18th Century Outbreak

Last week the NH House had a marathon two-day session wherein hundreds of bills were dealt with, in a variety of ways. It’s hard to know if this was the result of poor planning or if it was deliberately done to create chaos and keep some bills from getting the attention they should. There were some interesting dances done.

On Wednesday, the first day of the 2-day session, legislators were informed they’d be working till 8 pm. One of the bills in the queue was HB 478, the bill to add gender identity to our state’s anti-discrimination laws. A large group of Republican legislators left early. When Speaker Jasper realized that he still had a quorum, but he had a Democratic majority, he shut the session down. He intended to table HB 478, and that wouldn’t have been possible without a GOP majority presence.

The next day, Rep. Packard moved to table, which squeaked through by an 8 vote margin. It seems our brave, gun-totin, GOP majority legislature was too afraid to have a fair hearing and discussion of the bill. This bill came out of committee with a recommendation of ought to pass, by a vote of 15-2. The work of that committee, the calls, letters, and emails from constituents, and the testimony by hundreds of residents were shown absolutely zero respect by the Speaker, most of the Republican majority and some Democrats. In Carroll County the only representatives who voted against the cowardly move to table were Butler, Knirk, and Crawford.  

In other bill news, HB 94 prohibited certain defenses in prostitution and human trafficking cases. The certain defense prohibited in this bill is the “I didn’t know she was underage” excuse given by johns after being arrested for buying sex from a child. The bill passed, but 86 legislators voted against it. Here in Carroll County four legislators voted to continue to allow men to use this excuse when arrested: McCarthy, Knirk, Avellani, and Comeau. Rep. Nelson was excused from voting.

In other repugnant votes, HB 499 would have required individuals to be 18 in order to marry. Current NH statute allows girls of 13 and boys of 14 to marry with the approval of a judge. Also, 13-year-old girls don’t marry 14-year-old boys. Most of those who prey on underage girls are adult men. Like the 40 year old man who married a 17-year-old girl in 2006.

The bill was recommended to pass by a unanimous committee vote, and placed on the consent calendar. Bills on the consent calendar are generally fast-tracked to be approved or killed by a voice vote. Representative David Bates removed the bill from the consent calendar. Rep. Bates (whose last bout of notoriety came from his vociferous opposition to marriage equality and his subsequent attempts to repeal marriage equality) objected to the change in the law, because, he said, “If we pass this, we will ensure forever that every child born to a minor will be born out of wedlock.” Others argued that it would block soldiers from getting married. No word on how many soldiers are enrolled in middle school.  

According to a recent Union Leader story, a judge granted a 17-year-old boy permission to marry his pregnant 13-year-old girlfriend in 2013. They claimed they wanted to get married because of their strong religious beliefs dictated babies be born to married parents. Four months later, at the age of 14, the girl filed for divorce on the grounds of infidelity and domestic abuse. Marriage, contrary to the belief system of Rep. Bates, didn’t do this girl or her baby any favors. When girl children are forced into marriage, they are more likely to drop out of school, and they are at high risk for domestic violence. They’re also on the fast track for a lifetime of poverty.

The House voted 179-168 to indefinitely postpone this bill. That means it can’t come back during the current biennium. In Carroll County, only Representatives Buco, Butler, and Nelson voted against the motion to indefinitely postpone.

To summarize:  Rather than protect a vulnerable population, the men of the GOP clung to a myth to bray about the need to protect girls and women in bathrooms. Other cherished GOP myths include: busloads of voters from Massachusetts, trickle down economics, and the NH advantage. When the majority had a chance to actually vote to protect - they chose to protect the old pervs buying sex from underage girls. When they had a chance to protect girls, they chose to ensure that girls could still be auctioned off, because domestic abuse is more palatable when it comes with the seal of holy matrimony.

When they say, “we want to take our country back,” this is what they mean – back to the 18^th century.
  

        

Published as an op-ed in the March 17, 2017 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper. 

Of course, there are always consequences....

Stuck in Reverse

The day after being elected governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu started talking about voter fraud. He’s deeply concerned about it – though not so deeply as to question the legitimacy of his own election. No, our new governor is content to mutter about the need for “reform.” He’s even called for the elimination of same day voter registration. Apparently no one has explained what that would mean to our newly elected Governor.

