What Republican Gov. Paul LePage would really like to do is dispose of the entire Maine Department of Health and Human Services. For a fiscal conservative like LePage, that seems reasonable. After all, DHHS spends more money than all but one other state department (education), and it wastes more money than any other state department (with education a not-all-that-close second). It makes an attractive target for a slash-and-burn political campaign.
In the governor’s dreams, the bloated health and welfare system would be replaced by something more focused, something called, I dunno, the Maine Department of Dealing With Poor and Lazy People, maybe. It wouldn’t have any complicated programs, but would begrudgingly hand out money to the destitute to help them buy food or find shelter. Which they would need to do pretty quickly, because after a few of those handouts, there’d be no more. Particularly if the destitute happened to live in Portland. If they couldn’t find a job in Maine’s most economically robust city, they could turn to crime. Or starve. It wouldn’t be LePage’s problem.
I suspect even the guv realizes this is a fantasy. But, hey, a guy can dream.
There’s no question DHHS needs reform. The only question is how the various parties define that word. The GOP envisions reform as a cost-cutting exercise, regardless of the (possibly temporary) human suffering that might cause. Democrats see it as reconfiguring poorly designed and ineptly administered programs to increase their effectiveness, a process that would almost certainly cost more money. And the public, nearly every member of which has seen or heard stories about some worthless slug abusing welfare, wants action, by which a sizable plurality means instituting tighter regulations and stricter deadlines.
In the last election. this issue cost the Democratic Party its majority in the state Senate and a bunch of seats it couldn’t afford to lose in the Maine House. You might think that since then, the donkey party’s leaders would have formulated a plan to assuage the voters’ disgust with wasteful and ineffective government handouts.
But come on, these are Democrats. They conduct their assessments of public opinion during art walks in downtown Portland or at meetings of advocates for a single-payer health care system (motto: It Almost Sorta Worked in Vermont). The solutions that emerge from these efforts are complicated position papers that basically suggest doing nothing.
Which is why Mainers, who’ve traditionally been in favor of sensible efforts to help the less fortunate, are more and more inclined to support LePage’s agenda, which makes almost no distinction between those in need and those who are gaming the system. The governor’s plan is at least comprehensible – cut welfare spending – while the Dems’ muddled response – carefully study any proposed changes to avoid possible unintended consequences – isn’t. A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll conducted last year for the Portland Press Herald found that 46 percent of respondents thought most welfare spending did more harm than good. Only 43 percent believed the programs were beneficial. The remaining 11 percent were too busy buying scratch lottery tickets with their welfare money to respond.
This explains why LePage is again rolling out a bunch of restrictions he wants to impose on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, restrictions that failed in the Democrat-controlled Legislature last year. He’d prohibit using TANF money to buy alcohol, tobacco or lottery tickets. No using welfare cash for bail money. TANF cards would no longer be valid out of state. And to get on the program, applicants would have to show they’d applied for at least three jobs.
There’s no way to enforce most of these rules, but that hardly matters. To lots of working people, these seem like logical changes, because the guv’s idea (screw the cheaters) is far more easily understood than the Democrats’ vague alternative (study doing something – or not).
No wonder LePage keeps repeating the line he used at his inauguration: “Welfare reform is very, very dear to my heart.” It’s already given him a Republican Senate, and in 2016, there’s a reasonable chance it will hand him a GOP-controlled House. Once that happens, who knows what dreams could come true.
The governor might even be able to put his signature on a bill titled An Act to Abolish the Department of Health and Human Services and Replace It With … Well … Not Much of Anything, Because, I Mean, Who Needs It, Y’Know.
If you have thoughts on welfare that are more complex than a Republican’s and more comprehensible than a Democrat’s, email me at aldiamon@hernihill.net.
Well done Al.
You completely explained the ineffectiveness of the Democrats.
You demonized The Governor for having a problem with that.
I missed something.
If you reassess your third sentence, you might find it easier to see the point.
Cheers,
AD
Well I’m honored Al..
And still confused.
But I think I’ll just focus on my 2nd sentence and call it a day.
IT’S. “A DAY”.
“Give a man a fish and he will not go hungry for a day. Give him an EBT card, section 8 housing and a new pair of Air Jordan’s and he will vote Democrat for a lifetime.”
Very good Elmer. You hit the nail on the head!!!!!
Here is the deal…. Welfare for many includes free: housing, heat, food, insurance and money that allows you to live better than most people that work!!! Tell me again why I get up everyday and work to support my family? What is that old saying….”If you can’t beat them, join them!” No thanks… Land of the Free, in Maine means Land of the Free on Welfare!!! We work so they don’t have to. I just don’t get it!
This is to Al;
While I really enjoy reading your column and the battles that follow started by the left wing haters that come out of the woodwork here on the bloggfest that you have encouraged, I am also confused on this latest write-up. It’s a quagmire of a kinda sorta rip on LePage and a mix of rhetoric enfused sentences that are all over the place with no real heading?
I am not a Democrat… I am not a Republican: I very much believe that anybody could end up needing help at some point in their life; I believe MOST PEOPLE, believe THAT! The problem comes when we have people who, as a graduation gift, get an EBT card of their very own (and then they are in “the system”). I really believe that we should give kids who struggle in school aptitude tests and go from there. We ALL deserve to learn a skill and learn how to take pride in what we produce. People on welfare are not living “High on the hog” or “Spending your money”, They just never learned to believe in themselves. Please, everybody, stop being NASTY to people who are down on their luck (It Could Happen To You!).
P.S. I am at work right now (not on welfare).
One of the easiest ways to distort an issue is to use an extreme example as the normal. Public assistance abusers as representative of all people who need public assistance is a case in point. I’m not saying that Governor Lepage is a bloviating gasbag. What I am saying is that it is easier to slash and burn than it is to take the time to think before acting, which is the prime requirement needed to effectively govern.
How many jobs are there, that require unskilled, inexperienced labor, where the employers don’t worry to much about work history or number of crime convictions; don’t care about passing a drug test and don’t care much about personal appearance or health?
So… all those who collect welfare- what to do with them if we cut them off? Hand them a bus ticket and tell them to find another state to freeload off?
That seems to be the only alternative. If you leave them here, they will resort to crime. Or they will starve.
If they starve, it makes us look like an even worse state than we are now. Like , Bangladesh with snow.
If we let them commit crime to survive, it will cost us, either for larger police budgets, or to cover our losses. Higher insurance rates for sure.
Of course we can all carry guns, so that will help.
Or, we could devise some real programs that actually help people get trained and find gainful employment.
We could educate better about birth control and offer free contraceptives. And, stop with the Christian, conservative doctrine that more babies are better than going against Gods will, even if you have no way to feed and care for a baby.
If we did that, and did it right, (by realizing our mistakes with past welfare programs) it might cost us more in the short term but have long term payback. People who work can pay taxes!
That is the single biggest flaw of the Republican party and particularly the Tea branch. They lack real, long term strategic planning. I think the republican brain isn’t capable of that.
I have to agree with you on this snowman, and I don;t always agree with you. I used to be poor. I’m not now. I am so very grateful for the help i received when I truely needed it.
JL your responce sounds as that of a RIGHT WING HATER. Just sayin’.
it made a HUGE difference
Where is all the love, peace, make love not war, Zap….Dude? My comments were not about hate or love, I just pointed out to Al that in this particular article/column piece what he wrote, in my opinion, just didn’t make any sense to me? Maybe he had a bad day…and if your fellow commentators took off on a welfare rant-off, well I guess they are free to speak their mind, do ya think? Don’t we all or just the real haters?
Don’t want to burst your bubble, JL, but you really do sound like the “hater” around here, in spite of your protests to the contrary. If you are are consumer of Fox news, that’s understandable.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/02/1212606/-You-want-to-know-how-Fox-News-misleads-its-viewers-Here-s-how#
Amazing isn’t it..
Whether Elmira is correct or not on any particular point.
It’s always the same hypocrisy..(doing the exact same thing she\he accuses others of.
Blindly parroting party lines and throwing out the hate/race card like a puppet on a party string.
Fact is no one party is always right
So if you take their party line every time…
You have no credibility but you want to he taken seriously..
You honestly sound ridiculous.
Snowman wrote:
“That is the single biggest flaw of the Republican party and particularly the Tea branch. They lack real, long term strategic planning. I think the republican brain isn’t capable of that.”
Truth be known Snowman, we find ourselves at this critical time because of four decades of Welfare Music.
The real fraud is being committed by the non profit mafia that has proliferated itself in Maine. It includes plenty of skinners from both sides of the political spectrum. There are over 5,000 vendor agencies servicing 300,000 people. Remember also that Maine receives two Federal dollars for every State dollar spent. I like to think of it as Maine’s own little “Field of Dreams”.
We all see the ‘retail” aspects of welfare abuse at the grocery store or read stories about trips to Disney World on the taxpayer’s dime, but think about the systemic( delivery) aspects of it and you will find plenty of politically connected and well funded miscreants along the way.
Audit the BMR Waiver Program (the program has never been audited) and the political/financially incestuous relationships and you’ll see what I mean. But you won’t because it would bankrupt the State when they have to pay back the Feds.
Nobody really wants welfare reform- it would collapse Maine’s economy.
I am not impressed with LePage’s grandiose show of promoting maple syrup. How many centuries have we Mainers already been doing this? Give me a break. He’s supposed to be smarter than us, but I can see he isn’t and he hates poor people, too. Not that I want to be governor, but what I would do is: Encourage business to come to Maine. Stop all taxes on them for several years so they can get a head start. Secondly, to make workers hate poor people less, send some crafts through the mail they can do or something so nobody hates them anymore. At least they are doing something, even if it is at home. Each year, we get hundreds of high school graduates and collage graduates. How many jobs do you think are out there? LePage has to encourage business here and I don’t mean little stores. I mean factories, bio-engineering, or something. This state is dying. He’s not improving it. He’s just discriminating against people who can’t get a job. You can use my name. I don’t care if anyone doesn’t like it or not. Leona Ross