How Foster's Daily Democrat Got It Wrong

Parroting GOP talking points, Foster's Daily Democrat whined in an editorial published on Saturday, July 18, 2008 that N.H shifts the burden onto local governments.

The newspaper, which is contemptible simply by virtue of its disingenuous name, having never espoused a Democratic principle in its lifetime, continues to trumpet the nonsense that NH taxpayers are being burdened by a downshifting in costs from the state level to county and municipal governments.

NH Senate Majority Leader Maggie Hassan fired back with a response that eviscerates Foster's propaganda.

More aid to cities and towns than ever before

by Senator Maggie Hassan (Democrat-Exeter)

States across the country are slashing budgets to cope with the worst national recession since the Great Depression. New Hampshire, like many other states, made difficult choices to adopt a responsible and balanced budget in these difficult economic times.

But one area where we continued to invest, rather than cut, was in state aid to cities, towns and schools.

The budget we passed makes cuts and changes to just about every area of state government. It reduces the state's workforce by at least 5 percent, closes district courts and the Laconia State Prison. It manages to fund essential services for our most vulnerable citizens through creative reorganization but puts off funding for other worthy programs until better times.

And let's be clear. We did not shortchange our local communities. In fact, in the aggregate, cities, towns and schools receive more direct state aid in this budget than in the last one. Overall, state general fund spending is down about 1 percent. State aid to communities, however, increases 1.7 percent in this budget.

More specifically, at a time when other states have decimated direct aid to local education, New Hampshire has lived up to its commitment to local school districts by substantially increasing education funding. In the next two years, we will send an additional $123 million in education aid to cities and towns — for a total of nearly $2 billion.

It's therefore grossly inaccurate for this editorial page or anyone else to say that the state has failed to live up to its commitment to local governments, or has shifted "the cost of state government onto the backs of local taxpayers" as Sunday's editorial in Fosters did. It is also an especially disappointing example of how difficult it can be to create new approaches to addressing our common needs and obligations in a time of crisis.

Overall aid to cities and towns has increased 1.7 percent. It is true that the state has suspended an arbitrary and outdated revenue sharing system, and reduced its contributions to the retirement costs of local employees. But the state has more than made up for these changes with an overall increase in local aid, including the $123 million in education aid.

The state revenue-sharing formula was devised before the state began spending a billion dollars a year on education. In fact, the revenue sharing concept was devised in part because the state was not contributing significantly to education. As it now stands, the revenue-sharing formula is not based on need and has been frozen for decades even as our population and demographics have shifted dramatically.

This budget also reduces the amount the state contributes to the retirement system for municipal employees. These are municipal, not state, employees, hired by the cities and towns with contracts and benefits negotiated by the cities and towns. The state has subsidized payments to the retirement system for these municipal employees for years. But at a time when we have made tough choices — and asked for sacrifice and creativity from every sector — it is also appropriate and necessary to ask local governments to do more to care for their own in this particular area.

Finally, local communities should recognize that their financial well being depends not only on the amount of direct state aid that they receive, but also on the continuation of many critical state functions preserved in this budget. Local families who receive state welfare payments (matched by the federal government) would have to turn to local property taxpayers for help if the state failed to fund the Aid to Needy Families program. Community hospitals will shut their doors without at least minimal provider payments from the state to help them care for the needy.

Difficult times call for difficult decisions and for all of us to learn how to function — constructively and together — to meet unprecedented challenges. This budget doesn't do things the way they've always been done — it can't and it shouldn't. But it does honor our commitments to keep our state safe and healthy, to educate our young people, to provide a modern infrastructure, and to protect our most vulnerable.

No Regard For Truth or Integrity

Last week John McCain ventured into Rochester, N.H. for a Town Hall Meeting and before a crowd estimated at 700 people managed to embarrass himself, his party, and his country by accusing his opponent of being a traitor while pretending that his own unremarkable record qualifies him to serve as the Commander-in-Chief of our military and as the Chief Executive Officer of our government.

Senator McCain has earned the respect of a grateful nation for his having endured 5 ½ years of imprisonment and torture in a Vietnamese prison camp. Aside from that, however, he’s done little to deserve the esteem being heaped upon him by a compliant press, although one cannot fail to appreciate how he’s managed to parlay that life-changing experience into a life-long career on the public payroll.

Not quite as flattering is that his military career included the loss of five naval aircraft – one in combat, three during training exercises, and one in an explosion on the deck of the USS Forrestal; or his having graduated 894th out of 899 mates in his 1958 class at the Naval Academy. Nor especially distinguishable was his retirement at the rank of captain after having served over 25 years in the U.S. Navy, a departure prompted by his dim future prospects for promotion.

Although McCain is among the wealthiest members serving in the U.S. Senate, his accumulation of a vast fortune hasn’t been through the dint of hard work, nor derived from the wise investment of his $58,000+ in annual military disability payments and $161,700 annual salary as a U.S. Senator. Rather, he married a wealthy heiress after dumping his first wife, a one-time beauty queen whose physical allure had waned as a consequence of physical injuries sustained in an automobile crash.

