LePage to Mainers: "Get off your lazy asses" (paraphrase)

The shocking, utterly contemptible boorishness of our Governor is really difficult to fathom. Honestly, how this man came to run our state is well beyond my powers to understand. (yes, I know, three candidate race, split progressive vote, yadda yadda).

Can you imagine the cluelessness of a fathead who would actually say the following:

LePage ended his speech by repeating his pledge to protect the most vulnerable, but he had a message for others.

"Those who can work, we will simply ask them to get a job," he said.

Oh! Of course!!! HOW STUPID OF US!!! The answer to the employment crisis facing this state and this nation is for unemployed people to get off their lazy asses and GET A JOB! Duh. How did I not see it? Oh, Governor LePage, you're such a straight-talking common sense hero for the regular joe. Now folks don't need to worry about the extension of their unemployment benefits or their lack of healthcare, because YOU'VE GIVEN THEM THE SOLUTION! Get a job! Hurrah!

Jesus Christ, who knew we elected this guy as our governor...

LePage Retreats Slightly In Regulation Fight, But Still Determined To Wage War on State

Paul LePage is already walking back some of the more controversial anti-regulatory proposals he laid out earlier this year. The amended package of reforms that will go to the legislature will not include the oh-so-lovely lifting of the ban on harmful chemicals in children's products, along with some of the other less popular proposals. LePage has also temporarily given up his crusade against the vile scourge of vernal pools.

However, what he has submitted to legislatures is still a steaming pile of suck. It includes such beauties as the removal of requirements for Big Box Stores to undergo an economic impact study (oh the horror!), and the dissolution of the Department of Environmental Protection.

Worse yet, LePage has not abandoned his hopes to turn Maine into a festering toxic waste dump...he is simply considering strategically how best to go about destroying things like air emissions standards and land use regulations while avoiding the hard work of jamming things through legislative committees.

As such, LePage has promised to reintroduce the REST of his anti-regulatory crusade as "Governor's Bills" that can proceed directly to the entire legislature.

It really is hilarious that the Governor's opening salvo in his war against Maine is to attack the one thing that almost all Mainers cherish: the state's natural beauty. You'd think he would have gone for--I don't know--tax cuts or something. Or anti-immigration laws. Instead he's asking the people of this state to feel comfortable setting aside their environmental and economic safeguards so that...what, exactly...WalMart and Target won't have their feelings hurt by an impact study? Please. Mainers, stand up for yourselves!

And a quick note to my commenters!

Dear Readers,

It is very gratifying to begin receiving comments. I hope it becomes more common, and I hope to receive constructively negative as well as positive ones. Even a troll or two might be fun. Anyway, thanks so much for reading!

Thoughts before the Weekend

Despite my usual snark/ire, I'm actually sympathetic to the plight of our Governor or any Governor in economic times such as these. It's no secret that at the federal level I favor robust stimulus--even at the risk of dreaded INFLAAAAAAAAAAATION--and public sector spending to promote economic growth. At the State level the issue is considerably more restricted in terms of the ability to deficit spend.

And while I have no faith in Paul LePage to do anything even remotely resembling the right thing, I was rather surprised to see that he proposed no cuts to public education, including flat funding for the University of Maine system. Unfortunately, over the long term I am far less sanguine about the Governor, given his stated agenda of consolidating the state university system with the community colleges.

Of course, there are no tax increases in this budget (I would not support raising the income tax, though I can dream of the day it is more progressive and less onerous to the middle class...), so someone must take it in the pooper...and that someone is the state workforce....particularly through their pension system. Current retirees will lose their cost of living increases in the short term, and find them drastically reduced in future years. Meanwhile, LePage has also proposed raising the retirement age from 62 to 65...something I think is categorically idiotic at the moment. If there are merits to raising the retirement age, let it wait until we are not facing catastrophic unemployment. Allowing more people to find the soft landing of retirement would free up jobs and get more capital into the hands of consumers, it seems to me.

All in all, the devil will be in the details....

LePage's DEP Pick May Violate Federal Law

The problem with only picking industry cronies to serve in your administration is that occasionally people might call you on your bullshit. And sometimes, it can violate ethics statutes. This appears to be the case for LePage's industry-riffic pick to head the Department of Environmental Protection, Daryl Brown.

Mr. Brown, you see, owns a company that helps developers get state permits, and has appeared before the DEP numerous times on behalf of developers. Thus, a significant amount of his income comes from sources likely to be polluters. The federal clean water act states that one may not head the DEP if one receives more than 10 percents of ones income from water polluting permit holders.

Now members of a Maine environmental group are asking the federal EPA to make a ruling on Brown's eligibility.

So is Brown's appointment illegal? I have no idea. Hopefully it is, but I somehow doubt the EPA will rule against him. Still, the issue serves to highlight just how far up the river LePage is willing to sell Maine's environment. There is no corporate crony too business or industry beholden to be a member of his disaster of an administration.

LePage and Michigan Chamber Skirt Campaign Finance Laws

MPBN had a great piece on last night about something I alerted readers to earlier this year: the Michigan Chamber of Commerce's bizarre contribution to LePage, who has no connection to Michigan whatsoever.

Their verdict is basically what I expected. That the strange unexplained donation is basically part of an elaborate ruse of kickbacks and quid-pro-quos designed to get around corporate limits on campaign donations.

Rich Robinson, a Michigan campaign finance watchdog, explained how it works, in a nutshell.

"In Michigan, corporations can't contribute to a plain vanilla political action comittee, and so it seemed to me that that was a way for the corporate money to be redistributed to a place like the Maine RGA Pac, to the Florida RGA PAC, and for it to be replaced by contributions from individuals here," Robinson says. "It's a very complex kind of situation. An awful lot of money was sloshing around and the real why's and wherefore's do remain somewhat of a mystery, if there's anything more to this than a simple currency exchange.

"

I'm glad to see that my instinct about this--something stinks!--was correct. I don't expect there to be any consequences, and I'm guessing it's the kind of political chicanery that is not limited to any one candidate or party. Still, remember all this when LePage talks about not being beholden to special interests.

Real Mainers Lash Out At LePage War on Environment

This is actually heartening to see. A public meeting in Belfast to discuss the regulatory environment apparently turned into an outpouring of anger directed at Paul LePage's very public desire to slash and burn Maine' environmental protection laws.

Many of those in attendance made the point that LePage's "pro-business" stance is actually a direct threat to Maine's #1 drawing point: its pristine natural environment and the tourism that it brings:

“Please don’t gut what we’ve got,” said Diane Allmayer-Beck of Belfast. “We have the most beautiful state in the union. Don’t ruin it.”

...

“The unofficial slogan of Maine is if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” said Marina Delune, a Belfast city councilor. “As a native Mainer, I would urge you to be very careful about gutting any regulations that are protecting our state. … Our livelihood depends on the beauty of our state.”

It will be interesting to see what kind of reaction LePage's proposals get outside of the Chamber crowd. Most Mainers, especially those in the populous and popular coastal areas, understand that one of the few things separating Maine from the Appalachian poverty of western New York, rural Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, etc. is the commerce driven by environmental tourism. You know, that whole Vacationland thing? And it's not just a money issue either. Mainers are proud of their states beauty, and rightfully so. Sorry, but we don't want Slurm industrial byproducts dumped into Casco Bay. I very much hope that the very predictable backlash will give Governor LePage pause.