If you happen to be from District 1 in New Hampshire, you may have received a mailing this week from our New Hampshire District 1 Representative, Republican Frank Guinta. It was titled “Creating jobs and getting New Hampshire back to work” and subtitled “A report on Congressman Frank Guinta's Job Initiative.” Like a good citizen, I wanted to read the report and see what the Congressman had to say about the current situation in the Granite State. What I found upon opening the “report” was nothing more than a glorified “advertisement” providing accolades that direct attention to how wonderful he thinks he is. The report, printed in glossy color on heavy bond paper, essentially contained four and a half pages of “content”, and I use that word liberally, here. Representative Guinta's “content” was nothing more than Republican rhetoric, that has no substance. It didn't say anything useful, gave no data, offered no solutions, provided no vision. It was a simple smoke screen to hide the fact that he is out of touch with the common people of New Hampshire. He is only listening to his “business buddies” and doing everything in his power to make their lives easier, all under the blanket of “job creation”.

The report offers nothing that Granite Staters would find useful. The content of the first page, shows four “working people” working in various vocations, and gives the title “Creating jobs and getting New Hampshire back to work.” That's all it is. A statement about “creating jobs” and a picture of four people working. No facts. No figures. No plans. No proposals.

OK, so there are no ideas on the first page. Let's move on to the second page. You open the report and we get a lot of space telling us, again in larger font, that this is a report. And we see a picture of the smiling Congressman, and there is a quote. “A strong economy means more high paying jobs here in New Hampshire. That's why I support policies that will allow our local small businesses to grow and expand, creating more jobs for our families. Please plan on attending one of my job fairs listed on the back of this newsletter. These are great opportunities for employers and workers to meet and get our economy moving in the right direction.” - Congressman Frank Guinta. This quote clearly provides us with the Congressman's first main idea. We need to introduce employers to employees! Now why didn't anyone else think of that? Apparently, Representative Guinta understanding of our job situation is that the only reason we don't have more jobs in the Granite State is because employers haven't met any of their potential employees! So the Congressman's solution is to host some job fairs so they can meet. This is not only insulting to our unemployed citizens, but indicates just how out of touch with reality Mr. Guinta is. Here's a clue, Congressman. Hosting a job fair is not useful if there aren't any jobs to go around.

But there is more on this page, so let's move on. Below the quote which provides the main idea of the report is an announcement that the representative has set up offices to serve his constituency best. One is in Manchester, NH. And the other one is in Washington, DC. Oh, I get it. If District 1 constituents can't get to Manchester, they can see him in Washington. Actually, since there is no East-West public transportation in the Granite State (We can thank Republicans, who nixed the train development proposal several years ago, for that), it may be easier for those on the Seacoast to get to Washington than it is to Manchester. The only way to get to Manchester from Portsmouth on a bus is to go through Boston! Two offices to serve who, again? The page ends appropriately with contact info for his website at the House, on Facebook, and on Twitter. But don't try contacting him. He's already announced that he's too busy to answer any of his mail. Just log in and get the stuff he pushes out. That's your only choice.

On to the third page. This one has some meat, lean though it is. The Congressman first explains why he created the “Getting Granite Staters Back to Work Initiative”. It's because our economy depends on small businesses creating jobs. Because of that, the Congressman believes job creators are the solution, not the government. It that's true, why did he feel the need to create this initiative? Isn't he part of the government, getting involved? Furthermore, he explains that he's only going to listen to what the job creators want, not what the bureaucrats and politicians in Washington want. Incidentally, Congressman, you are now one of those bureaucrats and politicians. And furthermore, your voting record indicates you are in perfect lock step with the Republican agenda. At any rate, he goes on to explain that he started his initiative with a survey of these so called job creators. He doesn't tell us who they are. He doesn't tell us what they said. He does tell us that his plan is fact-based. OK. So what are those facts? Don't worry, he tells us. Here they are: fix our budget, control wasteful spending to give business owners predictability to grow our economy and create jobs. Here is another clue, Congressman. Those are not facts. Those are opinions. If you want us to believe those opinions, we need evidence. Can you supply it? I didn't think so. Trickle down economics doesn't work. If it did, we'd have a booming economy right now. Everyone now knows that. Except, apparently, the out of touch Republican Party.

