Somebody is finally concerned about taxpayers’ money. The Republican legislative majority has uncovered various scandalous/criminal situations left from 40 years of Democrat-controlled government.
Residents owe the Republican majority and governor a great debt of gratitude for continuing to untangle the government structure they inherited.
Republicans attacked the exorbitant and unsustainable spending in the Department of Health and Human Services, reformed welfare, lowered taxes and reduced the inherited multi-billion-dollar debt to the retirement funds.
Republicans uncovered criminal fraud in the Turnpike Authority. They have found unexplained management in the Maine Housing Authority with expenses that don’t pass the straight-face test.
State government under Republican control is improving. I cannot say the same for the U.S. Senate under Democratic control.
Electing a responsible, transparent and accountable Republican administration will serve Maine and the U.S. well. That will be a tough job because the media favor the Democrats.
Maine people deserve better.
Thomas F. Shields, Auburn
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T. Shields: State government on the mend
Tom 2 pm ish friday
A State Treasurer who doesn't know he is suppose to get - out - of business when he serves the public in a position that doles out money ? That's dumb
He's got your money already , Mainers √
Figures don't lie . Liars go figure . I'll be the first to admit that business of America is.. business . Not theft
Conflicts of interest , lapses of judgement , " I didn't know ," are pretty lame Republican excuses ( to quote Reagan and Regan ). Selective memory works both ways , dead-eye Dick Cheney . Waterboarding helps √ Memory like an elephant . . ... It's more like " mind like a steel trap ; rusted and permamnently closed ," when it comes to the shamed and disorganized party of Lincoln , from Illinois
Who are Bush and Cheney endorsing ?
We like our President , from Illinois , just fine /s, Steve Dosh , Alo'ha from Pahoa , HI , his birthstate :)
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debt; the greatest economic recession in 70+ years; scandal after scandal after scandal; a propaganda war on women, ACORN, senior citizens, the young, planned parenthood. The list just goes on and on.They want us to go back to the gold standard (didn't work then won't work now). They think the only thing that motivates people is money or punishment because its the only thing that motivates them. They live by the standard that what they want and do is the only thing good for the rest of us.
I think not.
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No, actually, they didn't. The OPEGA investigation that lead to Violette's resignation and eventual conviction was instigated by Dawn Hill(D-York)
Notice the bolding. It's a D for Democrat, not R for Republican
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I was waiting for that. Today didn't feel right until I got a disagree.
I mean, I stated facts. Of COURSE someone should disagree with it.
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...why it is more important to blame people for something instead of trying to fix a situation. My only thought is that it's easy to blame someone, it's difficult to fix something.
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I could gag a when I hear the MITT, the NEWT, and the SANATORIUM respond to a question about what they would do to fix particular problems our country is now facing. All they can come up with is what Obama should have done. They live in hind sight instead of coming up with constructive ideas for the future. ( OOPS! the Newt is promising $2.50 a gallon gas---now that's a gas). God God Dr. Shields, your grand old party of losers have to come up with something better.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond."All they can come up with is
"All they can come up with is what obama should have done"...With all due respect, Al, that's probably because all obama's been doing is blaming Bush. It's been almost 4 years, man. obama surely has to own some of this crap by now. What does Bush have to do with gas at $3.90 a gallon? What was it when obama took office, $1.75 or so?
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Go on line and check out the gas prices in 2007. $4.00 under the Bush? YUP! How soon we forget. And man, does Obama have a lot to blame the "previous administration" for (he's never used the BUSH word). $1.75 a gallon or so? You, the parrot and Breton must be passing around a bowl of weed. And if the current GOP candidates think they have a snow balls chance in hell, they're smoking weed too.
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Skipped your meds today, eh?
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Listen, this current price jump is based far more on Iran being naughty. We messed with their economy, so they are not only getting revenge by making oil speculators freak out and slowing our economy, but also reaping the benefits of making their chief export worth a ton more money.
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Respectful includes you too, Pirate.
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Just like the school yard; the bully gets a near pass, but if the bullied kid retaliates in any way, he gets detention. I could've had him walk the plank, you know. Some things never change.
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Please be respectful of others on this board.
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...know what I did to be disrespectful, so to make sure I don't do it again, please remove me from your list. Thank you.
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If you're looking for consistency, Bob, it's a dry search.
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Mods are yelling at Pirate and Al. Your cool Bob
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Yes. Thanks, Jason.
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How do you know? Your Iran comments might have been offensive. 0O:-)
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I did use "your" instead of "you're"
Detention.
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...is a contraction of "you are." Your is a possessive.
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...I'm with you, Paul. You just picked the wrong example. In fact, it was Bush, Chaney and their cronies (all oil barons) that began the slippery slope with rules and regulations that has become $4 a gallon gas. My point was if Republicans, Democrats, Independents (of which I am one), Greenies, etc. put all the time and energy they waste on blaming each other into finding solutions, we'd be a lot better off.
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Fair enough...
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1. One scandal MTA, who’s Board of Directors (Demo’s and Rep's), should have done their job of oversight.
2. Tax reduction-starting 2013 that gives 75% of money to the wealthiest 5% of Mainers
I will see very little as will most Mainers .
3. Retirement reform that TAXED retired Mainers $100's -$1000's in lost COLA's and caps -- A major money shift FROM the retired people TO the State government (we are taxpayers ) The “inherited retirement debt is from BOTH Republicans and Democrats over 60 years and the Democrats were paying it back !!!
4. HealthCare (MaineCare) cost SHIFTED from the state to the hospitals and the hospitals will SHIFT to insurance companies and they will SHIFT it to the people who pay for health care insurance (someone will pay ---people do get sick) Gov. LePage agreed this would happen at his meeting in Lewiston.
