The banners are unfurled.  They hang limp, tattered and worn.  The message, old faded and lifeless, is held high by its vanguard in hopes to wring one last impression upon the people out of a threadbare garment.   Old and passé, but all they have left, yes; its time has come again.   In desperation, the Democrats will once again rally to the Banner of Likeability.

Ah, nostalgia sweeps over me.  We’ve all heard it before, like a bad B-movie melodrama, the constant vinyl phonograph scratching skipping reminders of how wonderful their candidate is.  The people will ask how can we vote Democrat when for forty years their Party has had control of Augusta and driven our State to bankruptcy?  The Democrats will reply that all of their Candidates are soooo nice and soooo sweet. (Cue sound of crickets)  The people are asking why would the Democrats audit Independent Contractors (I just got a call from another this weekend who is being served up to the Unions) in this present economy and put so many men and women out of work?  The Democrats will quickly say that their candidates kiss babies better than any other candidate around. (More crickets…at least its green)   The people are wondering, with a State Government so obese it cannot stand on its own, falling, and crushing the private sector, why would we want it any bigger.  The Democratic answer is…ummmm…well….our Candidates are soooo nice and soooo sweet. (Somebody just stepped on our cricket…sorry, Jiminy…we need a new cricket.)

The sarcasm is over the top, that’s true, but likeability is a political tactic of the left that needs to be addressed.  I am a General Contractor.  I work on homes.  I work with all types of personalities on job sites; some I like, some I don’t.  What matters the most to me at the end of the day when I work shoulder to shoulder with someone, is did they pull their share of the load and did they put a quality product on the market.  I write that to make a point.  I don’t have to like my candidates.  I have to trust them to vote for the people.  I have to know that the Party they endorse will not try to destroy the futures of my children.  Ask the contractors that I’m talking to how well the Democratic Party is taking care of them?  The Democratic Party is crushing these men and women.

I realize that many of our local Democratic Candidates are wonderful people and I am genuine when I write that.  One such candidate is Sue Macky Andrews.  I’ve heard nothing but respect from the Republican candidates who have run against her.  She is a tenacious women with, from what I’ve seen, a sweet personality, but, Sue Macky Andrews has a problem.  She endorses the Democratic Party.  She actively works for the betterment of the Party, a Party that has proven itself to be self-serving rather than subservient to the needs of the people.

Perhaps Ms. Andrews should separate herself from the actions of her Party.  Maybe we could find it easier to align ourselves with her if she would denounce the reckless policies of the President.  Residents in the District 27 she wants to represent should ask her if she is willing to publicly rebuke the President, the Governor of Maine, and her Democratic Party for initiating an audit of all Independent Contractors.  But even if, by some miracle, Ms. Andrews were to do all these things, would it affect President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, or even Augusta?

No, it would not!  Remember, Mike Michaud promised to be a Conservative Democrat.  He promised to vote pro-gun, pro-life, and pro-Maine.  He has done nothing in Washington but be Nancy Pelosi’s puppy cowering on his designating patch of newspaper every time she wags her finger at him.  The truth of the matter is that the top powers of the Party control policy for the Party.   Your vote for a candidate of either Party gives that respective Party more power whether you like that candidate or not.

Remember that it was the Republican Party who helped the people stop the Democrats from expanding the sales tax and eliminating tax deductions.  A vote for a Republican is a vote for hardworking Maine people who want more money in their pockets and less in Augusta.   Maybe its time Augusta started working for the people rather people working for Augusta.

I get criticized a lot.  To do what I do, you have to have thick skin.  As I wade through the insults and derogatory remarks, I find, on rare, extremely rare, occasions, criticism that bears receiving.  The question has been raised, “What solutions do Republicans have?”  In the next few weeks, I will be giving solutions with the help of interviews with local Republican Candidates.  It will be enlightening and fun.  What else would you expect from The Maine Conservative Voice!

A not so subtle inference to a dark chapter in world history, I know, but, as the Democratic Party tightens its noose around the working private sector, the analogy becomes grimly appropriate.  These past weeks I have written about an insidious money grab that the Democrats have initiated in an effort to cover the effects of their liberal spend thrifty legislative practices.  Simply put, the Democrats can’t balance their own checkbook so they want what’s left in yours.  Everyone knows that, in liberalise, the word for fundraiser is regulatory fine, and if they can crush Independent Contractors in the process of raising a few “Bennie’s”…bonus!  It’s a trifecta of liberal accomplishments.  A one more time around infusement of stimulus (that’s socialist for stolen money) funds to balance the budget (I thought that money was supposed to create jobs, not cover bad bookkeeping?  I guess I’m not fluent in socialist.), gathering more “donations” by penalizing small business up the Gulfhagas Gorge, and handing the heads of Independent Contractors over to Unions on a silver platter.  The Democrats from Nancy Pelosi right down to Mike Michaud must be crazy giddy.

Sarcasm has its place and it is a weapon that I use as often as I can.  For many of my fellow contractors who have had the Democratic Party’s enforcers walk into their homes and crush their business, it’s not so funny.  My heart goes out to all of you and I can empathize because it is happening to me, too.  It is a helpless, infuriating feeling to jump through all the hoops this State demands and then have the compliance status that you worked to achieve altered so that the Department of Labor can attack the Contractors you are associated with.

I will not be silent.  Evil must be exposed.  I do this not merely in hopes of alleviating my hardship, although, I will fight to do that; but, rather, to fight in an effort bring some attention to the unfair, unlawful, and arrogant practices of the Department of Labor and the Democratic Party it receives its directives from.

A couple of months ago, one Shelliejo Merrill contacted my business to inform us that we were to be audited.  After asking over the phone what Contractors we did business with, asking for paperwork to be faxed, she set up an audit date.  I took the morning off work and sat in my dining room waiting for Shelliejo to keep her appointment.  She did not appear.  I later learned she appeared the next day to the audit of a Contractor I had business dealings with.  Ms. Merrill informed this Contractor that he had improperly identified my business as a sub-Contractor.  Quite surprised, as you can imagine, my business friend asked how she had come to that decision.  Her reply was to say that my status would not have been in question if I had not terminated my unemployment tax identification number.  When I was informed of this, I was stunned.  I had never terminated my ID number.  We contacted Shelliejo to protest this and was told this was the law, she had the power and there was no reason to investigate furthur.

Weeeeell, as you can imagine, that didn’t set well with this Conservative.  I contacted my Senator, Doug Smith and my Representative, Paul Davis, who expressed their disgust and helped us contact the State Commissioner’s office.  We talked with a Mr. Dean Coffin, who was very helpful.  He was surprised at the confusion, since his computer still showed our accounts open and active.  We agreed since we had had communications with the State in letter form (with a letterhead) a few weeks prior to the audit, which showed evidence to the same.  Mr. Coffin went on to say that Shellijo, as a field operative did not have the authority to terminate my status.  This could only be done by the State Commissioner and could only be accomplished with my signature.  Hmmm…then how could they…hmm?

Subsequent phone calls with Mr. Coffin proved to be less productive as the State Commissioner’s office began to “circle the wagons.”  Soon, it was communicated to my business, that our status had been closed, and not only closed, but backdated to 2008.  This, so that they could fine my associates for the entire year of 2009.  This, despite all the evidence supporting the legitimacy of my business.

For you that don’t understand the severe limitation this is to my business, let me explain.  I cannot sub-contact.  I can contract with a homeowner, but not with another contractor.  It is called divide and conquer.  Smaller Contractors survive on the contracts supplied to them by larger Contractors.  Add to that, the thousands of dollars in fines levied against my associates through the falsification of documents and you have a direct attempt to kill business in these rural areas.  To the Democratic Party the only legitimate business is a Union business.

We can only stop this money mongering of the Democrats by voting, in November, to give Paul LePage and the Republican Party the power to fight for working people.  Mayor LePage, one of the “first attitude adjustments” needed in Augusta is this: Shelliejo has got to go!

