"If we just fix it they will come". Then we will allow Business to run our state, with their "equal voice" and added ability to out spend the citizens. "We can create a new Maine". One where people work and use government welfare. For Lepage's strategy has been to pay the majority of his employees as low as he can, thusly forcing them to use Mainecare, and Liheap (subsidized oil program), as well as regular welfare. You will see more jobs and an increase in the use of subsidy to make Maine work under King Paul's plan. Which is also the truth behind his "tiered Welfare plan"; "get 'em working for cheap and give 'em a subsidy'. "Pacify the asses".
Meanwhile we have a new head of DHHS, the Department of Health and Human Services, Mrs. Mary Mayhew. Mrs. Mary has been billed as a Democrat, really, and a woman, amazing. She has already climbed the Lepage ranks from assisting with the interim budget, to being Paul's senior adviser on Health and Conservation, and now The head of the largest government service agency in the State of Maine. Here is the hook, Mary Mayhew is a lobbyist for Hospitals; she is/was the principle lobbyist for The Maine Hospital Association. She was also The vice president on government affairs for this company. She has stated that she believes Doctors and Hospitals should be able to litigate wrongful procedure. That is to say, If a doctor leaves a tool in you or cuts off the wrong appendage, and you think you should not have to pay for this unnecessary procedure, they should be able to prove that you should pay for their mistake. Looking at this makes me think 'pro-business', we can get our money one way or the other because medical insurance will not cover the lawyers. Wrongful procedure in a hospital is pretty cut and dry, indeed it is wrong or right. None-the-less, onward and upward with the best and brightest.
Next, after fifteen years of good hard work bringing workers compensation for our state into a controllable, reasonable, functional place, Paul Dionne is stepping aside. He will be replaced with Mr. Paul Sighinolfi, An attorney who has made a practice of defending businesses from claims on workers compensation. Seems like another lobbyist to me. "Power to the Business," please try not to walk all over ME. Though if this man wishes to, he could be an asset to the people of Maine. Is this why he has been appointed? Probably not, but onward and upward with the best and brightest we can find.
Our Chief financial officer has been in the hospital due to a chronic knee condition. Sawin Millet, is now being aided by Mr. Lowe, John Baldacci's financial guru. Sorry, Mr Millet about your condition, I hope you are well soon... but it is a chronic condition.
Anyone remember Mr. Bill Beardsley? Mr. Bill is to be our Head of the Department of Conservation. He ran against Pauly boy in the Republican primary. Yes, it is obvious he lost, but losers are regularly the best and brightest, in the pool of the limited and mindless. I hope the word Conservation means the same to Mr. Beardsley as it does to the rest of us. To conserve one must be careful, deliberate, and serving. Not conning the people you serve. Though in the new business model it probably means let the Cons out they are costing us too much money.
Another quick side note, those of you who smoke and are on Mainecare may be denied benefits. To the rest of you on Mainecare surveys will be in the mail soon. We would like to know if you eat too much, take too much salt, go without sleep, take more than 2 aspirin a week, ect. For these are some of the other dis-qualifiers we will be looking at. Pre-existing conditions be damned, We are not paying for that!
Now as for me, I read some where that a professor brewed a beer with 45 million year old yeast, I am going to find some of that. Talk to you soon, be well, keep thinking.
Sincerely, Ms. Paula Page
Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
A Business As Our State? Business in Our State? What is the Difference?
First I would like to say, a business is a beautiful thing. A business works to sell. A business works independently, usually, accept when a business violates anti-trust laws. A business works to make a profit. A business often keeps trade secrets and unless forced by Government, it keeps its secrets.
Even non-profits, which are a business, turn profits. Non-profits take the profit and turn it into a service, donation or, as often is the case, payroll. A business is always a profit seeking concern. In business profit has precedence over personal considerations. A business as long as it is compliant with all current laws needs not share a damn bit of information. Of course if it wishes to stay in business long a business will share what relevant information it must about its product, service, ect. What a business will not say is "Our CEO is a drunk" or "We only hire attractive women." It is just not our need to know until someone files a lawsuit or something gets leaked to the press. That is enough on businesses.
