Republicans try to block spending, then complain of bridge project delays: Letters

Republicans try to block spending, then complain of bridge project delays

August 22 − To the Editor:

In today's Seacoastonline, there was the story headlined, "Will three Seacoast Bridge projects face delays?  NH politicians sound the alarm, urge action."  The story goes on to state that Governor Sununu and Executive Councilor Janet Stevens sent a letter to the NH all-Democratic congressional delegation  complaining that the U.S. Coast Guard has yet to issue bridge permits for the General Sullivan and the Neil R. Underwood bridge projects. They also were concerned about the updated preliminary navigation determination for the bridge connecting New Castle to Rye on route 1B. They went on to say, "It is incumbent on our federal partners to be timely and efficient in helping to deliver these needed infrastructure projects and to fulfill on the promises of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. (IIJA)"

While I agree that these are very worthwhile and important infrastructure improvement projects that need to be completed as quickly as possible, I find it somewhat interesting that we have two conservative Republicans pushing for these projects to fulfill the promises of the IIJA which was opposed by most Republicans in Congress. In fact the IIJA passed the House of Representatives with a vote of 228 to 206.  The 206 nay votes included 6 Democrats and 200 Republicans. Only 13 Republicans voted for the bill to pass. In the Senate the vote was 69 yea and 30 nay.  All the 30 nay votes were from Republicans.

So while Mr. Sununu and Ms. Stevens can complain about the delay in getting these projects moving, if it had not been for President Biden and the Democrats in Congress they would not have had any bridge infrastructure project to complain about their timing.  Without President Biden there would not have been an Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act at all.  A  thank you President Biden and Congressional Democrats coming from Mr. Sununu and Ms. Stevens would have been appreciated in their letter complaining about timing.

Rich DiPentima, LTC, USAFR, Ret

Portsmouth

Save America. Support conservative Republicans in next election

Aug 24 − To the Editor:

Conditions at our southern border are an atrocity. The human suffering is staggering; so is the threat to our national security. It isn't just that illegal migrants are bringing drugs, crime, and trafficked humans. Don't think for a minute that our foreign enemies aren't taking advantage of the opportunity to send their spies and terrorists across the open border and live among us.

Determined to secure our southern border, President Trump erected more than 450 miles of new wall, and procured the material to finish the wall, before leaving office.  President Biden, by contrast, has taken a dim view of his predecessor's vision of a secure border, pledging while still a presidential candidate that "there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration."  True to his word, President Biden stopped all work on the wall the day he took office.

Republicans, who have been deeply critical of President Biden on border security, introduced legislation in May that would force the Pentagon to allow hundreds of millions of dollars worth of unused border wall components to be used to extend the wall, or transfer the material to the States, which would then use them to construct the wall.

But no, the Biden Administration would have none of that, so they began scrapping the wall components, paid for by U.S. taxpayers, selling them for pennies on the dollar.  80 Lots have been sold and the remaining 13 Lots will be sold by Labor Day.  What a unbelievable waste!

An estimated 17 million illegal migrants have entered the country since President Biden took office.  Apparently not enough for the Biden Administration, they are now in the process of cutting car-sized holes in President Trump's wall so that "antelopes can migrate."

I've had about enough of the Far Left Globalist Democrats and the destruction they're doing to our country .  We need to remove them from office or America, as we know it, will be lost forever.  We are indeed living through the darkest chapter of American history.  Please join me in supporting Conservative Republicans in the upcoming elections.

John Allard

Barrington

Splaine column off the mark. Biden is a proven winner

Aug. 22 − To the Editor:

In Sunday’s Herald, Jim Splaine says President Biden should announce he will not run in 2024 because Biden decided South Carolina should be the Democrats’ first primary state.  He thinks New Hampshire would regain its First in the Nation status if Biden dropped out.

That is both petty and presumptuous.  Since Bill Clinton, it has been the southern states with large African American populations that decided who won the Democratic nomination.  Why would any other candidate tell the African American voters in those states they need to get to the back of the bus so a state with 4 electoral votes and is 90+% white can be first?

Mr. Splaine points out that President Biden is old and, by some miracle, Donald Trump may not be his opponent.  It is possible. But Mr. Trump is a vengeful man who would spend every day attacking the person who beat him in the primaries. He might even decide to run as an independent.

Finally, if another Democrat intended to run, he/she would have had to start raising money and campaigning long before now.  September 2023 is way too late.  How would we know if that candidate could withstand Trump’s verbal, digital and advertising onslaught?  Joe Biden has proven he can.

Walter Hamilton

Portsmouth

Letter regarding RFK Jr. Secret Service protect 'beneath contempt'

Aug. 22 − To the Editor:

Local GOP chair Alan Forbes, who probably still believes - as he wrote in January 2022 -- that the Jan. 6 terrorists "just wanted a fair election," remains a stranger to reality.  He now thinks (8/22 letter) that President Biden is "set[ting]up his main Democrat rival for assassination" because Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas declined to provide Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with Secret Service protection 14 months before the 2024 election.

Rather than relying on Mr. Forbes's baseless hyperbolic nonsense, it might help to point out that federal law authorizes Secret Service protection for “major” presidential and vice presidential candidates. The law says it’s up to the secretary of Homeland Security, after consulting with a bipartisan committee of House and Senate leaders, to decide who counts as a “major” candidate. If Mr. Forbes has information that such consultation did not occur, he failed to share it. Such a consultation probably would have considered that Mr. Kennedy's polling average among Democrats is roughly 13%; or about 50 percentage points behind President Biden.

Forbes's main gripe is that "President Obama got" such protection equally far from the election. Mr. Forbes, of course omits the fact that President Obama was the recipient of an unprecedented array of race-based death threats. A bit of research would show that, starting with the 1980 campaign, candidate Obama was the only presidential candidate to be newly granted Secret Service protection this far from Election Day or earlier. Almost all of the presidential nominees, including Biden in 2020, did not have their protection begin until less than a year before Election Day.

Much like his implicit support for domestic terrorists ("they just wanted a fair election"), Mr. Forbes's implication that President Biden would condone a political assassination is beneath contempt.

Eric Kane

Exeter

Link to fact check on RFK Jr. was very helpful

Aug. 22 -- To the Editor:

Thank you for the EDITOR’S NOTE: CNN Fact Check on this topic: https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/28/politics/fact-check-rfk-biden-secret-service-protection-denial/index.html. It clarifies RFK Jr’s situation with Secret Service protection during his campaign; referenced in Tuesday's letter submitted by Alan Forbes, Chair, Portsmouth Republican Committee. This link was very detailed and greatly appreciated.

Cheri Bach

Portsmouth

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Republicans fight spending, then complain of bridge delays: Letters