As the election approaches on Tuesday, you’ll hear many folks who love big government talk about their favorite bogeyman: The Free Stater.
You may recall SEIU President Diane Lacey called House Speaker William O’Brien a “Free Stater” on WMUR during his effort to pass a balanced budget that lowered the spending, taxes, fees and regulations that were stifling job creation. How dare she! Now, so many Republicans (and Democrats) running for office are “Free Staters,” even gubernatorial candidate Ovide Lamontagne. Oh no! They’re coming to give you your freedom, ha ha. They’re going to let you keep your money, ha ha, hee hee, ho ho.
Folks, don’t let this type of “name calling” scare you–not even today, because if you love limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility and free markets, you’re a Free Stater, too. That’s right, folks. We’re all Free Staters now!
A meeting to discuss implementation of the Affordable Care Act in New Hampshire ended with Rep. Andy Manuse charging the state Department of Health and Human Services is abusing its authority.
The Joint Health Care Reform Oversight Committee heard testimony Wednesday from DHHS Deputy Medicaid Director LisaBritt Solsky that the department plans to implement an increase to PCP rates as mandated by the federal health care law, and take money from the feds to do it.
Manuse, who sits on the health care committee, reacted to the news saying DHHS is going against the constitutional system of government in New Hampshire.
“They’re making a policy decision to accept money to expand Medicaid when the Supreme Court ruled the Federal Government can’t force states to expand,” Manuse said. “They’re abusing their authority at the highest level.”
The Supreme Court ruling allows states to decide whether to broaden the Medicaid program to include more low-to-moderate income residents. As part of its duties, the health care committee will make recommendations to lawmakers next year about the pros and cons of expansion.
DERRY, N.H.—Derry Republican and State Rep. Andrew J. Manuse encourages New Hampshire families to help create a sustainable local farming and food production market by taking advantage of a new state law he sponsored, which allows citizens to buy the appropriate amount of chicks for their own backyard egg-production needs.
HB 1231, effective July 22, repealed a state law that prohibited businesses from selling less than 12 chicks, ducklings or goslings to any one person at a time. Since roughly three chickens produce about a dozen eggs a week, many families held back from buying chicks and raising them into egg-layers because they feared the abundance of eggs that would come from 12 chickens. Others were forced to figure out how to split their purchase with someone else.
Because of the law change, families can now buy as few—or as many—chicks, ducklings or goslings as they want or need in New Hampshire without the hassle of dealing with a pointless state law. Additionally, people in cities such as Concord, which limits the number of chickens per household to five, can now buy the appropriate number of chicks for their community without worrying about what to do with the remaining birds.
“From my conversations with Derry residents and others, it’s clear that this law change will get more people involved with raising chicks for backyard egg production, and such local farming activity is a great way to help develop a healthy local food supply that will hopefully grow to sustainable levels,” Manuse said. “In fact, my family purchased our first three chicks thanks to this law passing, and we will now have a dozen fresh, healthy, organic eggs every week from a source that we know well. I hope other people take advantage of this law, which will help develop a culture for local agriculture and also help stimulate business at local feed stores such as Derry Feed or Dodge Grain.”
It has been one of my greatest honors to serve the people of Derry in the State Legislature during the past two years. I am grateful that you gave me an opportunity to be a part of one of the best legislative sessions in the state’s history and for taking me at my word that I would work full-time to bring restorative change to our great state.
I tried my very best to fulfill my promise to bring jobs and economic opportunity, better health industry and insurance laws, parental rights and community empowerment, and individual liberty and safety. I am confident that I have done so. The Legislature’s balanced budget, and the $1 billion spending decrease, deregulations, tax and fee cuts, and government downsizing that enabled the responsible budget we passed, will guarantee the state’s economic growth and development in the coming years.
At this time in my life, with a new child and a five-year old preparing for private school, my focus must shift to raising my family, sharing time with my wife and building my career. This decision, I believe, will benefit Derry voters as well. I believe a state representative or senator should be fully devoted to his or her office, and doing the work of the people who sent him or her there. While certainly I have given elected office my all within the last two years, I cannot devote my full attention to public life within the next two years. Therefore, I will not be seeking reelection this year.
If you’re willing to accept that Claremont was correct and that the people have a fundamental right to a state-run and state-funded public education, nothing we say is going to convince you otherwise. But if, like us, you think Claremont was wrong, and you are not willing to give up the fight for educational freedom and the natural right of parents to educate their own children, then read on because we are going to convince you why CACR 12 is not the right amendment for New Hampshire.
This battle for freedom we’re involved in is young, and it is new. It took us 100 years to regress toward tyranny from the liberty our founders fought and died for, and it may take that long to restore our liberty again, or it might not happen at all if you as individuals don’t get involved and stay involved. As Ben Franklin said, We’ve given you “a Republic, if you can keep it.” This lines up well with what Wendell Phillips said some years later: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” The key is to start with the State Legislature and use its authority to hold the federal government in check. And it is for this reason, with a firm reliance on the protection of my Divine Father in Heaven, that I have pledged my life, fortune and sacred honor in this battle for our lives, liberty, property, and all those essential and inherent Natural Rights that God has given to us. I hope you will join me. God Bless you and God Bless The State of New Hampshire and the United States of America!
As Republicans opposing Obamacare, we can’t simply propose a repeal agenda. I’m hoping that the coming failure of Obamacare gives new life to the possibility that we might return to free market principles in health insurance—principles that have been missing for about 100 years now.
I’d like the state to let insurance companies offer true insurance plans without all the mandates, so people have an option to pay for most basic medical services out of pocket, and the insurance would cover serious illnesses and accidents. A la carte add-on coverage should also be allowed. Medical savings accounts, tort reform and out-of-state competition are certainly part of the equation, but also important is restoring a real sense of cost to the medical care and health insurance markets. When people have to pay for an elective MRI, for instance, just like they do corrective eye surgery, we might start to see expensive procedures performed only when they’re necessary.
Concord, NH — Today, the New Hampshire House of Representatives took another step toward the Republican’s goal of stopping ObamaCare and its tax hikes, government expansion and prohibitive price tag. GOP leaders in the House of Representatives today passed a plan which would prohibit a state health insurance exchange and force Washington to repeal and replace the Democrats’ government-run health plan.
“When it comes to ObamaCare, the list of problems never ends,” said New Hampshire Republican State Committee Chairman Wayne MacDonald. “It spends borrowed money, it raises taxes, in many ways it puts the government in charge and through these exchanges it eliminates choices for patients.”
ObamaCare requires states to establish bureaucratic exchanges that are regulated by the state and result in fewer options and less competition. States are required to implement these government-run health programs by January 1, 2014, or the federal government will do it for them. Speaker Bill O’Brien, Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt and Rep. Andrew Manuse have been leading efforts in the House of Representatives to stop these exchanges in the Granite State.
A House committee approved a bill last week that would exempt employers from providing health insurance coverage for contraception if the employer has a religious exemption.
HB 1546 amends a 12-year-old state law that requires employers to cover contraceptives if other medications are covered under the health insurance provided.
“It is unconstitutional for government to force religious institutions to pay for products that they object to on religious grounds,” bill co-sponsor State Rep. Andrew Manuse, R-Derry, said in his testimony to the Constitutional Review and Statuatory Recodification Committee, which passed the bill on Feb. 23. “This effort has nothing to do with the merit of contraceptives, as I personally do not object to their use. I do, however, object to the idea that government can force a religious organization to pay for procedures or services that they find objectionable according to the teachings of their religion.”
Contrary to some of the misinformation circulating in Concord, a state-run health insurance exchange bureaucracy operating on behalf of the federal government is a bad idea, is not required by any federal regulation, and would be an expensive strain on our state budget.
At the centerpiece of President Obama’s health care legislation is a mechanism known as an exchange — i.e., a new federal or state bureaucracy to be set up to administer the rules and regulations regarding health insurance under the so-called Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The federal government had hoped each state would set up its own exchange and manage the regulations for it while assuming the operating costs of the new regulatory agency.
The law can’t require states to set up an exchange. It provides that the federal government will set up and fund a state-level exchange if the state government chooses not to. The majority of states around the country have balked.
The debate in New Hampshire centers on Rep. Andrew Manuse’s House bill prohibiting a state-run exchange.
I think Rep. Manuse has things about exactly right.
