Favorite Democratic strategy: ‘Operation Change the Subject’

Kudos to the Bangor Daily News for its March 3 editorial, which made it clear that the constant ranting of Maine’s Democrats about alleged federal funding cuts to the state is exactly what Republicans have said it was: completely bogus.

In 2002, when John Baldacci was elected governor, Maine received a total of $1.68 billion in federal money. Last year, we received a total of $2.26 billion. That’s an increase

of about $600 million a year. Even by Washington standards, that’s real money, and that amount is projected to climb further this year and next.

By virtue of this continued spending growth, Maine now gets more federal funding than 40 other states. Nevertheless, hardly a week goes by that we don’t see the governor and Democrat legislators parading in front of cameras to bewail how the state has suffered at the hands of the Bush administration.

But if federal funding is up, which is incontrovertible, what is all the complaining about? The truth is simple. The new Democratic obsession with blaming Washington comes almost entirely from their party’s realization that their hold on power in Augusta is seriously in peril. The loss of the governorship and only a handful of Maine House and Senate seats would mean that 30 years of Democratic hegemony in Augusta would come to an end overnight.

Do they have reason to be worried?

Well, on a good day, Gov. Baldacci’s approval rating barely hits 40 percent. Dirigo Health, his signature health reform plan, has spent over $20 million thus far to insure fewer that 1800 uninsured Mainers, well short of the first-year goal of 31,000. Now the Democrats plan to tax health insurance premiums to pay for the program, costing every Maine family $200 more a year for health care. Add to that a property tax relief plan that has largely failed and an unemployment rate that topped the national average for the first time in seven years last fall, and you have some idea of the challenges they

face in the coming election.

Democrats in the legislature are little better off. Though they hope it escapes voter memory this fall, every incumbent House and Senate Demo-crat running for re-election voted in favor of the $450 million lottery borrowing scheme. Had it not been reversed by the Republican-led people’s veto effort, Maine would have borrowed money to cover a budget deficit, without voter approval, for the first time ever.

In that same budget, these same Democrats raised taxes and fees on Maine people by well over $100 million and slashed funding for the job-creating Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement program for the first time in the program’s history.

So, the business climate is still awful, taxes are up, health insurance remains unaffordable, and not a single net new job was created in all of 2005. How do you run for re-election with a record like that?

Easy. You change the subject.

According to published reports, Maine Democrats came up with this novel approach at a summit they convened last fall to work on their strategy going into this year’s election. The plan they developed, with help from some high-priced consultants from away, calls specifically for 25 percent of the Democratic message to be focused on attacking the Bush administration, with the remainder dedicated to putting a positive spin on the various failed and costly Democrat-sponsored programs they’ve inflicted on the state over the past three decades.

The abysmal record they have compiled in that time might explain why blaming Washington seems to have become 95 percent of the message from Democrats in Augusta rather than only 25 percent. What else, when you think about it, do they really have to say?

So, while the administration’s Medicaid billing debacle continues to bankrupt health care providers, Dirigo Health continues to squander money providing health insurance primarily to people who already had it, and hospitals run lines of credit because the state won’t pay the $300 million it owes them, Democrats change the subject by attacking the new Medicare Part D prescription drug program, which has provided needed medication to tens of thousands of Maine people despite flaws in the program’s ambitious rollout in January.

Maine’s economy remains stagnant, fewer people were working in 2005 than in 2004, we’ve been ranked yet again one of the worst states for small business, and financial mismanagement has led to a downgrade of the state’s bond rating, but Democrats change the subject again through personal attacks on those who question them, as Assistant House Democratic Leader Robert Duplessie’s childish BDN commentary of Feb. 22 clearly demonstrates. These tactics are as tiresome as they are transparent.

Nevertheless, Maine voters can expect “Operation Change the Subject” to continue well into the fall, as Maine Democrats follow the “Blame Washington” script in order to divert attention from their record of failed health care reform, failed tax relief, dismal job growth, higher insurance premiums and economic stagnation. And let’s not forget the $450 million lottery borrowing scheme that every single Democrat voted for.

They’d love for you to forget that.

Rep. Stephen Bowen, R-Rockport, serves on the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee.