Trying to strike a balance between cutting government programs and finding money to pay for essential services can be dangerous. Dangerous for the office holders, who have to decide what to cut and the taxes to pay for the rest. Dangerous for the people who are truly dependent on government help for basic health care.More

In the last three months, three storms have blacked out tens of thousands of electric customers in New England. Mayors can lose elections because of poor snow plowing, but can utility executives lose their jobs because of power outages? The president of Connecticut Light & Power, the largest electric company in the Nutmeg State, foundMore

Greece, Italy, much of the rest of Europe and the euro are big news these days. Why should Mainers or other Americans care?  Don’t we have enough of our own problems? The answer is that, while we have made-in-U.S.A. problems, they risk getting worse if the financial situation in Europe continues to deteriorate. Economists areMore

Correction: This story has been revised to correct the history of voter problems in Maine. Should we make voting as easy as possible so that more people will vote? If we make voting easier, will many ineligible people vote? When Maine votes on Nov. 8 on Question 1 — deciding whether to overturn the Legislature’sMore

To listen to talk about the world’s energy future, you might think that wind, solar and other renewable resources are the wave of the future.   A quarter century from now, green power would have replaced traditional fuels for electric generators. Not so, says the U.S. Department of Energy in its just-published annual International Energy Outlook. More

“Jobs, jobs, jobs.” That’s the campaign theme of every political candidate. The U.S. economy simply does not have enough jobs, and most people believe that government should do something about it. While several ways have been proposed to create jobs, they may be based on a faulty understanding of the problem. What’s the problem withMore

Gov. Paul LePage recently ordered state agencies to submit all proposed rules for his approval before they are made public. His action raises the question of how much power may be exercised by the head of the executive branch of government over state agencies. The governor is following in a tradition started by President RonaldMore

Once every ten years, when you vote for members of the Legislature, you are probably unaware that you are also voting to choose the people who may draw the lines of the state’s congressional and legislative districts. Just where the lines are drawn is a matter of high politics, because districts can legally be laidMore

Gov. Paul LePage has said he would like to see fewer Maine people eligible to get Medicaid help.  His proposal has been estimated by some to move about 30,000 people off MaineCare, the state’s version of the low-income healthcare program. Reducing entitlement programs like Medicaid will almost certainly be on the table as part ofMore

Last Friday, history was made when a company called Standard and Poor’s said that borrowing by the U.S. government had become more risky. Known as S&P, the company is a so-called “rating agency” that classifies borrowing by companies and governments according to the degree of risk to the lenders.  Higher risk means that lenders haveMore