Response to LePage’s letter   

To the Editor;

In a recent letter, Paul LePage all of a sudden says that he cares about poverty and domestic violence and substance abuse: “Excessive, lengthy closures are having a devastating effect. Increased unemployment leads to poverty, hunger, domestic violence and substance abuse.”

But for eight years, LePage dismantled programs that addressed the issues he now claims to care about.

His policies helped make Maine the most food-insecure state in New England and third-worst in the nation, and created a severe rise in childhood poverty, which accelerated rapidly in the first five years of his administration.

LePage forfeited nearly $2 billion in federal funds for public health initiatives and dismantled 27 health coalitions, dramatically cutting Mainers’ access to public health resources.

He reportedly misused private funds donated to fight domestic violence by directing them elsewhere.

During his administration, 12,198 calls to Maine’s child abuse hotline went unanswered in one year alone; over a period of 8 years, most of which he was governor, physical abuse of children jumped 52 percent in Maine.

While the state was averaging more than one death a day from addiction, LePage fought and vetoed legislation aimed at saving the lives of people living with addiction and refused to broaden the accessibility of Narcan.

LePage denied more than 70,000 Mainers health care coverage for years, even after Maine people voted to enact it.

LePage’s claim of caring about these issues doesn’t match up with his record.

Cheryl Golek 

Harpswell