5. Where are the 1000's of jobs the republican promised? Maine has lost 1000's of jobs
to the many government jobs cut and more jobs will be cut .
6. Just who is controlling the current Majority ?? the people OR the unelected , not transparent ,unaccountable Maine Heritage Policy Center .
For me the current Republican Government has made my life worse by cutting my earned retirement , my health insurance and MAJOR cost shifting which will result in lower services , higher property taxes or higher healthcare cost. . Just because the State cuts or reduces something does not mean I will pay less -- so far I am paying much MORE. Maine people do deserve better
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1. Convenient definition of oversight. Democrats do none and that's supposed to be called "helping" the poor and less fortunate; Republicans try to apply a little rational oversight, and that's kicking granny out in the snow on the side of the turnpike.
2. The wealthiest Mainers already pay far more than their "fair share" here, just as they do at the federal level. What's really fair is for everyone to have some "skin in the game".
3. Maine's population is the oldest in the nation. Over the previous 35+ years, Democrat policies chased away jobs and young people. Somebody has to pay the bills and the responsibility falls to those who are left. Whatever Democrats were paying back, they were paying with money borrowed from our children and grandchildren.
4. The cost shifting has been going on for 20 years. Finally the state is trying to get control of the situation and pay its bills.
5. Maine has been losing jobs since the 1980s, maybe earlier, especially since Democrats decided to shut down the forest products industry. The promised jobs are out of state somewhere, where Obama created or saved them, somehow without also reducing unemployment.
6. The control on the governor and legislature is the next election. Direct democracy on every issue is mob rule.
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If they want "fair share", let's increase the so called rate to the wealthy, which I believe is allegedly 15%, to 20% and then apply the same 20% rate of taxation to welfare recipients; tax their benefits, and we'll see how long the "fair share" kick holds up.
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The lowest 20% of income earners in Maine pay twice the rate of the remaining 80% source MCEP
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What does that have to do with taxing welfare recipients?
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We do tax welfare recipients;
At least the stupid ones. We let them buy tobacco and alcohol. All they want.
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Lol...How did I miss that?
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People on welfare already pay more of their income to taxes than you do!
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El Wrongo, once again, sage of all sages. But, are they being taxed on the benefits that they receive from "nanny" by virtue of the largesse of taxpayers?
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and that's your definition of 'fair'? Your clan uses a different dictionary than the rest of us.
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Fortunately.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.What is the purpose of government?
There are people on this forum who clearly believe the only good government is non-government. And if you can make it as inefficient and corrupt as you can then people will no longer want to support it and taxes will go down. That appears to be the tack out present administration is on. Say what you will about corruption and the turnpike at least it used to be a safe and dependable road in all weather and through all administrations. Now we are in the land of never ending orange cones and you can't get there from here. And DHHS used to provide a safety net for people who suffered misfortune or who were unable to provide for themselves. Now we make it better by throwing them out into the street and onto local public assistance. We fire state workers then complain that there are tax cheats and welfare cheats and the computers don't work and the dept. of motor vehicles is making voter registration errors. Add to that threats to close the schools, messed up deals in Millinocket etc. etc. What the tax paying citizens of this state deserve is government that works. It is not a bargain to be paying lower taxes for inefficient, non-functioning government.
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As much as LePage has been a complete horse's arse, The Republican legislature hasn't been horrible. They have called LePage out when he was going to far, like with BPA. The problem is I want a Democratic Governor and a Republican Legislature(but not a super majority).
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We just got done with 8 years of a democratic governor. That worked so well that they elected a republican this time.
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he didn't win the majority, remember that, only a small fraction of the people voted for it
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Yup, LePage got 38% of the vote. Since you're so good at guessing, would you like to guess what percentage of the vote your chrony, Baldacci got? (Crickets, please).
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Don't know why you call Gov. Baldacci my 'crony,' since I didn't vote for him either time he ran for governor; nor do I plan to vote for him this year, should he decide to run. So not only don't I know the answer to your comment, it doesn't change the truth to my statement, but that was your point, since you can't argue against the truth you try to obscure it with the irrelevant.
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LePage got 38% of the vote; Baldacci got 41% in his first term and 38% of the vote in his second. The point was that 38% of the vote is not the scab you try to make it out to be.
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So the fact I stated was correct, you just had to dispute it for argument sake. You could not defend the boor, so you decided to lob irrelevant trash just to try can obscure the issue. A small minority of the electorate, even smaller slice of the people of Maine put this guy into office. He really has no legitimacy, but then you knew that.
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Spoken like a true champion of sophomoric irrelevant rant.
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... whenever anyone points out the disastrous results of decades of Democrat majorities in the legislature and Democrat governors, their apologists crawl out from under their rocks. It's good because sunlight is the best disinfectant.
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Dr. Shields, there are none so blind as those who refuse to see. You're living in a fantasy world. Everything you stated are partial truths and innuendo. It's sad.
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What's sad is, as always, There is none so righteous as a reformed *****.
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So "Somebody is finally concerned about taxpayers’ money"
Then "Thank God" you're not the same Thomas F. Shields who was a Republican Representative for four terms.
Some of what you mentioned was probably brewing while that there fella was in the Maine House and asleep at the switch....
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When Dr. Shields was in the legislature, the only times the Democrat majority gave a toot about his vote was when they needed political cover for their irresponsibility. If they could cajole a few Republicans to join the herd, they could face the people with See? They did it too!
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So a legislator's only function is to 'Vote?'
They can't research anything?? Who'd a thunk it!!!
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With the long-time Democrat "leadership", a legislator's function is to sit down, shut up, and do as he's told. It would be nice if legislators actually think about what they vote on, but none of the good old boys have any experience doing that.
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And how many Legislators do you personally know?
Do they fit that mold??
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man, have YOU been voting for the wrong legislator?
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