HOULTON, ME-- Maine Green Independent candidate for the 2nd Congressional District Henry Bear noted today his opposition to the current tax reform plan being reconciled in Washington between recently passed House and Senate bills.

In particular, Bear noted the bills, supported by Bruce Poliquin, the current 2nd District congressman and Sen. Susan Collins, are widely unpopular in Maine. They do not represent the interests of common Mainers, he said, and run contrary to the future health and well-being of Maine citizens by raising taxes on those making less than $75,000.

Maine's median household income is $48,500. 

Bear said opposition to the tax reform sounds like a collective pining for Green values. For example:

• Greens believe in grassroots democracy: The Senate bill was voted on without a draft being publicly available, without time for representatives to read its 400 pages. The House plan similarly includes many lobbyist-written amendments that have had virtually no public hearings.
• Greens believe in personal and global responsibility: By adding a structural deficit increase of $1 trillion, these plans are not responsible economics. They shift the burden of today's economy onto our children and grandchildren, making us beholden to foreign debt holders, and increasing global anxiety. The economic wish-casting — saying economic growth will mitigate he structural deficit is irresponsible.
• Greens believe in future focus and sustainability: The Greens are fundamentally fiscally conservative by nature. The tax plans are not conservative pay-as-you-go economics. We cannot sustainably plan for the future when we are financing today's growth with tomorrow's money. This clearly threatens vital social safety nets like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The bills are the equivalent of paying a mortgage with a credit card, something people often have to do today with stagnant wages and economic growth running to the top of the food chain. 

While Bruce Poliquin votes to cut his and his wife's taxes, the raising of the threshold for the estate tax insures that hard-working people of Maine not lucky enough to be born into wealthy families will not reap benefits from this so-called tax reform.

No one wants to pay taxes, said Bear, and he agrees in principle that we should be reducing the tax burden on the working class, but only “provided these tax cuts do not increase economic inequality, negatively impact essential public services including healthcare, public education, and infrastructure, and do not reward fossil fuel activities that contribute to carbon emissions and dangerous and destructive global warming.”

Voters tired of millionaires in Congress are encouraged to take a serious look at Bear for the 2nd District. Bear said he will use the position to return economic fairness to the country and Maine.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017

Maine House Rep. Henry Bear registers Green, announces CD2 candidacy

On Monday, Henry John Bear, Tribal Member Representing the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians in the Maine House of Representatives, officially registered as a member of the Maine Green Independent Party. The move comes in anticipation of his Friday announcement as a Green candidate for U.S. House Representative to Maine’s Second Congressional District, challenging incumbent Congressman Bruce Poliquin, R-Maine.

Bear will announce his candidacy with an event at 2 p.m., Friday, at the Aroostook Treaty Education Center, 41 Elm St., in Houlton.

 “I’m different,” said Bear, “and that’s why I have a reasonable chance of succeeding in this campaign. I represent change. I’m capable, fearless when necessary, and the first tribal member with a law degree to run for U.S. Congress in Maine. Due to my life experience with the U.S. Coast Guard as a rescue coordinator, followed by extensive legal, small business and legislative experience, I am motivated to not shy away from conflict. Instead, I run toward it seeking to know who's in trouble and what the threat is, and then take timely action to help. That's my nature."

In registering as a Maine Green Independent, Bear joins Ralph Chapman, G-Brooksville, as the second legislator in Maine serving in the Maine House of Representatives. Maine now has the two highest elected Greens in the United States.

Bear is a distinguished House member, in his third term representing the Houlton Band of Maliseets. He has been roundly praised for his work on the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee, helping to move through a bill to provide tuition assistance for veterans, for example, and earning the American Legion’s Legislator of the Year Award in 2016. A 15-year veteran of the Coast Guard, Bear works as a designer on the guided missile destroyer program's naval weapons electrical systems at General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works.

Now he looks toward serving the tribes and all people of Maine's second congressional district in a federal role, prioritizing issues on the environment, civil rights, strength through non-violent and humanitarian military sophistication, and economic equity.

Bear points to incumbent Poliquin’s lack of support for Medicaid expansion, which recently passed overwhelmingly at the ballot box, as a clear sign the people of the Second District need representation that more closely aligns with their interests.

In joining the MGIP, Bear credits Green Presidential Candidate Jill Stein and Chapman, his seatmate in the House, for articulating positions that aligned with his own and drew his attention to the rising interest in the Maine Green Independents.

“I have found that our issues are very similar,” said Bear, “especially on the issues of the environment and civil rights and economic equity. I believe in health care for everyone who can’t afford it and I believe in ensuring that one person's hard day’s work results in a living wage, enough for a house and a car payment, and food for her family.”

While Bear will announce his candidacy Friday in the Aroostook County watershed traditional to the Maliseet Tribe, he is also the son of a French Canadian-American mother, with parents married in the Catholic Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, was born in Lewiston at St. Mary's, lived in four excellent Auburn foster homes, and graduated from Edward Little High School, then the University of Maine at Presque Isle, before earning his law degree in nearby New Brunswick.

“You could say I’m a true son of the Second District,” Bear said, “born, educated, and life-long resident. I have skills to put differences aside and use democratic solutions to achieve a truly moral economy and push back against powerful bullying in all forms. We have the technology to communicate with each other, anywhere, instantly. I will use it to implement policy agreements that move us toward a healthy and prosperous community, a progressive and transparent government, and safer and more inclusive world community.”