Maine Legislature
House Democratic
Office
October 5, 2012
Contact: Jodi Quintero [Duchesne] 287-1488, c.
841-6279
Rep. Duchesne: Who
owns our democracy?
Pay to Play Politics
Hurts Maine
Good morning,
I’m State Rep. Bob Duchesne of Hudson.
It’s election
time, so this morning I have a pressing question for you: Who owns our
democracy?
Most of us go
into the voting booth to hire our elected leaders with the expectation that
they will be working for us – to create jobs, lower our health care costs,
improve our schools and support fair taxation policies that don’t hurt middle
class families.
We don’t hire
them to grow the profit margins of campaign donors, like insurance companies or
out of state corporations.
But that’s
exactly what’s happened here in Maine during the past two years. Maine Citizens
for Clean Elections, an independent, nonpartisan watchdog organization,
highlights how the insurance industry bought and paid for a new law that
allowed them to increase rates on 90 percent of small businesses across the
state and nearly all middle aged Mainers.
More than 1
million dollars was spent on campaign contributions to candidates and political
action committees by those in health insurance and health care.
And,
Republicans received 84 percent of the contributions from Maine's largest
health insurance company.
So what
exactly did the insurance companies get for their money?
Anthem alone
will receive $11 million in taxpayer dollars generated by a new tax on all
insurance ratepayers to pay part of the law. $11 million is a pretty good
return on Anthem’s investment.
Let’s hope
somebody kept the receipt. This law backed by Big Insurance already needs major
repair. It’s made it harder for small businesses and middle aged Mainers to pay
for medicine and health care. The Republican health insurance law stripped key
consumer safeguards. It allows Anthem and other insurance companies to
charge higher premiums to businesses and individuals based on factors such as
geography and age.
If you are a
middle aged Mainer, you can now be charged 500 percent more for your health
insurance than a younger Mainer.
And,
insurance companies can now hike rates up to 10 percent without a public
review. Even if you are one of the few who didn’t get hit in the first
wave of hikes, how long can that last when insurance companies can now raise
rates at will? Who owns our democracy?
It wasn’t
just the health insurance laws that were for sale. We saw Republican lawmakers
pass laws that siphoned taxpayer dollars from public schools to virtual and
charter schools. A Portland Press Herald news investigation shows that
those new laws were influenced by out of state corporate campaign donors that
would stand to profit from running such schools in Maine.
This kind of
pay to play politics will hurt our families, our small businesses and our
schools.
In Maine we
like to think we are immune to the kind of pay to play politics we see in
Washington and other states.
Now we see:
we’re not. This is the wrong direction for Maine. We need leaders who will put
people – not special interests first.
Thank you for
listening, and thank you for caring. Our democracy is not for sale.
I’m State
Representative Bob Duchesne of Hudson.