Category Economy

May 10 2013

Cloak and Shovel

 

 

Reeling from the public relations disasters, which have emanated from their clown like behavior in recent weeks, the Alfond Democrats have decided the best thing to do to save face is to hide.  It seems there is no place like the shadows for the Democrats to find solace for their self-inflicted wounds.  So suddenly, there is no public in a public hearing.

Justin Alfond has suspended the public disclosure rules for public hearings on the bills that come before committee.  With the all distractions of the “Alfond and Eves Circus Revue”, the Democrat led legislature has not fulfilled even half of its job obligation with just a couple weeks of session left to go.  So with now the looming deadline in full view on the horizon, Alfond and Eves have decided the sideshows, freak-shows and all other manifestations of narcissism should be confined to the secrecy of the committee halls of Augusta.

This is not the first time public notification rules have been suspended.  Republicans have done so and shortened the notification time from two weeks to 48 hours.  The “Honorable” Mr. Alfond has set no such secondary guidelines.  With the proven history of the Maine Democrat Party, its penchant for cloak and dagger politics, backroom deals and special session tactics, the people of Maine will once again find themselves blindsided by the interests of lobbyists, who camp out in Augusta.

You can be assured the organizations like MEA and the MPA will be waiting at the door for the last minute notifications that will whisper out of President Alfond and Speaker Eves offices.  And once again the Democrats will shut the people of Maine out of their government.  That has familiar ring to it, doesn’t it?  About forty years worth or so.

Justin Alfond has had an interesting approach to legislating the people’s business.  The tactics of choice have been to stall, protest, whine, distract, ignore the debt, cry, moan, insult the Governor, attack the Governor, still ignore the debt, stall some more, whine some more, copy some of the Republican’s ideas, distract some more, ignore the debt….some more and then realize, “Oops, folks!  We’re running out of time.  Everybody out of Augusta!  We need to do some legislating…and no peeking please!”   This columnist has said it before and will say it again.  Democrats thrive in secrecy but wilt under public scrutiny.

Alfond has thrown a cloak over the whole legislative process and, instead of a dagger, he is wielding a shovel to cram every leftwing legislative agenda down the throats of Maine people.  Case in point.  The Democrats are calling for 500 thousand tax dollars to study climate change…again.  Haven’t we heard and paid for this “research” again and again …and again?  But Mainers, once again, will have no say in the process and at the eleventh hour it will be foisted upon our wallets….again! Yet, still, we have not paid the hospital debt.

Mar 27 2013

There’s Reality, Then There’s Democrats

 

 

Democrats have passed their first budget in four years and they’re positively giddy about it.  The celebratory swoon in Washington may have contributed to the collective swelling of the cranial area in the Democrat Party, for they often find so great pride in accomplishing what many Americans consider every day necessary tasks.  For this reason, thinking caps have been relegated to the dustbins of history in the District of Columbia because, well, they just don’t fit anyone there any more.

Then on to the shimmering horizon comes our President.  He assures the Israelis that he can empathize with their struggles with the Palestinians because we, here in the United States, have struggles with our neighbor to the north, Canada…ummm Canada?…what the….whaa…wow!!  From what nether did he pluck that? Maine is a few hours from the Canadian border and we aren’t ducking any rockets here.  The U.S./Canadian border is the most peaceful border in the world, and that’s even taking into account those crazy truck drivers from Quebec.  To equate the relationship between the United States and Canada to the terror inflicted by Palestine on Israel is sheer lunacy.

Ah, but now we come home to our very own Alfond Democrats, who have taught us new and creative ways to pay debts.  Just don’t do it!  Ignore it!  Move on to bigger and…and….bigger government!

And while they are ignoring the debt, they sure are focused on the Governor, fixated.  They’ve proposed bills to take away his pension, just his, not theirs.   The latest Democrat homage to their feelings for the Governor is a bill to sell The Blaine House.  They want to put the Governor out on the street!  That’s not very nice…oh, and the hospitals still would like to get paid, if you could fit that in somewhere in between selling the Governor’s luggage and kidnapping Baxter to hold for ransom.