Let's move-on to a State Government, namely, Our State Government. For Governor Paul Lepage to even consider running Our state as a business is UnConstitutional. If the CEO of a company wants all the information vetted that is one thing, but in the State's case, You are the Owner, you are entitled to the truth as fast as it is thought of, not after it can be massaged in to a good looking spin (which is most often a flat out lie). To hog tie Our Representatives is business, not Government. First it was out with the Rules and now it is out with the information. What next - out with the people? Are we just in the way of business? This State of Maine has been set up to be "Of the people, By the people and For the people." But if we continue to accept this direction for Our Government, I must cede that it is a newly established Monarchy. Being born of and in this State of Maine, I will not yield to a king. Include the people in all the information, include the people in all the rules being thrown out and all the rules being made for them. So far all I have seen, is The king's new rules, or writs. "Make no rules" and "pass no information."
Sorry folks but that is how it feels so far to me. I am still trying hard to hold out. I've been looking for my "benefit of doubt" for a day or two. I know I put it here somewhere. I'll be back to finish this post later. In the mean time, Have a great day, keep thinking, Maine needs you all more now than ever.
Sincerely, Ms. Paula Page
Even non-profits, which are a business, turn profits. Non-profits take the profit and turn it into a service, donation or, as often is the case, payroll. A business is always a profit seeking concern. In business profit has precedence over personal considerations. A business as long as it is compliant with all current laws needs not share a damn bit of information. Of course if it wishes to stay in business long a business will share what relevant information it must about its product, service, ect. What a business will not say is "Our CEO is a drunk" or "We only hire attractive women." It is just not our need to know until someone files a lawsuit or something gets leaked to the press. That is enough on businesses.
Let's move-on to a State Government, namely, Our State Government. For Governor Paul Lepage to even consider running Our state as a business is UnConstitutional. If the CEO of a company wants all the information vetted that is one thing, but in the State's case, You are the Owner, you are entitled to the truth as fast as it is thought of, not after it can be massaged in to a good looking spin (which is most often a flat out lie). To hog tie Our Representatives is business, not Government. First it was out with the Rules and now it is out with the information. What next - out with the people? Are we just in the way of business? This State of Maine has been set up to be "Of the people, By the people and For the people." But if we continue to accept this direction for Our Government, I must cede that it is a newly established Monarchy. Being born of and in this State of Maine, I will not yield to a king. Include the people in all the information, include the people in all the rules being thrown out and all the rules being made for them. So far all I have seen, is The king's new rules, or writs. "Make no rules" and "pass no information."
Sorry folks but that is how it feels so far to me. I am still trying hard to hold out. I've been looking for my "benefit of doubt" for a day or two. I know I put it here somewhere. I'll be back to finish this post later. In the mean time, Have a great day, keep thinking, Maine needs you all more now than ever.
Sincerely, Ms. Paula Page
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
"Some Are More Equal Than Others"
There it was staring me right in the face the whole time, The Pigs and Dogs have it really well.
This page title and the pigs and dogs line, for those of you who do not remember, is a reference to the book, Animal Farm, by George Orwell. I am referencing this because what we have for The State Of Maine, is the double standard of the Pigs. If you remember in the story the Pigs deserved all the apples, for their brain work was hard. The Pigs also controlled all the money, to use for the greater good (which turned out to be their greater good). Whenever the Pigs had a desire they changed one of their seven laws ever so slightly, that the animal population did not really notice. Today the Pigs still run the state and the Dogs have all the paying positions in the private state. The private state has changed with the Dogs in charge, the public state has not. No longer do Dog companies offer full pensions, no longer do their companies offer good health benefit packages. Most companies have some form of 401k, which is really just the worker saving money in a gamble that it will increase, or even be there, when that imaginary day of retirement comes. The Dogs companies have lousy overpriced health care offerings for their employees, where the employee shells out more than half of their earnings for marginal benefits, with high out-of-pocket costs on top of high deductibles.The Dogs also seek and get many tax breaks from the Pigs, who have always been thankful for the Dogs.
The State worker, the Public worker, the Administration, almost without exception make more in salary and benefits, than their private state counter parts. Why is this? Is it justifiable? What do you think? Perhaps at one point, we, the state, thought it was the model for business to follow. Perhaps at one point we followed an old business model. But that model is dead. In the private state only executive Dogswine get the benefits they deserve for their brain work. In the private state business uses outside contractors and independent sources for much of its labor to reduce cost and liability. In this way, the private state has power to negotiate its contracts, always reaching a lower price; thus a satisfactory outcome. Our state needs to find ways to create jobs with our tax money. I say contract out the work to the people in the state. Let more Dogs in. Why does the state need to pay a $40,000 salary plus benefits to a photographer in the state's employ? Are there no photographers willing to take the state's call, when it's picture day? Why must all the plowing be state trucks on state runs? Are they better, more capable of doing the job right? Are the state plows cheaper to run? Probably not.
The state has actually sucked away the jobs for itself. It only wants to invest in itself as well. Take for example, investments in subsidized housing. We artificially lower the rent, so the private sector does not have to pay the employee enough to rent. We pay the rent for them through the state taxes instead. Yet we already gave the low interest loan to the private LLC to build this beautiful new low cost housing unit. The Dog makes money, The Pig gets fat and Human Services keeps their low income clients. We get hit three times for this. Our money is continually wasted.
Another example, we have a huge mental hospital, Dorothea Dix (BMHI), which costs millions to heat, has minimal clients, could never ever turn a profit as a private business, and we pay state employees to run it with huge benefit packages. The Dogs would never own it. These things, and many other examples of this kind of thinking need to be addressed. We need to get some share of those apples back from the Pigs. Let's start saving the state money by creating a private, competitive jobs market. Everything from Accounting and Labor to Photographer and Priest should be outsourced by the state, to the state. No other business really tries to pay a livable wage. Why should we? Well it's all something to think about.
Talk to you soon, Ms. Paula Page
This page title and the pigs and dogs line, for those of you who do not remember, is a reference to the book, Animal Farm, by George Orwell. I am referencing this because what we have for The State Of Maine, is the double standard of the Pigs. If you remember in the story the Pigs deserved all the apples, for their brain work was hard. The Pigs also controlled all the money, to use for the greater good (which turned out to be their greater good). Whenever the Pigs had a desire they changed one of their seven laws ever so slightly, that the animal population did not really notice. Today the Pigs still run the state and the Dogs have all the paying positions in the private state. The private state has changed with the Dogs in charge, the public state has not. No longer do Dog companies offer full pensions, no longer do their companies offer good health benefit packages. Most companies have some form of 401k, which is really just the worker saving money in a gamble that it will increase, or even be there, when that imaginary day of retirement comes. The Dogs companies have lousy overpriced health care offerings for their employees, where the employee shells out more than half of their earnings for marginal benefits, with high out-of-pocket costs on top of high deductibles.The Dogs also seek and get many tax breaks from the Pigs, who have always been thankful for the Dogs.
The State worker, the Public worker, the Administration, almost without exception make more in salary and benefits, than their private state counter parts. Why is this? Is it justifiable? What do you think? Perhaps at one point, we, the state, thought it was the model for business to follow. Perhaps at one point we followed an old business model. But that model is dead. In the private state only executive Dogswine get the benefits they deserve for their brain work. In the private state business uses outside contractors and independent sources for much of its labor to reduce cost and liability. In this way, the private state has power to negotiate its contracts, always reaching a lower price; thus a satisfactory outcome. Our state needs to find ways to create jobs with our tax money. I say contract out the work to the people in the state. Let more Dogs in. Why does the state need to pay a $40,000 salary plus benefits to a photographer in the state's employ? Are there no photographers willing to take the state's call, when it's picture day? Why must all the plowing be state trucks on state runs? Are they better, more capable of doing the job right? Are the state plows cheaper to run? Probably not.
The state has actually sucked away the jobs for itself. It only wants to invest in itself as well. Take for example, investments in subsidized housing. We artificially lower the rent, so the private sector does not have to pay the employee enough to rent. We pay the rent for them through the state taxes instead. Yet we already gave the low interest loan to the private LLC to build this beautiful new low cost housing unit. The Dog makes money, The Pig gets fat and Human Services keeps their low income clients. We get hit three times for this. Our money is continually wasted.
Another example, we have a huge mental hospital, Dorothea Dix (BMHI), which costs millions to heat, has minimal clients, could never ever turn a profit as a private business, and we pay state employees to run it with huge benefit packages. The Dogs would never own it. These things, and many other examples of this kind of thinking need to be addressed. We need to get some share of those apples back from the Pigs. Let's start saving the state money by creating a private, competitive jobs market. Everything from Accounting and Labor to Photographer and Priest should be outsourced by the state, to the state. No other business really tries to pay a livable wage. Why should we? Well it's all something to think about.
Talk to you soon, Ms. Paula Page
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Labor and Business in the same room?
Now that the "people before politics" campaign is over, the republican majority is set to move. First on the agenda seems to be the removal of the Standing Committee on Labor. Or as the republicans put it 'Labor will be combined with the Business, Research and Economic Development Committee.' It depends on who you listen to. According to Republican Senate Majority Leader, Jonathan Courtney, "it's too soon to say what it will look like, but we are going to be inclusive of both sides of the aisle."
The Labor committee has always been the voice of the working people of Maine. Labor deals with issues like unemployment and workers compensation, along with many other issues. Paula is pretty sure they deal with Unions as well. Phil Harriman on WGAN Eye on Politics, with Ken & Mike said," Labor was always a consternation." Labor has always fought business, it always will, they are separate interests. One wants to make money for its work, and more money if you please. The other wants to make money off the work, off the product or service, off the taxes, at all cost, for no cost if you please. You can decide which is which. Labor is a cost of business. Hence, unit of labor. Product is a cost of business. Profit is economic development and research paying business back. The cost of business will always take a back seat to the profit of business.
On a related note, there are savings by reducing committees while not great, they exist, it will only cost a clerk job here a secretary job there. Which according to calculations on another page here somewhere comes out to about $80,000 for each position. So, while we can not get rid of the legislature, yet, we can save money in the state by cutting jobs. We've already seen this is good for business, that is if the State of Maine needs to show a profit. Well perhaps it is too early to see how this will pan out. But for me all this waiting for a shave and a haircut by King Paul is making me itch.
We will talk again soon, all the best, Paula Page
The Labor committee has always been the voice of the working people of Maine. Labor deals with issues like unemployment and workers compensation, along with many other issues. Paula is pretty sure they deal with Unions as well. Phil Harriman on WGAN Eye on Politics, with Ken & Mike said," Labor was always a consternation." Labor has always fought business, it always will, they are separate interests. One wants to make money for its work, and more money if you please. The other wants to make money off the work, off the product or service, off the taxes, at all cost, for no cost if you please. You can decide which is which. Labor is a cost of business. Hence, unit of labor. Product is a cost of business. Profit is economic development and research paying business back. The cost of business will always take a back seat to the profit of business.
On a related note, there are savings by reducing committees while not great, they exist, it will only cost a clerk job here a secretary job there. Which according to calculations on another page here somewhere comes out to about $80,000 for each position. So, while we can not get rid of the legislature, yet, we can save money in the state by cutting jobs. We've already seen this is good for business, that is if the State of Maine needs to show a profit. Well perhaps it is too early to see how this will pan out. But for me all this waiting for a shave and a haircut by King Paul is making me itch.
We will talk again soon, all the best, Paula Page
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