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According to Governor Lamont, the federal budget just enacted by the Republican majority in Congress and President Trump is nearly the end of the world.
The governor says the budget will have “devastating impact on millions of Americans for years to come and was passed for the sole purpose of giving tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires. It will amount to a massive income transfer from the poorest and most vulnerable Americans to the wealthiest.”
But Dan Haar of the Hearst Connecticut newspapers reports that, by quadrupling to $40,000 the federal income tax deductibility of state and local taxes — the “SALT” deduction, which Democratic leaders in Connecticut and other high-tax states long have supported — the new budget will substantially reduce federal income taxes for hundreds of thousands of middle- and upper-middle class Connecticut households.
As for the “massive income transfer from the poorest and most vulnerable Americans to the wealthiest,” the poor don’t pay federal income taxes, nor, in Connecticut, state income taxes. The “income” for the poor about which the governor is worried is actually what in a less politically correct era was called welfare.
The governor says the new budget will “bankrupt” the federal government by running a deficit in the trillions of dollars, requiring borrowing to cover the gap. But the federal government long has run huge deficits under Democratic administrations as well, which never bothered Democrats in Connecticut. Besides, since the government can create money out of nothing, it can never go bankrupt; it can only continue to devalue the dollar — something else that has never bothered Connecticut Democrats.
The new budget, the governor says, “slashes critical safety-net programs, particularly Medicaid and SNAP” — food subsidies — “that so many hard-working American families need for their health and survival.”
Will the cuts be so compelling as to cause the governor to reconsider the pledge he made to the state employee unions in April? “Every year that I’ve been here you’ve gotten a raise,” he told the unions, “and every year I’m here, you’re going to get a raise.”
Yet in recent days there have been reports from all around the country about massive fraud in the Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP programs — some involving providers in Connecticut.
Indeed, a few months ago the governor’s own public health and social services commissioner retired after it was disclosed that she had countenanced the termination of an audit of Medicaid fraud in which the governor’s former deputy budget director and a former Democratic state representative have been indicted and a Bristol doctor has pleaded guilty.
Just last week state prosecutors charged an acupuncturist from Milford with defrauding Medicaid of $123,000.
All this fraud doesn’t mean that the Republican administration in Washington or the Democratic administration in Connecticut will be competent and determined enough to substantially reduce fraud in Medicaid, Medicare, and food subsidies. But maybe a reduction in those appropriations is necessary to provide some incentive to look harder.
“With a federal administration insistent on eliminating critical safety nets,” the governor said, “it is going to be nearly impossible for any state to backfill the billions in federal cuts we are going to face. …We will be meeting with our colleagues in the General Assembly to discuss next steps.”
Those next steps may be interesting.
Will the federal cuts in Medicaid and food subsidies be so compelling as to cause the governor and legislators to cancel any of the grants they grandly announce practically every week for all sorts of inessential projects around the state?
Will the cuts be so compelling as to cause the governor to reconsider the blank check his administration has issued for illegal immigration?
Will the cuts be so compelling as to cause the governor to reconsider the pledge he made to the state employee unions in April? “Every year that I’ve been here you’ve gotten a raise,” he told the unions, “and every year I’m here, you’re going to get a raise.”
Raises despite the cuts in the safety net? Despite natural disasters? Despite plague? Despite nuclear war?
Or will the cuts prompt the governor to call the legislature into special session, proclaim that state government simply can’t economize, and propose to raise taxes going into an election year?
Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years.
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Turning Back the Pages - July 17, 2025
Jul 16, 2025
125 years ago — July 1900
D.R. Spalding of Falls Village, who was eighty six years old July 4, does all the raking on 200 acres of meadow land.
The selectmen of Norfolk are going to see that all unregistered dogs are killed.
A large black bear was seen on the Van Deusen farm near Indian Mountain last Tuesday. It is said the animal drove a party of haymakers from their work, and then escaped into the woods.
Sixty-three years ago Jabez Alvord, then 16 years old, of Winsted, lost a penny near the hearthstone of the old family residence now being torn down on North Main Street. He remembered it and looking for it one day last week found it.
SHARON — The body of Chas. Sweeney was brought to his home here on Tuesday from Rochester, Penn., where he was killed by falling from a telegraph pole. The burial will be in St. Bernard’s Cemetery today.
Census taker for Salisbury, Mr. A.L. Felts, finished his labors in Lime Rock Saturday. He says it’s no “cinch” making up the many schedules, counting heads, guessing the age of old maids besides other unpleasantries. He doesn’t want the job next time.
NOTICE — Bicycle riders, you must keep off the sidewalks of this town, and also have a light on your wheel at night when riding.
A.F. Roberts has received word that his nephew has been rescued from the Fillipinoes and is now with his family.
Mr. Harry Hawley, a bookkeeper employed by Johnson, Lindell & Co. of Canaan, was drowned while bathing last Sunday afternoon. Hawley had been in ill health for some time and it is supposed that he suffered from heart failure. He was 45 years old and leaves a widow and five childen.
While driving by the railroad station in this village on Saturday last, Henry Smith’s large bay horse, driven by Mr. Timothy Morrisey, became frightened at a freight train which was switching at the time and ran up on the bank near the milk station, and in coming down the bank the horse stumbled and fell headlong against the freight, which was then standing on the main line, completely breaking his upper jaw and mutilating his mouth in a horrible manner. Fortunately, Mr. Morrisey escaped uninjured, with the exception of a slightly sprained knee. Veterinarian Delaney was summoned and pronounced the horse’s case as hopeless, the whole upper jaw being motionless, and consequently the horse had to be shot. This is hard luck for Mr. Smith, as this was the only horse he owned, and it certainly was a fine one.
On account of numerous robberies in the past year or two of stations along the Central New England Railway, arrangements have been made by which all the money in the telephones and chewing gum machines is to be taken out every night, and the thieves hereafter will find poor picking along the Central New England. Weighing machines have been discontinued in stations.
100 years ago — July 1925
Last Saturday Phillip Farrar of Long Hill was coasting down Barack Matiff at twenty-seven miles per hour with a truck not equipped with pneumatic tires. He was arrested by Officer Ringrose and paid a fine of ten dollars and costs at nine dollars and ninety-six cents.
The fire siren refused to operate properly the early part of the week. Electrician Stanley Mather overhauled it and found some rusted out wires which he replaced, thus restoring the siren’s efficiency.
Private William Atkins of the U.S. Marine Corp is home on a 15-day furlough. Private Atkins is stationed on the submarine tender U.S.S. Camden and has recently returned from the Pacific maneuver via the Panama Canal.
50 years ago — July 1975
Sharon should explore all chances of continuing to dump its solid waste in Amenia, the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection said this week. Until all hope of working things out with Amenia is gone, the DEP said, the department will not even study the feasibility of Sharon’s sharing use of the Salisbury landfill.
Thomas Corcoran of West Hartford, formerly of Lakeville, was the winner of a …freezer and a side of beef in a raffle sponsored by the Lakeville Hose Company at its annual carnival last weekend. Other winners were Ralph Zilinek of Falls Village, who won a $500 wardrobe and Barbara Barnum of Great Barrington, Mass., who won a Franklin stove.
In Washington this week as staff members in the office of Congressman Toby Moffett are Sarah Gallup and Michael Flint, both of Lakeville. The internship program is being sponsored by the Salisbury Democratic Town Committee.
“At last we have a stop sign,” Ted Mix of the Sharon Association noted this week. His remark followed installation of a stop sign at the junction of Routes 7 and 4 on the Sharon side of Cornwall Bridge. “The Sharon Association first requested it some years ago,” Mr. Mix said, “and has purused the matter with various state agencies. It is very pleased to see that its recommendation has been carried out.”
An air search for some strayed cattle ended in an emergency landing and a ride to Sharon Hospital Saturday for Fred Segalla, 60, of Sodom Road, Canaan, and Martin Barnswilder, 36, of Sheffield. The incident occurred when Segalla ageed to take Barnswilder up to search for some cattle which had strayed from land the Sheffield farmer rents in Canaan. The two men had been airborne in Segalla’s 1939 Piper Cub for about 15 minutes when the engine spluttered and died and Segalla made a forced landing in a cornfield owned by Norbert Zinke. Both men suffered cuts and bruises and were taken by ambulance to Sharon Hospital where they were treated and released.
No cause has been unearthed for a mystery ailment that afflicted approximately 30 campers at Camp Kent last week. The Kent and Warren ambulances were called to the camp on South Spectacle Lake Tuesday evening, July 8, to administer oxygen to a group of youngsters suffering from coughing and respiratory difficulty. Local and state health authorities have investigated the incident, coming up with little in the way of an explanation. According to camp owner David Polansky, the children were suffering from “mass hysteria.” There have apparently been no serious after effects from the incident.
25 years ago — July 2000
With the announcement that Sharon Hospital plans to sell the facility to a for-profit firm, questions are being raised about the proposal and the buyer, whose former company filed bankruptcy. Essent Healthcare, headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., expects to finalize the sale by late this year or early 2001.
More than 200 boaters, canoers, rafters and kayakers paddled down the Housatonic River below West Cornwall July 9 to protest the state Department of Environmental Protection ruling to return the dams at Falls Village and Bulls Bridge to “run-of-the-river,” which will make portions of the river unnavigable during the summer months.
FALLS VILLAGE — Declaring he wants justice for his mother who was brutally murdered in 1973, Peter Reilly has requested the state police to test DNA in strands of hair found in the victim’s hand at the crime scene. Mr. Reilly was 18 and a senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School when he was accused of the murder after state troopers forced him into a false confession following 24 hours of interrogation without legal counsel. He was exonerated in 1977, in part thanks to efforts by New Britain attorney Paul McQuillan, who was named special prosecutor in the case in 1976. It was through Mr. McQuillan and attorney Hugh Keefe of Lynch, Traub, Keefe & Errante of New Haven that Mr. Reilly submitted his request for the DNA testing.
WASSAIC, N.Y. — For the first time since 1972, when Penn Central abandoned the railbed, passenger trains rolled up the Harlem Valley north of Dover. More than a hundred people turned out Monday for the grand opening of Metro-North’s new Wassaic and Tenmile River stations in Amenia.
LAKEVILLE — For the past few weeks, signs have been posted on Farnum Road cautioning drivers to slow down for “pups.” Well, it turns out those are coyote pups and the Department of Environmental Protection has a caution of its own: Don’t feed them. Apparently, several area residents have been nurturing the five pups since their mother was killed after being hit by a car. Feeding the wild creatures will eventually be bad for both the animals and the humans that live around them, said DEP wildlife biologist Paul Rego.
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Trump keeps winning; Democrats keep whining
During Donald Trump’s first term as president, he threatened to leave NATO unless the European countries paid their fair share. Democrats screamed that Trump was destroying this critical alliance.
Now, in Trump’s second term, the Europeans have pledged to raise their defense spending from 2 percent to 5 percent, adding over a trillion dollars a year to their share and lessening our obligation.
Making NATO more equitable was Trump’s intent all along. His threat to leave it was a ruse that worked. The Democrats were clueless.
Similarly, when Trump struck Iran’s nuclear facilities, Democrats screamed that he was causing a constitutional crisis by not getting Congressional approval. But Trump was simply following precedents set by presidents of both parties. The mission was a success. The Iranian program was set back by months or years. No American lives were lost. The world is safer for it.
Los Angeles was also made safer when Trump deployed National Guard troops during leftist riots there. Democrats again screamed Nazi and fascist. But Trump halted any chance of the widespread death and destruction so often caused by violent Democratic protesters in Democrat-run cities.
The shrieking left also painted Trump’s Army anniversary parade as a goose-stepping Cold War spectacle. Instead, it was a patriotic, well-deserved tribute and a fine tune-up for the nation’s 250th birthday next year.
In other victories for Trump, the Supreme Court ruled that district court judges exceeded their authority in issuing nationwide injunctions against his executive order on birthright citizenship. The high court also found that school children cannot be force-fed transgender and LGBTQ indoctrination that their parents don’t want. And some schools are finally banning transgender athletes from women’s sports.
In all these cases, Trump was not the constitutional threat. It was liberal zealots in classrooms, locker rooms and judicial chambers.
On the economy, Trump’s new trade deals are moving ahead. The stock market has regained all it lost during the initial tariff turmoil and is now setting records. Inflation is low, employment is strong, and blue-collar wages have seen their best growth in three generations.
On the border, sanity and the rule of law now prevail. Illegal crossings are at their lowest levels since the 1960s. Criminals are being deported. The left grandstands about “due process” but had no problem when Barack Obama deported three million without it.
On Independence Day, Trump signed the new GOP Congressional spending bill. For Trump and the GOP, it’s win after win.
Democrats, meanwhile, running around like chickens with their heads cut off, nominated for mayor of New York City a Democratic socialist who wants to achieve income redistribution through higher taxation on white neighborhoods. Good luck with that.
Democracy and the constitution are just fine. It’s the Dems who are in big trouble.
Mark Godburn
Norfolk
Lime Rock’s Nascar event was more than our community can handle
The weekend of June 27, 2025, a NASCAR event occurred at the Lime Rock Racetrack. From various reports, it was attended by over 15,000 people. It was a major event and more than our community can handle.
There was not sufficient notice of the parameters of this event — not only the noise but the negative effects to the community including detours, road blockings, which created severe traffic problems. For anyone close to the track, the noise was extremely loud. The road closures on Route 112 created a nightmare for the residents.
Not only was there insufficient notification, but whatever was discussed in the notification was way understated. There were detours that were published, but it turned out that those were not accurate and were not the same as the actual routes imposed by the detours. It made it extremely difficult for anyone who lived in the neighborhood to get to their residence. As I understand it, the proper disclosures were not made to many representatives who should have known about the breadth of this event.
We consider ourselves lucky to reside in this lovely area. One could say it is akin to the fictional Shangri-La. A major event like this should not be permitted in the future.
Mike Nachwalter
Lakeville
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