Jeanne Shaheen wants to be the next Senator from New Hampshire, but Jeanne is a typical democrat.  She supported Hillary Clinton and her big government dreams—ideas which candidate Clinton herself said, even the American people could not yet afford.   Like most democrats, she would rather create committees and panels to investigate the options, options which somehow—no matter the make up of the committee—make more government, and by extension more tax payer dollars to support it.  So if candidate Shaheen, like most Democrats, is simply looking to appease us rather than to actually represent us, what possible benefit is it to our state or our nation to add one more of these to such an august body?

What Ms. Shaheen fails to realize is that it has never been a Senators job to appease us on every single issue; that is a job for local governments with whom we are afforded a more intimate or at least immediate relationship.   A Senator’s job is to interpret for us the complexities of federal government at the highest levels, and to make thoughtful decisions based on broader, national needs, always balanced against the limits of power as defined by the U.S. constitution.  Senators must make the effort to examine the unintended consequences of institutional momentum.  They are a brake against the populist breeze that often blows through the House.  They need to understand and act, not so that they can appear to care about the latest bold-print headline, but so that what they have done, if it must address an immediate need, can be undone later when the need is satisfied; so that the long term affects of their actions will not somehow spawn red-headed step-children that may incidentally crush our social and economic liberties, all beacuase they wanted to be seen as“doing something.”  

The incumbent, Senator John Sununu, is regarded by his peers as perhaps one of the smartest people in the Senate, a body desperately in need of, humble, thoughful, small government intellectuals, and it clearly shows in his voting record.  His votes demonstrate long term gains, not short term fads.  He is not afraid to make hard decisions to prevent those “unintended consequences.”  His motivation is to keep government to a minimum, to leave the power—both economic and political—with the people, but to manage these decisions in the context of our time.

His detractors will argue that this kind of thinking puts him out of touch, but it is they who are poorly connected.  They want their Senators to rob us of our local control by having them make knee-jerk decisions based on the flavor of the day, to simply respond to the loudest voices, even if what they say is not what is best for the Republic.  All this does is pile up legislation that empowers the government, builds on the bureaucracy, and requires constant modification with even more legislation, every time the wind changes direction.   It simply proves that you cannot please all of the people and that the place for such efforts lay far away from the halls of Federal oversight.  His detractors just want centralized control; they want him to pander to their pet causes, but at what cost?

Are you for personal freedom?   Do you want to protect your freedom to make the choices about your life, to pass that freedom down to your family, or is each of us simply a source of economic energy that fuels the machinery of big government?

Jeanne Shaheen is part of the “More Government” machine.   She doesn’t want you to have freedom, she wants you to have more government.  And anyone with half a brain knows you can’t have both.

From Blogs for John Sununu at WordPress

“On the first day of the new federal fiscal year, it’s no wonder Democrats want to recruit Jeanne Shaheen to their ranks, she’s just as fiscally irresponsible as they are,” NRSC Communications Director Rebecca Fisher said. “Shaheen drove a budget surplus to a deficit, doubled state spending and raised taxes. It’s yet another reminder why Jeanne Shaheen has a record of failed leadership.”