More information on the third page tells us that Representative Guinta supported plans that will do certain things: reduce long term spending, eliminate wasteful government programs, protect medicare and social security, bring fiscal responsibility to Washington. Again, no information on what these plans were, and no evidence that he actually supported them. Actually, the Congressman has voted the straight party platform from the beginning. All of his votes support exactly the opposite of what he suggests in the report. He voted to kill the health care bill (which would add to our debt and spending costs) and voted for the Ryan budget (which did not cut Defense spending, which is wasteful and overblown, but did cut social programs that were hardly wasteful, as their budgets were already threadbare). The Ryan budget vote also supported the end of Medicare. Basically, he's misrepresenting himself in the report. I guess that's why he can't provide any evidence. Finally, he comments on how he is tackling high gas prices. He's promoting domestic energy production, opening more areas for exploration, fighting regulations and the Environmental Protection Agency. While each of those things are part of the Republican agenda, none of them will actually reduce gas prices. The page is rounded out by two photos, each of which show Representative Guinta discussing jobs with people who are already employed. And you wonder why he remains clueless. He's afraid to talk to the people his policies hurt the most.

The fourth and final page of the report talks about the Job Fairs that are, apparently, the only part of his Getting Granite Staters Back to Work Initiative. He lists taking those surveys and hosting job creation forums as other parts of the initiative, but there are no data given for who participated in the program, or what information was collected. We are again, told that there will be job fairs, and given the dates and locations. One will be in Derry on June 20th, from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM. One will be in Rochester on June 27th from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM. I guess if you are in the North Country, where our unemployment is the highest, you don't need a job fair. Of course, that's NH District 2, which is represented by a different Congressman. But then again, Frank says his initiative is for all NH “Granite Staters”. But let's move on. We are then told two more times that we can get more information on the Congressman's website. And the same link is repeated twice. I guess he ran out of information to share, so was forced to repeat it. Oh, yeah, there is another picture of the Representative discussing jobs with someone already employed.

But wait, there is more! Remember I told you it was four and one half pages. What about that half page? Well, that's an attached “tear off” portion for sending Congressman Guinta your ideas on how he can best serve you. The funny thing is that there are places for your name and address and some check boxes for you to mark which issues are important to you. But they are printed so large that there is no room for you to tell him your ideas! It's a post card, so on the back, you have to write your address once again. Oh yeah, and you have to put a stamp on it. No wasteful government spending on his part! Rather than pay for the stamp, so it is easy for his constituents to inform him, I guess he'd rather spend it on making his report all fancy with gloss and colors and pictures of Frank.

The bottom line here is that he is no different than every other Republican in the House. And this “report” is a great example of how he totes the same old Republican line we hear constantly. Nothing about actually creating jobs. Nothing about actually helping the middle class. No ideas. No progress.


It kind of makes me wonder exactly who Congressman Guinta is representing in Washington. I mean, I certainly know it isn't me. If you want the data collected from those surveys of anonymous businessmen, you can find a pitiful10 slide presentation on the Congressman's website. Two of those slides are the same. They are title slides with his name on them. I guess if you click you heels together three times and say “There's no one like Frank Guinta”, you'll miraculously get a job offer. And just what is the analysis of this data that suggests that job fairs are the answer? There wasn't even a question about having job fairs, or complaints by employers about not having a chance to meet potential employees. However, 50% of those anonymous businessmen surveyed reported that they had no plans for hiring additional workers. And then there is a slide that reports data on “In what ways does the federal government impede your ability to grow and create jobs?” The largest response was “over regulation”, which is not defined for us, at 22%. The answer “federal government does not impede” garnered 14%. That's only 8 percentage points difference. Incidentally, if you add up the figures on the chart, they total 108%, so the entire chart has an error of 8 percentage points. Bad data, Congressman. If you want to know what bad data look like, look at yours. Then there is another pointless slide that simply says “What should government do?” The next slide provides the answers. Nor surprisingly, the top answer is “nothing”. So, our esteemed Congressman is not even listening to the results of his own survey by attempting to “do something” about jobs by hosting these job fairs! There are a few more slides with ambiguously simple questions and specifically crafted possible answers. Results are predictable and follow the status quo Republican mantra. Then there is a summary slide that purposefully “combines” figures to hide reality and cloud the issues, in an attempt to prove the data is meaningful. But there are no insightful or thoughtful conclusions and no reasonable next steps.

The bottom line here, is that Representative Guinta is out of touch with New Hampshire and the people who he claims to represent. And, since he's made himself unavailable to his constituents and only listens to his businessmen friends, he's also out of sight and out of reach. If you want to really learn about Frank Guinta, don't look at his website, or read any of the propoganda or advertisements he passes out as “reports” to his constituents. If you want to see who Frank Guinta is, then read his voting record. You can check Congressman Guinta's record out at Vote Smart (www.votesmart.org). Don't ask him. He doesn't have a clue.