Our analysts this week are WLOB Radio’s Ray Richardson and attorney Ken Altshuler, former co-anchor of WGAN Morning News.
MAINE, United States — This week’s news that President Biden kept his vice-presidency documents under wraps was criticized by Republican Politics analyst Ray Richardson and Democratic analyst Ken Altschuler
“How did you make these mistakes?” Altshuller asked, adding that the situation was different from that of former President Trump, who also took documents with him when he left office.
“The situation looks dire and AG Garland is right to appoint a special prosecutor,” Altshuler said.
That made Biden look bad, Richardson said, especially after he criticized Trump for failing to return classified documents to the National Archives. He also made broader points about the government’s overall approach to classified documents.
“We create these documents that are considered classified and yet we treat them somehow with great arrogance … how do we develop classified documents and then not return them for six years?
The two analysts also discussed a Republican-led House and whether lawmakers would seek revenge against Democrats and the Biden administration, or focus more on spending cuts and other issues.
On the topic of Maine, both Altschuler and Richardson were critical of Gov. Janet Mills’ proposed biennial budget, which added nearly $1 billion, after she said in an interview two weeks ago. This will be a “prudent” budget.
“I’m not happy with that,” Altschuler said. “I think we have an opportunity to demonstrate fiscal responsibility. People say the Democrats don’t know what that means, but I do.”
He added that a small increase in the cost of living in the budget would not be a problem, but said the governor’s proposal was “too high”.
Richardson said he was surprised by the scale of the budget increase. “Governor Mills said before the budget that she would be cautious because of recession fears. If it was cautious, I would hate to see her swing a big stick. A billion dollars and a one percent increase is insane.”
Both said they would support some tax cuts, given the state’s ongoing revenue surplus, but agreed that it now looked unlikely.
Both have been critical of the state’s child protection system under the DHHS, saying it is not working as it should and that major changes are needed to better protect children.
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