Soda Wars
By Wally EdgeSenator Libby Mitchell launched a missile in to the Fed UP With Taxes camp in an op ed piece she wrote in the Bangor Daily News.
Just in case you had any doubt how big the battle will be this Fall, when the People's Veto is on the ballot --Senator Mitchell's opening line should remove all doubt: "Maine residents fed up with undemocratic taxes" by Newell Augur, paid lobbyist for the beverage industry, takes the grand prize for confusing fact and fiction.
I think that is a nice way of calling someone a liar.
The good Senator even takes a nice whack at "Big Soda" and "Big Beer" noting, "Who's really paying for the massive signature-gathering drive to repeal the beverage tax? Who would hire professionals from away to come to Maine to tell us that we don't want health coverage for working families? Coke, Pepsi and Anheuser-Bush combined spent more than $9 billion dollars in advertising last year selling us their empty calorie products."
I think that was a nice way of saying.....well, it really wasn't a nice way of saying anything.
If this is the beginning of the battle, I think it's a pretty safe bet that Mainer's are in for one hell of a fight this fall.
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Bravo Senator Mitchell! At
Bravo Senator Mitchell! At last someone speaks the truth!
Fed up with Libby
I am tired of her endless lies...when will she go away
Beverage tax
As a supporter of the beverage tax initive started by Newell Augur, I have seen many arguments for and against the beverage tax increase.
Some arguments for the initiative to remove the beverage tax increase are logical, and tell us higher taxes will kill business or drive business away from Maine (maybe into NH). Remember that the power to tax is the power to destroy.
Some other arguments for the removal of the beverage tax increase come from our senior citizens who can't make ends meet now, and are terrified of any more taxes imposed on them by the legislature.
And let's not forget the 'angry white guy' who just doesn't want to pay more money for his beer.
Arguments against the initiative are usually found on the emotional side, where we have the do-gooders wanting to help all of the people dependent on Dirigo insurance, not realizing that all of their good intentions play very well into the hands of the tax-and-spend liberals in the Maine legislature.
Dirigo may actually be a program that was legialated outside the bounds of the Maine Constitution, and may be illegal from the get-go. Is the state empowered to sell medical insurance to the public and therefore compete with the private companies that offer similar products?
Having said all of that, Dirigo has become a failed program in operation, and needs to be re-evaluated or removed. Putting additional tax money put into a failed program doesn't make the program any better - it just perpetuates the problem for the taxpayers. Today it's beverages, tomorrow food??
It would seem logical that perhaps the best way to resolve the Maine medical insurance problem is to open up health insurance opportunities to all interested medical insurance companies. I believe there is a petition on the street that proposes just that resolution.
Anyway, getting the beverage tax initiative on the November ballot will give us all a chance to think about the beverage tax problem and decide whether the legislative 'late night' tax increase is reasonable or not.
See you in November.
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