U.S. House candidates Democrat Matt Dunlap and Republican Paul LePage met for the second and final debate on Oct. 15, focusing on healthcare and Social Security. The forum, hosted by WABI and WAGM, gave the candidates vying to replace outgoing Democrat U.S. Rep. Jared Golden in Maine’s 2nd District one last opportunity to make their pitch to voters ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
LePage defended his record as governor, when he vetoed five bills that would have expanded MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program. He argued that his issue with expansion was that the reimbursement rates to healthcare providers are too low and it endangers services. “And I never said to get rid of Medicaid,” LePage said. “I said Medicaid, folks, Medicaid would work if you reimburse the hospitals and the medical profession at cost, but below cost, everybody loses.”
LePage also brought up again the $750 million in debt to hospitals that the state government paid off when he was governor. Democrats previously criticized LePage for stalling the payments, and Dunlap noted that LePage vetoed an earlier bill that would have made the payments and expanded Medicaid. “If you don’t believe people should have healthcare, then you follow Paul LePage, which is getting rid of Medicaid,” Dunlap said. “I don’t see how you actually improve healthcare by taking healthcare away from people.”
LePage pivoted to the issue of fraud. “The first thing that we should do, and this gentleman has been in the power to do it, is to fight fraud in Maine,” LePage said, referring to Dunlap’s position as state auditor.
Dunlap said his office is not in charge of pursuing criminal charges, only identifying issues – which it has done. “I would have assumed, with the experience that Paul LePage touts as governor, that he’d actually understand what my job actually is and what it is not,” Dunlap said.
Dunlap also returned to an issue he brought up in the previous debate: a 2014 press release from LePage’s office, which Dunlap argued quotes LePage calling Social Security “welfare.” “I think that’s something that gives an indicator of how he would feel about this,” Dunlap said. “And I would not trust him to be a champion for Social Security.” The release discusses how the federal government calculates personal earnings growth and the inclusion of certain benefits, such as Social Security benefits and Medicare payments. “It doesn’t matter what liberals call these payments, it is welfare, pure and simple,” LePage is quoted as saying in the release.
During the debate, LePage said he “can see” where Dunlap comes from with the accusation, but argued he was talking broadly about transfer receipts, not about Social Security. “We can read the whole press release, but you said that Social Security was welfare,” Dunlap said.
LePage also criticized Dunlap’s support for Medicare for All, and said it was t
