What the DC reflecting pool reflects
The DC reflecting pool fiasco is a perfect metaphor for the thoroughly incompetent, arrogant, corrupt and unaccountable Trump Regime, which blames the fiasco on anything and anyone except the Dear Leader who is responsible.
But closer to home, the Sununu Youth Detention Center Settlement Fund is emblematic of the incompetence, corruption and cruelty of the MAGA/Free Stater-controlled legislature and the Ayotte administration.
After systematically cutting New Hampshire’s revenue stream (the removal of the interest & dividends tax, which mainly affects the well-to-do, is a recent example), New Hampshire is now “revenue poor” such that it can’t adequately fund the settlement fund. The fund was intended as a means of quickly compensating victims of physical and sexual abuse at the YDC and settling the cases out of court, thereby avoiding costly litigation.
Yet Republican leadership has consistently undercut the fund. Their attempt to control liability costs via a payout cap is being challenged in the New Hamsphire Supreme Court. They transferred the proceeds from the sale of the YDC facility to the General Fund, instead of to the settlement fund. Ayotte deposed the well respected director with a political crony. And AG John Formella now has veto power over any victim settlement. These steps may well result in costly lawsuits from the 1,600 victims who haven’t “settled” with the state.
But worst of all, the same state that screwed the YDC victims as children continues to screw them.