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.
House Bill 1393, sponsored by Reps. Ken Weyler and Andrew Manuse would eliminate this subjective and separate line item on the parcel card for “view” because the premium paid for a an attractive view is reflected in the price paid for properties with similar views.
House Bill 1297 would effectively stop Obamacare in New Hampshire by prohibiting state officials from implementing or aiding the federal government in implementing a state exchange.
Let’s keep up our promises to voters by passing this law and prohibiting the state of New Hampshire from creating a state exchange that could be the nail in the coffin of the New Hampshire Advantage.
If the press is planning to blow out of proportion dissent from the Democratic Party, which was handily defeated for its irresponsible ideas, then of course it will appear like there is a lot of dissatisfaction out there from people who want to spend more money that isn’t theirs. But from those whose money Republicans have protected this term, we have heard a lot of gratitude–not that doing our jobs the right way deserves any, because we are public servants after all. Government should always be responsible to the people and should make sure it is protecting the basic rights of all citizens, who are its masters. At the same time, it should never pick winners and losers in a fixed marketplace and subsidize dependency. That’s what we’re up against. Regardless, the good people of New Hampshire have got nothing other than responsible government from Republicans this year, despite the loud cacophony from those Democratic and progressive Republican policy makers whose policy was already rejected by voters and will be again.
CONCORD —A state database will be created to track and review abuses by federal airport security agents under a bill the House approved Thursday.
House Bill 628, which passed on a 188 to 136 vote, would allow someone who believes an airport security screener was overly aggressive or abusive to report the incident to the police or county sheriff. And the bill would allow a person to record or videotape a search by a federal security agent.
I am asking you, no pleading with you, to heed my words and please, respect the rule of law and the constitution. Please do everything within your power to remove sections 1031 and 1032 of the National Defense Authorization Act (Senate version) during the reconciliation process. Our Republic is standing on such tenuous ground right now. We cannot afford anything else like these provisions that will weaken the Republic further, and put the very spirit of lawlessness, within our law.
