This author has not written his bio yet.
But we are proud to say that Charles M. Arlinghaus contributed 205 entries already.
Tis the season for budget games. The groundwork is already being laid for tax increases and budget gimmicks all in the name of a balanced and equitable approach to government. We can only hope that the newly elected are less susceptible to these siren calls than the lot that came before them.
For the next two years small changes are possible but nothing big can happen because politics and money conspire against change. It’s not true that nothing important will happen but it is true that most major initiatives will flounder on the shoals of budget pressure and political competition.
Charlie Arlinghaus November 12, 2014 As originally published in the New Hampshire Union Leader Campaigns used to tell us what came next. This one offered few clues to the people about what those unfortunate enough to be elected will do to us now that they have the reins of government. What they must not do […]
This too shall pass. If your people lost this election or won this election, my words of consolation and words of warning are identical. The election didn’t mean what you thought it did. This was not a sweeping denunciation of your way of life, your philosophical outlook, or your taste in personalities. This was an aberration.
To help create jobs, politicians regular have to decide whether to do something or get out of the way. New Hampshire can do more by doing less and try to stay out of the way of people who know what they’re doing.
Our political culture is being destroyed by a cult of celebrity. Slowly but surely any meaningful discussion of ideas is being crowded out by personalities and the occasional meaningless poll number. Campaigns will never really become a battle of philosophies and spreadsheet but our state’s obsession with famous figures ensures that politics and policy resembles Entertainment Tonight more than the Nightly Business Report.
The executive branch just proposed a $2 billion increase in state spending and no one wants to talk about it. The budget process starts in October and the executive branch proposed spending $12.5 billion. Everyone involved admits this is an unrealistic and ridiculous place to start but no one wants to disown it just yet. Everyone involved in state budgeting should publicly repudiate the requests as unrealistic fantasies and commit to repealing the law that supposedly requires this bit of theater.
Politicians suffer from both too much information and not enough information at the same time.
What’s worse is that this budget mess isn’t caused by a recession but by poor management and political gamesmanship.
The biggest problem with the anemic job growth New Hampshire has been saddled with for the last decade is not the lack of jobs but the forlorn hope of policymakers that there is one silver bullet that will fix everything.