Do Senators Shaheen & Hassan represent NH or NY?

To The Daily Sun,

I received an email about the importance of the electoral college. It stated that there are 3,141 counties in the U.S. and Trump won 3,084 and Clinton only 57 in the 2016 election. As I do in anything I read on the internet, I did an independent check to verify the facts. Turns out the numbers were “Fake News.” A more accurate breakdown would be Trump won 2,623 and Clinton 489 per this article from Politifact (https://www.factcheck.org/2016/12/clinton-counties/) . I’m not a big fan of Politifact since it leans left, but it did point out the inaccuracies in the previous source so I’ll run with it. Still, a landslide if the election was determined by square miles.

The point of the original article was that the electoral college was to protect rural areas from being overshadowed by urban areas. One can argue that it is a good system or not. I’m not going to take sides. I brought this up for two reasons. The first is that I typically write to point out misinformation being spread by the “left”-leaning media but the “right” is guilty of doing the same. The second reason is to point out something I have found as I researched a lot of the letters I’ve written and that is that the Senate is the “log jam” in our political system. This became very obvious after the last election. There are 100 senators, two for each of the 50 states. Think about this. We in tiny little New Hampshire have as many senators as New York and California and it takes 60 senators to pass a law and a budget. We are now at 51 Republicans and 49 Democrats. So, despite the fact the “Republicans” are in the majority, they can’t run roughshod over the Democrats. Quite the contrary, the Democrats can stop any new laws from passing as well as the budget. So, you may ask how did the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) pass? Well that’s because it’s not a law, which is why it has an end date in 2027! It could become law if 10 Democratic senators would vote yes.

I bring this up because I find it odd that we in New Hampshire have a Republican Governor, Chris Sununu, and a Republican majority in the New Hampshire House of Representatives (217 Rep, 174 Dem and three Lib) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire_House_of_Representatives) but two Democratic Congresswomen (i.e. Annie Kuster and Carol Shea-Porter) and two Democratic senators (i.e. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassen) all of whom voted against the TCJA (Tax Cuts and Jobs Act). Do they represent New Hampshire or New York?

I have written three letters to the editor making the point that the TCJA is good for virtually 100 percent of working New Hampshire citizens. I have not read any with “factual” data showing how it will not. The only individuals that will pay more are those top 5 percent wage earners in high tax states like New York, California, New Jersey, etc. where their state tax deductions have been limited. These are the same people who are saying the TCJA is a bad deal for the middle class. I believe about 50 percent of New Hampshire is now convinced the TCJA was a good piece of legislation and I suspect by the end of the summer that will be up to 80 percent. The hold outs will be those that are retired or not working and still believe that somehow it will reduce the benefits they are receiving. I will predict now that will not happen because as more jobs are created in the U.S. there will be a reduction in the need for programs like welfare and the Medicaid expansion. Time will tell.

In closing, I just checked the internet after the government shutdown on Jan. 20 and both Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassen voted “NO” to funding the government. Why? The stated reason has been DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) needs to be part of the deal. A vote on that is not required until March 5 and the stopgap plan would have only extended funding through February so they would get more time to work things out. Do the Democrats plan to keep the government shutdown until March 5? I wrote a letter “DEMOCRATS AND THE MEDIA REFUSE TO ADDRESS PROBLEMS WITH ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AS WELL AS LEGAL IMMIGRANTS” on why illegal immigration is an additional financial burden on the working Americans. I have to ask again, do Maggie Hassen and Jeanne Shaheen represent New Hampshire or New York? Please, think long and hard on that in the next election.

Bruce Jenket

Moultonborough