Monday, November 3, 2008

Monday on the Morning Show

Today on the show, Newell Augur, chairman of Fed Up with Taxes, and Alisa Coffin, owner the Great Impasta restaurant in Brunswick, came in to talk about their opposition to the new tax on beverages and health care claims, and their support for the ballot question (Question 1) which will repeal that tax.

Oxford County casino project spokesperson Pat LaMarche discussed her support for ballot question 2, which would allow a casino to be built in Oxford County. If you'd like the newsletter Ray put together on this issue, e-mail him at ray@myfoxmaine.com.

Portland Mayor Ed Suslovic stopped by to talk about his run for Portland City Council and to refute some hit pieces that have been put out against him in the final days of the campaign.

Ray talks about all these guests in the audio post below, as well as the issues on his mind on the eve of the election. Give it a listen, and weigh in with your own views in the comments section.

22 comments:

Bruce said...

You must be tickled about the 3 petitions Bragdon is turning in today. I wonder who they will get to finance the campaign. I doubt the beverage industry will pony up.
I suppose it will be the drug companies and health insurance companies, because they "care" so much for people

Ray Richardson said...

Bruce, Bruce, Bruce.

I thought y'all people were supportive of choice.

Y'all support the right of a Mama's choice to kill her baby.

Why don't y'all support choice in buying our health insurance?

We have choice in our life insurance, our car insurance and our homeowner's insurance, why not a choice in our health insurance?

You know the reasons, there are two.

First, y'all don't care about choice unless it involves killing the innocent unborn.

Two, if we had the choice to buy our health insurance from whomever we wanted regardless of what state we are in, Maine citizens would save money and then the need for a gestapo run health care by Maine's government would no longer be necessary.

Yes, a choice you can believe in, if you are allowed to live.

Bruce said...

Because the "choice" would only be available to the people who "have"

Pretty simple
Not having Single payer national health and disability is holding us back in competing in the global market. But i do not expect you or your buddies to buy that line.

comparing health insurance to car insurance is pretty typical of your value on your fellow man's well being.

Are you related to Hayes Gahagen by the way? You seem to have a lot in common.
I just did my daily walk to the Post office. had to walka round a lady with her placards denouncing Obama and saying that if we voted for him we would no longer be christians. Oh well.

She probably thinks Obam was born in Kenya too,like you

Ray Richardson said...

Bruce, Bruce, Bruce ....

I do not believe Obama is from Kenya. I stated that earlier.

I also don't believe that you lose your Christianity because you vote for Obama. I think you lose your sanity and certainly your wallet.

The purpose of buying health insurance across statelines is to allow you to buy the best deal based on the needs of your family.

It will reduce the cost of health insurance, something liberals do not want, because if it becomes affordable, they will not realize their dreams of government run health care.

My analogy was spot on about the car insurance. You just have to be willing to want what's best, not what serves an agenda.

Ray Richardson said...

By the way, life insurance is equal in importance to health insurance.

It is unfortunate so many do not understand that.

Bruce said...

Pray tell How is life insurance as important as health insurance?

Don't forget not everyone has children and if you have a 100k in the bank you might be self insuring, but 100k can get eaten up in a week in a hospital

rockhoppre said...

Life ins. is more important to pay the liberal Death taxes

Ray Richardson said...

Life insurance is not selfish. It is not about the person who dies. It is about those who are left behind, making sure they taken care of.

I thought that was what being liberal was all about .... taking care of others .... or is it simply telling others what to do?

rockhoppre said...

My employer's privetly held company is valued @$60,000,000.He has to carry $37,000,000 worth of health ins. to pay for the Death tax so the company will still be able to exist.The premiums keep him from hiring 5 people. Obama wants to raise this tax. He is going to crush this economy to which has never been seen before.

Bruce said...

So Tom
For some reason i thought hiring and laying off employees had to do with how much business one has.
I guess if a busy company wants to lay off people because of taxes that is his issue. Me I would only lay someone off if I had no work for them

Ray Richardson said...

As an example, if your business grosses 1,000,000 dollars and you pay 270,000 dollars in taxes, that only leaves 730,000 in money for employees and other business operations.

If, however, your tax bill was much smaller, say half, then that would give you an extra 135,000 to pay employees with.

Of course, since we know that the government is more important than the people, it will not be understood or work that way.

Bruce said...

So if your taxes are low , you would hire employees you do not need? And if they were high, you would lay people off even when you had work for them to do which would make you more money.
No wonder you work for someone else and do not have a payroll.

As for the life vs health ins statement you made.
Maybe you were joking, like calling Obama a native son of Kenya.

To use your favorite word. It is "stupid " to say they are eqauly important.
A single person does not need life insurance.
A married person who has savings does not necessarily need life insuranceif they have planned their finances ansd built up savings Savings can be wiped out pretty quick by hospital bills.
If we did not have health insurance , my wife and I would have been out on the street now probably.
Of course maybe you are one of the types who looks at life insurance as a windfall. Some people even buy big policies on their kids. Imagine that.

When you were in farmington, you mentioned that your health insurance had a very big deductible. Are your kids on that too or do you get in under Maine Care for kids for them?

Tonight Tonight won't be just any night.....

Obama A new direction for Virginia

rockhoppre said...

What it means is less $$ for raises, bonuses,new equipment, job growth.Should i keep going. Nobama will set the country back to 1979.

Bruce said...

You should because all those things you mentioned are affected by amount of business, not amount of taxes. There is no proof that a tax increase makes for less business. it is just a slogan you guys have.
How is your own business doing now?
Must be great since we have those Bush tax cuts still in place.

BTW Your employer I feeding you some Bull.
Why is he worried about the death tax? He will be dead and when his airs inherit the company they will be much better off than someone who is trying to build their own company the American way.

Ray Richardson said...

No Bruce, my family does not take from others. We work, pay taxes and volunteer.

We are not part of the problem. We are part of the solution.

We believe in self-reliance.

I have five sources of income. Why? Becasue that is what it takes for my family to financially function.

I know it is hard to believe that some people actually believe in something other than government dependence.

I am thankful to have been born an American and thankful that God has given me the good health to be able to awake each day at 4:15am, go to work, attend to my family's needs and hit the sack around 11:30p to midnight.

I don't resent the hours nor do I blame someone else. I am thankful for the opportunity.

I don't want social assistance. I don't need social assistance and I have never taken social assistance.

I figure, as does my wife, that as long as we are physically and mentally able, it is our responsibility to look after our family and its needs.

What you and yours have failed to realize is this. Your panacea is an impossibility. There is not enough money in this country for the government to do everything for everyone.

What I can not understand is why you think it is okay for people who are capable, that's right, capable to be allowed to be government dependent. Why do you think some should work hard so that others cannot work by choice?

Oh, by the way, you would not understand the insurance thing. Life insurance is about the needs of others, not about the needs of one's self.

Ray Richardson said...

So, based on your comment to Tom, I finally understand.

You are jealous of the success of others and resent their getting ahead.

I never realized that until today.

Passing on a family business is the American way.

Taking it from them is the European way.

We kicked their butt 200 plus years ago because we did not want to be Europeans.

Maybe you missed that.

Bruce said...

Wow Ray
You make a lot of assumptions.
You are the one who wants everything to be my, me, me, mine.

I believe in spreading the wealth remember. I have nothing to be jealous about for anyone. I just get tired of you guys whining about the death tax. By the way Of your five incomes how many employees have you had on a payroll recently?

Also you keep hammering on the life insurance thing. Only an idiot would consider that as important as health insurance . You obviously have no grasp on economics and or the cost of health care. Why should a single person with enough money to take care of burial expenses have life insurance?
And I do have life insurance, I just know it is not as important as health insurance. You can't grasp that, but then you are in your own little idealogue world anyway.
Sleep in tomorrow,it will be a bad day for your group.
BTW Now I know why your eyes are so puffy in the morning. I thought it was just your fluid retention, but now I know you are not getting enough sleep.

5 incomes. Considering you always say money is not important to you. makes me wonder.

Passing on a family business is the American way. 2 of my brothers took over my dad's plumbing business, no death tax there. Most family businesses fall below the current fed estate tax minimums.Taxing inheritance is also the American way, so we do not build empires and accumulate wealth like the old europe.
In most cases the third generation of business inheritors end up running the business down because they never had to work for it like the founder did.
I guess you can call me anything you want. Attaching labels to people you don't agree with is a normal strategy for you folks when you lack sound arguments.

Having a hack like Frary on your comedy hour just shows how out of touch your group is. Here is an example of a person who inherited money. What exactly does Impeach Ignorance mean anyway, being a "perfessah" he should have some understanding of the english language.

Bruce said...

Ray said "You are jealous of the success of others and resent their getting ahead." Methinks you protest too much. You seem to be jealous of the people you perceive are working the system while you toil away at your 5 jobs.

Making money the old fashioned way is not getting ahead. Where is the self reliance that you always preach. And having something handed to you is not being successful. That is not what made America great.
I am gratefull that my father gave me the skills I needed to make a living doing what I want. That is what any child should hope for. Are you doing that for your kids or are you just going to leave them some life insurance?

Les Gibson said...

You know, guys, giving the facts and truth to some people is just a complete waste of time as they just refuse to accept anything that is contrary to their strict view of things.

A single payer national health care plan would be an absolute disaster, just like the really bad Dirigo plan here in Maine. It hasn't worked in other socialist countries, so what makes our liberal friend think it'll work here? Oh, because Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Ried and now Barack Obama say it will. Talk about a meeting of the (not so great)minds.

Now we're to be condemned because we dare to have life insurance. It is an abosolute truth that if health insurance was open to the competitive process that premiums would go down. Oh, but our liberal friends can't allow that to happen, for two reasons:

First, it proves that capitalism does work and socialism doesn't.

Second, it would have a negative impact on their ability to maintain the entitlement mentality that they have hooked far to many Americans on.

It also seems that our friends only response to hard working families trying to become successful is " do you have a payroll?" What in the heck does that have to do with anything?

Anyway, I'm sure I'll become our friends target as I just can't bring myself to buy into the liberal mindset of having government be the provider, instead of us providing for ourselves.

Bruce said...

You said "A single payer national health care plan would be an absolute disaster, just like the really bad Dirigo plan here in Maine. It hasn't worked in other socialist countries, so what makes our liberal friend think it'll work here? Oh, because Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Ried and now Barack Obama say it will. Talk about a meeting of the (not so great)minds."Absolute"? You are such a sage

I have seen a single payer system at work in other counties. (lived in Belgium from 91-96) you say they don't work. Of course that is because you have done so much research on "BOTH" sides to reach your concluison.

Since you have a nice health care plan negotiated by your union you don't give an R A about anyone else being covered.
We have one single payer program in place nationwide and it seems to be working. At least my 86 year old mother who is getting cataract surgery thinks so.
There is no perfect program anywhere in the world. it is always a work in progress like everything else

The reason i ask if someone has a payroll is because they all seem to know what will happen to small businesses under Obama.
I do have a payroll, so i think i understand a little more about how govt impacts small business than you or others who collect a paycheck instead of writing them.

Les Gibson said...

Just because it works, you say, in Belgium doesn't mean it hasn't be an abject failure in other countries. Nice try, but your argument is flawed.

As for my health plan, for your information I don't have health coverage negotiated by the union at BIW or by any other union. My employer does not provide my health coverage.

I earned me and my families medical insurance by working for over 20 years in service to my country, I can't wait for you to trash that.

I do believe that citizens of this country should have good health coverage. For those people who are capable of working they should do like the rest of us, pay for it.
And opening medical coverage to the free market competition would make it more affordable.

Unless you possess an actual working crystal ball or have the ability to travel to the future you can't possibly know with any certainty how Obama's tax plan will affect small business, providing that he doesn't have to shelve that plan once he is confronted with political reality. For the sake of your business and thousands of others across the country, I hope it does work out, because the reality is that small business is our economy's backbone.
Mess with that backbone and it will lead to disaterous results.

Bruce said...

Thank you for calling me our economies backbone

Belgium france germany holland sweden.
They all have working socialized medicine. We are the only member of the group 7 that does not. We must be right. We are America

You just can't handle the thought of the US not having the right programs on everything. Our medical system is not the best in the world or else Americans would not be flying to Singapore etc for operations.
As for your insurance. 65 cents of every dollar spent on health care in the US comes from the govt already in form of VA benefits, medicare and medicaid. We only have 35 cents to go.
Why would I trash your VA benefits. Just because McCain was not a proponent of expanding V A benefits does not mean I am. You should thank liberals for looking after the military person, not just the military contractors like the GOP does.

I knew based on previous discussions that you were probably covered outside of BIW, but your union co workers are not all covered by the VA and i am sure they enjoy a nice health insurance benefit negotiated by the union.
Not everyone has those jobs.