Civil rights leader, vet endorses Shea-Porter

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Thursday March 22, 2012 · 9:32 AM PDT

2012/03/22 · 09:32

Letter from a wonderful constituent in Seacoast OnLine.

March 15 — To the Editor:
We are extremely blessed by having had truly exceptional female leadership in N.H. Congressional District 1. My wife and I have had the privilege of knowing former Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, even before she ventured into the political arena. As an Air Force veteran who served more than 30 years, I have always appreciated that Carol fought, from day one, for the best interests of military personnel and their dependents. We need her back in Congress, and in particular, on the House Armed Services Committee.

CarolSheaPorter

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Thursday March 22, 2012 · 9:28 AM PDT

2012/03/22 · 09:28

Yesterday, Congressman Frank Guinta cast the deciding vote to pass the Ryan Budget out of the Budget Committee by a vote of 19-18. Among other proposals, The House Budget continues the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and extends corporate welfare programs, cuts nutrition for women and children, decreases Pell grants for students, hurts seniors, cuts money for veterans' programs, and cuts transportation funding. Today, former Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, who is running for the NH-01 Congressional seat, released the following statement on that vote.

CarolSheaPorter

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Tuesday March 20, 2012 · 3:24 PM PDT

2012/03/20 · 15:24

Congressman Guinta and his fellow Republicans have once again taken aim at the old, the young, the sick, the poor, and the middle class. We need to shrink the deficit, but I will not support doing that by giving tax cuts to the very wealthy and to oil companies, rewarding companies that send jobs out of the country, ending Medicare and turning it into a voucher program, cutting Pell grants that help students pay for college, and by cutting too deeply into the budget. Congressman Guinta supports this budget because he does not believe in government--he has said that he wants to privatize Social Security and Medicare, the Department of Education, the EPA, the Department of Energy, Amtrak, medical research, and so many other programs. Congressman Guinta is too extreme for New Hampshire, and his budget is too extreme for New Hampshire also.

It’ll Take More Than a “Jobs Card”

CarolSheaPorter

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Monday March 19, 2012 · 8:21 AM PDT

2012/03/19 · 08:21

While there is good news about jobs again—227,000 new jobs were added in February, and there have been 23 consecutive months of private jobs growth—we still have a high unemployment rate and Congress has not passed either President Obama’s comprehensive jobs bill or one of their own. We lost 8 million jobs during the Great Recession, and while the 23 months of private jobs growth proves that the Stimulus and other measures, such as the “Auto Bailout,” worked and that we are in recovery, Americans need a comprehensive jobs plan to move the recovery forward at a faster pace. Why can’t Congress get this done?

There was a bipartisan effort on the floor this week, as the House of Representatives passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startup (JOBS) Act. While it is nice to see anything get done in the poisonous climate, this was a minor effort, and many of the provisions actually had passed the House before and were being recycled. This bill also will not help most Main Street businesses. As Ed O’Keefe said in the Washington Post, “The House Bills passed Thursday would make it easier for small businesses to go public by lifting SEC restrictions on running advertisements soliciting new investors and permit ‘crowdfunding’ so that entrepreneurs can raise equity capital from larger pools of small investors.” He goes on to say that it would also let small companies have more shareholders and sell more shares before registering with the SEC. This bill is a help for some, but these issues are not the issues that confront most small businesses on Main Street.

CarolSheaPorter

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Thursday March 01, 2012 · 7:51 AM PST

2012/03/01 · 07:51

If moderate Republicans mistakenly believe they and their party are stuck in a Saturday Night Live skit, who can blame them? Their Republican leaders’ intrusion into matters that are none of their or the government’s business just doesn’t seem real. Would one of their top two candidates for President really rail against contraception? “One of the things I will talk about that no president has talked about before is, I think, the dangers of contraception in this country,” Santorum promised in a chat with The Caffeinated Blog. “Many in the Christian faith have said, ‘Well, that’s okay. Contraception’s OK.’ It’s not okay because it’s a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.” The other candidate, Mitt Romney is unwilling to stand up for women, even though he described himself as pro-choice in another life and race.

The Republican Congress decided to hold a hearing to determine whether the Obama Administration was trampling “freedom of religion and freedom of conscience,” even though President Obama had decided that insurance companies, not religious institutions, would pay for birth control for employees who worked in a faith-affiliated school or hospital and chose to use contraception, which costs about $50 per month. (The original rule just exempted Churches and other Houses of Worship.) The Congressmen invited five men for the first panel, and refused to let the woman whom the Democrats wanted to testify speak. Five men talking about birth control issues without women at the table does sound like a Saturday Night Live skit, but sadly, it was real.

While Republicans were talking or listening to men talk about birth control, our Republican members of Congress were posturing, claiming that the Obama Administration was violating religious freedom. They failed to mention that New Hampshire has had a law requiring insurance coverage for contraception, without any religious exemptions, since 1999. It was passed by 120 Republicans and 121 Democrats and two Independents, back in the days when Republicans in the NH State House worked with Democrats for the good of the state and the people. Those legislators apparently agreed with what President George H. W. Bush said in Congress when he was a GOP Rep: “If family planning is anything, it is a public health matter.”

CarolSheaPorter

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Saturday February 25, 2012 · 3:46 AM PST

2012/02/25 · 03:46

The TransCanada Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline fight has been very political. How many jobs will it create? Will this hurt the environment? Will this dirty tar sand oil stay in the United States and help to make us energy independent? Is anyone buying influence to create this pipeline to carry Canadian oil across six states to the Gulf Coast? Are the Koch Brothers and their group, Americans for Prosperity, trying to influence the outcome by donating to the Energy and Commerce Committee members?

While the economy is recovering, creating jobs is crucial, so those who support this pipeline have been touting it as a job creator, although they sure seem confused. The NH-01 Congressman wrote that the KXL project, "is expected to immediately create 20,000 American jobs, and an additional 179,000 jobs through at least 2035 once the pipeline is fully operational in 2013." Speaker John Boehner, who just happens to have major investments in most of the oil companies that will profit from the KXL and has received money from them, says 100,000 jobs. The American Petroleum Institute claims "more than half a million new jobs" by 2035. The head of the US Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Donohue, says up to 250,000 jobs over the life of the project.

There is always a party pooper, and in this case, it is the Cornell University Global Labor Institute. In September 2011, it reported, "A calculation of the direct jobs that might be created by KXL can begin with an examination of the jobs on-site to build and inspect the pipeline. The project will create no more than 2,500-4,650 temporary direct construction jobs for two years, according to TransCanada's own data supplied to the State Department."

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Civil rights leader, vet endorses Shea-Porter

Rep. Guinta casts deciding vote on Ryan Budget

Shea-Porter statement on House Republican Budget

It’ll Take More Than a “Jobs Card”

The GOP Birth Control Patrol

The Keystone XL Pipeline Fails America