What are they waiting for?  What’s all the excitement about?  What?  Haven’t you heard?  The Democrats are about to make history.  Barely able to contain their glee, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Barrack Obama (yeah, your right, it’s a three-ring circus) are waiting for the momentous date of January 1, 2011.  On this date, the Democrats heap the largest tax hikes in American history onto the back of United States citizens.  Oh, the cheering you will hear from the head of the Democratic Party, Nancy Pelosi, right down to local candidates like Susan Mackey Andrews.  In six months, they will see the culmination of years of all the lies, deceit, and subterfuge (the Democratic Party Platform) that liberals can muster.  Finally, the Democratic Party can really stick it to hard-working Americans the way it has yearned to for years.

You see, Eliot Cutler and the Carter administration tried to do this in the 70’s, but it was too clumsy and inept.  Remember, they vetoed their own spending measures… twice.  The Democrats needed leaders who had perfected the art of lying.  Now enter the three-ring circus with Joe Biden running around the edges providing the comic relief, and you have a liberal masterpiece.

In January of 2011, the Democrats will eradicate several tax cuts the Republicans enacted for investors, small businesses and families.  This is the first attack. These tax hikes will come in three calculated attacks on the American people.  Is that strong language?  Of course, it is.  I’ll never play patty-cake with liberals.

The first onslaught: Personal income tax rates will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent.  This will also affect two-thirds of small business profits.  The lowest rates of 10 percent will increase to 15 percent and all the rates in between will rise. The marriage penalty will return.  The Child Tax Credit will be cut in half (remember its for the children).  Standard deductions will no longer be doubled for married couples.  The dependent care and adoption credits will be cut.  So much for caring for the least fortunate.

In this first wave, Democrats will reinstate the Death Tax.  Now, I don’t have a lot, but I believe what you earn, you should keep.  Who are the Democrats to take 55 percent of a man’s wealth after he dies?  It belongs to his family, not the Socialist Democrats… talk about robbery.  You know, I hate the Yankees and George Steinbrenner, but, at least, he knew when to die.  He still is one step ahead of everybody else.

The Democrats with a higher tax will punish those who save and invest their money.  Capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent to 20 percent, while; dividends tax will jump from 15 to 39.6 percent.  The rates will increase again in 2013 by 3.8 percent.

The second barrage: there are more than twenty new taxes in Obama Care.  Some that will go into effect on January 1, 2011 are as follows: “The Medicine Cabinet Tax” blocks Americans from using health savings accounts (HAS), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) to purchase over the counter medicines.  I thought Sue Mackey Andrews wanted to help everyone with… medicines… and stuff?  Oh well, maybe I heard her wrong.

A particularly cruel tax from Obama Care is the “Special Needs Kids Tax.”  Can you imagine?  Yeah, now the Party “that’s for the children” (the biggest liberal lie ever!) is imposing caps on FSA (Flexible Spending Accounts)!  Families of special needs children use these accounts for tuition to attend special needs schools.  The cap is $2,500 and previously there was no limit.  These schools can cost up to $14,000 a year.  There is one more tax hike in this wave, The Health Savings Account Tax.    This tax increases the penalty for early withdrawal of monies from 10 to 20 percent… double your taxes.

The third assault comes in the form of the Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax hikes. A left leaning Tax Policy Center states that the amount of families trapped by the Alternative Minimum Tax will increase exponentially from 4 million to 28.5 million.  This means 28.5 million families will have to calculate their taxes twice…double your taxes.  The taxes on small business will be increased all over the board; so much so, it will have to wait for next week’s column.  I want to thank Ann Pappas for providing the research and “ammunition” for this column

Now for the comic relief…. true story, but I will preface this by saying my wife won’t let me use the word that describes the symbol of the Democrats anymore.  As I do enjoy being able to crawl in bed with her every night (here in my cave), I’ll go along with her and use different metaphors.  So…true story… Joe Biden stops at an ice cream shop and orders a cone.  Proprietor of the shop, small business owner, tells the Vice-President that it’s on the house.  Joe Biden says,” Well, what can we do for you?”  Small business owner, a working American Citizen, says, ”Just lower my taxes?”  Mr. Biden replies, “What are you, a smart -‘Democrat’?”  Actually, Joe, from all I’m hearing, I’m not sure there is such a thing.