501(c)(4)'s Prove Democrats Corrupt Hypocrits!

Hypocrisy rules in Liberal-Progressives here in NH. First U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen writes a letter to the IRS calling out Americans For Prosperity and other groups like them 501(c)(4)’s as operating illegally. She suggests that the IRS should do something about them.

Well we all know now that they did do something about them, they harassed and tried to intimidate any “Conservative” groups like AFP as Senator Shaheen calls for in her letter. Note she fails to ask them to investigate groups like MoveOn.org or Organizing For America (the old Obama for America group) which supplies support and people to Senator Shaheen’s campaign.

Now we have Kathy Sullivan, former head of the NH Democratic Party, calling for further investigation of these illegal groups all while she runs a 501(c)(4) group herself. http://nhjournal.com/2013/05/21/sullivan-calls-c4s-gross-misuse-of-tax-laws-despite-running-c4/

We have corrupt politicians, lobbying the IRS to come down hard on groups pointing specifically at Conservative groups like Senator Shaheen did in her letter to the IRS, all the while they are benefitting from these 501(c)(4) groups. In fact OFA is the largest 501(c)(4) in the United States. Oh and did I mention that the Democrats are the recipients of oodles of Union money (4 of 5 largest non-campaign spenders in the 2012 election were Unions) including Public Employee Unions like the IRS Employee Union that donated $5000 to Senator Shaheen's campaign.

As Ed Naile would say Liberal-Progressive thought represents up as down and down as up! The same folks that loitered in front of our Town Houses proclaiming the horrors of Big Government during Republican controlled years are all eerily silent. Can they not put 1 & 1 together and see that the abuses of this administration will be the standards to rule by for the next administration. Precedence will have been set!

Work Hard Have Fun!

Bob DeMaura

Owner/Operator NHInsider.com

Get Government Out Of Relationships

The argument about marriage in our society today is full of emotional considerations. Some believe that there is some sort of “Right” that is associated with relationships and perhaps there are. Others feel this word is a religious word with religious connotations. The word Marriage had its origin in religious ceremonies. It came to be the name that the Government uses to define personal partnerships when the Government took over the record keeping functions formally done by the churches.

The Government doesn’t do emotion and shouldn’t do religion. The Government can only offer legal remedies for any partnerships that they may approve. The first thing a good divorce lawyer does is get their client to stop thinking emotionally and start looking at distribution of assets.

There is no reason for the Government, whether State or Federal, to use the word marriage with all its baggage to describe what the Government see as a contractual business type relationship. Government can’t and shouldn’t act in any other way.

Rename the Government required registration to something more neutral such as “Personal Partnership” or the hated “Civil Union”. Remove the emotion from the Government's realm. After getting the proper approval from the Government for your Personal Partnership, and you still want a marriage ceremony you can get one from someone that supports your particular definition of marriage. Whether that is a Church, a Backyard family thing, or a destination event is up to the individuals to define for themselves.

Work Hard Have Fun!

Bob DeMaura

Gambling Revenue Estimates Seriously Flawed!

Honorable Steve Vaillancourt has put forth his revenue estimates for gambling in NH but I think the numbers may be seriously flawed. Was this on purpose or an oversight I don’t really know that, I do know that I entered the following information and questions for Steve as a comment to his blog post and it disappeared, take that to mean whatever you want to read into it.

Steve claims that we will net between $150 and $250 per day per machine. His plan has 5000 machines, I assume that 5000 is also the number in the Governor’s/Senate plan. I do agree with Steve that speading out the machines at 6 locations (I’d add Hinsdale to the list) is better than all at one location.

Lets examine the $150/$250 net revenue number a bit further. Steve’s Plan calls for a 92% return to the gamblers meaning that the net  revenue will be 8%. To get $150 per day net revenue the gamblers would have to spend $1875/machine per day on the low estimate and at $250 per day net revenue the gamblers would have to spend $3125/machine per day.

Using the Senate plans return of 87% to the gamblers the amount needed to net $150/machine/day would be $1154 and to net $250/machine per day would be $1923.

Using Rep Vaillancourts return to gambler of 92% results in the gamblers in NH having to spend $9,375,000 per day ($1875/machine X 5000 machines), or $3,421,875,000 per year. The $250 net figures would be $15,625,000 per day or a yearly gambling amount of $5,703,125,000. That’s right, folks in NH would have to ante up over $3 BILLION dollars per year and that’s at the low end estimates.

Connecticut reported in 2006 that NH residents spent ~$93,000,000 in 2005 at their casinos. The figures Rep Vaillancourt gave us equals Connecticut’s total NH revenue in 10 days!