As a U.S. Senator, McCain earned attention early in his tenure as the heir to the Arizona seat long held by Barry Goldwater who retired in 1987. By 1989 McCain was embroiled in the Keating Five corruption controversy and admonished by the Senate Ethics Committee for having accepted $112,000 in contributions from Charles Keating, Jr. and his associates. Keating ultimately served five years in prison for his role in the collapse of Lincoln Savings, one of the major institutional failures that led to the $125 billion taxpayer bailout of the Savings and Loan industry, and McCain had twice met with federal regulators to discuss the government’s investigation of Keating and his company.

While McCain today admits an error in judgment in the Keating affair, and earned enmity among fellow Republicans and a reputation as a “maverick” for his support of campaign finance reform, he seems to have learned little from the experience. His presidential campaign is run largely by lobbyists and financed by special interest money. According to the Washington Post, over $1.1 million was contributed to his campaign last month by oil and gas industry executives and employees, a propitious windfall that he claims had nothing to do with his recent high-profile split with environmentalists and reversal of his position on the federal ban on offshore drilling.

In an editorial published on Monday, The Citizen was effusive in its praise for Senator McCain’s leadership and “straight talk”. It lauded the senator for his support for the “surge”, neglecting to mention that the senator supported the blockheaded invasion of Iraq and was unwavering in his endorsement of the Bush administration’s execution of the failed occupation of the country.

The editorial offensively repeated some of McCain’s most insidious remarks, showing neither a regard for truth nor integrity. Its purpose was consistent with that of Sunday’s editorial in Foster’s Daily Democrat which attempted to portray Obama as arrogant and imperial. “Obama's grand tour of Europe and the Middle East was the most presumptuous and pompous act in the modern history of American politics,” it claimed.

What appears to be troubling to The Citizen and its sister publication Foster’s Daily Democrat is that Barack Obama emerged from his week abroad looking presidential, while McCain managed only to look pathetic when left alone on the domestic stage. From cruising around in a golf cart with former President Bush to looking befuddled in a grocery checkout line, McCain’s image was hardly senatorial, much less commanding.

One understands The Citizen’s fear that an Obama administration might actually require an increase in taxes to cover the costs of eight years of Bush’s perfidy. With over a half-trillion dollars added to the nation’s credit card to support the failed Bush war policies, an untoward and unconscionable shift of hundreds of billions of dollars of the nation’s wealth to Middle-Eastern nations who are purveyors of terrorism, a crumbling infrastructure too long neglected, a housing crisis that’s wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars of family wealth, and a financial crisis that may end up costing taxpayers a half-trillion dollars, higher taxes do seem inevitable.

The Citizen has no one to blame but itself for having relentlessly supported the Bush administration and the Republican controlled Congress which conspired to create this mess. Now it whines because the Democrats, in their less than two years of having a majority in Congress constrained by the President’s veto pen and Republicans in the U.S. Senate, have not been able to repair the damage.

Contrary to The Citizen’s conclusion, John McCain is not “the kind of leader who can restore the trust and confidence of the American people.” Quite frankly, he’s been a major part of destroying that trust.

Update:

Contrary to what the anonymous commenter asserts, I greatly respect John McCain's service to his country. However, he was not a stellar leader, he did not exhibit even an average intellect, his record suggests that he was reckless with aircraft - each of which cost taxpayers millions of dollars, and nothing in his military record recommends him for promotion to commander-in-chief.

Anonymous is entitled to his opinion regarding Senator McCain. However, he is outside his realm when he attempts to impugn the character or integrity of people about whom he knows nothing.

I've never been one to tout my military experience. Indeed, I was quite happy when it was comfortably behind me. As were my two brothers who served along with me, both of whom suffered serious injuries in Vietnam, and one of whom in spite of being severely wounded twice on the battlefield in Vietnam, returned to the country for two additional tours.

My father and grandfather, along with numerous uncles and cousins were/are veterans, so believe me, I have tremendous regard for those who don the uniform of their country. I don't, however, have much respect for those who attempt to parlay a marginal military record along with sympathy for wounds and indignities suffered into an entitlement for promotion to the highest office in the land.

Most veterans I know, and I know many, served their country proudly and humbly, quite aware of their sacrifice, yet also cognizant of the millions of others who've shared their burden. They really don't talk much about their combat experiences, realizing that their stories are not all that unique. Okay, I admit that I love regaling people with the tale of the woeful indignity I suffered being treated for a piece of shrapnel lodged in my ass. But that only occurs on the rare occasion when someone presses me on my military experience.

Anonymous, for you I'm posting a couple of photos. One is of quite good quality because it's scanned from one of those portrait photos taken during basic training. The other is of poor quality because it's scanned from a well-worn, not well-preserved snapshot.

You may not share my views. But you certainly cannot tell me that I know nothing about serving my country.