Posted on 10/11/2014 6:58:37 AM PDT by cotton1706
Ever since Mitt Romney's "47 percent" disaster-gaffe in 2012, national Republicans have tried to shirk their image as welfare-hating, green eyeshade–wearing budget choppers. Even Paul Ryan, the former head of the congressional Ayn Rand fan club, now talks about expanding the scope of welfare programs to return more of their dependents into productive workers.
But Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), himself the product of a poor and disordered childhood, is not following the national herd. He's promising more cuts, and not exactly masking his rationale. Last year, he even took up the 47 percent number, saying "about 47 percent of able-bodied people in the state of Maine don't work... It's really bad." The number was wrong, significantly so. But he had staked out a clear position: Many recipients of state aid were undeserving. During his state of the state speech early this year, he said, "Too many Mainers are dependent on government handouts. Government dependency has not — and never will— create prosperity."
Unlike Romney, LePage is not destined to defeat. With an unintended vote-splitting assist from the independent candidate, LePage may yet be re-elected as the most conservative governor in America from one of the most deeply Democratic states. He is hovering around 40 percent of support from likely voters, about even with Democratic opponent Mike Michaud and far beyond the reach of third party candidate Eliot Cutler. Democratic voices are now rising up calling for Cutler to drop out to ensure that the anti-LePage vote isn't split.
Perhaps no American politician of LePage's prominence clings so tenaciously to his political doctrines, and no other figure more closely ties them to his own biography. This is a very admirable thing, and important in a political culture that seems to default to gutless, poll-tested groupthink.
(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...
“Paul Ryan, the former head of the congressional Ayn Rand fan club”
****
Paul Ryan is an intellectual poseur. It’s highly unlikely he’s ever read any book by Rand from start to finish.
Recall that this is the clown who claims slowing the rate of deficit increases in spending makes him a fiscal hawk.
He’s an actor. There’s no substance now...and there never has been.
I hope LePage wins
I love that guy! He has the guts of Trey Goudy and Ted Cruz.
Don’t hear that much about LePage. I’m going to be visiting some extreme libs in Maine next week. I better get prepared!
End of article...for me, anyway. I can't get past this sparkling jewel of ignorance.
End of article...for me, anyway. I can't get past this sparkling jewel of ignorance.
True for me, also. The 47 percent 'gaffe,' for example, was only a gaffe because the Captive Press agreed together that it was. And I stopped at the same point you did, for precisely the same reason.
I hate Paul Ryan!
I would love for him to be voted out of office even for a den. Anyone who throws veterans under the bus sucks! I hate him so much!!!! Thank God his desires did not go through........yet. He is a welfare lover since he started collecting at the age of 11 and hasn’t stopped since.
Ever since Mitt Romney's "47 percent" truthful observation in 2012
There, all fixed.
I said long ago that this was a good guy that we needed to keep and eye on.
Another is Gov Haley of SC.
Go ahead and bitch, but compare them to the other choices they’re throwing at us.
Practically speaking, unemployment is so high, that welfare needs to be curtailed, not just in favor of workfare, but of state managed jobs programs. And some “thinking out of the box” jobs programs are in order.
For example, there is a huge demand for long-term health care related “maintenance” jobs, and the “health care support to patient” ratio is very skewed. What does this mean?
The state could easily create an enormous, modern facility for hundreds, or even thousands, of people who need long term care. And while such people need health care workers, of course, they also need a much larger number of “health care support” workers. Janitors, landscapers, launderers, painters, cooks, administrative personnel, etc., etc.
Jobs that often occupy trained health care workers, but shouldn’t.
A set up like this goes beyond typical minimum wage workfare, in that it requires often higher paying skills, plus it gets people working again.
But here’s the real zinger: it saves the state a LOT of money.
Long term health care is incredibly expensive, and having health care workers doing jobs other than health care is very wasteful. A $75/hr janitor or $50/hr cook are just not cost effective. It is so expensive that most insurance companies will not cover it.
Right now, many ambulatory seniors choose going on perpetual ocean cruises for just slightly more than the cost of long term stays. That expensive.
So in addition to lowering unemployment, it saves the state money, what’s not to like?
Paul Ryan couldn’t even hold his own against Joe Biden.
What a gutless, ball-less loser that requires.
If he had any backbone or manhood at all he would have told Biden to grow up, man up and stop acting like a teenage girl.
Ryan could have looked to the audience and told them what he knew, what he believed, what he-—as opposed to Joebama-—stood for.
But Ryan doesn’t believe in or stand for anything. That tends to leave a little pussy like him at a loss for words.
I agree. From hero to zero. He needs to go.
This is a great article about our Governor, Paul LePage and all you folks can do is bitch about Paul Ryan because one reference was made about him in the article.
Paul is my governor... I love the job he has done. He is an unabashed conservative and has a funny charm, which gets totally missed by the libs in my state. He had a bit of a time putting his foot in his mouth the first two years, but in his words even a Frenchman can calm down after a few years.
We like him so much that MR. AV mowed a big field sign in our back forty acres!! Check it out:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3200159/posts
Mrs. AV
If the writer of the article discredits himself in the second sentence, why should I bother with whatever he wrote after that?
If someone told you that cumulonimbus clouds were made of vanilla bean Greek yogurt, would you waste your time entertaining anything else that person had to say?
Paul LePage is my governor, too. I voted for him in 2010 and I can’t wait to vote for him next month.
His wife Ann.....another class act. She devotes a lot of her time to helping wounded warriors. She even jumped out of an airplane with one of these wounded soldiers.
Great people!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.