The Alfond Democrats have passed some bills.  They made it easier to buy beer on St. Patrick’s Day.  Just recently, they passed a bill to ban minors from tanning beds.  Now, if only they were as concerned about the hospital debt as they are about beer and your daughter’s tan lines.

Mar 19 2013

The Two Faces of Dexter

 

 

 

The Governor has experienced a partial victory in the battle over the hospital debt.  The Democrats have conceded that it is a good idea to pay back their debts.  In most circles, this would not be viewed as any great accomplishment, as most regard this declaration as everyday common sense.  But for the Justin Alfond Democrats, such a statement of even a small admittance of a need for responsibility has sent shock tremors through the very core of the Eastern Seaboard causing even “Punxsutawney Phil” to completely foul up his forecast.

Now we must realize these are baby steps for Democrats.  They still don’t want to pay the whole debt. Just a portion, then raise your taxes and promise to pay the rest off with the new the tax revenue.  I’m sure the hospitals of Maine are confident, in light of the past track record and Justin Alfond’s comments that we shouldn’t even pay the hospital debt, that the Democrats will keep their word.  If you believe that, I’ve got some other stuff I can sell you….

Yet to this we have come as a State and as a Nation: when the Democrats can have some smug satisfaction in a partial promise to pay a portion of their debt, nearly 40 years in the making, and Republicans find a victory in forcing Democrats to admit they must pay their debts.  This leaves many of the frugal Maine residents scratching their heads in dismay.  How can so many of those elected to represent Maine become so detached from the Maine they represent?  The answer may lie in the study of two political faces from a town called Dexter.

Justin Alfond grew up on Acadia Street in the affluent side of Dexter, when Dexter had an affluent side.  His family owned the famous Dexter Shoe Company.  The Alfond family sold Dexter Shoe to Warren Buffet and one of his conglomerates. Consequently, the company moved out of Dexter costing the small town some 1500 jobs.

Another political figure also has his roots in the little town of Dexter.  Paul Davis grew up on the corner of Lincoln and Water Street, which Dexter residents will tell you are a decidedly different part of town, the other side of the tracks, if you will, or, in the case of Dexter, the other side of the stream.  Paul Davis grew up learning the value of a hard earned dollar.  He also learned from experience how hard it is to keep a dollar and how devastating debt can be.

Now the lessons of thriftiness and frugality are not exclusive to poverty nor are they exclusive to wealth for that matter.   But as a wise man once said, “By their fruits you shall know them.”  And there is plenty of fruit from both these individuals to see the standards of their fundamental core.

Justin Alfond has most infamously stated that we should ignore the hospital debt and treat it as a “meaningful cut”. He has also led the Democrats in a dogged obstruction of the Governor hoping to keep him from paying the hospital debt.  Now they have capitulated to the Governor, but only in part, still maneuvering for an opportunity to raise taxes off the backs of Maine residents.  The only candidate that the Justin Alfond Democrats have put forward to run for Governor states that, since the 40 years of mandated regulatory hell that Augusta has placed on rural Maine has pushed many towns to “insolvency”, the answer is just to shut them down and move the people like cattle to more urban locals.  This smacks of young men, who are used to having someone else’s money covering the mistakes of their poor decisions.

On the other side of the stream, we have Paul Davis along with Ray Wallace, who grew up in the same part of town in Dexter, along with many other conservative Republicans who have held the line beside the Governor demanding that debts be paid.  This columnist knows from personal experience that Davis has a dim view of debt and has lived his life by the “owe no man anything” precept.  He refuses to purchase anything unless he can pay for it.  Wallace and many of his comrades share Paul Davis’ disdain of the slipshod accounting practices of the Alfond Democrats.  They stand along with the Governor with their backs to the edge desperately trying to hold Alfond and his Democrats from pushing Maine off into the fiscal abyss.

