problem will come when his budget works its way through the legislature. Historically the House and Senate Democrats have spent more than the Governor has proposed. The critical question for this budget will be whether Governor Lynch will be willing and able to get the Democratic legislature to send him back a responsible fiscal package.”

From TechRepublican:

Yesterday my fellow blogger here at techRepublican, Nathan Martin, wrote about 5 Web 2.0 applications that conservatives need. Great Article by Nathan and if you are not using those I would highly recommend doing so.

This got me thinking about applications that are currently out there that have changed the way I work and that you may have never heard about it. So below are my Web 2.0 Applications that you have never heard about - but should be using.

BaseCampHQ
Industry leading web project tool allows you to move every piece of your organization/campaign online. You can collaborate with your team in one central location. It is a paid service with a trial offer. If you commit to using this it will transform your groups organization.

Ping.Fm
One of the biggest drawbacks to using Social Media is updating each and every website with a ‘status’ or ‘blog entry.’ With this service you can update everything from one place. They support just about every social media network you can imagine and allow you to post a status, micro-blog, or blog entry from any medium (cell phone, web, IM, SMS).

Vimeo
Everyone knows about YouTube, but very little know about Vimeo. It is essentially the same platform but without all of the garbage that YouTube has. Plus – the video quality is extremely better then YouTube. If you truly want to push the envelope of new media through online videos then you need to check out Vimeo.

Ustream.Tv
Online streaming video is becoming more and more popular as time goes on and Ustream.tv makes it easy for you to stream “fill in activity” anywhere for free. All you need is a camera and internet connection and you are ready to go. The RNC used their service to broadcast the recent TechSummit for those not able to attend in Washington D.C. and campaigns across the country are using it to bring unprecedented access to their candidates and their cause.

Yammer
Yammer is Twitter for your organization or campaign. It is completely private and basically allows your campaign or company to share thoughts, links, and information. Its completely secure and only those with a valid email address for your group or campaign can register. The real benefit Yammer has is that like Twitter, it encourages people to post updates because they're informal and small. So its a great way for a campaign to keep everyone more up to date, whereas with email they hold off to more formally construct communications.

I would be interested to hear what you are using for your group or campaign that is not a mainsream Web 2.0 Application.  

From TechRepublican:

Someone in my local party approached me and asked matter of factly, what do I need to keep in touch with social networking without getting overwhelmed? I thought about this and thought that while some of us just do everything, what are the top five platforms that conservatives can't go without?

1. Facebook.com

A good platform for groups, causes, and friends. It is also broad in the use by members, unlike MySpace, and doesn't attract nearly as many "spammers."

2. Twitter.com

Even IF you never want to tweet, the ability to follow major players in the conservative world AND actually coorespond with many of them is outstanding. In fact, put that together with the outstanding links and research by some groups like #tcot or #techgop and it is a social networking package combined with news and research.

3. YRNetwork.com

Ok, even if you are not a Young Republican, you need to at least take a look at what Moshe Starkman has done on his own with his own money. Great platform, constant updates, and the functionality of connecting with YRs nationwide is indespensible.

4. Flickr.com

A really great service for photo sharing. Whether through your website, or through social networking, an indespensible service that provides easy use and sharing of photos that are important to you as well as seeing photos of friends or random people on flickr as well.

5. StumbleUpon.com

So, you come upon a conservative website that you love, what do you do? You click a thumbs up button that you have downloaded on your toolbar, and now your friends and like minded strangers have the ability to stumble on that site you selected. I know that there are other services out their that do similar things. Delicious.com, Digg, and technorarti, being among them, my favorite is SU. However, you need at least one of these to make a difference! 

After several weeks of speculation, we finally had the opportunity to see what Governor Lynch would bring forth in his budget address and, quite frankly, there are still many questions still to be answered. The people of NH elected Gov. Lynch by an overwhelming majority and he will have to answer to them for the many cuts, tax increases, and job losses that he has proposed.

As we have been saying all along, we as Republicans are ready to work hand-in-hand with the governor and the Democrats in the legislature to craft a budget, but we do have a number of concerns that need to be addressed. The one thing that the business community has been telling us is, “please don’t hit us again with more taxes and mandates—don’t put additional burdens on NH business.” And yet, through his proposed increase in the Rooms and Meals tax, the tobacco tax and increased tolls, he is trying once again to balance the budget on the backs of our business community.

In his budget, Gov. Lynch has also added to the growing tax burden facing the people of this state — $126M into the General Fund and $32.8M into the highway fund over the next two years. How much longer can we balance the state budget on the backs of the people who can afford it the least?

I believe that while some of his proposals are taking us in the right direction, questions remain as to how quickly we can accomplish some of the consolidation that he has proposed. Exactly when will we realize the savings? The budget crisis is now....not five years from now. If the governor is going to flat-fund cities and towns, that means cutting $123M in other places. What does that do to the local property taxes? It sounds like he is buying off the school districts while clobbering the municipal, town and city budgets.

We are already beginning to work on the governor’s figures and proposals and, where necessary, we will be ready to bring forth our own suggestions. I have instructed our Republicans on Finance, led by Policy Leader Neal Kurk and Committee Whip, Doug Scamman—who have many years of budgetary experience—to come up with some ideas that we can incorporate into our own Republican budget. We can no longer be the party of “no,” we need to be ready to offer solutions to problems where the Democrats have failed.

As President Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, said last November, "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

It didn't take long for the liberal Democrats to put that political strategy into play.

They have taken advantage of our nation's present economic woes to ram through Congress the biggest spending bill in American history.

President Obama, who talked so much about a new era of bipartisanship and cooperation on the campaign trail, didn't take long to throw that rhetoric out the window to support Nancy Pelosi's liberal spending spree.

Our economy is in trouble. We all agree on that.

President Obama says that it is only the federal government that can give our economy a boost.

But even if you believe that silly premise--only 15% of the massive spending increases in the Obama/Pelosi spending spree will take place in 2009. The remaining taxpayer dollars they plan to spend pay out over the next ten years!

A budget watchdog group calls this bill a "lobbyist full-employment act." And one Washington lobbyist called the special interest frenzy surrounding this bill "the Super Bowl."

And at the heart of it all is the liberal Democrats' goal of the permanent expansion of the federal government's power and the redistribution of wealth.

• $160 million to pay "volunteers" at the Corporation for National and Community Service.
• $45 million dollars for the removal of fish passage barriers.
• $248 million to buy furniture for the Department of Homeland Security.

Make no mistake, the Democrats' so-called "stimulus" bill does a lot more to expand government than it does to give America's ailing economy a much needed boost.

I ran for the job of RNC Chairman to lead our Party forward with its core principles as a guide: shrinking the size of government and creating private sector jobs that won't go away as soon as taxpayer money runs out.

The Republican Party must vigorously champion these rock-solid cornerstones of the American success story.

This is our opportunity to stand strong, and let the American people know that we Republicans won't be a part of the Democrats' tax-and-spend schemes. And we won't cave to disastrous policies just for the sake of "bipartisanship."

But we can't do it without the steadfast support of Republicans like you.

Only you and I and other grassroots Republican activists stand between the Democrats and an unprecedented power grab -- please stand with me and let the Democrats know we will hold them accountable for their actions.

Sincerely,

Michael Steele
Chairman, Republican National Committee

Date:              February 12, 2009
Contact:         Ryan Williams, Communications Director, New Hampshire Republican Party
                     603-225-9341 office

CONCORD -- Today, former New Hampshire Governor and Republican State Committee Chairman John H. Sununu released the following statement on Governor John Lynch’s budget proposal:

“It is always difficult to comment on a complex budget without having time to examine all the details. However, some aspects of Governor Lynch's budget are readily apparent, and can be addressed after a first review.

The Governor is to be commended for applying fiscal discipline to the spending side of the budget. He made some of the hard decisions required at this time.

