Category maine news

Oct 16 2017

The Red County Caucus Issues Statement on Tax Reform

 

 

Tax Reform

As Congress debates the way forward to reform the burdensome tax code, The Red County Caucus offers some common sense parameters for effective tax reform. Most can agree that this Nation is in desperate need of tax relief but the process and implementation often get lost to the web of special interests, D.C. Power brokers, and entrenched bureaucracy. The Nation can no longer afford to wait as Washington wallows in it’s stagnation and We The People demand true and effective reform now.

The business capital of the United States continues to shrink while the size of the government continues to grow. This alarming trend is unsustainable and must be reversed. History shows that our economy functions best when the free market is strengthened and the effect of government intrusion is weakened.

To that point, Tax Reform must provide relief to all taxpayers. It is important that tax cuts have a liberating effect on the economies of every tax bracket. Every hard working American must realize more of their own income in their own pocket which in turn will loosen restricted budgets energizing local economies.

A sound tax policy must encourage business investment which is the life blood of economic growth. The anti-business policies of the past administration must be rejected for a pro-growth, pro-business tax code which gives incentive for investment in both small and large business. This will create real private sector jobs.

The balance of economic power must be shifted back to the private sector. This can only be accomplished by offsetting the tax cuts with cuts to the size of government. We must shrink the size of government.

This is accomplished through cuts to discretionary spending, meaningful reductions and cuts to the federal bureaucracy. Federal procurement procedures must be audited and true reforms implemented. An effective restructure to the entitlements must be addressed, which will focus and target the truly needy by establishing common sense parameters on cost and qualification.

The government with the least amount of functions, functions best. A simplified tax code is the best solution. As those in Washington argue the whys and wherefores of true reform and government’s place in our society, it would do our representatives well to remember the old adage: Less is More.

Oct 9 2017

The Red County Caucus Issues Response to Senator Collins’ Stance on Graham Cassidy

 

 

The Red County Caucus expresses its strong displeasure with the misguided approach Senator Susan Collins has chosen to the healthcare catastrophe that is the Affordable Care Act. The ACA, or ObamaCare, has burdened millions Americans across the United States, including residents of the State of Maine, with skyrocketing premiums, a labyrinth of confusing regulations, dropped coverage, and the fear of a collapsing market. The hard working people in the Pine Tree State have watched the Senior Senator from Maine adopt a Washington-first approach in a dogged obstruction of the President, catering to establishment D.C. special interests rather than joining her fellow Republicans who are desperately trying to formulate a solution to the impending demise of the American healthcare system brought on by the ACA.

It was not two years ago that Senator Collins emphatically promised the enthusiastic delegates at the 2016 Maine Republican Convention that she would work to “repeal and replace” ObamaCare. Members of The Red County Caucus were there in attendance as delegates. We now ask, what has changed since Senator Collins stood on that platform basking in the glow of the applause and approval of her promise?

Certainly, the outlook for ObamaCare is more dire and bleak than ever. Does the Senator find ObamaCare more to her liking now? The Healthcare Exchange for Maine is collapsing. Are these the repercussions she preferred when she embraced the status quo rather than reform?

The Republican inaction on the Repeal of the ACA is in no small part a result of the votes and stances Senator Collins has taken. While the Honorable Senator may revel in the notoriety it has brought her, Maine has been spotlighted in this national crisis for all the wrong reasons. We of The Red County Caucus strongly urge Senator Collins to remember this State that she represents when casting votes and remind her that the impact of those votes are not felt in the marble halls of Washington D.C. but in the rugged rural streets and roads of Maine’s fishing, farming, and logging communities.

Aug 18 2017

Of Gloating, Stealth, and Maine Politics

 

There has been a lot of gloating and celebrating, both stateside and across the Nation, concerning the dismal poll numbers that Senator Susan Collins is facing should she choose to run for Governor of the state of Maine. I can understand the glee. Collins has thumbed her nose at conservatives in the Republican party, specifically here in Maine, for some time now. The perceived comeuppance is a shot of a heady euphoric to the tortured conservatives of Maine.

If only it were true. You forget, this is Maine. This is the state of browbeaten conservatives with liberals and progressives infiltrated to every facet of our political landscape. Libertarians, Republicans, and Independents are all havens to Maine’s strongest political force, Stealth Democrats and Liberals.

