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!
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HB 1231, effective July 22, repealed a state law that prohibited businesses from selling less than 12 chicks, ducklings or goslings to any one person at a time.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.
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.
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.
In my humble opinion, Ron Paul is the only candidate running for president who will truly restore this nation to its former glory, inspiring other nations to follow our example. For the reasons I state in this endorsement and others, I am giving Ron Paul my full and unequivocal endorsement for President of the United States.
Jobs are created in the private sector, and the only thing government can do to help stimulate job growth is to get out of the way. Republicans are in the process of reducing the size of government, reducing the number of onerous regulations, lowering spending and lowering taxes, and if the good people will simply follow through on their commitment to these ideals through the 2012 elections, they will see jobs created through private industry and new private development. That is where jobs come from. That is what Republicans will bring.
I came to New Hampshire because I had no voice in my home state of New York, nor in the state I had moved to afterward. You can’t imagine how frustrating it is to vote and work for Republicans one election after another, just to see all your hard work evaporate with another crushing defeat. When I saw the Free State Project–living in Massachusetts at the time–I saw it as an opportunity to move to a state where I could have a voice. I saw it as an opportunity to do business and raise my family without the overreach of government. But, when I saw New Hampshire moving in the wrong direction under the control of the Democrats, I decided to run for office and help bring the state back to its roots. I am not an atypical example of a Free Stater. There are only a few who make headlines doing irresponsible things. Most of us are just good old fashioned Republicans who want to make a difference.
