Two Visions For Going Forward-- Austerity vs Prosperity... Target: New Hampshire

The Austerity agenda Romney and Ryan are advocating for is being played out in real time in Spain, Greece, Italy, England, Portugal, Ireland and across Europe. It isn't working and social cohesion is breaking down. Former members of the Spanish middle class are looking for food for their children in garbage cans and the Greek Nazi Party, Golden Dawn, is rapidly gaining a substantial following. The Austerity agenda is a failure in every single country it's been deployed and it is the entire basis of the Romney-Ryan plan. President Obama is far from the world's best advocate of the alternative approach: Prosperity Economics and the two Wall Street whores he appointed to head the failed deficit commission, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles are prominent Austerity warriors.

New Hampshire grassroots activist Ann Kuster is one of 16 candidates for Congress who has moved way beyond the anti-family nostrums of Romney-Ryan and Simpson-Bowles to offer real solutions that don't demand he deficit be blamed on working families. Earlier this summer she told us how she came to back sensible alternatives to Austerity.

At hundreds of house parties across New Hampshire's Second Congressional District, I've heard the same thing: the middle class is hurting and they don't feel like they have a voice in Congress. I am running for Congress to be a voice for middle class families in New Hampshire. We can create jobs and turn this economy around so we can have Prosperity once again. How do we do it? Education is how we grew an economy this strong in the first place, and it's where we need to start again. Innovation has been a powerful competitive advantage for America, and we can’t afford to lose our edge. And Rejuvenation-- of our bridges and roads, cities and towns, and highways and broadband communications-- that's the key to a country that is built to win the future. We can make smart cuts, eliminate wasteful spending, and streamline regulation, but I agree with the principles of Prosperity Economics-- that we can't just cut our way to a stronger tomorrow. We need to make smart investments in our future. The time for political arguments and excuses is over. Doing nothing isn’t working. Let’s rebuild our country and win the future, again.

And last week, Wall Street attack dogs Simpson and Bowles backed her pro-Austerity opponent, Republican corporatist Charlie Bass. They attacked her in full page ads across the state while praising Bass' support for their plan to cut Medicaid and destroy Medicare. 

If you opened up the Concord Monitor, New Hampshire Union-Leader or Nashua Telegraph Wednesday, a full-page ad may have caught your eye.  The headline: “An Open Letter To New Hampshire Voters Who Care About America’s Economic Future…No Matter What Your Political Party.” 

In this open letter, Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles endorsed Republican Congressman Charlie Bass’s bid for reelection.  As Bass frequently notes on the stump, he was one of a handful of politicians who supported a budget based on the commission’s work.  In the ad, Simpson and Bowles note their supporters paid a political price. They write, “We need members of Congress who have the guts to ignore these scare tactics and look at the substance of real solutions that will help get our great nation back on track.” 

Bass’s Democratic challenger, Ann McLane Kuster, has criticized him on the campaign trail for voting for both the Simpson-Bowles-inspired budget bill and the Ryan budget-- on the same day.

Toxic private equity plutocrat Peter Peterson is organizing for the kind of Grand Bargain Wall Street is demanding from the politicians they own. There has even been talk of Wall Street forcing Obama to appoint Bowles Secretary of the Treasury if he's reelected. They probably wouldn't have much forcing to do; Obama, like Clinton, has a fondness for the North Carolina investment banker-- a director on the boards of General Motors, Morgan Stanley, Facebook, Norfolk Southern and North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance-- although he's been repeatedly defeated every time he ran for office in his home state.

Kuster isn't being distracting by Simpson and Bowles' predictable support for her opponent. "During his nearly 20 years in Washington, Congressman Bass has repeatedly voted to cut and undermine Medicare-- including his votes for both the Simpson-Bowles and Ryan budget plans. There's a right way and wrong way to reduce the deficit. Let me be clear: I will never cut Social Security and Medicare benefits. My Tea Party opponent will."

A new Granite State Poll released yesterday by WMUR shows New Hampshire voters rejecting both of the state's Austerity proponents, Bass and Frank Guinta.

The races for New Hampshire’s two Congressional districts are replays of the 2010 election, but in both cases, the 2010 losers are on track for winning the rematch. Frank Guinta won the 2010 election by 12 percentage points, but the 2012 election looks to be much better for Carol Shea-Porter, who was elected to this seat in 2006 and 2008. Currently, Shea-Porter is favored by 46% of likely voters, Guinta by 35%, and 18% are undecided. When undecided voters are asked which candidate they are most likely to support, Shea-Porter continues to lead Guinta by 47% to 38%, with 2% favoring some other candidate and 12% still undecided.

...In 2010, Charlie Bass defeated Ann McLane Kuster by a mere 3,550 votes and the 2012 rematch favors looks to be as close. Currently, 36% of likely voters say they plan to vote for Kuster, 34% support Bass, 2% prefer some other candidate, and 28% remain undecided. When undecided voters are asked which candidate they are leaning toward, Kuster gets the support of 42% of likely voters, Bass gets 41%, 2% prefer some other candidate, and 16% remain undecided. Bass had led by 5 percentage points in August... Bass’ favorability ratings have dropped up in recent months. Currently, 35% of 2nd CD voters have a favorable opinion of Bass, 43% have an unfavorable of him, 7% are neutral and 14% don’t know enough about him to say. Bass’s net favorability rating is -8%, down from +3% in August. His net favorability rating among Republicans is +49%, -12% among Independents, and -52% among Democrats.

Both Kuster and Shea-Porter have been endorsed by Blue America and if you'd like to help them in their battle against the Borg... you can do it here. There's an alternative, though it doesn't seem quite American: