Right Wing Granny

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Right Wing Granny

Tag Archives: Maine

Do Americans Have First Amendment Rights?

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The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Since Congress is not allow to restrict the free exercise of religion, I would assume that Courts are also bound by that rule. Unfortunately, a Judge in Maine did not get the message.

On September 2nd, The New York Post posted an article about a mother in Maine who has been told by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court that she is not allowed to take her daughter to church.

The article reports:

Emily Bickford appeared in Maine’s highest court on Tuesday to challenge a December 2024 custody order prohibiting her from bringing her daughter to her evangelical church, WMTW reported.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled a Portland District Court judge was correct to give the then-11-year-old’s father, Matthew Bradeen, the power to decide whether his daughter could attend the Calvary Chapel in Westbrook, ME, the Maine Monitor reported.

Bradeen argued the church was a “dangerous and harmful environment” that had caused his daughter to suffer from anxiety and panic attacks after hearing the pastor’s teaching about the rapture, a belief that good Christians will ascend to heaven at the end of the world, leaving nonbelievers behind.

The article notes:

The court rejected Bickford’s claims that the 2024 order was hostile to her religion by referring to it as a “cult” in its published opinion.

“The court found that the child was harmed by Bickford’s decisions to expose the child to messages that characterized Bradeen as an ‘enemy’ who seeks to ‘persecute’ the child and her faith, and by Bickford’s unwillingness to prevent the child from receiving those messages or to take any other steps to reduce the risk of alienating her from Bradeen,” read the opinion.

“The court’s finding reflected simply that it is harmful for a child to hear negative and frightening messages about one parent from the other parent or the other parent’s authority figures,” the opinion concluded.

Liberty Counsel said it will now ask the US Supreme Court to take up the case following the decision by Maine’s highest court.

“A Christian mom in Maine has been prohibited from taking her 13-year-old daughter to church or even read the Bible to her for nearly two years — not even for an Easter or Christmas service or a Bible study,” Liberty Counsel said in a statement on X.

“We are fighting for Emily’s right to raise her daughter in accordance with her Christian beliefs and will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take this case and OVERRULE this decision,” the group’s statement continued.

There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that allows courts to decide the validity of a religious belief. I hope Ms. Bickford wins this case at the Supreme Court.

Private Property Rights?

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In 2010, I posted an article about the relationship between private property rights and the wealth of a country. One of the things that has made America prosperous is the private property rights that Americans enjoy. Unfortunately, those rights are under attack, both by people in Congress and people wanting to be in Congress.

On Sunday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article about some recent statements by Maine U.S. Senate nominee Troy Jackson.

The article reports:

Far-left Maine U.S. Senate nominee Troy Jackson just told a crowd of mobile-home park residents that the government should be able to take private property when he doesn’t like who owns it.

At a Labor Day weekend campaign stop Saturday at Blueberry Ridge Mobile Village in Wells, Jackson said the state should step in and take over parks owned by out-of-state companies and private equity firms.

“I feel strongly that, if needed, the state should be able to come in, to take these places over,” Jackson told residents gathered in a backyard, according to the Portland Press Herald.

He added that the state should hold the sites until residents can take them over “so you don’t see these private equity (firms) coming in and making a killing on these parks.”

It is not the state’s job to run mobile home parks until the residents can take them over. This may be a place where a truly free market would solve the problem. If the private equity firms are overcharging, all you need is an entrepreneur to open a less expensive park nearby. The private equity firm is not going to make money if everyone moves out. The idea of the government simply taking the land is not constitutional or wise.

The article notes:

Jackson is the progressive logger and former Maine Senate president who supports abolishing ICE, Medicare for All, and ending arms sales to Israel. Party insiders coronated him after Platner’s sexual-assault allegations ended that campaign. Mainers never nominated Jackson in a statewide Senate primary.

TGP also reported that Jackson’s longtime partner is his second cousin and the mother of his two adult sons. His campaign called coverage of the family relationship “shameful and desperate.” It did not deny the facts.

If the people in Maine vote for this man, they deserve what they get. Unfortunately, the rest of us will have to live with his presence in the Senate if he wins.

Heads, I Win; Tails, You Lose

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Heads, I win; tails, you lose is the game the Democrats are currently playing with the voters in the State of Maine.

On July 9th, Yahoo News posted a CBS News article that reported:

Democrats are facing a rapidly closing window to replace Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who dropped out of the race Wednesday following a sexual assault allegation.

…The party will now have less than three weeks to pick a new candidate to go up against Collins. The exact process is not clear, but state Democratic officials have promised “transparency” — and say Platner himself will not be involved.

…State law does not delineate how the party should choose a replacement. The Maine Democratic Party announced Wednesday it would hold a nominating convention to select a nominee. It said it would announce the timeline, details on the process, how to participate and requirements for candidates “soon.”

Graham Platner was elected by a large majority in the Democrat primary in Maine (which used ranked choice voting). The Democrats ran a test and gambled to see how much Democrat voters would put up with and still support a candidate. The Nazi tattoo did not drive the voters away–voters were aware of it before the primary. The initial charges of sexual misconduct did not cause Platner to withdraw. It was only the charge of rape by a Democrat that has caused him to suspend his campaign.

So what did we learn? The ‘me, too’ movement and the statement ‘believe all women’ only apply when the charges are against a Republican or made by a Democrat supporter. If a political party puts up a questionable candidate who wins a primary, but is forced to withdraw, they can choose the replacement candidate–not the voters. In Maine, the candidate will be determined by the people selected to attend the nominating convention. The people attending that convention may or may not be representative of the voters in Maine. When President Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race, were the voters represented in the choice of his replacement? There seems to be a pattern here.

Stopping A Bad Idea In Its Tracks

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On Monday, The Maine Morning Star posted an article about a recent decision by the Maine Supreme Court.

The article reports:

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled Monday that a bill to expand ranked choice voting to general elections for governor, state representative and state senator would violate the Maine Constitution. 

“Because of the Maine Constitution’s language, there are strong and convincing reasons that LD 1666 is unconstitutional, and we conclude that the presumption of constitutionality has been overcome,” the justices stated in a unanimous opinion. 

The bill passed initial votes in the Maine Senate and House of Representatives, but was tabled in the upper chamber while awaiting the ruling from the court. The court’s ruling is advisory, but Gov. Janet Mills previously said she opposed the legislation, but would be interested in the court’s ruling.

The article notes:

However, the League of Women Voters of Maine — which has been advocating for ranked choice voting in Maine since initially passed by referendum in 2016 — said they disagreed with the court’s assessment.

“We continue to hold the legal perspective that ranked choice voting is lawful within the framework of Maine’s Constitution,” said executive director Chrissy Hart. “RCV is the best method in Maine to elect candidates that receive broad support, and RCV has long been popular among Maine voters. While the justices’ opinion is disappointing, it will not stop us from advocating for the will of the people and fighting for what they approved in the 2016 referendum.”

Ranked choice voting is confusing and does not necessarily elect the person who gets the majority of the votes.

Ballotpedia posted a chart explaining how this could happen:

Click here to see the chart more clearly.

Depending on how voters mark their ballots, under ranked choice voting, a candidate who was the second or third choice of voters can easily win an election. This is not progress, it is confusion designed to create chaos.

Good News For Taxpayers And Pro-Life Americans

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On Friday, Townhall posted an article about the legal challenges by Planned Parenthood to the ban on taxpayer money being used to fund abortion.

The article reports:

When President Trump signed the “Big Beautiful Bill” on July 4, 2025, cutting off federal Medicaid reimbursements to large abortion providers under Section 71113, the abortion industry immediately launched a coordinated, multi-front legal assault to force the money to keep flowing. The ACLJ jumped into the fight on Day One – and never looked back.

…Planned Parenthood filed suit in the Massachusetts federal district court within days of the bill’s passage. When the district judge granted two sweeping preliminary injunctions – claiming the defunding violated Planned Parenthood’s First Amendment rights – we filed four amicus briefs fighting back, including urging the First Circuit to issue an emergency stay. The First Circuit granted the stay on September 11, cutting off Planned Parenthood’s funding while the case proceeded – and later issued a unanimous landmark ruling upholding Section 71113 in its entirety and vacating both injunctions. Win.

Maine Family Planning opened a second legal front in Maine federal district court. We filed amicus briefs there at both the district and appellate levels arguing that no court can force Congress to spend money it specifically voted not to spend. The district court denied their injunction entirely, and after the First Circuit’s decisive ruling in the Planned Parenthood case, Maine Family Planning abandoned its appeal altogether and stipulated to dismissal. Win.

Even as those cases were resolved, California organized a coalition of 22 states to file their own lawsuit – California et al. v. HHS – seeking to reimpose Planned Parenthood funding across their jurisdictions. We filed our seventh amicus brief there, and the First Circuit handed California a decisive defeat, granting a stay that allowed Section 71113 to take effect even in the plaintiff states. With no viable legal theory remaining, the coalition has now dismissed its own case, seeing the writing on the wall. Win.

The article concludes:

As monumental as today’s victory is, Section 71113 of the “Big Beautiful Bill” cuts off Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding for one year. The abortion lobby will regroup. The only way to make this permanent is through Congress. The ACLJ will be at the forefront of that fight, just as we have been at every stage of this one.

I don’t know if we will ever be able to end legal abortion, but at least we can stop the taxpayers being forced to pay for it.