With social and fiscal conservatives shackled to the Republican Party like a battered slave with Stockholm Syndrome meekly rejoicing every election cycle when the GOP gets religion again and tosses out morsels of lies packaged as campaign promises if we will only hold our nose and vote for their candidate to perpetuity, the stealth liberals have been free to move and manipulate throughout every dark corner of Maine’s political spectrum and solidify an unbeatable system to victory. With little to no resistance to call them out, the Party of Stealth is alive and strong. They control everything.

The system is relatively new. It was concocted by Eliot Cutler and Angus King to usher in the King governorship and new passage for liberals to gain political power. It nearly worked for Cutler against Governor LePage. And it will work for Senator Susan Collins.

The plan is very simplistic which is why it is effective. Run as an Independent to exploit the strong independent fabric of Maine voters, in so doing you catapult over the primary mess that is Maine, and you weaken the establishment parties by culling much of their voters out. If Collins runs as a Republican, she is crushed in the primary which is why she won’t.

Susan Collins is a political machine and a veteran. She has played this game for much longer than those who are prematurely celebrating her demise. So here is a dose of reality.

If numbers hold the way they are for a Republican primary with Collins, she will leave the Party and run Independent. She will skirt the damage of a brutal primary. She will then be able to pull from her voting base, Republican liberals, liberal Independents, and a majority of Democrats.

Conservatives, such as I, may be tempted to gloat her dismal poll numbers. The satisfaction of not having to hold your nose to vote for Collins will be a brief heady high. Much to my chagrin, the prediction is an easy one to make. Susan Collins will be the next Governor of Maine but she will not be Republican.

Jun 27 2017

The Boot to the Neck

 

Stalling is a time honored tradition of many a School Superintendent here in the State of Maine. The small rural towns of the Pine Tree state are breaking beneath the ever burgeoning burden of school budgets. This is compounded by the yearly tradition of dipping back into the nearly parched taxation well for budgetary shortfalls, which have been increasing at a rate of some $30,000 a year. As the taxpayers of these little towns compare their high mil rates and over-leveraged town budgets against the return on their confiscated funds in the quality of education for the dollar from these high priced school districts, it is no wonder that many are opting to withdraw from low performance expensive school districts and seek greener pastures for the future of their little ones.

But the head of each child, so endearing to the parent and the community in which they grow up, is a dollar sign to a school district, and these under performing districts are loathe to release these towns and lose the revenue that the children generate for their escalating budgets. No matter if the towns vote to withdraw, no matter the exercise of sovereignty, and no matter the will of the people, these phrases so rudimentary to our Republic are disdained and mocked by pompous school districts who have no fear of recourse from small towns. Through the din and cries of acrimony and hardship from districts light on education and heavy on expenditure, the voice of the small community is but a whisper if heard at all.

After the vote to withdraw, comes the negotiations. Here the stall tactics, there the arm twisting until finally a town will pay whatever ransom to be free to try and repair its fragile infrastructure from the exorbitant price tag but spare product many public school districts are offering. One lawyer observed and characterized the withdrawal negotiation tactics of school districts as legalized extortion.

Some towns have deep enough pockets to pay the ransom money, but some little towns do not. This legislative session a bill was put forward to help give voice and leverage to towns that heretofore had been non-existent. LD 1336 provided that in the event withdrawal negotiations could not be completed in 180 days, the Education Dept. would provide mediation and should the impasse continue for another 90 days even with mediation, the negotiations would then go to binding mediation. This bill would have kept school districts from stalling and dragging negotiations on for years, causing unwarranted burdens to Maine’s rural communities.

The bill passed through committee unanimous, Ought To Pass. That means it enjoyed bi-partisan support. Most observers expected it’s passage through the chambers to be a mere formality and the common sense bill would become law, a welcome relief to struggling Maine towns.

Instead, Speaker Sarah Gideon allowed LD 1336 to languish in committee until the legislative agenda was near at end with little time left. Two days ago it was brought to the floor, a single protest was lodged from the floor, and Speaker Gideon killed the bill without allowing a vote. In one fell swoop the purpose of the Republic was desecrated, the voice of the small town silenced, their hope of leverage crushed, and the boot of the under performing abusive school districts was placed firmly on the necks of rural Maine.

The big money interests of public education matter more to Speaker Gideon than correcting a wrong that has too long been ignored. The towns of Maine pay the heavy price. In this travesty, silence is not golden but a brazen glaring example of a poverty of morals multiplied by willful ignorance beholden to special interest’s money.