Maine people need to decide which face of Dexter they prefer to see to their State’s affairs.  The face of accountability, honesty and “pay as you go” approach to life that you see in Paul Davis and his allies, or the make promises, accumulate debt and then “cut and run” approach of Justin Alfond and his allies.  The edge for Maine inches closer, while the Governor, Paul Davis and their allies can only hold for so long.  We must lend our voices to theirs, for be assured, that if Maine falls over the edge, Alfond will not go with us.  He will cut and run.

Dec 25 2012

Merry Getsmas

It’s a Wonderful Life!  And, yes, it is.  The theme of that timeless classic represents one of the greatest most daunting challenges to parenting.  How to teach our little ones that the giving is greater than the getting?  How to live like the Apostle Paul who, whether abased or in abundance, learned the secret of contentment?

I was blessed to have grown up in a poor home.  Yes, blessed.  My father, a Vietnam Vet, left for the mission field in New Guinea, not long after returning from war.  After returning stateside from the New Guinea, he immediately turned his passion and energy into church planting for the denomination to which he was affiliated.  What that meant for our family was that we were in perpetual state of rebuilding our family budget.  Once the church my father had planted reached a financial place to comfortably support our family, we moved on to start again. Over time, my resentment of this would turn to wisdom as I saw the need for sacrifice for the greater good.  Lessons a teenage boy would prefer not to learn, but necessary nonetheless.  I have learned that the best way to teach a wonderful life is to live a wonderful life.

But in the arena of politics it is all about the getting, isn’t it?  The struggle for “who gets” is the ideal that predicates every manipulation, parry and thrust of this age-old dual.  In the State of Maine, there is one Party that has a focus upon their interpretation of “who gets” and what they get.  The other Party is in a constant study of vacillation and debate on which interpretation of “the gets’ and “who gets” they should adopt; the Party’s or the people’s.

The first is the Democrats.  The have one constant focus and they do not divert from that.  The government should get and the people should give.  They firmly believe and espouse that all the wealth and treasure of Maine residents should be heaped into the halls of government where it can be protected and regulated away from the mishandling by the uneducated masses.  And if there be any heaps left in the hands of the uneducated and unenlightened, those heaps should be immediately labeled as ill-gotten gains and the possessor of said heaps should be made to wear a sign with bright scarlet letters that spell  “businessman”.  Yes, after two short years out of power, the first order of business for Democrats was to try and vote themselves a raise.  There is nothing left to guess on “who gets” with Democrats.

The reason for this immediate, feverish rush to the “till” for the Party, whose symbol is an Ass? It’s really quite obvious.  For the two years, under the leadership of Paul LePage, the Republicans have been attempting to shovel those heaps of Maine’s wealth and treasure back out to the people of Maine.  By lowering unemployment, creating jobs, making health care affordable and competitive, and passing the largest tax cut in Maine history Mainers are starting to see hope for an actual rebuilding of their own personal heaps.  With 6,800 net new jobs in just 12 months, the average personal income above the national average by 30%, new home purchases up again by 23.6%, and the unemployment rate down creating 10,000 jobs since 2011, its hard to comprehend why Democrats regained a majority, unless you look at the issue of the “who gets”.

These Republican accomplishments did not come without a struggle. More could have been accomplished, were it not for very public defections from the hard left of the Republican Party.  Editorials chastising the Governor in front of the State and the Nation did not give a picture of leaders focused on the people.  The Tweed Chair debacle of the Maine Republican Convention convinced the people of Maine the Republican Party was riddled with factions consumed with getting their own agenda accomplished rather than fighting for the whole of Maine.  Mainers had all they could stomach of what they were getting from Republicans and showed them the door directly adjacent to the woodshed.

In short, the Republican Party must decide which version of the “who gets” they believe in.  If they want to present a remake of the Democrats vision, the populace will opt for the original rather than the cheap imitation.  If the Republicans finally decide to offer Maine people a choice that is a contrast to Democrats, it had better travel in a clean, tightly run ship or the people will not get on board.  The State of Maine and its people need to have their heaps of wealth returned to them, but they will not tolerate any more heaps of humiliation to go with it.