Friday, February 18, 2011  A Hospital and a Teacher Walk in to a
Bar  "We need to be honest with the Maine people. This isn't
about slamming anybody here; this is about paying your bills,"
said Paul LePage, speaking about the hospital debt that had been
kicking around for over a decade. The Baldacci administration
had of course paid down $3.7 billion on this decades-old “bill,”
but the campaign rhetoric about the state “paying what it owes”
resonated. Hopefully it still does.  The political theatre
starring Maine’s unpaid hospital bills was choreographed by
Communications Director, Dan Demeritt, who said, "and I’ll even
make sure our members know the exact day the exact amount of
State funding (is) their local hospitals so our members can show
up with a big symbolic check to make it a press event. I like
the visual of Garret Mason standing outside Central Maine
Medical Center with a plywood-sized check in his hand signed by
Paul LePage for $40 Million Dollars..."  Grab any teacher,
firefighter or nurse, and a