<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/11/19/921959/-New-Maine-GOP-House-Speaker-Stole-$1.6M-from-Taxpayers">http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/11/19/921959/-New-Maine-GOP-House-Speaker-Stole-$1.6M-from-Taxpayers</a><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>" This month Maine voters elected a Tea Party
governor (thanks to a 3-way race) and turned control of the State House
over to the Republicans for the first time in 30 years. Governor-elect
LePage got a lot of support by railing against able-bodied "welfare
cheats" who supposedly are draining the coffers of the Maine treasury.</div><div><div class="intro"><div class="intro"><p>So, in their first major action post-election, who do the Republicans
elect as the new House Speaker? A certain Robert Nutting. Mr. Nutting
owned a pharmacy and several years ago was at the center of "<a href="http://www.pressherald.com/news/old-case-haunts-speaker-choice_2010-11-18.html">Diapergate</a>" - a scheme where his store overbilled MaineCare, the state and federally-funded Medicaid program, by $1.6 million.</p><p><br></p><p><blockquote><p>True's Pharmacy, which Nutting owned from 1970 until it closed in
2003, was found to have overbilled the state-and-federal program by
about $1.6 million for sales of adult incontinency products, such as
diapers and bed liners, according to an audit in 2001. Nutting was a
member of the Legislature at the time.</p><p>Unable to repay the money fast enough, the company went into
bankruptcy and its assets were liquidated, leaving nearly $1.2 million
in remaining debt, according to state records obtained by MaineToday
Media. That balance was wiped out in the bankruptcy, and the state and
federal governments were forced to absorb the loss.
</p>
</blockquote><p>This is the face of the Maine GOP's commitment to fiscal
responsibility: take from the hated "government" and then use the
protection of the courts in order to avoid paying your debts....."</p></p></div></div></div></body></html>