Do we really believe that NH residents can and will ante up over $3 Billion per year on Gambling?

I’m a Free Enterprise supporter, but we have to use realistic numbers. The Democrats will start spending any flawed over estimates as soon as possible so we must be as accurate as possible and all inaccuracies must be on the low conservative side.

Work Hard Have Fun!

Bob DeMaura

Dow 14,000 Recovery or Stagflation!

Recently the Dow has crossed and hovered around the 14,000 mark, a level not seen since 2007. The Main Stream Media have been singing the praises of this event, declaring that peoples 401K’s have finally rebounded back to where they were in 2007. Of course they attribute this to that brilliant economic genius President Barack Obama.

If the Main Stream Media were doing more reporting and less edifying of President Obama they may uncover a less rosy outlook than they are portraying.

Wikipedia defines Stagflation as : “Stagflation, a portmanteau of stagnation and inflation, is a term used in economics to describe a situation where an inflation rate is high, the economic growth rate slows down, and unemployment remains steadily high. It raises a dilemma for economic policy since actions designed to lower inflation may exacerbate unemployment, and vice versa.”

Wikipedia defines the causes as : “Economists offer two principal explanations for why stagflation occurs. First, stagflation can result when the productive capacity of an economy is reduced by an unfavorable supply shock, such as an increase in the price of oil for an oil importing country. Such an unfavorable supply shock tends to raise prices at the same time that it slows the economy by making production more costly and less profitable.^[5][6][7] Milton Friedman famously described this situation as "too much money chasing too few goods".

“Second, both stagflation and inflation can result from inappropriate macroeconomic policies. For example, central banks can cause inflation by permitting excessive growth of the money supply,^[8] and the government can cause stagnation by excessive regulation of goods markets and labour markets.^[9] Either of these factors can cause stagflation. Excessive growth of the money supply taken to such an extreme that it must be reversed abruptly can clearly be a cause. Both types of explanations are offered in analyses of the global stagflation of the 1970s: it began with a huge rise in oil prices, but then continued as central banks used excessively stimulative monetary policy to counteract the resulting recession, causing a runaway price/wage spiral.^[10]”

The government will try to tell us that inflation is only around .02 percent per month but the key to understanding that figure is it is always qualified with the phrase “excluding food and energy”! What a bunch of hogwash! Inflation is the increase in prices we pay out of our pocket and food and energy are two of the primary drivers of most people’s budgets!

With the Federal Reserve pouring $85 billion new money into the economy every month with their Quantitative Easing program the result is a deflating dollar and increasing prices.

Our Government through the various agencies such as NLRB, EPA, FDA FCC, etc as well as the presidents Executive Orders have placed excessive regulations on everything. The New Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare) has over 13,000 pages of regulations. The EPA is on a course to eliminate Coal as a viable and reliable source of energy. The NLRB has been activist in blocking companies like Boeing from locating plants in States that have Right to Work laws.

Your 401K may have recovered to it’s 2007 levels but the amount that can be purchased with the money has been cut in half. Gasoline was around $1.80 per gallon when Obama took office it is over $3.60 per gallon today. Food marketers have shrunken the package sizes while raising the prices.

Conclusion we are deeply embedded in Stagflation as a result of the second definition of causes above. The recovery is only a sound bite for the no longer trustworthy Main Stream Media.

Work Hard Have Fun

Bob DeMaura

Speaker Boehner - A Debt Ceiling Increase for a 30% Federal Employee Headcount Reduction

Speaker Boehner, lets get real here, entitlement reforms are your negotiating position in the tit-for-tat negotiations? No wonder you are getting your ass handed to you.

Trust me I’m all for entitlement reforms, but its too serious an issue to be handled in a six week period of crisis negotiating. I want a concerted effort put in by the entire Congress to hammer out real reforms like converting Social Security, and in fact all public employee pensions into Defined Contribution Plans owned by the citizens. There is a clear example here, the Government through the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation a GSE, has been converting private businesses from Defined Benefit Pension plans to 401K Defined Contribution Plans for the past 40 years, because they are unsustainable.

A Debt Ceiling increase in exchange for a 30% headcount reduction of Federal Employees with an immediate hiring freeze everywhere except the Presidents Cabinet and the US Military. That’s a winning negotiating position. The effects are immediate the savings substantial.

The savings will multiple when various departments have to put economy killing regulatory actions aside because the employees pushing it are no longer employed. Other departments such as the Department of Education will have to consider just issuing straight education grants to the States, cutback on their overreach into the States business.

Speaker Boehner, Minority Senate Leader McConnell, show the American people you are serious, pick a serious but accomplishable goal, and don’t back down. The Headcount reduction is a really good issue because it fits so well with the closure of the government when they run out of money by March 1^st. The closure will provide proof that you can run the government with far fewer employees, strengthening your negotiating position.