However, there are serious issues on the revenue side, even beyond concern over his increases in taxes, tolls and fees. Tapping the long standing malpractice fund for $110 million over three years is very questionable, as is covering school building aid by $83 million of bonds. Serious problems are created for future budgets by counting on a one-time federal bailout program to make up for short changing the cities and towns of $167 million due to them from rooms and meals taxes and direct aid. And the additional $230 million in one-time federal stimulus money also included on the state revenue side is a serious concern for future budgets. These one-time patches on the revenue side completely undermine the integrity of the fiscal system of the State of New Hampshire.

But of course the Governor's biggest problem will come when his budget works its way through the legislature. Historically the House and Senate Democrats have spent more than the Governor has proposed. The critical question for this budget will be whether Governor Lynch will be willing and able to get the Democratic legislature to send him back a responsible fiscal package.”

Michael Hamilton
Executive Director
New Hampshire Republican Party
10 Water Street, Concord, NH  03301
603-296-5116 (c)
603-225-9341 (o)
mike@nhgop.org

Date:              January 12, 2009
Contact:          Ryan Williams, Communications Director, New Hampshire Republican Party
                      603-225-9341 office


CONCORD -- Today, former New Hampshire Governor and Republican State Committee Chairman John H. Sununu released the following statement on Senator Judd Gregg withdrawing his name from consideration for Secretary of Commerce:

“Senator Gregg made it clear in his statement and his conference call why he felt he should withdraw his name from consideration for Secretary of Commerce, and his decision confirms that he is a man of principle and commitment. I wish him and Kathy nothing but the best in the future.”

Michael Hamilton
Executive Director
New Hampshire Republican Party
10 Water Street, Concord, NH  03301
603-296-5116 (c)
603-225-9341 (o)
mike@nhgop.org

On the heels of President Obama's national press conference last evening, I had my first face off with DNC Chair Gov. Tim Kaine. The battle is joined. As you all know, the Republican Party is unified in our opposition to the Democrat spending spree that is being jammed through Congress today. We have 219 Republican congressmen and senators, and 216 of them voted against this Democrat plan.

Please click on the image below to watch my face off with Gov. Kaine.

Date:        2/11/09 (Wednesday)

Time:       5:30pm   Buffet Dinner ($14)
                6:30pm   Meeting

Place:      Shanghai Restaurant
                331 South Main Street
                Laconia, NH
                (603) 524-4100
                (see map below)

Agenda:
   

• Phyllis Woods, NH National Committee Woman, will be speaking about the recent national GOP meeting and meeting the new GOP Chair, Michael Steele.

• Robert Bestanii (Republican State Committee, Chair of the Rockingham County Republican Finance Committee) will also be speaking to us.

Robert Bestani is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Collaboratory for Research on Global Projects at Stanford University.

As a resident of Newmarket, NH he is the Chairman of both the Municipal Audit and Energy Committees and serves as a member of the Municipal Budget Committees. He is also a member of the Republican State Committee and Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Rockingham County Republican Committee

Until May of 2008, Bob served as the Director General of Private Sector Finance at the Asian Development Bank, a multilateral bank dedicated to alleviating poverty in Asia. In the six years in which he served in that capacity, ADB's private sector financings and earnings grew by over 40 times their 2001 levels, while portfolio quality and earnings steadily improved. Working closely with most of the countries of Asia, the Private Sector Department grew from the smallest of ADB's departments to the largest and most successful operating unit of the ADB. In March of 2008 the Bank’s Board adopted private sector financings as the leading priority of the ADB for the years ahead.
                                 
Prior to joining the ADB Bob was a Managing Director and Senior Consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP. For most of his career, he has been in International Banking and Corporate Finance, working at Citibank, Texaco, Bank of America, and Duke Energy.  Bob has long covered the High Tech, Petroleum/Oil & Gas and Power Industries.
                                        
Bob also served in the U.S. Department of the Treasury during the first Bush Administration (GHWB 1989-1992).  His principal responsibilities included: the G-7 negotiations and the Paris and Houston Presidential Summit Meetings, several international trade and financial services negotiations, US-IMF policy coordination, the management of America's $40 billion foreign currency reserve position, policy coordination with Federal Reserve, etc.