Undermining The Tax Cuts President Trump Put In Place

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The Big Beautiful Bill provided tax relief for certain groups of people. A major portion of Social Security will not be taxed, tips will not be taxed and overtime pay will not be taxed. Those are targeted tax breaks given to the people who work hard (or have worked hard) and were hit hard by President Biden’s economic policies. Unfortunately, there are those in some states who really don’t care about helping those of us who work for a living.

On Monday, The Daily Signal reported:

The Trump/GOP “One Big, Beautiful Tax Cut” includes no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and a new tax-deduction for Social Security benefits. These promises helped Trump secure the White House and Republicans the U.S. House and Senate.

The GOP’s huge win in November 2024 gave Republicans a solid mandate to keep these promises. And they did.

Nonetheless, the Democrat-mismanaged states of Colorado, Illinois, Maine, and New York are rigging their tax codes so that this Trump/GOP tax relief does not reduce corresponding state levies. The same holds for Democrat-smothered Washington, D.C., which will keep higher taxes on 13 of the GOP’s 84 federal tax-cut provisions.

Colorado’s House Bill 25-1296, decoupled its state taxes from these federal tax reductions. So, next April 15, factory workers will have to render unto Democrat Gov. Jared Polis the overtime pay break that Trump and Republicans let them enjoy.

Among other things, this requires taxpayers to keep two separate records of taxable income. What a mess.

The article notes:

So, at last, Republicans deliver concrete relief to the “affordability crisis” that has become the Democrats’ latest obsession. The Trump/GOP tax cuts will help Americans pay their bills, buy groceries, fill their gas tanks, and maybe even get out of town, to pursue happiness. What could be more wonderful?

Rather than celebrate with everyday people, Democrats decrease taxpayers’ additional income and diminish their economic security. For Democrats, making Americans poorer is a bargain compared to the bonanza of denying Trump and Republicans any credit for feeling and easing the people’s pain.

Anyone who votes Democrat at this point is simply not paying attention!

The Right To Take Your Child To Church

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On Friday, WABI Channel 5 in Maine posted an article about a divorce custody case where the court is deciding whether or not the mother has the right to take her daughter to church.

The article reports:

Maine Supreme Court justices heard arguments in a parental-rights case on Thursday involving a mother who says she has been unconstitutionally barred from taking her 12-year-old daughter to church.

Emily Bickford is challenging a December 2024 custody order that prohibits her from bringing her daughter to Calvary Chapel in Westbrook.

A district court judge sided with the child’s father, Matthew Bradeen, ruling that some of the church’s teachings could be psychologically harmful to the girl.

The order allows Bradeen to solely decide on his daughter’s involvement with Calvary Chapel Church.

When it comes to any other religious organization, the order states that the parents share rights and must discuss.

Bickford’s attorneys, led by Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, argued that the lower court’s decision violates her First Amendment rights.

“This is a nuclear option, where you give total authority to one parent to make decisions regarding religion over the other parent, who’s a fit parent,” Staver told our media partner WMTW outside the courthouse in Portland, where justices heard roughly 30 minutes of oral arguments.

Bickford said after the hearing that the order has prevented her daughter from attending a place that is meaningful to her.

This is amazing. I looked up the Calvary Chapel website. Their beliefs are basic Christianity. Even if their beliefs were strange, I think a mother is entitled to take her daughter to the church of her choice. This is a definite affront to the First Amendment rights of the mother and daughter.

The Wrong Solution

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On Monday, Hot Air posted an article reporting a suggestion from the Mayor of South Portland, Maine, on how to pay the increasingly high taxes imposed by the city.

The article reports:

In a city that has raised taxes by almost 25% over the past half-decade, the mayor has made the obvious suggestion: use your home’s equity to hand over your wealth to keep the city’s gravy train going.

It’s a brilliant solution if you think about it. You worked all your life to buy your house outright, happy that you can pass along the value to the next generation.

But really, wouldn’t you rather keep the government bureaucrats happy instead? The children of the community are the children of the community, which means that your children belong to the government, just as your home should too.

Included in a quote from the Mayor was the following link:

South Portland Directs $150,000 in State Funds to Help Migrants Currently Staying at Hotel Find Permanent Housing

You don’t suppose that might have something to do with the almost 25% increase in taxes?

The article also notes:

Notice that link in the middle of the quote? City directs $150,000 to help migrants find permanent housing.

Hmm. I wonder if there is some correlation.

This is exactly what you should expect in modern-day America. Governments spending money to help migrants while screwing their own citizens.

Is it any wonder that people are angry? We are constantly being asked to sacrifice our own futures for the benefit of people who aren’t citizens. We are paying the freight for others while being asked to surrender what we have.

Elections matter. Any Democrat you vote for in November will continue to give your money away to people who broke the law coming here.

 

 

What Are They Thinking?

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On Friday, The U.K. Daily Mail posted an article about a planned apartment complex in Brunswick, Maine.

