"Baker tiptoes in tea party praise, sidesteps Palin" by Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | April 6, 2010
Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles D. Baker, treading carefully on a thorny topic for many GOP candidates, praised the tea party movement yesterday, but avoided offering an opinion on one of its controversial stars, former vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin, who is slated to come to Boston for a rally next week.
Related: Time For High Tea
And don't worry, Charlie.
None of us Massachusetts Republicans are interested in that political floozy.
“The tea party seems to me to be another example [of] civic engagement, which is always a good thing,’’ Baker wrote during a wide-ranging, hourlong chat with readers on Boston.com. “And most folks I know who are tea party members are terrified about deficit spending, taxing, and jobs. Me, too.’’
I know he is an elite; however, he has lived here his whole life and I believe he really does care. Otherwise, why would he do this?
He didn't need to do this like the rest of the hold-on-to-my-perks-and-pension crowd; the guy is losing a big paycheck while getting back nothing but problems!
But when asked by a reader about Palin, Baker declined to say what he thought of the firebrand former governor of Alaska, who is traveling to Boston for a tea party rally on April 14, three days before Baker hopes to be endorsed at the state GOP convention in Worcester.
And WHAT DOES SHE MATTER when we are talking GOVERNOR of MASSACHUSETTS, not Alaska!!!
“Sarah Palin is simply one person,’’ Baker wrote. “To me, what makes the tea party work is the involvement of thousands of people on the local level across this country.’’
But the Globe doesn't want to look at that very closely.
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During the chat, Baker also reiterated his support for abortion rights, the death penalty, and the reduction of the state income and sales taxes to 5 percent....
That is going to win him the votes more than the other diversionary crap the Globe will try to throw out there. God help them if they try to make this election about same-sex marriage again!
Baker also revealed — no surprise from the Needham native — that he loves the
Yeah, Marty was way out of her depth. Still is.
Baker made clear he was not about to make the same mistake in his own campaign.
“Curt Schilling,’’ he wrote, “is the man!!!!’’
Look, he was a good pitcher, but.... !?!
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Well, you are NOT going to agree with anyone 100% of the time, so.....
"Workers’ benefits drawing debate; Baker seeks flexibility without unions’ OK" by Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | March 27, 2010
Republican Charles D. Baker, seeking to distinguish himself from his rivals in the governor’s race, urged state lawmakers yesterday to give cities and towns more flexibility to limit health care benefits for municipal employees without the approval of unions.
Actually, I agree very much.
Related: The Massachusetts Model: Municipal Health Mess
Yeah, those are YOUR "PUBLIC SERVANTS," Bay Staters -- as your service budgets are bashed to the bone!
Baker’s proposal put him at odds with Governor Deval Patrick over an issue that is severely hampering Massachusetts communities and drawing heightened scrutiny from state and local leaders. Although Patrick has led efforts to overhaul the municipal health care system, he wants organized labor to continue to have a say in negotiations....
That can only help him.
Echoing a recent Boston Foundation study, Baker said that legislators should immediately change the law to allow local governments, without union negotiations, to join the state’s larger, more flexible health care system and design their own health insurance plans. Such changes, which are opposed by public employee unions, could save taxpayers $100 million a year, he said.
At least he is TRYING!
“This plan will give local governments long-needed relief, and provides them the necessary tools to continue providing vital public safety services, and to spend tax dollars more efficiently,’’ Baker, a former chief executive of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, said in a statement.
If the Legislature declines to make it easier for communities to join the state Group Insurance Commission or design their own plans, Baker said, he would support a ballot initiative recently launched by a group of Massachusetts mayors, including Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston, that would take the issue directly to voters in 2012.
Globe hates that idea.
In response to Baker’s statement, Patrick’s reelection campaign promptly noted....
Who cares what they said?
The competing statements signaled that the cost of municipal health insurance to taxpayers, highlighted by the Boston Foundation and in a recent Globe series, will emerge as a significant issue in the governor’s race this year.
We shall see, won't we, agenda-pushing Globe?
It is hardly clear, though, whether lawmakers will act on changes to the system. Legislative leaders have been reluctant to strip local unions of bargaining rights.
Yeah, a GOVERNMENT UNION bargaining with the GOVERNMENT!
Those are the only union$ they care about.
Health care costs added more than $1 billion to municipal budgets from 2001 to 2008, with many communities providing unusually generous benefits to employees, retirees, and elected officials, the Globe reported last month. Some cities now devote almost 20 percent of their budgets to health care.
Yup, while YOUR TAXES WENT UP and SERVICES were CUT, taxpayers!!
But hey, you are TAKING CARE of the LOOTING LEGISLATORS and other "public servants" so it's all good!!!
On March 3, the Boston Foundation released a study that concluded that cities and towns would save tens of millions of dollars in health care costs by joining the Group Insurance Commission.
Boston, for instance, could reduce its health insurance premiums this fiscal year by up to 17 percent, or $45 million, said the report....
Enough to KEEP ALL the LIBRARIES open, but....!!!!!!!
Many unions across the state have balked at such a move because in many cases it would cost their members more, particularly in the form of higher copayments.
Yeah, F*** YOU, taxpayers!!!!
Baker’s running mate, Senate minority leader Richard R. Tisei, said in a phone interview yesterday that the fact that only 19 cities and towns have joined the Group Insurance Commission even though it would save taxpayers millions of dollars “pretty much tells you all you need to know....’’
YUP!!
Serving THEMSELVES, not you, citizens!
In a recent interview, Brad Tenney, secretary-treasurer of the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, an umbrella group of local unions, said his members were willing to negotiate on health care benefits. But he said it was “unfair to look at health insurance in a vacuum,’’ adding that union members have given up pay raises or taken smaller ones to preserve those benefits.
I'm really sick of hearing it when TAXPAYERS who are PICKING UP the TAB are SUFFERING!!!!
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, which provides health insurance to municipal workers in most cities and towns under the current system, said in a statement yesterday that some communities may pay more if they joined the Group Insurance Commission.
Yup, every which way you turn, Bay Stater, you get stuck in the ass!!!!
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What do you expect from an agenda-pushing, pro-Patrick paper?
