Thread by @JamesxMyall

Last week (6/10) @PaulLePage2022 was on the Ray Richardson show and he made a series of bizarre and untrue claims about relief checks, immigration and Medicaid expansion. He’s either totally misinformed or happily spreading lies.

A thread #mepolitics

LePage says funding for the $850 relief checks is “based on a forecast” and that “the money is never going to come in” because the economy will go into recession. It’s true that all budgets are made on forecasts. But a big drop is very unlikely…

There would need to be a big spike in unemployment to cause a big revenue dent. In the short term, Maine’s summer season, which brings in a lot of sales taxes, looks strong.

What’s more, the relief payments will go out regardless. Any shortfall would manifest later in the year

Legislators would have options if theres a big recession. The rainy day fund is larger than ever and provides some cushion. Taxing the rich more is another option. Of course LePage’s proposal of big ongoing tax cuts would be worse for the state budget in the long term.

LePage blames MaineCare expansion for the labor shortage. (Never mind that state unemployment fell to record lows after expansion was enacted). claims there are “55,000 men under the age of 30” on expanded MaineCare. It’s actually ~15,000.

He says MaineCare’s income limits discourage people from working. In reality, once you earn to much for MaineCare, you can transition to the ACA marketplace for minimal or no monthly premiums.

What’s more, LePage previously proposed making MaineCare income limits lower!

LePage proposes pushing people to the federally subsidized ACA plans instead of MaineCare. Not only is this more expensive for taxpayers and a worse deal for covered Mainers, but it’s not even possible for most. The feds won’t subsidize people under the poverty line.

This is called the Medicaid Coverage Gap.

kff.org/medicaid/issue…

Finally, LePage does some mental gymnastics on immigration. First he equates “illegal immigration” and (legal) asylum seeking. He says he’s “not big” on either. But then he says he wants to let refugees and asylum seekers in Maine work [good!].

He proposes “a format of Ellis Island like we used to have.” Except asylum seekers and refugees, like all immigrants, do undergo vetting and screening already.

citizenpath.com/asylum-process…

Worth noting LePage’s own ancestors came to the US from Quebec at a time of almost unrestricted immigration. They just took a train. No Ellis Island. Most US immigration laws didn’t apply to N & S America until 1965.