The article reports:

Residents of a Maine town have hit out at the $13million construction of a complex of 60 apartments for asylum seekers, where they can live rent free for two years then pay a fraction of the rental price. 

Locals in Brunswick have expressed fury over the project, which is being funded by a mix of private and public money and which has been heavily criticized by Donald Trump Jr. 

The apartment complex in Brunswick is one of the many projects being launched by the town in what critics have labeled a ‘Taj Mahal’, red-carpet welcome for asylum seekers.  

There are currently 180 apartments in the Brunswick Landing complex available for anyone to rent. A one bedroom unit costs $1,800 a month, while a two-bedroom costs $2,300 a month. 

The new buildings for asylum seekers will allow residents to live rent-free for up to two years while they obtain work permits. 

Then, if they obtain a job that pays half of the average local salary of $60,000, they will only have to pay a third of the rental price. It boils down to a monthly cost of around $500 for a one bedroom, and $690 for a two bedroom. 

The article continues:

“Up in this part of the world, and up in Maine, they are giving illegal immigrants free housing — multi-million dollar free housing, while they’re kicking out veterans in the street,’ he said in a news clip shared by the conservative Maine Wire. ‘I mean, what’s going on?’ 

Maine has a population of around 1.3 million people and has recently struggled to deal with a rise in migrants. In Portland, city officials said they received more than 1,600 asylum seekers last year.

But for the 23 families who have already moved into the complex, the facilities are a lifeline. 

Among those benefitting is a woman from Nigeria named Esther, who described the accommodation as ‘life changing’.

She moved into the complex after being moved between hotels and shelters.

‘In [a] hotel, there are rules and regulations,’ Esther told News Center Maine. ‘In a shelter too, we have so many people. We share the kitchen together. We share the restroom together.’ 

Scott Thistle, a spokesperson for MaineHousing, told FOX23 that fewer than  percent of the $1.24 billion the agency has allocated in the last two years was for asylum seeker-specific housing.

Let’s take care of our veterans and Americans struggling with finances first.

A Good Decision

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On Tuesday, CNS News reported that the Supreme Court has ruled that the State of Maine cannot limit its tuition assistance programs to non-religious schools. Six of the Justices voted against limiting the assistance to only non-religious schools, citing the First Amendment prohibiting laws that limit the free expression of religion.

The article reports:

“Maine has enacted a program of tuition assistance for parents who live in school districts that do not operate a secondary school of their own,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority:

“Under the program, parents designate the secondary school they would like their child to attend — public or private — and the school district transmits payments to that school to help defray the costs of tuition. Most private schools are eligible to receive the payments, so long as they are ‘nonsectarian.’

“The question presented is whether this restriction violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.”

As the opinion noted, Maine has limited its tuition assistance payment to “nonsectarian schools” since 1981.

The petitioners wanted to send their children to accredited religious schools, but since those two schools did not qualify as “nonsectarian,” they were denied the state tuition assistance payments.

The petitioners sued the commissioner of the Maine Department of Education, alleging that the “nonsectarian” requirement violated the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

As parents increasingly speak out against some of the values being taught in our public schools, religious schools that better reflect the values of parents are becoming more popular. Since the State of Maine provides tuition assistance where secondary schools are not available, the parents should have the right to choose their child’s school. I thought liberals were about ‘choice.’

Making Lemonade Out Of Lemons

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Yesterday Breitbart posted an article about the Pride’s Corner drive-in movie theater in Westbrook, Maine. The theater reopened on Saturday for a showing of the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz.” The theater was sold out.

The article cites a number of examples of creative ways people can stay entertained during the current lockdown:

A local ABC news affiliate reported that guests were required to park their vehicles between poles that were specifically installed to ensure that each car remained at a safe distance apart and that social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines were also enforced on the premises. Attendees were also allowed to sit in front of their cars but not at the sides of them.

“The general public has been doing a great job — they’ve been following the COVID-19 requirements and recommendations so it’s gonna be a great evening,” said Jeff Tevanian, the operator at Pride’s Corner, according to WMTV 8.

The Pride’s Corner was not the only drive-in theater to have recently garnered a large crowd.

On Friday, the Capri Drive-in Theater in Branch County, Michigan, was also packed, as moviegoers flocked in defiance of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order.

The drive-in theater opened for business for the first time all year on Friday night — just hours after governor Whitmer held a press conference slamming businesses in Michigan defying her orders.

Drive-in movie theaters have increased in popularity as draconian lockdown measures have been established by politicians in response to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

In fact, this new “pandemic generation” currently has more than 300 drive-in theaters available to them across the United States, which is down from about 4,000 in 1958, according to a report by the Middletown Press.

The concept of drive-in events don’t just stop with movies, as Florida is about to host what is likely the nation’s first-ever drive-in music festival.

