Two years ago we knew where we were headed.
Republicans had control of both the Maine House and Senate for the first time in decades, and our agenda was detailed, clear and open: health insurance reform, tax reform, welfare reform, regulatory reform, budgetary reform and more. We had talked about our goals for decades, and we worked hard in the following two years to fulfill the detailed promises we had made.
Now the Democrats are back in charge, but there seems to be something very important missing: an agenda. We were told by pundits throughout the campaigns that the Dems could not run on a simple anti-Gov. Paul LePage or anti-Republican agenda and would need more than that. But the Dems did in fact run on that simple anti-Republican agenda, albeit with some dramatic distortions, and it worked.
Sure, Democratic candidates on the campaign trail spoke passionately in favor of the usual left-wing standards: single payer health care, higher taxes on the rich, a higher minimum wage, tougher labor laws and stiffer environmental regulations. But the question remains: What are their goals for this session?
The speaker of the House, who once said in an OpEd that cutting MaineCare is “immoral,” is interested in “tweaking” PL 90, the health insurance reform law. Great. I hope he reads and understands the law first and then looks at the results from only the first year of its partial implementation. It has worked. Tweaking it could result in, yes, more people on MaineCare. Let’s hope that is not his intention.
ObamaCare was touted by Democrat candidates and the need for a “state-based” health-care exchange, as well. But Rep. Sharon Treat, long-time Democratic legislator and the presumptive chair of the Insurance and Financial Services Committee, said in a recent interview with Maine Public Radio, “At this point I don’t think a state-run exchange would be better, to be honest, because we have a governor that has made it clear that he wants it to fail.”
It appears that major health insurance reform may not be part of the Democrat’s plan for Maine. That’s actually a good thing, but it still leaves us guessing.
Other Democratic leaders have been vague with their goals for the 126th Legislature as well. Rep. Terry Hayes, former minority leader of the House and recent candidate for speaker, wrote in a recent BDN column about her priority: to bring back a version of the Legislature’s Labor Committee. OK, not exactly earth shaking, but at least it is something.
There is no question that with LePage as governor, Democrats won’t have a cake walk to bill passage of any of their hard-core, left-wing bills. But why should that stop them if that is what they believe? Republicans put forward their bills year after year when we were in the minority — the same ones we did when we gained the majority. We believed in them and still do.
The Democratic Party, the “party of ideas,” has no new ideas. Since the election, we’ve heard little more from them than platitudes like, “We want to work together to move Maine forward.” Obviously that’s not an agenda, and it’s certainly not a plan. Simply focusing on winning the next election isn’t, either.
Democrats know the issues that plagued the Maine electorate in 2010 were finally being addressed in the 125th. Their own ideas, however, have all been tried in the past, and they haven’t worked. Under 40 years of Democratic rule, Maine became the worst, the lowest, the highest or the most in all the wrong categories. What are their new ideas for creating jobs, balancing the budget, reducing the cost of healthcare, creating a pro-business environment and reducing poverty? They now have to lead — and leadership can’t be done in secret.
In this session, we can expect the requisite paybacks and corresponding legislation to supporting special interests and dozens of left-wing nonprofits will all need to have their existence justified.
And we can’t forget big labor. The Maine State Employees Association, the Maine Education Association, and the AFL-CIO invested big time in the last election, and they will want their dues paid — and not just from members. They have already flexed their muscle in the 126th Legislature, and they will continue to demand obedience.
As for the taxpayers, ratepayers, premium payers and the rest of us that support this state and this government? Don’t hold your breath expecting any kind of relief. You aren’t on the agenda.
Republican Jonathan McKane, of Newcastle, served four terms in the Maine House of Representatives.
The Maine Democratic Party must confront the ugly, inconvenient truth that they can no longer spend money they do not have and that many of their policies have resulted in an erosion of the tax base. Until they do so the fiscal death spiral will continue, period.
I actually hope the Ds can bring the “living wage jobs” they keep crying for and stop this “no job is better than a bad job” stuff. Real Rs want good paying jobs, too. So, how will the Ds entice them to Maine?
They don’t have a clue. The political philosophy of the left is take from one group and give it to another. They take some of the cream as the money goes by to support social workers and the like. Then they say they just made some middle class jobs by doing so. Unsustainable.
I think they do have a clue, and like any Party, they bend toward their base. They are happy to say, “They have ‘enough’ and others don’t, so let’s take that.” Of course, this only works as long as “they” actually have “enough.” When you’ve exhausted that supply, someone is going to have to make some hard decisions…so let’s see them do that.
I am not saying the Liberals are vampires at all, but the cheesy movie “Daybreakers” is instructive.
The clue Dems have is to end the NONSENSICAL TeaGoofy policies of your legislators who just got SMASHED TO BITS in the election because they STUNK OUT LOUD with their TeaGoofy ALEC agenda. No one cares what you TeaGOOFIES think anymore. You had two years and you were HORRIBLE so Mainers said BYE BYE and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Now go play with your pals Rat-Hair Trump and Pills Limbaugh right after you delude yourselves with a few more hours of the FAKE NOISE NITWIT NETWORK.
Oh spare your TeaRadical HYPOCRISY. You people steal from the poor and middle class and give to the rich like drunken sailors. You with all your happy dances for every job shipped offshore for cheap scab labor, for every offshore tax loophole and shelter in the Cayman Islands for your corporate puppet masters, for every tax giveaway to the big oil companies, for every no-bid military industrial complex contract, for the largest a most bloated military in the world, for the drug bill giveaway to the drug companies that wouldn’t even allow us to negotiate for better prices, and for every war that was every started for no good reason. The first rule of the world? NEVER, EVER, EVER allow the TeaPublicans to get their greedy CORRUPT and fiscally IRRESPONSIBLE hands on the public dollars. Look at history, the national budget has been balanced TWICE, both times by DEMOCRATS (Jackson and Clinton). And more jobs in the last fifty years have been created under DEMOCRATS than the TeaPublicans. So go watch your FAKE NOISE NITWIT NETWORK and play with Pills Limbaugh and Rat-Hair Trump. Leave the governing to the adults.
Ds “Hard-core, left wing”? Oh my, you are going to be a problem aren’t you.
Rs were equally vague when they set out with their monopoly but then the ugly truth appeared, cut and paste from various out-of-state conservative agendas, and where has it gotten us? Any better? IMHO, no.
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A truly partisan piece of garbage from the irrelevant Mr. Kane. The BDN might as well just fill this space with one of the governor’s “message” cartoons as to publish Kane’s drivel.
So nice of you Mr. McCain to extract yourself, albeit temporarily, from the dung heap of political irelevantness to favor us with this drivel. Now back to the dung heap. I wonder when we will hear from the rest of your radical right wing friends from the dung heap. You know Bruce Poliquin, Kevin Raye, Jon Courtney and the former Republican State Legislators who got run out of office in the November 6th Republican blood bath. Mainers saw two years of your type of politics and said no thank you, don’t let the door hit you in the backside on the way out. Buh bye.
Oh my god! These every one of these pesky needs to be run out of town for sure. A single party system would be the total answer for sure. No more opposition to quell our wishes and agenda. It’s too bad all of the Republicans in this country won’t just go away! They make it so hard with all of their unreasonableness.
Beth O’Connor is now the vice chair of the Maine Republican Party – we’ll likely be hearing from her.
I don’t think Kevin Raye got “run” out of office. But let’s see “your type of politics” fix this.
GREAT POST ! Keep putting it to them HARD ! No rhetorical quarter deserved by the rotten TeaRadicals, and no quarter given !
I’m sorry pal, but if you consider what you did TO the people of this state in two years a positive, you are part of the problem. It is no wonder the Demos haven’t enunciated an agenda: where do they begin trying to mitigate the damage done by two years of radical right control?
The Dems’ agenda will be to soak “the rich” (under the Dems for the past 4 decades, that means anyone making $20,000/yr) by jacking up the inheritance tax and the state income tax. They will need to lock down the state and shackle the rich retirees to keep them from fleeing, as 12,000 top earners did between 1995 and 2009, costing state and local gov’ts about $85 million a year in lost revenue. Face it, you leftist hate-mongers, your plans are up in smoke, we’re broke, the fedgov is broke, and we owe the hospitals $400 million in unpaid MaineCare bills from your mindless expansion. We’re all Greeks now. Bring on the vetoes!
“We’re all Greeks now.”
Do you understand what Greece’s problem is and how it differs from the current situation for the US and/or Maine?
The problem in Greece is that for years and years they embraced the progressive redistributive model of governance, and have discovered that the problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money. The culture of entitlement is collapsing all across the social democracies of western Europe….but wait, you are going to quote the brilliant Paul Krugman’s insight that debt doesn’t matter. And I’m sure you want to explain to the less enlightened that “austerity” is the villain. Right?
Not true.
The problem with Greece is tax evasion, where one-third of all tax revenues is avoided – about the amount of that nation’s budget deficit.
So Is this something new? Did one day the Greek people decide not to pay their taxes? Or is this the way it has always been so we now have a ready made excuse to live beyond your means… 58 year old retirees with pensions for life?
Does the rest of the continent suffer from the same malady? Spain, Italy, France?
Thank the repubs and Bushie Boy for this economic mess!!
Duh! Way to go Harvey, just keep repeating that nonsense and maybe you will convince yourself. So…Bush is responsible for all those high-income earners leaving Maine and moving to states with no income tax. And W caused the meltdown of the Greek economy after decades of gov’t employees retiring at age 58 with pensions equal to their salaries. Wake up. And bring on the vetoes! By the way, what is the Dem agenda for the 126th Legislature? Eves and Alfond must have some idea of what they’re going to do.
Not having an enunciated agenda is a minor thing. The Tea Party Republicans came into power with their agenda and have tried their best to shove it down our throats. Last Nov. 6, the people of this state said ,”we are fed up with your agenda.” They wanted a return to sanity on Augusta, not some alternate agenda. Just because the Tea Baggers had an agenda does not mean that their opponents have to have one too. The Demos are smart enough not to follow the lead of the failed Tea Party and state some agenda, spoon fed to them by ALEC and HPC, and keep it in their tunnel vision. The Tea Baggers acted with that aforementioned tunnel vision and refused to look that there might be some other opinions worthy of consideration. If it did not meet with THEIR AGENDA, it wasn’t worth discussing – no compromise! The voters spoke loudly and clearly. Apparently, you are too entrenched in your agenda to recognize that fact. We don’t want you.
Gee, you have ever even thought about trying to get some information from anywhere except the FAKE NOISE NITWIT NETWORK or the Pills Limbaugh show? You corrupt TeaGoofies and your corporate masters live to destroy jobs and send them to China and you live to gut the middle class with all your unpaid wars and unpaid tax giveaways to the rich so they hide it in the Cayman Islands. You dance for joy every time another American job is destroyed. The federal budget has been balanced twice in history, both times by DEMOCRATS (Clinton and Jackson).
More jobs have been created in the last 50 years under Democrats than Republicans. Keep living in your TeaGoofBall bubble. Your TeaGoofy party is OVER which is why you got SMASHED TO BITS in the election. Deal with it ! No one cares what ANY of you TeaRadicals have to say except the other TeaRadicals in your sad little TeaBubble. No run away and play go play with Pills Limbaugh and your other buddy Rat-Hair Trump.
Excellent oped, Rep. McKane!
Mr McKane: You have it all wrong. Don’t you get it that the majority of Maine people are through with the tea party, Heritage Foundation agenda? It bothers you, I’m sure, but the people have spoken.
I wish news media would make every blogger use their real name and identity. At least Mr. McKane takes responsibility for his commentary. Anyone not willing to leave their name next to their comments should not be making public comments.
IMHO is the Democratic agenda for the upcoming legislative session. 1 Restore the mural to the Department of Labor building. 2 Roll back the tax cuts passed by the last legislative session. 3. “Fix” health insurance law. (Everyone pays more so a few won’t have too.) 4 Restore the DHHS benefit cuts made to balance the budget. 5 Pass a tax increase to pay for all the above.
Wow! Now that’s an agenda all good progressives can get behind. But you better lock down the state first, to keep all the “rich” people (incomes over $20,000) from fleeing. Calling Speaker Eves! We have a Dem agenda ready to rock and roll!
Unfortunately I failed to include one very important agenda item. Do all the above while making the Governor look bad while doing it.
Oh gee, where to start. First, Mr. TeaRadical McKane, you LOST. DEAL WITH IT ! What stinky sour grapes you are chewing on. What typical TeaPublican SORE LOSER WHINING AND NONSENSE. Next, if you had such a great agenda, why did the large majority of Mainers drop your agenda like a bad habit? Let me tell you why. Because it was the agenda of ALEC, the Koch Brothers, FAKE NOISE NITWIT NETWORK, and the Goofy Heritage Foundation. Your agenda was to gut the middle class and take us back to the dark ages on social policy all so you could kiss the toejam of your corporate masters who play you sad little TeaPawns like little fiddles. Your TeaGOOFY party is OVER, and your Goofball-In-Chief is going to be sent packing but good in two years. He won’t be able to get elected as dog catcher. And what is the Democratic agenda? First, it is to place a serious check-and-balance on Governor GoofBall and stop him from doing more damage. It is to restore some reason to state government. Further it is to work for fair taxation, as it should be,along with the right kind of public invest in job creation, education, and infrastructure improvement within a framework of fiscal responsibility. Tell me, where are all the promised “jobs jobs jobs”? MANY Mainers are now paying MORE for healthcare with your corporate health insurance company-kissing bill. We are not going to let you give our tax dollars to religious mythology schools, and we are not going to let you put toxics back into our products, water, and air. Now go play with Pills Limbaugh and Rat-Hair Trump and leave the governing to the adults.
Tinserblank, your rants are fairly low-grade entertainment…”fair taxation”….”public investment”….”corporate masters”….but at the end of the day, it is tiresome and boring, same-old, same-old progressive nonsense. Face it: you are a loser with way too much time on your hands, that’s why you hang out here. You could never get anything published in the print edition, so that’s why you’re here with your loser friends. Your low self-esteem has led you here to parrot the foolishness you hear on MSNBC. How sad. You should seek professional help, probably get MaineCare to pay for it.
You said: “First, Mr. TeaRadical McKane, you LOST. DEAL WITH IT !”
Funny how you two years ago, Dems lost the governorship, but since that day, you have been complaining non stop about the governor, the stupid mural and his daughters job. Are your memories that short not to see how hypocritical you are?