Really making the grade, Republican first selectman of Easton was named by the
NRCCas one of forty "third tier- on the radar" "young gun" congressional candidates (he's in his fifties, which is sort of weird for a "young gun"). Way to wow 'em, Tom! He's challenging Democratic congressman Jim Himes in Fairfield County.
Hermann is the guy who during a meeting at Greenwich Library on Sunday April 18 that I attended latched on to the Republican Party's current love affair with states' rights and nostalgia for the Confederacy. Says Hermann,
"I will adamantly support state sovereignty...States need to nurture and assert home rule."
Funny that Hermann was touting states' rights just a few short blocks away from Greenwich's monument to its sons who fought and died to preserve the United States during the Civil War, which the Confederacy fought ostensibly in the name of states' rights.
In addition, he stated that he would not have voted to bail out the banks, though he didn't say what he thought would happen if the banking system were allowed to melt down a la 1929.
But the real fun part was his stance on health care reform. He stated that he would not have voted for the health care reform bill and that
"The health care bill is an entitlement...It does little or nothing to control costs....we need to focus on (controlling) costs first."
I suppose that the Congressional Budget Office's detailed studies that concluded that the bill would reduce the federal deficit by over a trillion dollars over twenty years, and most assuredly slow the rise in health insurance costs over the next several years escaped Mr. Hermann's notice.
But it gets better. Hermann's day job is running the private equity investment firm Stanwich Partners, LLC, which invests in mid-tier and small companies. It was precisely to help small companies that the Stimulus Bill devoted roughly a quarter trillion dollars for tax benefits, and the health care bill included a 35% tax credit to defray the costs of health insurance provided to employees, rising to 50% in 2014.
Stanwich Partners employs less than 100 people, so will it take advantage of that 35% tax credit? Funny thing about that. The partners get their health care by glamming on to insurance policies at one of the companies in their portfolios. Nice to be in a position to pick and choose among health policies in the companies you own.
But how 'bout the employees in those companies that Hermann's Stanwich Partners owns? Not so much. Turns out that only some of those companies provide health insurance to their employees. He'd like to provide "access" to insurance to those employees, but check back later. Will he provide coverage now that the federal government has provided tax credits to make it easier to do? Ummm, have to get back to ya 'bout that. Will his companies that provide insurance take the tax credit? He says that he'll look into that on a company by company basis.
So Hermann, who has no problem finding health insurance for himself, doesn't provide it to all of his employees in his portfolio of small companies (he didn't mention the non-partners at Stanwich), nor does he promise to do so now that the government has provided him a substantial tax credit, nor does he promise to offer insurance to his employees in the future.
It's nice to be rich and not have to care whether your employees have health insurance, are being denied insurance due to preexisting conditions, or going bust because of medical debt. Hermann's got his, so what to do about health care?
"The most appealing thing would be to repeal and start over."
That's Thomas Hermann, "on the radar" at the NRCC.