The festival, called, “The Road Rave” promises “a ​full festival main stage production” headlined by DJ Carnage, who is calling the event “North America’s first-ever drive-in festival of the COVID era.”

We may be locked down in many places, but American ingenuity is alive and well!

Eliminating Our History One Day At A Time

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The Washington Examiner reported yesterday that Maine Governor Janet Mills signed a bill Friday to abolish Columbus Day. The holiday will now be celebrated as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

The article reports:

“There is power in a name and in who we choose to honor. Today, we take another step in healing the divisions of the past,” Mills said.

Native groups have been critical of Christopher Columbus, viewing his discovery of America as an attack on American Indians.

In 2018, the city of Los Angeles tore down a statue of Christopher Columbus citing what they believed was exploitation of native peoples by the explorer.

Mills joined in the signing ceremony by multiple former and current American Indian chiefs.

At least five states and dozens of cities have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Columbus Day still remains a federal holiday.

There is an ebb and flow of civilizations in history. The Mayans and the Incas are no longer the great civilizations they once were. The beauty of Rome and Greece have fallen. At various times England was inhabited by Normans, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, etc. The while settlers who settled America took land from the Indians and treated them badly, but on occasion the Indians also took land from each other and treated each other badly. No civilization is perfect or has been the picture of perfection throughout its history. We can’t change the past. Erasing it does not change it. It is an unfortunate fact of history that civilizations ebb and flow, but ultimately, we are not responsible for the sins of our ancestors. We simply weren’t there, and changing the name of a holiday really doesn’t change anything.

 

This Story Really Belongs On A Satire Site

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The U.K. Daily Mail posted an article yesterday about a recent truck accident in Maine.

The article reports:

An animal rights advocate wants to place a roadside memorial in Maine to remember thousands of lobsters killed in a highway wreck.

A member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed an application for the memorial earlier on Wednesday to build a large grave to mark the site of a truck crash that resulted in thousands of lobsters spilling out onto a highway. 

PETA hopes to memorialize the ‘countless sensitive crustaceans’ who were killed during the August 22 crash in Brunswick, the animal rights group said. 

The grave would ‘remind everyone that the best way to prevent such tragedies is to go vegan,’ the animal rights group said. 

7,000 pounds of live lobsters were destroyed and it’s believed at least 4,500 lobsters died.  It’s believed the truck’s driver lost control because of rain.

Some of the lobsters died from being crushed, police say. Detective William Moir told The Bangor Daily News that the scene of lobster carnage ‘was something I’ve never seen before. Some lobsters were loose on the ground from being spilled over so we went to work to save the ones we could.’

I don’t mean to be difficult, but I suspect there are many other places the money involved could be put to better use. I am sorry about the lobsters, but they were not purposely harmed, and I do truly believe this article belongs on a satire site.

Teaching A Work Ethic

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America‘s welfare programs have lost their way. They have become a bureaucracy that leaves people in poverty instead of helping them achieve success. There is no incentive for either the recipient of welfare or the welfare administrator to help the recipient end their dependency on the government. The welfare recipient is supported by a check from the government, the welfare administrator is supported in her job by the necessity of overseeing the distribution of that check. That is a simplification, but essentially the recipient and the administrator are mutually dependent upon each other. Neither has an incentive to change the system. However, because welfare is one of the budget busters in federal spending, the system needs to change.

On Tuesday, The Daily Signal posted an article offering a proven solution to helping people escape government dependency.

The article reports:

Most Americans believe able-bodied adults receiving welfare should be required to at least seriously look for work.

A new piece of legislation in the House promises to advance that majority view in federal law.

Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., recently introduced the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Reform Act of 2017 (H.R. 2996), which would provide a much-needed reform to the food stamp program (SNAP). The bill would strengthen work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependent children.

H.R. 2996 would establish the principle that welfare assistance should not be a one-way handout. Assistance should definitely be given to those in need, but recipients should be required in exchange to take steps to support themselves.

The article reminds us that SNAP already has work requirements for adults without dependent children, but there is a way for counties to obtain waivers to opt out of the work requirement. In this bill, those waivers would be eliminated.

The article cites what happened in Maine when work requirements were added to welfare programs:

For example, in July 2014, Maine announced that it would no longer grant waivers from the work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependent children.

In order to receive benefits, they would thus have to work, participate in a work program for 20 hours per week, or do community service for about six hours per week.

It is important to note that this policy did not arbitrarily cut food stamp recipients from the program rolls. Able-bodied adults without dependent children in Maine were removed from the rolls only if they refused to participate in modest activities.

In fact, most of these individuals in Maine chose to leave the program rather than participate in training or community service, despite the strong outreach efforts of government caseworkers. This indicates that these individuals had other means of supporting themselves.

