By Sen. James Libby

When you’re elected to serve in the Maine Legislature, you’re chosen to represent the voters of your district and the State as a whole. But the people in my Senate District who elected me never got that representation. That’s because the majority Democrats in the Senate, House and in the Blaine House refused to work with Republicans.

Hello, this is Senator Jim Libby of Cumberland County. I also represent parts of the great counties of Oxford and York. I thank you for joining me for this week’s Republican Radio Address.

The problems we’ve seen in the State House this year are so thick that you need a meat cleaver just to cut through them. Those problems started from the very beginning – the far-left Democrat leadership is part of the problem. Let me give you some of the painful facts.

If you are elderly, for example, and you don’t file taxes, you were not eligible for any of the relief checks. How could they even do that? When I tried to file a bill to correct this problem, the Democratic leadership in the Legislative Council blocked it. They don’t want Republicans to have any credit at all – what a reason to block a good bill.

Another shocking example: Our Governor ran on a record of not raising taxes. However, she just signed a budget bill that raises your taxes to pay for paid family medical leave. Not a bad idea, but that’s something Congress should take up so that Maine is not at a disadvantage to other states where if we do this, investment will go.

We are already tough on business. We don’t want to lose investment, too.

A good friend in the lumber business told me that paid leave will increase the cost of doing everything in Maine, and increase the short-staffing stress Maine workers are already experiencing. He is right.

We are one of the highest-taxed states in the nation; and our energy costs are among the highest, too. Another failure of government is the solar subsidy program, called net metering, which will end up costing Mainers billions in higher energy rates over the next 20 years. Democrats voted down a bill that would have fixed that, too.

The Governor also promised she wouldn’t change our already permissive abortion law. Yet on January 17 – just 13 days into her second term – the Executive Branch and Democrats went back on that promise. Now, abortion is available right up to the moment of birth, for any reason, and uses tax dollars to pay for them. That’s something I just can’t support.

And we can’t forget the masses who attended a medical freedom rally at the State House in April and lined the halls waiting to testify against vaccine mandates. Democrats ignored them and voted every one of those bills down.

Now, in an ironic twist, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services announced this week that they’re ending those COVID-19 mandates for health care and EMS workers. They’re late to the game – 46 other states already did – but it’s far worse than that. Hundreds of health care workers lost their jobs because they opposed vaccines; and there’s no word on how Democrats will right this terrible situation. They probably won’t.

This week we learned that the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is making rules that will declare bass an invasive species in northern Maine. That’s right, no more bass tournaments in northern Maine. Please go to the Department’s website to oppose this ridiculous rule. You have until July 20.

It saddens me to say that Democrats are no longer recognizable as the party of our parents, grandparents or even a short decade ago. From special interest groups and broken promises to abandoning everyday Mainers, Democrats in Augusta represent everything that’s wrong with politics today.

Again, this is Senator Jim Libby of Cumberland County. Now that the session is nearing an end, I will be visiting districts across our state. Please invite me to come by, and thanks for listening.

Senator James Libby represents the communities of District 22. He is the Senate Republican Lead for the Legislature’s Education Committee and Taxation Committee.