New Hampshire Delegates React to State of the Union
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 – Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H, said he expected President Bush’s State of the Union address to be “a message that is visionary, that gives our nation definition.”
Gregg, in a telephone interview Wednesday before the President’s speech, said he thought Bush should focus on the war in Iraq in the speech. “I think the American people need to be reminded again about the threat that confronts us,” said Gregg, “that this is a real war, that these people want to do us immense harm.”
The senator also reiterated his recent concerns with the future of the economy. “I do think we need to, as a nation, start to face up to the cost which, when the baby boomers retire, they’re going to put on our children and our children’s children to support them,” said Gregg.
Sen. John E. Sununu, R-N.H., also has concerns about the economy. “It is imperative that we maintain the pace of economic growth that we’ve seen over the last two years,” he said in a statement released before the speech. “We can do much more to improve and simplify the tax code, and make sure key provisions are permanent in order to give entrepreneurs incentives to make long-term investments,” said Sununu.
Sununu also said he believes that health care issues will affect the long-term well-being of the economy. “Small and medium-sized businesses in New Hampshire are always talking about improving access to health care because it makes a significant difference in their ability to recruit and maintain quality employees,” said Sununu.
Rep. Jeb Bradley cited similar concerns. “By allowing individuals to maintain health savings accounts, giving small businesses the ability to pool resources together to offer health care to employees through association health plans, and preventing frivolous medical practice lawsuits, we can begin to lower costs for everyone,” Bradley said in a statement released before the address.
The “substandard of health care” and medical liability were also on Rep. Charles Bass’s mind. “In some parts of New Hampshire it is impossible now to get specialists in rural areas because of the cost of malpractice insurance,” said Bass in a telephone interview before the speech. “Malpractice insurance doesn’t cost much if your revenue is huge, but if you’re up in Coos County and you only have two or three dozen patients, it’s just impossible to practice.”
Along with health care, Bass also is concerned about energy. He said that anything he hears in the President’s speech “about developing alternatives to oil, gas and coal is going to be music to my ears.”
“I’m a long time advocate of wind, solar, biomass and anything he says in that area is going to be helpful to New Hampshire which is the second most dependant state on heating oil of any state in the country,” said Bass.
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