As a result of the new policy, the Maine caseload for able-bodied adults without dependent children dropped 80 percent in just a few months, falling from 13,332 in December 2014 to 2,678 recipients in March 2015.

The article states:

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Reform Act of 2017 establishes a federal work requirement for this same category of individuals, similar to the one established in Maine.

If enacted, this policy would save taxpayers around $90 billion over the next 10 years, or roughly 13 percent of the program’s 2018-2027 projected spending.

No one wants to deny help to those who need it, but we have reached the point where there are two many Americans riding in the wagon and too few Americans pulling it. A work requirement is one way to slash the SNAP program by 13 percent and still provide help to those people who need it.

A Good Idea Whose Time Has Come

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On Friday, CNS News posted a story about one area of President Trump’s proposed budget–the area of food stamps.

Here are some numbers from The Gateway Pundit in 2015:

Under Obama the poverty rate has stood at greater than 15% for three consecutive years (2010-12), the first time that has happened since the mid-1960’s.  A record number of people have been on Medicaid (72 million or 1 out of 4 Americans) and Medicare (more than 47 million Americans) during Obama’s presidency.  When Obama entered office in 2009, 31.9 million individuals received food stamp benefits. As of January 2015, 46 million people received food stamps for a 44% increase in food stamp usage since Obama took over and record numbers.  Food stamp users had topped 46 million for 38 straight months as of January 2015.  (People don’t reach out for food stamps when good paying jobs are plentiful.) Due in part to the increase in food stamps, Welfare spending  (not counting social security) reached nearly $1 trillion in 2013.

Obviously change is needed. The article at CNS News details some of the suggested changes:

In reality, the president’s proposed policy is based on two principles: requiring able-bodied adult recipients to work or prepare for work in exchange for benefits, and restoring minimal fiscal responsibility to state governments for the welfare programs they operate.

The president’s budget reasserts the basic concept that welfare should not be a one-way handout. Welfare should, instead, be based on reciprocal obligations between recipients and taxpayers.

Government should definitely support those who need assistance, but should expect recipients to engage in constructive activity in exchange for that assistance.

Work Requirements

Under the Trump reform, recipients who cannot immediately find a job would be expected to engage in “work activation,” including supervised job searching, training, and community service.

This idea of a quid pro quo between welfare recipients and society has nearly universal support among the public.

Nearly 90 percent of the public agree that “able-bodied adults that receive cash, food, housing, and medical assistance should be required to work or prepare for work as a condition of receiving those government benefits.”

It is time for those sitting in the economic wagon being pulled by working people to get out of the wagon and help pull.

The article reminds us that when Maine placed a work requirement on food stamp recipients, the number of people collecting food stamps dropped sharply. I believe Americans are basically generous people who want to help the less fortunate, but I also believe that Americans do not like being taken advantage of.

The article reports what happened in Maine:

In December 2014, Maine imposed a work requirement on this category of recipients. Under the policy, no recipient had his benefits simply cut. Instead, recipients were required to undertake state-provided training or to work in community service six hours per week.

Nearly all affected recipients chose to leave the program rather than participate in training or community service. As a result, the Maine caseload of able-bodied adults without dependent children dropped 80 percent in just a few months.

We need to learn from Maine’s experience.

I Don’t Understand How This Is Legal

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The Common Core Diva posted an article today about the money being spent on the data mining of our students under Common Core. The article includes the following:

commoncoreushouse-appropriationsI guess I just don’t understand how this works–how is it legal to use Medicaid funds for education.

The article explains what is going on:

If you’re not sure how the Library and Museum Grants are going to be used against us and help shift our community culture to an aligned ‘one for all’ compliant group:
https://commoncorediva.wordpress.com/2016/07/03/hitting-the-books-part-2/

Related and  a bit dated (2015), I exposed how Medicaid would be used to help align our students via loans, education, and all kinds of other federal overreach (for example: American Apprenticeships). At the crux? Sen. Lamar Alexander! See:
https://commoncorediva.wordpress.com/2015/09/27/weekend-news-tracking-the-ccsscteworkforce-aligned-society/

So, what else is this Report hiding? Below is a short list of hidden federal overreaches in education.
a) Continued use of taxpayer money  without our consent. Congress covered its backside with this excerpt: “Within the funds provided, the Committee has focused increases on priority areas and reduced funding for programs that are no longer authorized, are of limited scope or effectiveness, or do not have a clear Federal role.”

b) Topping the priorities: biomedical research. Biggest ‘winner’? NIH (National Institutes of Health) I first wrote about the educational overreach via the NIH back in 2014. It has not only continued since then, but has increased its overreach, thanks to Congress. What is becoming more obvious is that the Affordable Health Care is being embedded in not only education, but every aspect of our lives.
See: https://commoncorediva.wordpress.com/2014/12/13/sic-em-saturday-more-fed-budget-watch/

c) The Brain Initiative is among the top priorities. It’s yet another White House led plan of overreach. Learn more: https://www.braininitiative.nih.gov/?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
Knowing how ESSA and its mandates include using students, teachers, and families as research subjects, this is a very big area of concern!

d) CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and SAMSHA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) also get boosts of taxpayer money. Thanks to ESSA and its abuse of Title One funding in addition to the RTIs (Responses to Intervention) and Behavior Intervention and Management, as well as the data mining/tracking, our schools are absolutely in harm’s way of more federal overreach in education. How? ESSA plainly states that anything and everything..as long as its in the name of ‘student success’ is permissible; thereby open to being funded..with OUR money!

