Maine Tax Entitlement Reform

http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2015/12/10/tax-entitlement-reform-question-heads-toward-maine-ballot

Tax, Entitlement Reform Question Heads Toward Maine Ballot
December 10, 2015

ANDY TORBETT

Andy Torbett (meconservativevoice@gmail.com) writes from Atkinson, Maine. (read full bio)

Maine voters will get a chance to vote directly on significant tax and entitlement spending reforms proposed by Gov. Paul LePage (R) and blocked by lawmakers, if a referendum question currently being circulated makes it to the ballot in November 2016.

The proposed ballot amendment, as currently written, includes gradually eliminating the state’s income tax over a three-year period and reinstating work requirements for individuals receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) entitlements.

Tax Cuts, Economic Growth

Liam Sigaud, a policy analyst with the Maine Heritage Policy Center, says allowing taxpayers to keep more of their money helps everybody in the state.

“Government is often inefficient and wasteful, as Maine’s oversized welfare system demonstrates,” Sigaud said. “Reducing the income tax and enacting substantive reforms to welfare programs would allow hard-working Mainers to keep more of what they earn, spurring economic growth in their communities.”

Reform ‘Desperately Needed’

Sigaud says streamlining the state’s entitlement system will help focus the program on helping the truly needy.

“Welfare reform is desperately needed in Maine,” Sigaud said. “The people’s referendum would, among others things, require able-bodied adults to seek work before qualifying for welfare benefits; prohibit TANF spending on tobacco, liquor, and other non-essentials; and eliminate welfare benefits for noncitizens. These reforms will help the poor to climb out of poverty, while saving taxpayers millions per year.”

Jonathan Williams, vice president of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Center for State Fiscal Reform, says income tax reform is a no-brainer for Mainers.

“Eliminating the income tax would unquestionably benefit the citizens of Maine and certainly allow for Maine to grow a more prosperous free-market economy,” Williams said. “State income taxes are some of the most damaging forms of taxes that state policymakers can use to raise revenue. Income taxes inherently create a barrier between work and reward, harming economic productivity.”

Andy Torbett (meconservativevoice@gmail.com) writes from Atkinson, Maine.

 

Nottingham Returns

It’s perplexing, at best, to find that a villain so reviled and mocked throughout history has gained such an ardent admirer here in the State of Maine. The sheriff of Nottingham, fact or fiction, remains a source of some debate for those who wish to bother. Still the fact remains that the sheriff of Nottingham, fable or no, has long invoked metaphorical images of the pompous, indifferent politician who’s every detached existence is made possible through taxes culled from the hard labors and bent backs of a people long siphoned and beaten beyond any hope of returned independence or prosperity. Yes, that is all one sentence and I’m sure I offended the syntax gods somewhere in there, but let’s move on.

Last election cycle, Emily Cain and her running mate Blaine Richardson, were defeated by Bruce Poliquin. Poliquin had just barely finished arranging the furniture in his office in Washington D.C. when he was informed that Emily Cain had announced her candidacy for the office he had just finished dusting. (You do realize the office needed a lot of dusting, as Mike Michaud preferred to stay hidden in the closet and rarely used the desk for anything. Incidentally, Emily Cain has not announced whether she will allow Blaine Richardson to tag along as her running mate this time around…we all wait with bated breath, but I digress…) There was much consternation and head scratching as to why Ms. Cain needed to announce immediately if not sooner her intention to run for office. It’s really not that confusing.

Emily Cain was afforded a great opportunity after her defeat. She could have entered the private sector and got a job, establish some “street cred” if you will. She must have quickly realized that she was in the party of fat cats, trust fund brats, and all around tax sponges. The Democrat Party greatly discourages their politicians against entering the private workforce and risking having candidates with dangerous amounts of commonsense accrued. So she’s followed a time honored Democrat tradition, suckle up to the teat of public tax funds.

Yes, the Sheriff of Nottingham has been reincarnated in a much more likable, effusive, and feminine persona, but still demands your taxes to fund her very existence. Since graduating college, Emily Cain has not held one private sector job. Everything she has done, everything she has accomplished has been funded by tax dollars. When provided an opportunity to move into the world of the self-made, entrepreneurs, businesses, and the workforce, she chose to stay in her sheltered gilded world wrapped in walls built up to shield her from the very people whose hard earned dollars were taxed away to build them.

While it’s more than ironic that she wishes to represent a people whose lives she cannot comprehend or identify with, it’s the hypocritical attacks on Representative Poliquin that reek with the cloud of stupefaction that blankets the Democrat Party. Her claims that the self-made millionaire has somehow cheated the public would be laughable if they were bits in a cheap sitcom, but instead are a sad commentary on how completely detached from reality she is. Perhaps it is the term “self-made” that she cannot grasp.

Along with her Party, Emily Cain has spent so much time living off the accomplishments of others that she cannot comprehend that anyone can create their own wealth by using their own talents, own initiative, and own hard-work to carve their own slice of the American dream. Remember this is the Party that has told American innovators and business owners “they didn’t build that.” It’s the stuff of socialism that says everything belongs to the collective and only the elite can live off it.

Everything Emily Cain has is funded by taxes. All her salaries have come from the wallets of taxpayers. Her clothes, her food, her fancies, her empire, her very existence are all a product of tax dollars. It can’t help but invoke images of the fabled Sheriff dining in opulence by the fire while his minions scour the shire of Nottingham pounding on battered hovel doors demanding new taxes to fund the sheriff’s lifestyle whims. Perhaps Emily Cain should take an honest look at who she is instead of trying to smear her opponents with the very lifestyle she has embraced.

The Bully in the Playhouse

The Maine State Legislature has moved to its summer recess and now the cleanup crews have moved in to scrap the residue of food fights, tantrums, rock throwing, and all around juvenile behavior off the walls of the respective legislative chambers and the Governor’s office. It’s been a sight to behold and not a pretty one. Let’s recap the sordid details.

For clarity, it should be stated that much of the untoward behavior has revolved around the Augusta soap opera we all call “As the Budget Churns”. The Governor started things off on the wrong foot by crafting a budget behind closed doors excluding any input from the legislature including the leadership of his own Party and fellow Conservatives. When the budget was presented, Republican leadership expressed their frustration with the process and portions of the budget.

Governor LePage responded by threatening members of his own Party. He publicly promised to run a primary candidate against any Republican who voted against his budget. Now there’s a swell way to build bridges…

As you can imagine, this first of what would be a litany of bluffs and threats from the Executive office, culminating with a threat to resign as Governor if his budget wasn’t passed, did not invoke warm and fuzzy feelings from the Republican legislative caucus. Yes, they pushed back. The melee ensued. This has left Maine residents shaking their heads in disbelief and embarrassment.

But the push back from the legislature seemed more rooted in wounded egos and political payback then a corrective message to the Governor. Eventually, the Republican leadership would join forces with Democrat leadership to craft a budget with no fiscal benefit to the people of Maine. It’s pages read more like an “In-Yo-Face” budget than a plan to strengthen Maine’s economy.

The Maine Conservative Voice would like to respectfully remind the Governor and Republican leadership that they all campaigned on putting Maine people before politics. With the amount of rock throwing that has typified this last legislative session, I’m not sure anyone wants to get before your politics. It’s a good way for Maine taxpayers to get hurt.

Maine deserves better than to have to watch their elected officials turn Augusta into some dark version of Romper Room. All the bullying and hoarding of toys in the playhouse has got to stop. Maine is tired of the mess.

The people I associate with on a daily basis in my workday no longer call LePage “Our Governor”. They simply shake their heads in shame. They are also confused to why a Republican led Senate could not accomplish any of its campaign promises and why they still are playing the doormat to the Democrats. With election season looming on the horizon and only one more session to make amends, the Republicans need to take heed to their business and tuck their egos away or the Democrats, whose symbol is the Biblical term for a donkey, will continue to make Republicans look just like that Democrat party symbol.

“Doc Fix” Heading to the President

 

 

Last night, the United States Senate passed the legislation to amend the “doc fix.”

This bipartisan, bicameral legislation is now heading to the White House and is expected to be signed by the President.

 

From: Poliquin, Press

Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2015 12:43 PM
To: Poliquin, Press
Subject: Preserving and Protecting Medicare

 

 

Preserving and Protecting Medicare

 

WASHINGTON – Today, the House of Representatives passed legislation, with strong bipartisan support, to help strengthen Medicare. This legislation will stop a 21% cut to reimbursement rates for doctors who see Medicare patients that would have occurred on March 31. These cuts would have negatively impacted Mainers who rely on these Medicare services. Congressman Bruce Poliquin released the following statement:

 

“For the last decade, Washington has kicked this can down the road and left Maine seniors who rely on Medicare services uncertain of whether or not they will receive care each year. That’s an irresponsible way to govern and it’s unfairly burdening our Second District seniors and medical practitioners.

 

“It’s imperative for Congress to protect and preserve Medicare and make it more accessible for our seniors. The Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act provides the first-step in preserving and protecting Medicare for our seniors. This bill will repeal the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and provide better access to health care for our seniors while helping our taxpayers save money.

 

“While this bill is not perfect, it’s an important pathway to allow seniors to continue to see their trusted doctors by making Medicare more accessible and strengthen Medicare for future generations.”