Yes, We Need Change
Posted by Peter Cutler
My job provides constant interaction with restaurants, hotels, and other tourist-oriented businesses that form a significant section of Maine's economy.
Given the cost of travel and transportation these days, it should come as no surprise that many of my clients are unhappy and anxious over a drop in customers. They tell me that their revenues are not currently at the same levels produced by past summer seasons and they blame this decrease not only on fewer tourists, but also fewer Maine people patronizing their establishments.
No doubt some of these businesses will no longer be solvent by next tourist season. The better-managed, more popular establishments will stand the best chance of survival.
The ever-rising cost of petroleum products is causing more and more ripples in the pool of our national and local economies. On a recent news broadcast I heard one economic "expert" speculate that something other than "market variations" might be influencing these huge increases in the cost of gasoline and heating oil, since there is no evident decline in prices despite an increasing drop in their consumption. Gee, you suppose …….?
A growing and vibrant economy is vital to our national and local interests and, yes, our stabilizing contributions to a world economy.
Locally we should be planning right now to make sure that those who legitimately will not be able to afford to heat their homes this coming winter will not be freezing. Nationally, we should be taking immediate steps to decrease our dependence upon foreign oil and that means opening drilling in new areas and doing whatever it takes to finance and encourage the exploration of alternative energy sources.
We can no longer afford national or local politicians who refuse to prioritize spending in order to address our most pressing needs, whose proposed solutions are focused on "tax the rich" (or the general population, in the case of Augusta), or who still block the expansion of our national resources of coal and oil, or who still pander to special interests whose livelihoods depend upon the status quo.
We, as individuals, can make conservation efforts that will help our personal finances. But we surely need to elect local and national politicians with the vision, determination, ethics and moral strength to consider the welfare of the public as a whole; to reject those who will assure us that they have our best interests at heart and then ignore campaign pledges and promises so that they can conduct "politics as usual".
As important as the tourist industry is to Maine, our state government needs to adjust their prevailing attitude that recreational visitors (cash cows) will sustain their ever-increasing "tax and spend" policies.
Then again, we can allow the current power structures in Augusta and Washington to continue unchecked until we are all "equal" - equally penniless, that is.
November and opportunity inches closer. Are you ready for a change in Augusta?
Posted by Peter Cutler
at 04:36 PM
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The only people I ever hear repeating the "tax the rich" mantra are the Republicans pretending that other people say it - the credit card Republicans who lack any semblance of a rational approach to investing in this country without incurring massive debt. (Reagan, for example, grew the debt from around 500 billion to about 4 Trillion dollars - wow, a record!)
Of course, these are the same Credit Card Republicans blowing our life savings (as well as many, many lives) on an unnecessary war in Iraq where they tell the troops again and again that anyone who doesn't support the war, doesn't support the troops. It's a bummer for the troops, since they are being told that most of the country doesn't support them. Fortunately, they are only hearing that from Talk Radio and the Credit Card Republicans.
That said, I agree with Mr. Cutler that we need to elect "national politicians with the vision, determination, ethics and moral strength to consider the welfare of the public as a whole.'
If you don't know about Angus King's wind power plan, check it out.
Posted by
Daniel KanyJuly 19, 2008 09:59 PM
It was the first president Bush who signed an executive order blocking any further significant off shore drilling.
It was a very slimey thing to do.
Look at this way: when President Jefferson blocked the importation of slaves through any port but those already importing slaves, he wasn't trying to help stop slavery. Indeed, he was working mightily to expand it further west. He was trying to increase the value of his own 200 slaves (80 of which he then sold) and the commercial power that such a provision would grant his own state.
G.H.W. Bush's limiting of domestic production of oil was hailed by environmentalists, but it also increased the value of oil production within the United States.
Funny that his son - our current president - was an oil man.
That's a conflict. And slimey.
I can see why Peter Cutler is mad at people like that.
But to be so loudly complaining that he's the target of "tax the rich Democrats" is a bit much. It's an odd thing to brag about and a clear miscalculation of the Democrats.
What about the Credit Card Republicans, Peter Cutler? We're all going to be paying for their financial irresponsibility.
Posted by AJG
July 27, 2008 08:20 AM
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