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. The government overreach into our children’s minds is frightening. Parents need to wake up and see what is happening to our schools. Our children are not being educated–they are being indoctrinated and physiologically manipulated into becoming compliant citizens. Please carefully check your candidates to see where they stand on Common Core and the government takeover of education.

Taxpayers Are Waking Up

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No one denies that we need a social safety net. The discussion centers on the size and the use of that safety net. It is meant to be a safety net–not a career choice. Many states, including North Carolina, are beginning to revise their safety nets in order to encourage people to work, to abstain from drugs, and to become productive members of society rather than constantly depending on the safety net.

On Saturday, the News & Observer posted an article detailing coming changes in the North Carolina food stamp laws. Food stamp recipients in North Carolina will soon be required to either work, volunteer, or take classes for at least 20 hours a week.

This is a chart showing the number of Americans on food stamps:

https://www.rightwinggranny.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/food-stamps-yearly-do-not-hotlink.jpg

The number has almost doubled since President Obama took office.

The article at the News & Observer continues:

That federal requirement (work, school, or volunteering) – which applies to adults under 50 who don’t have children – was suspended in 2008 as the recession hit and unemployment rates rose. But the exemption ended Jan. 1 for 23 mostly urban counties across the state, including Wake, Durham and Mecklenburg.

While the 77 other counties are seeing a slower economic recovery and could continue the federal exemption, the state legislature acted last year to restore the work and education requirement statewide starting July 1.

The change affects 115,000 North Carolinians who will have to document work, volunteer or education activities or lose their food stamp benefits. Recipients can still get up to three months of benefits without meeting the requirement.

Opponents of the change claim that it will rip away the safety net. There are some of us who feel that the change will simply sort out the people who genuinely need food stamps and those who are happy to take advantage of ‘the system.’

In April of last year, I posted a story about what happened in Maine when people who received food stamps were required to either work or volunteer.

The story included the results of that action:

A Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) spokesman tells the Associated Press that 12,000 non-disabled adults were in Maine’s SNAP program before Jan. 1 – a number that dropped to 2,680 by the end of March.

More than 9,000 Maine residents have been removed from the state’s food stamp program since Republican Gov. Paul LePage‘s administration began enforcing work and volunteer requirements.

The goal of a safety net is to help people who need help. Changing the rules will allow North Carolina to continue to help those in need while providing some relief to the taxpayers of the State who also have needs.

Making Welfare Work

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The budget for food stamps and other public welfare programs has gotten totally out of hand both at the state and the federal level. There are many people who have learned how to take advantage of the welfare system over the years, and the problem has been how to separate those who truly need assistance from those who don’t. Well, it seems as if the State of Maine has found at least a partial answer to the problem.

CNS News reported the following yesterday:

A Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) spokesman tells the Associated Press that 12,000 non-disabled adults were in Maine’s SNAP program before Jan. 1 – a number that dropped to 2,680 by the end of March.

More than 9,000 Maine residents have been removed from the state’s food stamp program since Republican Gov. Paul LePage‘s administration began enforcing work and volunteer requirements.

The article further reports:

State Rep. Scott Hamann (D –South Portland) has introduced a bill that would direct the administration to seek a waiver for certain counties with high unemployment or a lack of jobs.

The measure may not gain support from LePage’s administration. HHS spokesperson David Sorensen says, recipients only need to volunteer for 24 hours a month to comply with the requirements and the administration believes there are enough opportunities even in the most economically depressed regions.

No one wants to deny food to the needy, but the time has come to realize that there are people who are taking advantage of the various welfare programs available. The government really does not help anyone by giving them food without requiring them to work (unless that person is truly disabled in some way). The action that Governor LePage has taken will encourage the work ethic that has been lost in America since the Great Society laws were passed by Congress.

 

A Really Dumb Law That Is Putting Americans At Risk

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Today’s Washington Free Beacon posted an article today about problems New Jersey is having getting road salt. The supply of road salt in a few New Jersey communities is very low because of the recent snow storms. The problem in getting the road salt has nothing to do with its availability or proximity–the problem has to do with union workers.

The article reports:

Townsquare Media reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied the state’s request for a waiver of the Jones Act, a 1920 law requiring that all cargo and passengers moving between points in the United States be transported on American vessels.

A waiver would have allowed New Jersey to get the salt within days from a foreign transport in Searsport, Maine.

New Jersey Department of Transportation Spokesman Joe Dee told the Washington Free Beacon that a waiver from the Jones Act appears “unlikely.”

“We were pursuing a waiver, but we’ve been advised we wouldn’t get one,” Dee said. “It seems unlikely we will get it.”

Jersey City, New Jersey, is expecting snow tonight and tomorrow morning, and then possibly more snow on Wednesday. This has been a very harsh winter in the northeast, and it is really silly to put people’s lives at risk because the salt needed does not happen to be on an American ship. There at least needs to be a waiver of the Jones Act granted. It would also be a good idea to pass a law making sure that when public safety is at stake, the law would be quickly waived.

 

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About That Civility Thing…

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Today’s Washington Examiner reported some comments made by a Maine state legislator on twitter.

The article reports:

“Cheney deserves same final end he gave Saddam,” Kruger tweeted, according to the Maine Wire. “Hope there are cell cams,” he added, indicating a desire to watch Cheney die.

Today, after local media noticed the comment, Krugertweeted, “Twitter is no place for lousy attempts at humor” along with the hashtag “#mepolitics,” in what seems to be an allusion to the Cheney/Saddam tweet.

I’m afraid I fail to see the humor in any of that. Comments like that deserve to have consequences. I doubt there will be any, but Mr. Kruger was totally out of line.

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Does This Spending Represent Your Priorities ?

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CBN News posted an article today listing some of the things that our government is currently spending money on. Remember, this is a time when we are borrowing one out of every four dollars we spend and Congress is saying that it is impossible to cut spending without seriously hurting certain sectors or our economy.

Please follow the link above to read all of the article, but here are a few highlights:

Like the $120 million for federal retirement benefits to retirees who are already dead. Patrick Knudsen, The Heritage Foundation’s senior federal budget expert, pointed showed CBN News a recent example.

“After a retiree had died, his son continued cashing his checks for 37 years. And it didn’t stop until 2008 when the son himself died,” he said.

…More federal funding in the amount of $593,000 went to a primate research center to study where in chimpanzees’ brains they get the idea to throw their feces.

…A Virginia university received $55,000 to study Jordanian students’ water pipe smoking habits.

…A new grant of $176,000 joined $350,000 already spent to study how cocaine hurts or helps the sex drive of Japanese quail.

Some other gems:

…A museum of magic received $147,000 to study the audiences of magic shows.

…More than $550,000 of U.S. taxes went to the production of a documentary on how rock bands contributed to the fall of the Soviet empire.

…A television production of a Pakistani version of PBS’ “Sesame Street” has already cost tax payers $10 million and $20 million more has already been budgeted.

…IPad 2s were purchased for $96,000 for students in Maine, where 96 percent of their parents said the cost wasn’t worth it.

…Nevada’s Western Folklife Center received $50,000 for cowboys and cowgirls to gather once a year to recite cowboy poetry.

Somehow, I think we can find some room for spending cuts in these programs.

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Do Politics Influence Where People Choose To Live ?

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Map of USA showing states with no state income...

Image via Wikipedia

Yahoo Finance posted an article yesterday entitled, “States Where No One Wants To Buy A New Home.” Since I live in one of the states on the list (Massachusetts is listed as number 7 of 10), I read the article.

The map above shows all the states with no state income tax in red and the states that tax only interest and dividend income in yellow. I am not sure how much of a factor this is in the number of housing starts. It is interesting, though, that none of the states with no state income tax are on the list of states with the lowest number of housing starts.

The article reports:

Surprisingly, our list of states where few permits have been issued recently is different from the typical list of the worst housing markets. California, Nevada and Florida are always on those lists because homes are vacant and home values continue to drop. But the three are not on this list. It may be that prices have dropped so low in these markets that home inventory has begun to move, even if only tentatively. Instead, markets where housing permits are very small in relation to total homes are markets in which builders have abandoned any hope of near-term sales.

In case all you really wanted to do was see the list, here it is:

  1. Rhode Island
  2. West Virginia
  3. Illinois
  4. Michigan
  5. Connecticut
  6. Ohio
  7. Massachusetts
  8. New York
  9. Maine
  10. Pennsylvania

What in the world do these states have in common? I suspect there are a lot of reasons for the number of building permits to decrease in these states. Michigan for instance has lost a lot of businesses due to the tax policies of recent state administrations. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island all have state income taxes and business environments that do not necessarily encourage businesses to migrate there. New York is a very expensive place to live, although I believe the current governor is trying to ease the burden on the state’s taxpayers. It is interesting to me that these are all states in the northern areas of the country. Could it be that as the baby boomers age, they are simply looking for warmer places to live?

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