As this weeks news again shows us, Paul LePage’s brand of politics all too often involves end-runs around the truth.
LePage has strongly overstated his case, and yes, has told outright lies in his effort to build public support for his proposed MaineCare cuts. A recent BDN article shows LePage is incorrect in his claims that most of the childless adults who receive MaineCare are able-bodied young men. Dirigo Blue documents that one of the MaineCare recipient “facts” LePage mouthed in a WCSH-TV interview last week is an outright lie.
After LePage’s early efforts to eliminate LURC, the land use regulation commission that has long been responsible for overseeing development of the North Woods, was rejected, LePage and the Republicans have changed their approach to re-shape LURC in a way that will result in the deregulation they sought in the first place. Ron Joseph, a former state wildlife biologist, writes in the Sun-Journal that LePage and the Republicans are out to destroy LURC and the Northern Maine Woods. Joseph writes, “If the final recommendations are approved by the Legislature following public hearings in January, McPherson and other developers will have a green light to forever alter northern Maine's undeveloped lakes and forests with disgraceful second home projects . . . A restructured LURC isn’t about balance. It’s about appeasing corporate landowners who sit on millions of dollars worth of shorefront properties on northern Maine’s undeveloped lakes and rivers.” To us, it is unconscionable and a tragedy, that a man who has no apparent appreciation of the North Woods and perhaps has never set foot in them, can play such a huge role in the demise of this vast resource which has been so big a part in Maine’s history and identity.
In his recent radio address, Lepage criticized the proposal that would require Maine to invest in renewable energy, stating the costs will be too high, and justifying his claim by stating Maine’s electricity rates are significantly higher than the national average. What LePage does not mention but Dirigo Blue points out for us, is that Maine’s rates are the lowest in New England and are also lower than thoe in New York and New Jersey.
Child labor laws, health insurance deregulation, the test scores of Maine students, the LePage tax cuts, the economy, welfare, Medicaid, energy, the mural -- on virtually every issue that matters, the Governor has made statements that are significantly misleading if not outright untrue.
A list of LePage lies, flip flops, and gaffe’s is being maintained here by Dirigo Blue.
More on the LePage lies at AppalledbyLepage.com
