OP/ED: Guinta Not Doing Job He Was Sent To Do
Manchester resident says New Hampshire needs Congressman who works to help more than just the upper class.
By Vanessa Wallace
Have you ever heard a politician hawk their agenda like a used car salesman? They make a lot of big talk about how great of a job they’re doing, how much everyone appreciates them, and how different they are from the rest. Guinta’s latest op-ed, "It’s Time to Stop Kicking the Can," about how Congress has to stay in Washington until the important work is done, blows more smoke than a Bob Marley concert. He makes sure to nauseatingly cite stopping dangerously deep cuts to defense and an alleged hike on our individual income tax rates as something to address before the August recess.
There’s only one problem with this whole piece. The same day Guinta penned this op-ed, he voted, along with almost all other House Republicans (and no other Democrats), to adjourn and leave Washington for a month-long vacation. You know, like the rest of us.
The dangerously deep cuts Guinta is referring to have been happening to our roads, bridges, seaports, schools, food inspectors, teachers, police officers and firefighters, while the Pentagon budget remains greater than the budgets of 25 of the world’s most well-funded militaries, combined. If there’s any spending program that needs to be cut, it’s the one that’s blown a $2 trillion hole in our budget in the last 10 years.
Those dangerously deep cuts are happening because politicians like Guinta are intentionally robbing the country blind of revenue by keeping tax rates for the richest Americans at record-low levels, while lying to us through their teeth and telling us it’s a spending problem, not a revenue problem. The facts actually show that spending under Obama as a percentage of GDP is lower than any other presidency in modern history, including under the Hoover administration.
I’d like to ask Rep. Guinta which Republican top tax rate he’d like to return to: Eisenhower’s 91 percent, Nixon’s 70 percent, or Reagan’s 50 percent? Even the Reagan is still more than 10 percentage points higher than the proposed top tax rate Guinta voted down last week. And the only reason Guinta voted down a bill last week that would have kept tax rates low for 98 percent of families like mine and 97 percent of small businesses, is because millionaires and billionaires wouldn’t get a massive tax cut. They’ve had low taxes for 11 years now, and the unemployment rate has actually doubled since then. So nobody’s really buying the myth that keeping taxes low for the richest Americans actually creates jobs, apparently except for snake oil salesmen like Frank Guinta.
But Guinta is right about two things in his latest op-ed. When he says Granite Staters sent him there to to a job, and that Granite Staters value personal responsibility, we as Granite Staters should recognize that Guinta hasn’t been doing the job we sent him to do, and the only responsibility he feels he has is toward is rich donors and industry lobbyist friends, like those in the military contracting business who want to keep defense spending high, or those in the insurance business who want to see Obamacare repealed.
As a single mother who had to switch careers because all the engineering jobs kept getting shipped overseas, who pays more than what is necessary just to have the education necessary for learning a new skillset, having Congressmen in office who want to keep my taxes and my tuition high so big industry can keep getting rich is something I can’t afford. As Granite Staters, we also have a job. And that job is to be personally responsible for electing good representatives to Congress who actually care about helping us.
(Vanessa Wallace is a resident of Manchester.)
Lucy C Edwards
10:12 am on Sunday, August 12, 2012
I couldn't agree more! Frank Guinta has been a disaster for his constituents, the people of the 1st District. Let's bring back a woman who knows how to do the job, Carol SheaPorter!
Richard C Barnes
10:35 am on Sunday, August 12, 2012
There are so many false statements in this article I don't know where to begin. For instance:
"The facts actually show that spending under Obama as a percentage of GDP is lower than any other presidency in modern history, including under the Hoover administration."
Actually if you look at facts (http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/spending_chart_1903_2012USp_13s1li011lcn_F0t_US_Government_Spending_As_Percent_Of_GDP) since Democrats took control of the house and senate in 2006 spending jumped and is currently the 2nd highest percent of the GDP other then during WWII currently hovering around 40%.
I could also mention the percentage of federal spending on education that actually makes it to local schools but when you start with a clearly false statement and build from there I don't see the point of debating anything past that.
Susan Mayer
11:24 am on Sunday, August 12, 2012
Take a look at the Wall St. Journal (WSJ), which doesn't agree with you, Mr. Barnes. The WSJ’s Market Watch debunks this lie about Democrats being big spenders in “Obama spending binge never happened: Commentary: Government outlays rising at slowest pace since 1950s" (5/22/12), which also has a couple of informative charts. To quote, "Of all the falsehoods told about President Barack Obama, the biggest whopper is the one about his reckless spending spree...But it didn’t happen. Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s. Even hapless Herbert Hoover managed to increase spending more than Obama has. Government spending under Obama, including his signature stimulus bill, is rising at a 1.4% annualized pace — slower than at any time in nearly 60 years."