He has authored numerous articles on finance, energy and the economic development and has been a featured speaker at over fifty international conferences. Both as an independent consultant and as a senior officer of the ADB he has served as a consultant to numerous Asian governments and multilateral institutions. Since 1991 he has been a member of the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations.

Bob holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago (where he serves as member of the Global Advisory Board) and a BA in Economics and Computer Science from Rutgers University.

Map to the Shang-hai restaurant:
    (map)

One would think that in a time of emergency the U.S House of Representatives would do the right thing and craft a stimulus package that puts America first. Instead, it has created one of the most pork laden packages that has ever been voted on in the name of the American people. This comes even after they insisted on $165 billion in earmarked pork before they would approve the TARP bill. In so doing, the Democratic members of the House have demonstrated exactly why Congress has one of the lowest approval ratings of any institution in the country, a mere 9%.

The current financial crisis is real, it is global, it is serious and it is growing. Lower interest rates, the traditional instrument of economic stimulus (monetary policy), tends to take a year and a half to kick in. Yet day by day, the economic crisis is growing and is digging deeper wounds into Main Street. We tend to think about this panic as a financial crisis but the Main Street economy is already in worse shape than the financial markets. Congress is correct in now looking at spending measures and tax cuts (fiscal policy) to aid in the recovery effort. It must be bold and it must be quick about it.

But the cure can’t be worse than the sickness. It must be remembered that with the budget deficit projected to exceed $1.2 trillion, on top of the $10 trillion in debt America is now carrying, every dollar spent is a dollar we must borrow from abroad. If we frivolously spend borrowed money with no assurance of getting it back, we are digging our children into debt that they and their children will have to pay back in the future. What spending we undertake now, must be spending that will pay back dividends to our country and automatically repay the debt we take on. It must be invested in America.

Honey bee insurance subsidies totaling $150 million will not do this; neither will tens of millions for anti-smoking programs, ATV trails, fish passage boundaries, cars for government bureaucrats, remodeling the Commerce Department or numerous other earmarks. In the words of a fiscally conservative Democrat who voted against the House bill, the old bulls of the House are dumping in all of the pork they been waiting years to get passed. So the White House and the Senate are now rushing to save the stimulus package, to bring back a bit of reason into the effort. With any luck, the new version will save the government from the embarrassment that the House has laid at their doorsteps.

As far as experts go, economists are an argumentative bunch that seldom agree on most things. But one thing they do agree upon is that infrastructure spending has the biggest bang for the buck. Infrastructure spending will provide real “nutrition” to the economy, not the “sugar high” of most of the goodies in the House bill. The American Society of Civil Engineers have recently given America’s infrastructure a grade of “D” and have estimated that $1.6 trillion will be needed to restore us to the infrastructure we used to take pride in. The more that is spent on this sector the better. The House bill has less than 6% for infrastructure.

The argument is that such projects are not “shovel ready” and will take time to implement. But few Americans will argue with the notion that substantial maintenance on our roads, bridges, power grids, etc. must be undertaken now. Dangerous bridges and roads riddled with potholes and inadequate surfacing should be fixed to prevent accidents. Schools with roofs past their reasonable life should be replaced to protect our children. A stitch in time saves nine, as the saying goes.

Here in New Hampshire, for example, the Department of Transportation has a Red List of 77 bridges most in need of repair. The projected cost, according to DOT, would be $403 million. The DOT estimates that there are resurfacing needs on highways that would cost $58.7 million. Without Federal funds, Concord does not have the money to undertake many of these projects for several years and some would not be funded at all. This is the kind of spending which the Federal stimulus package should be used for: spending which provides immediate job creation and insures the safety of our citizens. Such spending will strengthen New Hampshire and America today and into the future.

Obama was voted into office on the pledge of changing Washington. Two weeks into his Administration a major test is before him already. For the sake of the country, let’s hope he passes.


Mr. Bestanii is a member of the NH Republican State Committee and the Chair of the Rockingham County Republican Finance Committee