Dems Radio Address

Fox News ^ | 1-18-02 | transcript

[paul in cape]

In the last week, we have heard a lot about what Republicans plan to do in the name of the American people.

But sometimes I wonder if anyone in this Administration has actually met any of the people they claim to be working for

[paul in cape]

The President and the Republican Congress, on the other hand, have made it a priority to reward a few corporate special interests, at the expense of ordinary Americans. Take, for example, the massive tax breaks they have fought for above all else — tax breaks that disproportionately help those who need help the least.

A lot of folks in Northern Maine did not see much from the Bush Administration tax cuts. In fact, 94 percent of taxpayers in Maine's Second Congressional District — that is, everyone with an income below $100,000 — would receive an average of only $52 in tax cuts from the capital gains and dividend parts of the tax plan.

Some of the people in greatest need in Northern Maine were wholly excluded from the Child Tax Credit — the one piece of the bill that was supposed to help working families — because they don't make enough money! Twenty-one thousand working families in Maine — people who pay taxes but struggle to pay the bills — were left out in the cold.

Meanwhile, these same Mainers are sending their children to schools that have been shortchanged millions of dollars that went to pay for the tax cuts. They are scrimping and saving to send their children to college and receiving little or no help. They are balancing their own budgets and watching every penny, while back in Washington, the Republicans are indebting their children by turning record budget surpluses into record deficits.

Take something as simple as the price of prescription drugs.

In Maine, we have created a program that helps lower the cost of prescription drugs for all Mainers by using the state's negotiating power in the free market to get a better deal out of the drug companies. But in Washington, Republicans forced legislation through Congress that actually forbids the government from ever negotiating for better prices for Medicare prescription drugs.

That's what happens when the priorities of pharmaceutical company lobbyists and insurance companies are put ahead of the needs of America's seniors.

Over the years I have worked in a bipartisan manner to help Mainers and all Americans. But unfortunately, the House Republican leadership and the Bush Administration have forced an extreme agenda on the Congress and the American people. That is not how we do things back in Maine. And that is not what the American people want.

On Tuesday, the President will give the State of the Union address. He will tell us that the state of our union is strong, and he is right. It is strong because of you, the American people, and we need to focus on your priorities and not just do things in your name.

This is Congressman Mike Michaud. Thank you for listening.

[paul in cape]

Mike Michaud is an idiot. His supporters, the environmental wackos, have been lobbying against the paper industry for years, and forcing the paper mills out of existence. And now he has the gaul to accuse the President of losing jobs? What hutzpah!

The Dems have controlled Maine for years, and now they control the House, the Senate and the Governorship. As a result, we're now either 49th or 50th in business climate.

[YaYa123]

" ...people who love their families,..."

So now Republicans not only starve babies, kill old folks, poison the air and water, we don't even love our families!! Folks, take heart from all this nasty, meanspirited democrat rhetoric. The American people know better, a majority of the American people support President Bush, and they've got to resent this despicable nonsense being spewed from desperate Democrats.

[YaYa123]

"Since President Bush took office, almost 3 million American jobs have been lost. 2.6 million of those jobs were manufacturing jobs — the kind of jobs that helped build this country."

Oh, and by the way. When brave republicans stand up and blame the job loss on corrupt unions and greedy members, this unemployment criticism will lose it's sting.

[Howie66]

When a liberal/socialist is talking, you know that they are lying.

[Dog Anchor]

despicable nonsense being spewed from desperate Democrats.

"The danger was too imminent and too appaling for men to be willing to condemn those who were successful in saving them from it. But I fully understood and expected that when there was no longer danger, when the fear had been forgotten, attack would be made upon me; and as a matter of fact the attack was begun, and has continued at intervals ever since; my ordinary assailant being some politician of rather cheap type."
- Theodore Roosevelt