Radio Address: Priorities for the People of Maine
April 23, 2015
(MP3 Audio)Priorities.
For decades, Maine government--state and local--has got them completely backwards. Nowhere is this more evident than in our social services.
Hello, this is Governor Paul LePage.
When I came to office, things were good for able-bodied, working-age adults who don't like to work.
They had Medicaid, they had cash welfare for as long as they wanted, and they could get food stamps for as long as they wanted.
Meanwhile, the State neglected paying bills to Maine's hospitals, our nursing homes were on a "starvation diet," 3,000 severely disabled and elderly Mainers were on waitlists for Medicaid services, and the budget was swimming in a sea of red ink.
The liberal politicians who ran Maine nearly uninterrupted for four decades created a system where we said "yes" to able-bodied young men looking for welfare, but "no" to an 18 year old with cerebral palsy on a Medicaid waitlist for home care services.
We've begun to turn it around over these past four years. We reduced our Medicaid rolls by 67,000 able-bodied adults. We put a 60-month cap on cash welfare, a two-year cap on methadone, and we told able bodied 18-49 year olds without dependents that if they want to keep getting food stamps, they've got to get off the couch and go volunteer in their community, go to school, or get a job--do something to give back and improve themselves.
As a result, between policies and the state budget I have proposed this year, we have been able to increase nursing home funding, pay off our hospitals, move disabled and elderly Mainers off waitlists and get them the care they need, and finally get spending under control at DHHS.
Those were my priorities because that?s what Mainers said they wanted.
It's a new day in Augusta, and a new future for Maine--one where responsible government gets its priorities straight. It?s about what Maine people want and need.
You asked for change at the state level, and I've done my best to deliver.
But the same change needs to happen at the local level too. Liberal politicians in municipal government haven't gotten the message yet about priorities.
I believe the most effective government is the one closest to the people.
It is the responsibility of every citizen to engage at the local level.
Change for the better occurs only when people get involved. Demand the right priorities: jobs over welfare; hand ups over handouts; fiscal responsibility over higher property taxes.
Maine can do better. Maine can be more prosperous. But it all begins with getting our priorities straight.
Thank you for listening.