Category Economy

Jun 5 2012

Thoughts on the Walker Victory

The power of Labor Unions is diminishing rapidly in this Nation, not because the labor force has an aversion to organization and solidarity, but because the Union system has come to exemplify greed, selfishness and corruption and much of the good and honest labor force of America has a strong aversion to those attributes.  But this victory for Governor Walker has an even stronger message to the political system of the United States.  My good friend, Jason Savage of Maine People Before Politics aptly explains this impact in his recent post.

This is what happens when politicians do exactly what they say they’re going to do. Keeping promises is the most valuable thing an elected official CAN do. AND everytime you hear someone say this was about money– yeah, it was about the TAXPAYER’S money — not the DONOR’S or UNION’S money. -Jason Savage

I couldn’t agree more!  Perhaps this will begin a transfusion of marrow to those politicians who have the proverbial “backbone of an eclair”.

 

Jun 4 2012

Liberals Complain that O’Malley was Savaged by Governor LePage

LePage Hauls in Welcome Mat for Maryland Gov
06/04/2012 11:51 AM ET   Reported By: A.J. Higgins
Some governors have been known to roll out the red carpet when a chief executive from a neighboring state comes to Maine. But Gov. Paul LePage decided to haul in the welcome mat Saturday when he heard Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley was on his way to Augusta to address the Democratic State Convention. The LePage administration put out a press release calling the Maryland governor a failure as Democrats were preparing to hear their keynote speaker. A.J. Higgins reports.
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Republican Gov. Paul LePage doesn’t think much of Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s tax policies.

As the Democratic governor was en route to speak with Maine Democrats at their state convention, LePage authorized a press release written by his staffers that cited O’Malley’s critics. They said the O’Malley administration had resorted to solving its financial problems by making them the problems of Maryland’s working families.

LePage’s press release then dismissed O’Malley’s record as “a record of failure.” O’Malley said LePage’s attention was focused on policies that benefit the rich.

“Some of these tea party, new age Republican governors like LePage worship the false idol of tax cuts,” O’Malley said. “The fact of the matter is that our nation’s deficit problem, 55 percent of it is driven by tax cuts that primarily benefitted the wealthiest of Americans.”

O’Malley is chair of the Democratic Governors Association and he said his group is committed to electing a Democratic governor for Maine in 2014.
Jun 2 2012

Where Are The Ethics?

The writer of this recent opinion piece in the Bangor Daily News fails to acknowledge the detriments of poor ethics and incompetence.

Attack first, review later

I run a construction business.  Within my bid price are labor expenses and material expenses.  Although it can appear on my ledger as legitimate material expenses to over spend exorbitant materials when the job called for economy grade materials, it is still excessive and poor use of monies budgeted for that job.  Likewise if I pay Master Carpenter wages to a man who has entry-level laborer knowledge of the trade, they are still labor expenses but they are poorly managed labor expenses.  The difference is my business is private and my poor management means the demise of my business and nothing more.  Maine Housing is a public tax-funded authority that must be spartan in its approach to the disbursement of funds that do not belong to them.  It is the State Treasurer’s job to insure that those public funds are utilized that economize every penny and sees that it is used to its utmost potential.  This is why those in the media, such as the Bangor Daily News, hate this State Treasurer so much.  He does not subscribe to the prevailing notion amongst the media and bureaucracy  that public funds are a ticket to posh and pleasure; but much the rather, he believes that these funds must targeted and economized to greatest furtherance of impact.  Beyond the transcription of correctly compartmented entries on a ledger line, Poliquin firmly believes that these entries must show to the public funders of these agencies that their monies are being used with a frugal and concise understanding of what was the funds intended use.  This boils down to an understanding of ethics and job performance.  In this limited review of Maine Housing,  what was abundantly clear is that Dale McCormick believed public service was a license for poor and squanderous management and a continued adherence to the old adage, “Its good enough for government work”.  Bruce Poliquin believes that government works on a frugal targeted budget and believes all public servants should run a tight ship. The two divergent work ethics obviously cannot coexist.