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obama-spending-binge-never-happened-2012-05-22?pagenumber=1
I also refer you to Bloomberg, “Stocks Return More With Democrat In White House,” http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-22/stocks-return-more-with-dem-in-white-house-bgov-barometer.html. Their point is this: “While Republicans promote themselves as the friendliest party for Wall Street, stock investors do better when Democrats occupy the White House. From a dollars-and-cents standpoint, it’s not even close.”
I'll trust the WSJ and Bloomberg over you any day of the week.
Richard C Barnes
12:43 pm on Sunday, August 12, 2012
I would suggest you look closer at what the WSJ article is saying. It's talking about percent increases or decreases, not over all spending. And since Democrats after taking control of the house and senate in 2006 went on a spending frenzy (which Bush lacked the guts to stop) the federal budget was already out of control.
You can put any spin you want on it but at the end of the day when Bush had a Republican house and senate the average deficit per year was $400 billion. Obama in his first two years with Democrats in control of house and senate had a deficit of $1.7 Trillion a year.
And if you really want to talk budgets how about the fact that not even a single democrat supported Obama's budget? Do you remember that one?
Dean Rubine
4:55 am on Monday, August 13, 2012
Mr. Barnes likes to count from the time congress changed hands in 2006. That conveniently credits the Democrats with the financial meltdown. You may recall Lehman Brothers failed in September 2008, when then candidate McCain lost the race due to his erratic reaction. George W. Bush was president, but after eight years he was done. It was his final, monumental, career-capping catastrophe, but W was happy to let Hank Paulson preside. Hank thought it would teach all those bankers a lesson if Lehman failed. In retrospect all of us except bankers paid dearly for that lesson.
By Mr. Barnes' reasoning, the Republican congress gets the blame for the lackluster GDP and job growth these last two years. I agree with this -- the GOP house failed to act on normally bipartisan recession ideas, such as money to states so they lay off fewer police and teachers. There was a WSJ estimate that this increased the unemployment rate a full point.
But this piece is about Frank Guinta. Rep. Guinta claims he "forgot" about his multi-hundred-thousand dollar bank account. He's making robocalls claiming he's the challenger running to clean up congress - I guess he forgot he was IN congress. Apparently he's also forgotten he voted "YES" to enact the very defense cuts he's complaining about now.
Gary A. Gahan
7:10 am on Monday, August 13, 2012
OK folks I do not see a bevy of smart individuals with time and $$$$$$ to step up to the plate to want to go to Washington and "fix" all that is darned broken that BOTH parties have contributed to in the making. President Eisenhower warned us back in the 50's about the "military~industrial" complex and that is just one small part of the issue. Vanessa Wallace complains about her engineering job being sent overseas ~ has anyone ever considered that perhaps an over abundance of regulations and taxation from the top (Washington) down (states and municipalities) have been contributing to the exodus of jobs from America? Have any of you thought about what sequestration might do to the NH economy ~ BAE, ElBit Systems, etc. and the local companies that may be supplying them? Hello! More engineering and manufacturing jobs gone from NH ~ wow that sounds like a great idea as long as you are not an engineer or a person on the production lines! This a bigger problem that we are even scratching the surface on......is there waste in the military complex? Of course there is.....have we even started to look there yet? NO ONE is even talking about what will be needed to do to repair and retrofit the military equipment that we have committed to the mid east for over ten years now in preparation for YES the NEXT major conflict that will come our way. America has a big old fashioned bulls eye on our back folks and we need to face it. Frank can not please all of the people all of the time!
Eureka
8:33 am on Monday, August 13, 2012
Never mind President Kennedy reduced the taxes from 91% down to 50%, because he new even back then taxing the rich does nothing to move. The economy along. Much of what Ronald Reagan implemented was learned from Jack Kennedy. This is not my fathers Demicratic Party anymore!!!!!!
Diane Raymond
9:51 am on Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Regulations and high taxes causing jobs to go oversees? Sounds like something right out of the tea party playbook--sounds logical but is not true. Corporations are paying the lowest business taxes in over 50 years, thanks to loopholes and exceptions. Consider that then-Governor Jennifer Granholm tried to entice Electrolux to stay in MIchigan by offering them 20 years of NO BUSINESS TAXES AT ALL. They thanked her for the generous offer but declined, citing the ultra-cheap wages they can pay over the border in Mexico. So, all you conservative apologists, it really does come down to one reason: GREED.
Robert Dalziel
11:40 am on Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Gutless Guinta is a fraud.
susanthe
12:00 pm on Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Those of us who live in northern Carroll County won't soon forget Guinta voting against us. When Tropical Storm Irene wreaked havoc on our area - destroying roads, bridges, homes and businesses - Frank Guinta responded by voting AGAINST giving FEMA more money to help folks up here rebuild.
B. E. Baines
3:41 pm on Sunday, August 19, 2012
In his article touting his new job in Washington, Guinta says he will be," making sure there is less Washington thinking in New Hampshire."
Looks like he already has been doing that, at the expense of his Carroll County constituents who desperately needed help.