Work Hard Have Fun!

Bob DeMaura

NHInsider Owner/Operator

Update on Friday, January 18, 2013 at 09:21AM by NH INSIDER

As recomended by a reader I sent this Editorial to Senator Ayotte. Below is her reply.

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January 16, 2013

Dear Mr. DeMaura:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the serious fiscal crisis facing our country.  I appreciate hearing from you.

As you may know, on January 1, 2013, both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (H.R. 8).  H.R. 8, also known as the "fiscal cliff bill," stops a tax increase for 99 percent of taxpayers and makes permanent nearly 90 percent of the federal personal income tax policy that has been in effect for the last decade.  Failure to pass this bill would have guaranteed tax increases for virtually all Americans and small businesses.  While the president was insistent on raising taxes, I voted to spare as many Americans as possible from getting hit by tax increases.

Unfortunately, while the fiscal cliff negotiation produced last minute legislation to avert tax increases for most Americans, it did not result in legislation to address our unsustainable fiscal path.  When I came to the Senate, I knew Congress was broken.  However, nothing could have prepared me for the absurd level of government dysfunction I have witnessed during the first two years of my term.  Most Americans would be surprised to learn that the president is about to miss - for the fourth time - the statutory deadline to submit his budget proposal.  Many would also be surprised to learn that the Senate majority has refused to pass a statutorily required budget resolution for the past three years and is poised not to pass a budget for a fourth consecutive year.  And last year, the Senate did not pass a single one of its twelve annual appropriations bills, and has regularly relied on a series of short-term continuing resolutions and pork-filled omnibus spending packages to fund the government.  Put simply, this is no way to run a government or to get our nation's spending under control.

That is why I have supported numerous legislative efforts to force Congress to fulfill its most basic budgetary obligations.  Last year, I cosponsored the bipartisan "No Budget, No Pay Act," which would have docked pay for Members of Congress for failure to pass a budget resolution and regular appropriations bills before the start of the federal fiscal year.  I also introduced a bipartisan bill with Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) that would have prohibited Congress from considering any legislation unless a budget resolution is passed by the April 15 deadline.  Once the Senate returns for the 113th Congress, I will introduce legislation that will prohibit a pay raise for Members of Congress during any year in which there is a federal deficit, and my bill will also extend the current pay freeze for senior executive branch officials.

Now it's time for the president and Congress to cut spending and come up with real reforms to put an end to our trillion dollar deficits, rein in our crippling $16.4 trillion debt, and prevent our nation from going bankrupt.  In the coming weeks and months, our country will face more fiscal challenges as we reach the debt limit, as the current Continuing Resolution funding the government expires, and as massive across-the-board spending cuts (known as sequestration) to defense and non-defense programs are triggered.  The confluence of these events represent an opportunity to put our country on a responsible financial path.  We can prevent a fiscal crisis without harming our economy, but it will take bipartisan cooperation to get there.

Right now, America's gross debt is the size of the nation's annual economic output.  This debt level is already past the point where economists warn of dramatically diminished economic prospects, including lower job growth and fewer economic opportunities.  Taking bold action to reduce our debt would send a strong message that would help to reassure financial markets and prevent additional credit downgrades.  That is why I joined a bipartisan coalition of 45 senators to call on the president to pursue a "go big" approach to deficit reduction efforts.

No effort to address our fiscal crisis can be taken seriously unless it includes structural reforms to preserve entitlements, which represent the primary drivers of America's long-term, runaway debt.  In fact, the non-partisan trustees in charge of Medicare and Social Security say that the programs are headed for insolvency as early as 2024 and 2033, respectively.  Seniors like my grandparents depend on Medicare and Social Security for a dignified retirement.  It is up to us to ensure that these programs are there for future beneficiaries, and we can reform these programs without impacting current beneficiaries or those nearing retirement.  One thing is clear: doing nothing is not an option.

In addition, one of the most important steps we can take to get our economy moving is to reform our complex tax code.  Simplifying and modernizing our tax system will help improve efficiency and generate revenue through growth.

We face a defining moment, and our response will determine whether America prospers in the future or crumbles under a mountain of debt.  It will take courage to address the serious fiscal challenges our country faces, but Americans come together to solve tough problems.  The time has come for our elected leaders to stop looking the other way when it comes to making the difficult decisions needed to get our fiscal house in order.  The American people deserve nothing less.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me.  As your Senator, it is important for me to hear from you regarding the current issues facing our nation.  Please do not hesitate to be in touch again if I may be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Kelly A. Ayotte
U. S. Senator