AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage says the primaries are over and the campaign has come to an end for some candidates. However, it’s the beginning of another battle for others.
In his weekly radio address, LePage says public service isn’t always pretty and politics can be downright dirty. But he says voters have the power to elect people who will keep their promises.
LePage, who doesn’t face re-election until 2014, says the next legislative session may be six months away, but the discussion has started on what needs to be done to make Maine more prosperous.
In the Democratic response, Rep. Mike Carey of Lewiston says Maine’s economy slid backwards last year. He says “an extreme tea party agenda” in Augusta is thwarting job growth and getting the economy moving again.
Open up the next Silcon valley by giving tax breaks to the robotics industry to attract jobs!
Tax break’s no but with the emphasis oncomputer and mechanical engineering being pushed so hard in the Community College and Vo-Tech program’s one would think that the robotics industry would at least look at where Maine might be a good place to set up shop. South Carolina was a mess until Micheln and BMW started looking the State’s for places to open up and use modern technology. 100 % of BMW’s M-Series is now produced in South Carolina by their own statement’s. Bombardier is looking to open up aircraft and train manufacturing. You don’t think that they use robotic’s in their process’s ? If Paulie is so determined to get Maine working this is good place to start, not making moosepoop speech’s about ‘Everybody’s picking on little ole; me’. It’s time to step up Paulie and get that keester you got moving for the betterment of Maine’s workforce, not constantly making them a punching dummy for your campaign contributor’s !
“But he says voters have the power to elect people who will keep their promises.
“Such as “I will put people before politics”?
Let’s not forget transparent, job creation (oh wait sorry he hired some family I guess that is technically job creation despite the unemployment rate increasing)
” LePage says public service isn’t always pretty and politics can be downright dirty. But he says voters have the power to elect people who will keep their promises. ”
Paul Lepage –Norquist Inauguration!
I promise to be downright dirty!
I will make certain he eats his own words when the next vote for governor shows up on the ballot.
I’m with ya!
Just say “NO” to Downright Dirty Lepage!
Public service may not be pretty, but nobody has ever made it as disgustingly ugly as this poor-excuse-for-a-leader.
LePage ran on a promise to eliminate Dirigo Health.
His budgets have fully funded Dirigo Health, not one position has been eliminated from it, and he has expanded that office’s responsibilities.
oops
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Plato
“But he says voters have the power to elect people who will keep their promises.” Is that way he says he will not honor what the voters have said in that he won’t fund the bond packages already approved by voters??
Ummmm, the bond packages were not approved by voters. They were passed by the Legislature and will go to the voters in November.
He said that he would not approve the bonds even if the voters approved them.
That’s what he said. But, it has not happened yet. The voters have not passed them – the voters may decide before it ever gets to him making a decision that they don’t approve them.
He also has stated that he will not authorize 40 million in bonds already approved by voters.
Won’t sign them “until the State has it’s spending under control” – not never. Hmmm, how logical and sounds pretty smart to not to keep piling it on top of Mainers backs.
Right, so he also says keep giving tax cuts to those with the highest income which exacerbates the debt and allows people like himself to shelter the tax cuts and not create any jobs. Republicans are out to turn this country into a corporate plutocracy and destroy the American middle class. It is their grand plan.
Tinserblic, thanks for trying to educate them, but it’s tantamount to trying to clean up a fresh egg that’s splattered to the floor. Let them live w/egg on their face.
Won’t sign them “until the State has it’s spending under control”
-more like, Im holding these bonds hostage until I get the budget cuts that I want.
Good point. We can’t believe what this guy says or promises. He had the chance, early on, to tell President Obama to go to hell and he didn’t do it. First broken promise. Then he promised us we would find rampant voter fraud. More big wig R’s have been uncovered than cheating working man voters. And all that welfare fraud? Probably corrupt appointees. And “I’ll create jobs!” Need we handle that one…. oh, that’s what the article is about.
I see you like to bloviate a lot. Empty.
Anything is preferable to living in Oblivion, Maine, home of the teapartiers.
I’m sorry, everyone. Good Sam doesn’t like what I say. I recant. Mea culpa…. mea maxima culpa…
My post is neither verbose nor windy. It is, in fact, terse.
I see you dusted off your Merriam-Webster’s Pocket Dictionary or was it your Scholastic Children’s Dictionary?
LePage has “created” TWO jobs and both are GOVERNMENT jobs: one for his daughter, and the other for his brother-in-law.
He is refusing to issue the bonds that were previously approved too.
Hey Guv, one way to clean up politics in Maine would be for you to resign.
Here’s an interesting fact: Six months ago Maine had the 15th lowest unemployment rate among the states. That is 35 states (plus the District of Columbia) had worse unemployment rates than Maine.
This month Maine is 27th. Only 23 states (plus D.C.) are worse off than we are. Some of the states that have caught up to us and passed us are: Utah, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Alaska, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Texas, Delaware, New Mexico.
The economy is getting better in the country,….but not here. Mr. LePage’s policies don’t seem to be working. We need to stop sending yes -men and yes-women legislators to Augusta who support this disaster.
Also, an official from the LePage administration is apparently lying about the cause for Maine’s increasing unemployment rate. An AP article yesterday reported that a LePage official blamed May’s unemployment rate increase not on fewer jobs but on more people looking for work.
But, from the state’s web site, “The unemployment rate rise in May is primarily due to a decline in employment.” In other words, fewer jobs. While the national economy is growing, Maine’s is shrinking.
http://www.maine.gov/labor/cwr…
Somebody in the LePage administration is monkeying with the facts.
6 months ago there were more jobs for the holidays, everyone hires more personal. The wreath makers, brush pickers, added staf for the stores to help with xmas shopping ect. We would have been a lot worse off in Dec. or 6 months ago if not for that.
Nice try but,
If you look at the statistics, (here’s a link)
http://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm
you’ll see that Maine’s unemployment ranking among the states (and D.C.) has been for a couple of years consistently in the 15th, 16th 17th area. Even while Mr. LePage was campaigning for office and claiming Maine’s economy was terrible, it was better than two thirds of the states. Only in the last couple of months have we dropped way below 20th.
We are now in the bottom half, for the first time since the recession started.
Instead of being “open for business”, maybe we should focus on being open for jobs.
So, if three years later, Obama can blame Bush for all his problems, then LePage should be able to blame the last 25 years the Democrats have held Maine in a choke hold for at least this whole term and even into his second term.
What is to blame is 30 years of failed trickle down economics and shifting the tax burden from the rich to the middle class while exporting American jobs, all celebrated by the Republicans and the right wing. And yes, Bush SQUANDERED the Clinton surplus with an 8-year return ramp up of that failed economic theory and ended with flat wages and the BUSH-Great Recession which of course will take years to recover from. Now, no thanks to right wing of-by-and-for-the-Koch Brothers obsructionism in Congress, we can not get an additional jobs bill, measures which most Republican used to support before they went TeaRadical. Still, thanks to Obama we stopped the next great depression, have had 27 months of positive job growth, saved millions of direct and indirect jobs connected to the auto industry which Romney and the right wingers wanted to see destroyed, and have the least net growth in government spending in decades.
Trickle down does not work and has never worked, and it never will. And we are not going to let the right wing continue to destroy the American middle class. Here in Maine, the GOP is TOAST come November.
I would look at the Monkey!
He says that voters have the power to elect people who will keep their promises. You will also notice that he didn’t say that he was one of those people.
But he has kept his promises.
You might want to look at little closer at his promise to eliminate Dirigo Health.
he’s fully funded it in every budget, not cut one single position and has actually expanded that office’s responsibilities.
I frequently hear radio adds from the LePage administration seeking MORE participants in Dirigo Health.
oops, he did it again.
Hang in there Paul, your a breath of fresh air in a progressive state.
Or, a breath of stale air in a progressive state, depending on your point of view.
More like the stench of BS we’re subjected to every time he opens his mouth.
AMEN!!
“Public service isn’t always pretty”
…….nor are public servants.
The gov. has never spoken truer words.I havent seen a rush on him cleaning out his desk just hiring more relatives.I havent heard anymore about his middle management positions that were doing nothing and getting paid and the list goes on.I guess we will have to vote out the dead wood and see if we can put someone in who refuses to be part of the “good old boys club”and get down to business.The lawmakers of maine has got to be the best part time job ever once your in your in.I wonder what the % of lawmakers or state positions were arrested or charged with crimes in the past year? Oh well life goes on .I wonder if bruce took back his membership offer for not standing by him?
Dear Mike Carey – It will take years to undo the decades of extreme left-wing experiments in Maine.
Better experimentation that we ALL profit by as opposed to retreating back into the 1850’s, where Paulie and his nutjob commando’s, want to take us to. His, and Charlie Summer’s, recent attempt to keep voter’s that the GOP, and the Tea Party, don’t like, and know will vote against them, is clear proof that that anything or position that is contrary to the Leave-it-to-Beaver mentality and position of these 2 group’s is something to be stamped out at every opportunity, no matter what the cost to democracy and the voter’s. So please, make all the whining and crying you want. All it does is more clearly define just what, and who, is the best candidate for Maine to be lead in moving forward. Anything less is retreating into our past like a kid that caught and running away afraid of what’s coming, no matter what. Progress, no matter how messy and painful, requires experimentation, even if it doesn’t work. But it leads to progress. Sitting under a toadstool, or retreating, just requires you to admt to cowardice and stupidity. Maine has had enough, and lookig forward, is gonna’ get more before 2014. The next Governor’s election is gonna be sickiningly simple at this rate. So are the State House race’s !
Thats one of the reasons that I am discouraged with Obama!
I don’t think that he understands if you negotiate with these nuts who want to go back to the “1850’s” that we will end up in the “1930’s” —- Great depression!
To be sure, that extremist liberal agenda will never be undone. Maine is sunk.
I had years of good life in Maine!
“Without” the Open for Buisness sign!
Well lucky you. Some of your neighbors may not have trust funds.
It’s those of us without trust funds who are hurting because of LePage’s governorship!
Keep trying, Travis. Sooner or later they will “get it.” May take many, many repetitions.
I earned every cent of it as a “Wage” earner!
Co-workers laughed at my regular 60+ hours a week and said that I will only pay it into the Government!
Some of my neighbors are lazy and delusional believeing that the Government owes them the good life “Without” Taxes!
“Public service isn’t always pretty, LePage says” For once I agree with him… he’s living proof!
The true control in a government is the Voter. If a governing body is not representing the people, the pen is mightier then the sword. If you want your state or federal governance to perform for the best of their citizens then we have to make sure this happens. Listening to rhetoric will not enhance or move forward what will benefit a city, county,state, or federal agency. For this my fellow citizen make sure your pencil is sharp come November. And if that election proves no results then sharpen your pencil again for the following election, and then the next election. You get my drift I’m sure. We the Voter have sole control. They work for us.
Someone should tell LePage that!!!
See, this is where you have it wrong in thinking that the voter is not being represented right now. The pencil was sharped to a fierce tip 2010 and the voter spoke and was heard.
LePage has passed the biggest tax cuts in Maine history, a massive overhaul of the health
insurance system, charter schools legislation, regulatory reform and an
ongoing consolidation of state government.
By golly, he has been doing plenty of work for us!!
My bridge in Brooklyn is still for sale.
THAT’S your best reply?
Revoke her voter card, LePage.
I thought it was only Charlie Summers and Charlie Webster that were in charge of trampling voter rights. Thanks for letting us know LePage is in on it too!
I think that his tax cut was going from 8.5% of income above $39,900 to 7.95%. But the only cut due in 2013 is for the top bracket. So a couple filing jointly with a taxable income of $49,900 would end up saving $55. Is that about right? If it is, that’s about $1 a week. A couple earning $239,900 would save $1100. A couple earning $39,900 would save nothing, not a penny.
The new tax code changes is
expected eliminate tax payments for 70,000 low-income Mainers. This
represents the largest tax cut in Maine history. I have not checked your math, but, are you seriously now going to squabble about “how much” of a savings is, in your opinion, a “good enough” savings.
You conservatives make no sense. On the one hand you complain that the poor pay no income tax. How many times have you seen the complaint that 50% or so of Americans pay no federal income tax? Then you turn around and applaud Governor LePage for eliminating tax payments for 70,000 low-income Mainers. So which way do you want it?
By the way can you point to some source that can be checked to back up the claim that 70,000 low-income Mainers will have tax payments eliminated? I have a feeling that that claim is smoke and mirrors. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
See and that’s where you liberals derail the train of reality, by making unfounded assumptions and basing your decision and bias on that poor information. First I am not a conservative. Second, I don’t see you posting links to your back up, so zip it. But, because my information is based in fact and reality, I shall. Here’s just a few to send your “BS Liberal Meter” pinging.
http://www.twincitytimes.com/politics/gov-lepage-signs-budget-with-largest-tax-cut-in-maine-history
http://www.sunjournal.com/state/story/1049247
http://www.pressherald.com/news/governor-signs-_6-billion-state-budget-into-law_2011-06-21.html
So, enjoy your slice of humble pie and learn not to be such an angry liberal that most of America can’t stand right now. You do no favor to your party of putzes.
Health insurance is now more expensive in rural areas of the state where Governor LePage drew his greatest support. How about that for ironic?
I’d like to see your “proof” of said claim. But, let’s just assume it is true for arguments sake, even so the vast majority of citizens will benefit from this reform, which has to outweigh the lose for a smaller group.
I know you won’t accept this argument because it is much like the arguments put forth by Adam Goode, a Democratic legislator. But use your logic. Insurance companies hire actuaries to do detailed studies of their market. Older people are more likely to require medical care. Poorer people are more likely to require medical care. People who have less access to preventative care or who have to travel longer distances to receive care are likely to be more expensive unless, of course, they forego medical care. Rural counties in Maine have higher percentages of people likely to incur higher costs and insurance companies know this. The wealthier and more urbanized counties have a larger percentage of younger, healthier, more affluent people. The potential cost to insurance companies isn’t as great. The change might not be dramatic enough to be noticeable, but insurance companies will charge in relation to experienced or expected loss. It’s just common sense.
If insurance companies are making so much money by taking advantage of the Maine people, why aren’t there more of them cashing in on this easy money? Because our market has been so over-regulated only the strongest could survive. Finally, that is changing.
My question is this – why do the Democrats want to protect Anthem’s monopoly so much?
No, insurance companies charge in relation to competition. Open the state border to other insurance companies and sit back and watch the prices drop. Nobody loses, everyone wins. Capitalism at its best.
If you really believe what you said in this comment, “even so the vast majority of citizens will benefit from this reform, which has to outweigh the lose for a smaller group.”, then you should support a national healthcare system for all, advocate a tax code that truly requires the very wealthy to pay reasonably higher rates relative to their income, increase and enforce controls and regulations on business and industry that prohibit the kind of practices that unethically fatten the wallets of the plutocracy at the expense of the rest of society, oppose the anonymous and unrestricted infusion of money into political campaigns by corporations and the super-rich that undermine the democratic process, etc., etc., etc. – all of such reforms are under assault by the right wing.
Have some more Kool-Aid. No, no and no. Health insurance crisis ends when the government gets out and let’s capitalism take over. Demand drives competition which drives prices down.
Hey, Goody, he caught you…. own up!!
You need to condition more, unconditioner …. you make no sense.
I think you need to reread my statement. I’m not so sure that your all that right. He has done some stuff but he is not walking on water just quite yet. And i’m guessing by your writings that you must be a good little repub. Not sure that everyone will agree with you. I will be willing to listen. My position is that there is good material on both sides of the isle. And some crap on both as well. The need for blending is in order and till we do, the smart voter will make sure that both sides get heard. This thing about one side taking all is kind of dictatorshipish. A good running government needs both sides to run effectively. And to do this the Voter needs to take back control.
“Voters have the power to elect politicians that will keep their promises”, so where are the jobs, jobs, jobs he promised?
Oh tsk, tsk, cut the poor tyrant some slack on the jobs. For cryin’ out loud, how can anyone forget he’s created two-one for his daughter and one for his brother-in-law.
What more do you expect?
