Tag Archives: The Red County Caucus

Dec 2 2017

The Red County Caucus Issues Statement on Collins’ Support of Tax Reform

 

Reports that Maine’s ranking Senator Susan Collins has announced her decision to support the Senate version of the Tax Reform bill is welcome news to the hard-working taxpayers of Maine. We, the members of The Red County Caucus, would like to commend the Senator for this decision. While the bill falls short of the necessary reform that the tax structure needs, it is a positive step forward and establishes a good foundation for future reform.

Senator Collins was successful in securing concessions from Republicans in exchange for her vote. A political victory for Collins to be sure , but the impact upon our economy remains to be seen. What remains perplexing to Maine voters is Collins’ continued defense of Obamacare and the Individual Mandate, which she campaigned against.

The Red County Caucus recommends that Senator Collins take the time to engage with her constituents, specifically small business owners, whose budgets are choked by the onerous effects of the Individual Mandate. Perhaps then she would understand its negative impact upon the economies of Maine residents and businesses. Still, the people of Maine should applaud this positive announcement from their Senator.

Opponents of Tax Reform have touted the projections from the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) and this should be addressed. Simply stated, the CBO has been historically and consistently wrong in its projections and, sadly, in recent years has become increasingly partisan, which only further diminishes its credibility. All honest and non-partisan analysis agree that tax reform will bring much needed tax cuts across all wage brackets, doubling much needed child tax credit, and increase tax refunds for middle to low wage earners.

In summation, Senator Collins should be commended for her support of the Senate tax reform bill. This bill, though far from perfect, provides much needed tax relief for the wage earners and businesses of the United States. If the repeal of the Individual Mandate remains in place, this bill is a strong positive move forward towards reforming our outdated and burdensome tax structure.

Nov 26 2017

The Red County Caucus Issues Statement on Senator Collins

 

We of The Red County Caucus would like to remind Senator Susan Collins that the Constitution of the United States was written to protect the Natural Born Rights of the Individual. These Rights, inherent, unalienable, and God-given, have been, in times past and present, under repeated assault from activism from all corners of our society in an effort to undermine the Founding Ideal of this Free Republic: that the government of free men should defend and protect the free will of the individual. What is common sense was once common place but now a rarity to be sure.

Congress is now engaged in a pitted debate over the nuance, impact, and economics of tax reform. The Red County Caucus is not prepared at this point to issue a statement on a tax reform plan as Congress is still far from formulating one. However, we will comment on the recent duplicitous behavior of Maine’s Senior Senator, Susan Collins.

Senator Collins has threatened to sabotage the tax reform process unless the repeal of the individual mandate of Obamacare is removed. This is strikingly hypocritical of the good Senator, who was heard on many occasions on the campaign trial, decrying to enthusiastic Maine voters the disastrous impact the individual mandate and ObamaCare has had on Maine household budgets, all the while chanting “Repeal and Replace”. Now returned to Congress’ marbled halls, Collins’ mantra seems to have changed to “Defend and Deny” at all cost.

Can there be a more glaring violation of the Constitution than the Individual Mandate? To mandate, that is to force by law, an individual to purchase a product the individual may or may not want, to fund an ideal of socialized medicine that the individual may or may not want, and to do so under threat of penal action by the government, the maker of the product, is the very epitome of the kind of governmental abuse and overreach our Constitution was written to protect against. Yet, Senator Collins remains dogged in her determination to undermine, once again, Congress and the President’s attempt to fix a failing and outdated tax system in a fixated effort to defend a healthcare system she promised voters she would work to “repeal and replace”.

We ask Susan Collins once again: Who is she representing? Is it the bureaucracies and Washington power brokers who wish to force the individual, through a government mandate, to comply to their wishes? Or the individuals here in Maine who have and still protest this Individual Mandate with its destructive impacts on the households of the State she represents. Senator Collins must choose against the interests of Washington and for the individual rights of her constituents in Maine.

Oct 19 2017

The Red County Caucus Issues Statement on Ballot Initiatives

 

The Red County Caucus wishes to interject a healthy dose of Common Sense into the debate concerning the Ballot Initiatives facing Maine voters this coming November. Both Question 1 and Question 2 have far reaching implications to future welfare of this great State. Voters should take the time to look past the rose colored rhetoric, over-used, and tired political jargon. Investigate these questions through the eyes of common sense and the answers become clear.

Question 1: From the onset this initiative has smelled of corruption, and the stench has grown stronger the more we see of it. The very fact that the $5 million in question are controlled by one man shouts of a con. Mainers should see through this miles away and vote this down.

This is why government should not be funding business. This only attracts the most unseemly opportunists who are looking for “easy money”. Men such as this Shawn Scott, with the apt moniker “Shady Shawn”, hope through these referendums to profit off your tax dollars rather than take the hard earned path of the free market.

Question 2: We’ve tried this before. Hospitals were left with a mountain of unpaid balances, $750 million in fact, that left our hospitals over-leveraged and on the brink of insolvency. Extending coverage to able-bodied working adults has failed in the past and if enacted will once again cause hospitals to have to cut back on services, staff, and causing another state budget crisis to the tune of $100 million a year. It’s the proverbial “Deja Vu all over again” which will see Maine return to neglecting its elderly and truly needy as funds are redirected into the consuming demands of non-working childless adults.

For emphasis, We have tried this before and it failed. It makes no sense for hospitals to claim to be losing money from medicaid on one hand and ask for an expansion on the other. We have made positive advances in the effort to rectify the financial crisis in Maine’s healthcare sector. To return to the policies that caused the budget crisis in the first place is the very definition of fiscal insanity.

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.