Gregg: Union rule threatens job center

In the Union Leader, Mark Hayward reports on Judd Gregg's complaint that federal rules are standing in the way of New Hampshire construction projects.

The situation is further complicated by a requirement that limits bidding to small firms, which would be less likely to have PLA experience.

Under such conditions, not a single firm in New Hampshire is eligible for the project, Gregg said.

"The Administration's decision to discriminate against successful and independent construction firms simply because New Hampshire employees choose to work in a union-free workplace and not bow to the demands of big labor is extremely unfair to our state," Gregg said.

Political signs: Your stimulus dollars at work

The Union Leader salutes Sen. Gregg (and Shaheen) and scolds the Senate on the effort to stop wasting tax dollars on highway signs.

Adding the cost of those signs for the more than 20,000 stimulus projects nationwide, "we are talking about a cost of somewhere between $6 million and $15 million being spent on signs," Gregg told the Senate. "That is an inexcusable waste of money. That money could be used for something valuable, for example, rather than a sign."

He got only five Democrats (including Sen. Jeanne Shaheen) to vote for his amendment. It failed, 52-45.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., accused Gregg of being "anti-jobs." Actually, he is pro-taxpayer. "The practical effect of this is," he said, "the signs should say 'Wasting taxpayers' dollars; project funded by the future generations of Americans.'"

Roll Call on ACORN Vote

The Roll Call from yesterday's vote to stop sending federal funds to ACORN has been posted. The amendment passed 83-7. Senator Shaheen supported it. Senator Gregg was not present for the vote.

Sen. Judd Gregg- There is Time for Change

Senator Judd Gregg shares his thoughts on health care reform in the pages of the Union Leader.

According to Census data, more than 170 million Americans get their insurance through their employer, and most folks want to keep what they already have and not risk losing it by moving to a government-run system. We should build off the success of the private market, employer-based system to provide insurance options to all. However, the Democratic proposals could cause employees to lose their insurance, or worse, their jobs. Under the new pay-or-play mandate in the Kennedy-Dodd proposal, many companies will find it cheaper to pay an annual fine of $750 per employee than to offer health insurance to their workers. The result? Fewer employers will offer health insurance, disrupting the health insurance coverage many families currently have.

Gregg's 5 points on health care

The Portsmourh Herald praises Sen. Judd Gregg and his contribution to the health care debate with this week's events in Salem and Portsmouth.

Gregg's work in the Senate has focused on four areas: prevention, a better structure for managing the chronic ailments that drive up costs, tort reform and a shift from paying for procedures to paying for the quality of outcomes. He has been part of the health care debate from the start. But regardless of his "Rx" versus the House and competing Senate bills, he made five important points for all of us to bear in mind as the five bills out of House and Senate committees are reconciled later this year.

Sen. Gregg on the threat of debt

Judd Gregg marks the nation's debt reaching one trillion dollars on the Senate floor:

Hattip: Union Leader

I like C-SPAN's beta video player. It's mission to let the public see its government at work. It makes sense to let them do that on their monitors as well as their televisions.

Sen. Judd Gregg: The U.S. is taking on more debt than it can handle

Sen. Judd Gregg pens a column in the Union Leader concerning the record debt being run up in Washington:

By the end of this fiscal year, our publicly held debt will be about 57 percent of GDP. This is not a good situation, but a temporary spike in debt can be managed, just as it was in the past when we were facing the crises of World Wars I and II, the Civil War and the War of Independence. In those instances, debt was rapidly paid off during the postwar periods.

Under President Obama's budget plan for the nation, this debt will not be rapidly paid off once the recession ends. Instead, it will continue to mushroom, driven by the President's new proposed spending that we cannot afford, which comes on top of looming entitlement spending we are already facing as the baby boom generation moves into retirement.

Because of this spending, we will have budget shortfalls, or deficits, averaging $1 trillion each year for the next 10 years.

Gregg goes after stimulus signs

A large part of the motivation for the bloated stimulus package was not just to drop massive amounts of money on the American economy, but to make sure politicians got to take credit for dropping it. Stimulus opponent Judd Gregg wants to halt the use of stimulus money for the public relations campaign promoting the stimulus, as reported by the AP in the Union Leader:

New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg has introduced a bill that would prohibit the use of stimulus funds for signs that say a project is being carried out using those funds.

It's called the "Axe The Stimulus Plaques Act."

Gregg had voted against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He says it's been a disappointment so far, doing little to address this ongoing economic crisis, create jobs, and turn around the nation's economy.

The highway signs are $300 a pop. Rather than tearing down the signs, let's just replace them: