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How about 3 examples of what he has done right? Mr. "Job Creator" hasn't done jack other than to make Maine the butt of Saturday Night Live skits. We've lived all over the place, in and out of the U.S. When economies are driven by greed, we all pay, and blaming one party or the other is as disingenuous as it gets.
That's a fare question. Although I might add that as far as I am concerned the less any politician does the better. Since when was Maine ever a state full of employment opportunities.. I really don't mean this in a derogatory way as I am proudly raising my family here but this state has always been a minimum wage blue plate special place...
I don't agree with everything he did with mpers but it certainly was more then ANYOTHER Maine politician has accomplished in at least trying to lesson the burden of our state retirement plan..
I think his plan to bond and pay off our hospital debt is HUGE! And then to renegotiate a way better deal for our liquor to then pay the bond is leaps and bounds beyond what any democrat. or previous governor has offered since I moved here in 1995. One only has to look at what the dems tried to do in the last minute to squash it by adding the expansion of our Medicaid to it.
Again, sometimes its as much as important in what you don't do. he doesn't placate to any special interest. And though we will find it is probably to a fault I can't name one other politician that has stood his ground based on his own moral center and not some lobbyist desire..
I am far from a republican, but I find it hard to think anyone else who will be taking his place will do better. And you still wont have jobs!
Jobs have much to do with what is going on a federal level and local level as much as anything else.. here IN south Portland some lawyers have moved in and rented a house to establish residency while they rally the environmentalists to kill the expansion of our oil pipeline that goes to Canada... after which they will move away
Last edited by flycessna; 07-08-2013 at 01:32 PM..
Whoa. "He doesn't placate any special interest"??? Why do think Patrica Aho was appointed head of the DEP? Her expertise in environmental issues? Her totally non-partisan approach to the protection of Maine's resources???? I, too, see nobody on the horizon, but at this point, anyone would be more appealing, and that's what stinks about politics. Like I said in a previous post, give me a real Republican that isn't pandering to a bunch of flag-waving, mouth breathing lemmings that understands the problems we have and I'll vote for he/she. I don't like taxes. I don't care to help those on welfare that will never help themselves, but I WILL vote against LePage and any of those cabinet cretins he has milling around him. The "little beards on ladies" comment really set me off. Anything for a buck, no matter who it hurts. God forbid the chemical companies might have to label products that could hurt children. It's always something against someone who can't defend themselves. Which is why he hasn't come down hard on State employ budgets. THEY can defend themselves. That's where it has to start, with shrinking government. But it ain't gonna happen. Too many hogs at the trough. On the pipeline, if it can be built and guaranteed not to be a problem, great. Do it. The existing pipeline is old and was not designed to take the caustics required to move tar sands. And it runs right by your water source. It's all fun and political games until someone gets hurt simply for profit.
You asked so I will be happy to tell you. They got the hell out of Maine due to low profit. Low profit because of high taxes, union labor rates and the countless fee's and surcharges placed on them by the state. All these collections went directly to care for the non worker all done under DEMOCRAT control in the previous 40 years they had control of the state. I live downeast I have watched it all leave. I watch the trucks full of the local trees going across the border. I see the truck loads of Maine raised salmon going across the border. I see the truckloads of lobster going across the border as well. All things we used to have here. If you owned a business and the state you where based in almost seemed like it was trying to take every penny you made would you stay? If the labor to made the EXACT same item was 40 percent less across a line on a map woudl you cross that line?
In Maine we screw those who paid their own way while those who do not work get everything handed to them paid for of course by those of us who work. Food, healthcare, cars, homes, cash and so all funded by the working people. Hell the poor do not even have to pay property tax on homes they own.
What ever happened to what I was taught when I was a kid you want something in life work and EARN it!
Yeah...those working people support these yahoos too. You know it's tough to delegate 95% of your job to the minions and collect this paltry pay. Maybe the CEOs should unionize.
Flycessna, I heard a report about the oil transportation the other day. In 2009 there were 9000 tank cars transported. In 2012 200,000! The reason......no pipelines! If there had been, maybe those folks in Canada would still be alive. Hope those out of state attorney's hear about this...............but they probably don't care anyway!
