Fitch cuts Maine credit rating

Fitch cuts Maine credit rating

SJ Link

Mark Paxton

There are intelligent ways to cut debt, and then there are ways to cut debt that literally leaves a state in ruins gasping for breath.....and the people, not the elites (aka LePage's "friends), with something left to rebuild with. LePage is taking a powersaw to the budget and his actions will ultimately cause real destruction ... and leave the people nothing left standing to rebuild with. You take a place like Fitch that looks at not only reductions in debt, but the sophistication of the plan to reduce the debt, and they consider this. Yes, LePage is trying to cut the debt, but ultimately, his actions will leave the state completely unequipped to pay back whatever debt remains. Moreover, some of the plans he is considering (borrowing from Wall Street for the prison rehab).....eeee....they know what these "great deals" are from Wall Street...they consider the intelligence/sophistication of the governor being approached and the long term ramifications of the proposed "deal" that Wall Street is offering. In other words, they know a chump when they see one.....and are not afraid to warn investors about them .......

And we should all understand while S&P and Moody"s are deeply, deeply compromised institutions at this point, Fitch is the rating agency that is now, more or less, not afraid to call a spade a spade.

It is unfortunate at this horrible horrible time in our economic history when we so desperately need a governor with some financial sophistication to protect us, we've got LePage. He's a death wish for the state.

Mark Paxton

There are just 18 months or so to go. the key thing to watch for -- and then start screaming to high heavens -- is if LePage comes forward from some cockamamie "deal" from Wall Street to fund his prison pipe dream.

Something like this could leave all of us in the position of Jefferson County Alabame where JP Morgan fleeced an equally unsophisticated government into sewer bonds. There are now entire towns in Jefferson County that no longer have running water and the county is staggering under billions of dollars of debt. That's the real danger when you have a rube like LePage in charge. What he has done so far is destructive and is going to leave the actual people of the state with very little to rebuild with when he's gone......but he has the potential -- in his belligerent ignorance -- to drop a financial nuclear bomb on us.