Leave it to bombastic Maine Governor Paul LePage (R) to inadvertently nail the current Republican regime:
Before a crowd of hundreds at the Franco-American Heritage Center on Wednesday night, Gov. Paul LePage made a bold confession.
When he was 12 years old, a French kid living on Lincoln Street, he used to hide out in Little Canada and steal Halloween candy from children.
"Isn't that awful?" LePage said. "And now I'm governor of Maine."
LePage wasn't simply unburdening his soul or carrying on about a childhood memory. He had a point to make. The point was that the state of Maine has been deeply in debt in every budget but one since 1992.
"Now that I'm governor of Maine," he said, "there's nothing left to steal."
His lame attempt to weave personal narrative and budget critique aside, LePage is wrong. In fact, his little vignette actually crystallizes why so many people are alarmed by the Republican ascendancy in the political arena.
There's PLENTY left to steal from children. And the GOP is working hard at stealing it:
- In South Carolina, where the state budget currently debated will include a 15% cut in physical education programs (but $25 million in cash for new charter schools).
- In Nevada, an analysis by a prominent state legislator decried the proposed budget of Governor Brian Sandoval as taking cash from the schools to pay for the prisons. The analysis, by state Senator Steven Horsford, noted that even while the education budget was being cut by nearly $700 million, the budget for prisons was actually being increased by 11%.
- Meanwhile, in neighboring Arizona, Democrats are decrying the budget making its way through the state legislature, which has over a half billion dollars in education cuts.
- In Pennsylvania, Republican Governor Tom Corbett's draft budget proposes to halve the amount of money to state colleges, and slash nearly a billion dollars from the K-12 funding for the Keystone State. The public does not share Corbett's penchant for the ax, as a new poll shows vast majorities opposing Corbett on the severity of both budget cuts.
The four examples above omit one state: Maine. And no surprise there: Governor LePage is blustering on that subject, as well. Just this week, he rattled his sabres, insisting that he will veto any budget from the legislature that deviates from the draft budget he submitted to them. In other words, if the lege does not give him over $200 million in tax cuts, his veto pen comes out.
Given that the state has a $4 billion budget shortfall, the timing of a tax cut of that magnitude might be considered odd.
But for a guy who has been used to stealing for kids from decades past, perhaps it will bring back fond memories.
