Below is how NH’s Democratic leaders voted on HB1580, an undeniably fair and balanced child support reform bill that would have stopped the impoverishment of obligor parents who are frequently left struggling to survive and unable to properly provide for their children under the existing indefensible and discriminatory child support guideline.
Two Democrat Senators, Joseph Foster and David Gottesman, both of Nashua, were also instrumental, along with Republican Sheila Roberge of Bedford, in adding an amendment to HB529 that gutted the bill and replaced everything of value in it with one meaningless sentence.
Senators Foster and Gottesman are both attorneys and knew exactly what they were doing.
There is one Democrat, by the way, Senator Lou D’Allesandro of Manchester who earned some much deserved respect with how he handled HB1580. Senator D’Allesandro spent a significant amount of time getting educated about the bill and came to recognize how terribly broken NH’s child support guideline is before recommending that HB1580 be passed by the full Senate.
Senator D’Allesandro was out of the country for the full Senate vote, but he did himself proud during the time he deliberated on the bill as the Chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
No other Democrat earned any respect at all, however. On the contrary, if you cast a vote for one of these Senators in 2006 then be aware that you are voting in favor of an individual who supports overt discrimination and the marginalization of fathers in the lives of their children.
At one point during the floor debate, Senator Peter Burling of Cornish was asked a question by Senator Robert Letourneau, a staunch supporter of the bill. Senator Letourneau spoke of a good father in his district who has his child four days a week, but has essentially been
robbed by the state and left for broke so as to enrich the child’s mother.
Senator Letourneau then asked Senator Burling what he should tell that father if HB1580 did not pass. Senator Burling’s response was both insulting and disgusting.
The towns represented by each Senator are listed below their photos. Do not forget these individuals when election time arrives.
The way that these Democratic elected officials continuously use the term ‘best interests of the child‘ as an excuse to overtly destroy the father/child relationship using the power of the state may well make you ashamed to be an American.
Not since the days of slavery has such overt discrimination been supported so staunchly by a group of elected officials purporting to be doing the people’s work.