Back in the late 1970's I earned $7.00 and hour laboring, some of which was pretty dangerous (high work). At the same time I tended bar at night, just to get by with three kids and live a decent existence. The minimum wage in Maine right now is $7.50/hr. Fine, but corporations that can get away with paying that will, and the costs of living have skyrocketed. Gas back then was in the $0.62/gallon range. What's that tell you? Wages on the low end have been held artificially low so companies and ceo's can reap the profits. No balance, and unlikely there ever will be any more. Back in the '50's and '60's you only needed one wage earner in the home to live the American dream. Then politics discovered that if Mom went to work, just look at the boost in taxable wages. CEO pay skyrocketed from the '70's forward, Wall St. went berserk. It all was done on the backs of those at the lowest end of the wage scale, with little relief in the upward climb of inflation for that end of the economy. Does minimum wage need to be increased? I don't know, and I don't think a tiny uptick will help, nor would a big boost in wages. It would just get taken away in increased costs of goods. America has managed to develop an underclass to be used up, while causing the unemployment and welfare rolls that go along with it, all to protect the wages of the government employed class and the obscene profits of Wall Street. I ain't got no answers, but we certainly have become a sorely imbalanced society. Management, labor and capital. When those three come completely out of balance, you get what we now have. Management and capital now dictate everything to their sole benefit. Tough row to hoe for labor.
Back in the late 1970's I earned $7.00 and hour laboring, some of which was pretty dangerous (high work). At the same time I tended bar at night, just to get by with three kids and live a decent existence. The minimum wage in Maine right now is $7.50/hr. Fine, but corporations that can get away with paying that will, and the costs of living have skyrocketed. Gas back then was in the $0.62/gallon range. What's that tell you? Wages on the low end have been held artificially low so companies and ceo's can reap the profits. No balance, and unlikely there ever will be any more. Back in the '50's and '60's you only needed one wage earner in the home to live the American dream. Then politics discovered that if Mom went to work, just look at the boost in taxable wages. CEO pay skyrocketed from the '70's forward, Wall St. went berserk. It all was done on the backs of those at the lowest end of the wage scale, with little relief in the upward climb of inflation for that end of the economy. Does minimum wage need to be increased? I don't know, and I don't think a tiny uptick will help, nor would a big boost in wages. It would just get taken away in increased costs of goods. America has managed to develop an underclass to be used up, while causing the unemployment and welfare rolls that go along with it, all to protect the wages of the government employed class and the obscene profits of Wall Street. I ain't got no answers, but we certainly have become a sorely imbalanced society. Management, labor and capital. When those three come completely out of balance, you get what we now have. Management and capital now dictate everything to their sole benefit. Tough row to hoe for labor.
Good points.
When I graduated from high school (mid 80s) I had a full-time retail job, which allowed me to have an itty bitty 3rd floor heated apartment, basic cable, telephone, a car that was paid for and insured, enough gas money to fill the tank with weekly, and a small savings account. I had one credit card which if I used it at all, I'd pay it off in full the month I used it. I didn't want for much. If I were to graduate today under similar circumstances, I couldn't even afford the rent without some sort of subsistence much less a bus pass.
Yeah...those working people support these yahoos too. You know it's tough to delegate 95% of your job to the minions and collect this paltry pay. Maybe the CEOs should unionize.
Or those who are at the bottom could get a education and move up the ladder! As a person who owned a company all be it just 24 employes when I sold it let me tell you I worked 15 to 20 hours a day every day. The higher up you go the more responsibility you have thus the more money you make. Do not wanna be the peon at the bottom then don't be. Maybe one day YOU can start a business YOU can grow it and make it a success if and when you do let me know if you still wanna pay you're employes the same wage you pay yourself..
No, but maybe the dependence on welfare would go down - somewhat anyway.
No that is why the unions drove the companies out of the state! When you run a business you pay what you need to to keep the business running at a profit. If this means you pay the employes 5 bucks a hour then that's what you pay. Forcing a company to pay more removes jobs. All one has to do ( those of us who PAY taxes anyway ) is look to government. The government pays the majority of civilians far mere then the market would and every year we pay more taxes to pay for it. Unlike the gooberment a business can not simply raise it prices 20 percent to cover labor costs instead they go to where they can get cheaper labor or go out of business. Go read a paper and see why Hostess closed it's doors!
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