Let’s play kickball with the poor, shall we?

The governor has found his issue that excites him!

Similar to the old Guinness World Book of Records’ question for college students back in the 1960s and ’70s of “How many kids can you fit into a Volkswagen,” today we have from Augusta, “How many different types of legislation can we draft both to address benefits, daily routine, and alleged scheming of low-income citizens, welfare recipients, and food stamp cheats – and how many press conferences can we hold on this general topic?”

A liberal Democrat, I have defended the governor many times here in the past concerning the sincerity of his beliefs.

It appears I was wrong.

I am a pragmatist. I like to get things done. Both in personal and business life, and also when I was in politics for a decade.

I recently drove Route 302, 117 and 114 near Sebago Lake. This is a fairly significantly sized population area. The roads would challenge a team of Clydesdales.

Clients have called my office on their cell phones during the past few weeks even (still!) from different spots in York and Cumberland counties and had their calls dropped or unbearably static-y due to poor cellular communications networks (still!) in Maine. Hard to try to have your state compete in the 21st century if talking with customers can only be done on a landline.

There are towns around Scarborough where kids graduate from high school not knowing either how to balance a checkbook or even what a check is, with local banks offering to go into the schools and set up old-fashioned savings accounts for kids etc. (Yes! It is possible that the banks involved may benefit from the $35 or so each kid might put into the accounts over the school year!).

And what is the governor spending a fair amount of his time – and “political capital,” and scarce 6 o’clock news minutes – on?

• Combating “fraud and abuse (in)…welfare” (April 3, 2014 press conference);

• L.D. 1815, stamping out lazy parents seeking Temporary Assistance to Needy Families help without first applying for three jobs (April 7, 2014 Portland newspaper column);

• Watch-dogging cheating by slovenly low-income people with their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards (April 6, 2014 Sunday newspaper story);

• Lobbying the Legislature on all such hot-button issues (Maine House of Representatives debate April 3, 2014).

It is no longer amusing. It’s a whole lot of nickel and diming. Bigger fish are not getting fried.

The first bill I proposed when elected to the Legislature in l984 was to require welfare recipients to work to earn their weekly checks. Republicans even helped kill it (Democrat-sponsored?!). Municipalities opposed it (the welfare recipients could get injured working at, say, washing fire trucks, or cleaning beaches, and need workers comp funds). Insurance companies helped kill it (The premiums on those policies were fairly low, and exposure potentially high).

But I established my street cred with many Republicans, including some in the Land of 04074.

I was 25 years old. I may not have known better than to waste the Legislature’s time.

The governor does not have that excuse.

Dan Warren is a lawyer in Scarborough and can be reached by private Facebook message to the Jones and Warren Attorneys at Law page.