Jon Reisman

Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made. – Attributed, likely apocryphally, to Otto von Bismarck 

Regardless of the source, the verity of the observation was evident in Washington and Augusta last week. Close observance of the sausage making process is not for those with a weak Constitution, and it does make me wonder occasionally about the wisdom of promoting transparency... you are likely to see some things that you can't unsee but wish you could.

The Big, Beautiful Budget Bill (B4) narrowly squeaked through the House 215-214 with several Republicans not voting. B4 preserved Trump’s tax cuts and supposedly implemented some spending cuts based on eliminating waste, fraud, and corruption. It slows the rate of debt creation which threatens to destroy the country, but it does not end it. Before B4 there was the Biden/Pelosi/Democrat Inflation Reduction Act which was actually about climate alarmist corruption/bribes/payoffs (and not about actually reducing inflation or climate change- it was two Democrat lies for the price of one.) B4 may be more of the same purposely mislabeled BS, or maybe B$. 

When we are further removed from the sausage making, we may get a better view of what nonsense and mischief was wrought. Meanwhile, our slide towards debt-based insolvency and private investment anemia (crowded out by government borrowing and high interest rates) continues, albeit with slightly less velocity.  No significant change in our direction appears likely, even if the GOP has slightly eased off the destructive spending/borrowing. We are still speeding towards fiscal apocalypse, just at a slightly lower speed.

The sausage manufacturing in DC has nothing on the legislative butchery in Augusta. A series of bills addressing equity, gender, transgender policy, and systemic liberal bias were heard. The ones dealing with gender identity, the Maine Human Rights Act, and the Mills/Trump spat drove hundreds to submit both live and written testimony and forced legislators to endure many hours of impassioned, often repetitive, and frequently misinformed testimony (the misinformation classification means testimony Democrats disagree with). 

One of the bills which didn’t get a lot of attention (conspiracy theorists should feel free to speculate whether hearing date/time confusion was deliberate or just an “unfortunate” and unexplained screwup) was LD 1593, which directed state agencies that promote equity to define equity and any metrics used to assess it. LD 1593 was sponsored by House GOP leader Faulkingham, the entire Washington County delegation, and a number of other GOP luminaries.

 A series of FOAAs revealed that there is no definition of equity in Maine State Government or the University of Maine System, despite broad DEI programs and specific initiatives like the climate plan with a major (undefined) equity component. Promoting an undefined policy goal is pure policy malpractice, and legislative Democrats are determined that it continues unchanged. The less attention that this equity policy malpractice gets, the better.

The State and Local Government Committee Work Session on LD 1593 acknowledged that the FOAA’s were correct, but voted along party lines to oppose defining equity. Democrat Rep. Ann Matlack pathetically disputed the lack of a definition in Maine State Government by reading the definition of equity from Black’s Law Dictionary into the record. I can’t unsee the sausage being ground up. 

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been directed by President Trump to get rid of DEI because the racial preferences used to implement it violate the 14th Amendment and the recent Students for Fair Admissions SCOTUS decision which found that Harvard was discriminating against Asians (it apparently goes hand in hand with antisemitism). AG Bondi should be very interested in how Maine Democrats have pursued and defended racial preferences and refused to define equity. The left will probably argue that requiring a definition of equity is just not fair.

Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Selectman and a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own, and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here or to him directly via email at [email protected].