Sen. Dutremble held a meeting called a Legislative Forum on Saturday, March 12 at the Community Center in Biddeford. He said he sent emails out and advertised in the newspaper. The agenda was an outline of Gov. LePage’s budget on tax reform and relief plan whereby moving Maine from Poverty to Prosperity. Approximately seven people attended one of which was a newspaper person and four of which I brought with me.

Sen. Linda Valentino was the speaker on behalf of Gov. LePage’s budget, “You earn it. You should keep it!” She talked about people who are citizens, organizations, and lobbyist that come before the Legislature in Augusta and state their concerns and needs for more spending in their own direction and personal interests.

Sen. Valentino did consent to the fact that most working taxpayers who are not looking for a handout do not come and defend themselves, the taxpayer. I ask who is in front of the Legislature defending the taxpayer? We the citizens of the United States of America still falsely believe that many of our elected officials are defending us the taxpayer in Augusta but they are not. The Legislature is overwhelmed with people of all walks of life that want the government to support their cause with taxpayer monies and the Legislature which is dominated by the Democrats keeps voting for more unnecessary spending in the name of false charity because the taxpayer has no one to defend them. Gov. LePage is for true charity while defending the taxpayer. His budget supports prosperity that would make Maine more competitive nationally by creating an efficient, effective and affordable government.

Sen. Valentino did agree that the majority of the programs are the result of the drug issue in the state of Maine. Then I ask why keep supporting this drug issue? Why not put money into law enforcement to get the drugs out of Maine? It would stop the flow of out of state people coming to Maine to support their drug habit while getting more freebees than any other state will provide, etc.

The state of Maine is called the No. 1 welfare state in the United States of America funded on the backs of its working citizens, the taxpayer. True charity is for those who truly need help and false charity is for those who are not willing to help themselves or others and want to live off the backs of the working American citizen by having the government support them and not work for it. False charity is against prosperity and is condescending, affectionate, even tender in appearance, but at the bottom it is essentially contempt for the true good of men and of the supreme interests of truth.

Donna Flanagan , Biddeford