Author: Eric Brakey

The following was originally posted on Sen. Eric Brakey’s Facebook page. It’s republished here with permission. Today, during a hearing on a bill to increase legislative compensation, I presented an alternative to the State and Local Government Committee. My proposal was to establish “performance pay” for elected officials — based on a formula that factors the Maine median income, Maine unemployment rates, and Maine workforce participation rates. Basically, the only way for elected officials to get pay raises would be for them to enact policies that impove the economic well-being of the Maine people. What do you think? ———— FORMULA…

As one-size-fits-all COVID vaccine mandates sweep government, academia, and corporate America, new data are emerging that undermine the public health justifications for these policies. Studies from multiple countries now indicate that vaccination alone is less effective than the acquired immunity many already possess and unable to prevent transmission in the medium-to-long term. Since the pandemic began, more than 100 million Americans have recovered from the virus. Many are workers deemed “essential” just last year. While the government paid others to sit at home, essential workers were required to continue working, exposing themselves to the coronavirus in a pre-vaccine world. One…

In our modern day and age, roughly nine out of 10 American adults use the internet. They depend on this technology for many aspects of their lives. From small business owners to rural farmers, the internet impacts all people and facets of the marketplace. It has become the key to remaining well-informed, connected and competitive, and without it, opportunities would be diminished and innovation stifled. The internet as we know it is faster and better than ever before. It has become a tool for entrepreneurship and a catalyst for change technologically, digitally and beyond. Over the past three decades, the…

Maine people work hard to get ahead, but the more politicians steal from our paychecks, the more we struggle to even tread water. That’s why, during my two terms in the Maine Senate, I fought for taxpayers against Augusta’s culture of cronyism and wasteful spending.Over the last 17 years, Augusta politicians have taken $40 million dollars from the Maine taxpayers to fund their campaigns. They tell us this helps reduce special interest spending in our elections, but a Duke University study found this to be absolutely untrue. Not only has this expensive “welfare for politicians” program done nothing to stop…

Ever since Cain slew Abel with a rock, human society has struggled with an age-old question: how do we prevent that rare, but devastating, scenario when someone chooses to wreak havoc on others? In America, we see it often as “gun violence.” In Israel and the Middle East, people fear suicide bombers. Across Europe, vehicle ramming attacks are on the rise. And as the homicide rate climbs in London, the new slogan is, “Save a life, surrender your knife.” I wish there was a single government bill we could pass to permanently end man’s inhumanity towards man. But that is…

Milton Friedman, the Nobel-prize winning economist, once said, “It is just obvious you can’t have open borders and a welfare state.” And yet, many in Washington believe they can ignore the fundamental laws of economics, inviting the whole world to America and signing them up for welfare when they arrive. Let me be clear: this is bankrupting us. We simply cannot afford it. Of course, we must never forget our heritage: America is a land of immigrants. When French and Irish immigrants arrived here in Maine, they came seeking opportunities to work, contribute and live the American dream. There were…

Did you know that you are currently in debt for over $1 million? As an individual American taxpayer, $1 million is your share of Washington DC’s $20 trillion in debts and $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. And let’s not fool ourselves: Washington DC loves spending the money, but our federal government is going bankrupt and you and your children will be covering the bill. The political class is spending our money at an astronomical rate — borrowing a million dollars a minute — and while they certainly spend wastefully here at home, they also spend money wastefully abroad and often…

We are all heartbroken by the attack in Sutherland Springs, Texas. We are all heartbroken each time fellow Americans are murdered in senseless acts of violence. Here, we can all agree. The question is, “What can we do to prevent future tragedies?” Gun control advocates insist there are only two options: either we (1) restrict gun rights for all Americans or (2) do nothing. No one wants to “do nothing” and we all want to prevent future tragedies, so this false choice is a convenient narrative because it presents the anti-gun agenda as the only viable option. Its true that we cannot…

What if Washington DC were bankrupt? What if Washington politicians spent a million dollars a minute, racking up $20 trillion in debt, with no plan to pay it back? What if our Kings in Washington sent billions to foreign governments, including those that behead Christians and burn the American flag, while natural disasters devastate our neighbors here at home? And what if every American taxpayer — you, me, your parents, your neighbors, your children’s teachers, everyone — were on the hook for over $1 million to our government’s creditors like China, Japan and Belgium? At what point would we as…

This November, Mainers will be asked a familiar question: should our State expand the Medicaid welfare program? Not only has Medicaid Expansion been debated and defeated six times in recent years in the Maine Legislature, but Maine has already experienced the disastrous results of expansion. In 2002, long before Obamacare was established, the Maine Legislature elected to expand Medicaid welfare to able-bodied, childless adults at or below 125 percent of the poverty line. As enrollment in this welfare program exceeded all projections, the incredible costs cannibalized other important state programs, including education. Expansion was ineffective at achieving its goals and…