Nothing is dirtier than hiring relatives.
Not pretty? With you Lepage, it is pretty ugly.
Rep. Mike Carey of Lewiston says Maine’s economy slid backwards last
year. He says “an extreme tea party agenda” in Augusta is thwarting job
growth and getting the economy moving again.
Give us some examples of how the economy in Maine and only Maine slid backwards last year because of an extreme tea party agenda. To be sure Mike, Maine is where Maine is because of an extreme liberal agenda for the past 40 years and you are just ornery because the extreme liberal agenda was given the boot a couple of years ago.
LePage, who doesn’t face re-election until 2014, says the next legislative session may be six months away, but the discussion has started on what needs to be done to make Maine more prosperous. First thing that he needs to do, is resign.
we had a fight in my neighborhood tonight, a neighbor confronted neighbors about setting off fireworks. cops were called
lepage has people fighting each other in this state!
So the neighbors fighting in the streets had no responsibility for their actions but rather Lepage “made” them do it???!!! Yeah, that sounds really intelligent.
the neighbor said his young daughter was sacred of the noise,
the neighbors laughed at him, dared him to call the cops ’cause fireworks are now legal’
yes its lepage fault
Real intelligent Pitbull. I guess Henry Ford is responsble for all these dang drunk drivers!
Yessirree…just like all the sponge-brained teapartiers are responsible for the worst condition this state has ever been in.
This state was in this condition long before the The Party was conceived. The current condition of America and most of the states brought the rise of the Tea Party.
_____
Ummmm, have you checked Maine history lately. THE DEMOCRATS HELD THE GOVERNOR OFFICE FOR DECADES PRIOR TO LEPAGE!! The State of Maine is in it’s current condition due to THE DEMOCRATS HOLDING OFFICE FOR SO LONG!! Whew.
That level of intelligence is below sea level!! Come on, get a grip! With your thought process, if the neighbors Harley muffler revved and scared his daughter and he dared him to call the cops because it’s legal, that is Harley Davidson’s fault. What a putzy mentality.
Seems to me the real fault is these two putzes are losers and need to figure out how to lower their testosterone enough to make it through a day. God help their children who learn from such moronic parents. Future generations of morons. And since, under your thought process, we can wildly attach blame on people, I now blame you for this whole fireworks incident. Keep your neighborhood under control, would ya!
Pitbull, I fully understand your point. What the LePew supporters don’t get is that this is just one small part of the plan to “Divide and Conquer.” The more disruption and pitting one group against another that they can do, the more they can sneak in the back door and hand the country over to their rich big business friends.
……….and you get your facts from??????????? Exactly, the Wizard of Oz. Show me where this “plan to divide and conquer” is? Paranoid much? What a bunch of BS.
That’s his idea of open for business, our tax dollars at work.
What ever happened to his TV show. Apparently they found he has a great face, for radio.
No one is listen Governor, time to go on your parade tour and get booed again.
Good job Governor…Pay no attention to the ankle biters…
“Voters have the power to elect people who will keep their promises.”
True. None are available, but in theory we do have the power to elect them, should they present themselves at some future point.
At least he recognizes how ugly he is. Must be like the guy who says, “It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.”
“Public service isn’t pretty.” ?? I can understand why LePage feels that way. So instead he avoids public service and serves the Heritage Foundation, ALEC, and the Koch Brothers.
That IS public service to him, Tinser. His allegiance to them means he wears his “Kochlear” implants 24/7, so he can turn a deaf ear to the ones he vowed to represent when he took the oath of office.
Public service isn’t always pretty. I do believe that our Governor has done his utmost to make life miserable for as many public sector workers as possible.
Pretty is not what it’s supposed to be but neither is downright ugly.
“Politics can be downright dirty…” A positive assertion from a Tea Party governor in lock step with the National Tea Party’s Radical Right Agenda.
“An extreme tea party agenda” is thwarting job growth in Maine. A practical explanation behind the dirty politics of the Tea Party Blockade in Augusta and in Washington, as defined by State Rep. Mike Carey of Lewiston.
“LePage says public service isn’t always pretty” Really? …. in the case of those he represents “It’s never pretty”