In 1993, the National Voter Registration Act was signed into law. It requires states governments to provide the opportunity for any eligible person who applies for a driver’s license or a renewal, or for some form of public assistance to also register to vote.  The state would be required to register applicants by mail, using federal registration forms. Private entities would be able to hold voter registration drives and register voters.

New Hampshire Republicans have always hated this idea. Registering welfare recipients to vote? Registration drives on college campuses? In poor neighborhoods? Oh, hell no! They hated the idea so much that they got out of complying with the motor voter law by having same day voter registration instead. Given a choice between the two, I am certain that they will continue to prefer same-day registration, and that someone will explain all this to Chris Sununu.

Representative David Bates (R-Windham) has adopted the cause of fauxfraud as his new mission, and has filed 13 bills and one constitutional amendment to solve the non-existent problem. Imagine if he and his fellow legislators were even half as interested in solving the very real problem of our state’s crumbling infrastructure?

In speaking about his priorities, our new governor’s top 3 were voting, guns, and union busting. Sununu would like to eliminate the requirement for licensing a concealed handgun. Current law (written by Republicans, by the way) requires one’s local chief of police issue a permit. The chief has the discretion of being able to refuse to give a license to someone he knows to be a bad tempered drunk or domestic abuser. That isn’t enough for the gun crowd, who will not be happy until there are zero gun laws in our state. In fact, some of the gun happy legislators are opposed to domestic abusers losing their guns. Fifty percent of the women murdered in this state are murdered by their abusive partners, but apparently women are easily replaceable in the eyes of the MOAR GUNZ crowd. It is interesting though, that in a state that has so few gun laws, that the governor elect considers this a priority.

Sununu also wants to sign right-to-work (for less) legislation, which we also call union busting. Less than 10% of the NH workforce is unionized, but it’s been the mission of the far right to eliminate that small percentage altogether for decades. They love to opine that it will cause businesses to relocate to NH, because RTW states are doing so well. They’re states in warm climates (no NH energy costs), states with good infrastructure in place, and states that invest in education – AND they don’t have NH property taxes. It’s really all about eliminating the perceived political influence of unions. Well, that and their deep belief that business should be able to pay workers just as badly as they want to.

Our new Gov wants to “fix” the state budget, so he’s brought in Charlie Arlinghaus of the Koch funded Josiah Bartlett Center. Arlinghaus is going to find all the “pork”. It would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. The voter fraud crowd wails about how voter affidavits aren’t investigated quickly, while failing to acknowledge that they underfund the state agency that is in charge of doing the work. Giving the Koch brothers more influence over our state government spending will ensure that not only will we continue to have the 11^th worst infrastructure in the United States; we’ll climb higher on the list.

Sununu also wants to cut business taxes, because that will “send the message that NH is open for business.” It’s uncertain who will be hearing that siren call – but if they do, they may decide that our utility costs, crumbling infrastructure, limited telecommunications options, property taxes, and failure to invest in higher education may not be what they’re looking for. One thing you can count on though, if all the business tax cuts are enacted, your property taxes will be going up. The money to run the state (even to run it as if it were going out of business) does have to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is your property. Other states have income and sales taxes. NH has you, the property owner. As businesses pay less and less of their fair share, you’ll be picking up the slack. Live free or die – and be sure to keep voting for the pledge takers.

Sununu wants to ensure that Medicaid beneficiaries work if they are able. I’m guessing that what he meant by that was the NH Health Protection Program, which is the NH version of expanded Medicaid. Most of the people who are enrolled in the NHHPP are low-wage workers – heck, some of them probably work at Waterville Valley. They already are working. The GOP is desperate to convince us that these folks are milking the system somehow to get health care benefits. Thing is – the NHHPP doesn’t pay the rent, buy the groceries, or put gas in the car. The people who make these claims either don’t understand how this works, or they don’t care, because it’s easier to get people all jacked up by lying to them. There are work requirements for food stamp recipients, by the way. You never hear about that, do you?

In this way when the legislature votes next year (and they will) to end the NHHPP, if they’ve told enough big lies, they’ll still get reelected. Even when 40,000 low-wage workers lose their health insurance.

None of this will help NH’s stagnant economy. As long as the state is stuck in reverse, there’s no hope of moving into the future. 

This was published as an op-ed in the December 9 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper