Why does our senator continue as a Republican? The House has sent her a bill that cuts $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion from Medicaid, food stamps and even Medicare (not to mention renewing the 2017 TCJA tax cuts, resulting in CBO’s nonpartisan $3.8 trillion of net deficits) along with abrogating the ability of the judiciary to level contempt citations against the government. I assume she is going to vote against this, but what is the point of remaining in the party when being served up proposals of this nature?

I marvel at the content of her newsletter: meeting after meeting with worthy Mainers, juxtaposed to, at most, a single, plaintive statement in opposition to a selected edict of President Trump.

What makes her tick, these days? In 1997, when my wife and I brought our son, then age 7, to her office after she was first elected, we left feeling that perhaps we were talking to a kindred soul. We still have the picture of the four of us, standing by her desk.

What is she now? She broke her pledge to serve only two terms. Is serving more terms the only thing that matters to her? Even if that is the case, it seems likely that she could serve them as a Democrat. She could even continue her all-time record of never missing a vote.

Well, it’s up to her of course. She can go on with the constituent meetings, or she can do something really significant.

Richard Wolfe
Cumberland