THE Democratic National Convention could not display a starker contrast of the visions of America presented by extreme liberals from San Francisco like Kamala Harris, and formerly centrist Democrats, who would now be Republicans, like Bill Clinton.
Welfare reform? Expanding school choice? Tough on crime? Balancing budgets? Does this sound like the policies of the modern-day Democratic Party to you? It was in the 1990s, when Clinton pushed an agenda that resonated with both sides of the aisle.
By contrast, Kamala Harris is proposing price controls on food. For many who lived through the ’70s, they would easily remember having to wait in long lines at the pump, and empty grocery store shelves, thanks to the disastrous policy of price controls.
Unlike today’s Democratic “leaders” like Joe Biden, Harris, or Joyce Craig, Clinton’s approach to governance was pragmatic. He prioritized economic growth and fiscal responsibility over more radical Democrat priorities like massive welfare programs funded through ever-higher taxes. Much like the policies New Hampshire Republicans have championed, his welfare reform in 1996 imposed work requirements and limited the duration of benefits, which was hailed by reasonable voices on both sides as a victory for personal responsibility.
Today’s New Hampshire Democrats have opposed Republican attempts to strengthen work requirements in the expanded Medicaid program, protect taxpayers and provide an incentive for childless, able-bodied citizens to participate in the workforce.
In his second term, to spur economic growth, President Clinton signed a capital gains tax cut into law — not unlike our successful elimination of the dividends and interest tax that New Hampshire Democrats opposed. Meanwhile, the last time New Hampshire Democrats led the House, they attempted to pass a $150 million capital gains tax based on inflated and unrealistic revenue estimates in order to balance their bloated budget.
While New Hampshire Democrats rail against all forms of school choice, President Clinton proposed hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to open public charter schools and expand school choice. In fact, in President Clinton’s FY2000 Budget, he proposed to have 3,000 quality charter schools opened by 2002.
Today’s New Hampshire Democrats would have opposed Bill Clinton’s re-election in 1996!
Even on abortion…then-candidate Bill Clinton asserted that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” The law that we Republicans authored in New Hampshire is precisely in the mold of Bill Clinton’s 1990s campaign promise. The law in New Hampshire provides choice through six months of pregnancy, consistent with Roe v. Wade. Following six months, New Hampshire law imposes reasonable restrictions on extreme late-term abortions, while still providing exceptions for when the mother’s health or life is in danger or there is a fetal abnormality inconsistent with human life.
Today’s New Hampshire Democratic Party, like radical San Francisco liberals such as Kamala Harris, support abortion through the moment of birth — and, in some cases, after birth, as famously said by Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic nominee for governor of Virginia in 2021.
Unlike Liberal Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and today’s Democratic Party, Bill Clinton was tough on crime. He put 100,000 new cops on the street, imposed harsher sentences for hardened criminals, and signed the strongest anti-illegal immigration law of any president since his tenure. New Hampshire Democrats look for every opportunity to water down our immigration laws, oppose funding for border security along our northern border, and firmly believe, as one New Hampshire House member claimed, the border crisis is “imaginary.”
In a political environment where the Democratic Party has moved decisively to the left on issues like socialized medicine, radical environmentalism, higher taxes, and top-down mandates from D.C., Clinton’s moderation appears out of place in today’s Democratic Party.
The bottom line is that if you are a Bill Clinton Democrat, or anyone who voted for Bill Clinton in the 1990s, New Hampshire Republicans welcome you with open arms. If you believe, like Bill Clinton, in keeping our neighborhoods safe with more cops on the street, banning sanctuary cities, providing educational opportunities to all of our children, lowering taxes, and ensuring we have a fiscally sustainable future for you and your families, then voting Republican up and down the ballot from governor to state representative is imperative for the future of our beloved Granite State. Let’s keep New Hampshire New Hampshire.
Republican Rep. Jason Osborne is majority leader of the N.H. House of Representatives. He represents Rockingham District 4, which includes the towns of Chester, Sandown and Auburn, where he lives.