Paul LePage on Social Security

Keep our promise; don't tax Social Security

"We all have family and friends who count on Social Security. I do not believe that Social Security is anything but a promise that we must keep. That's why I will always preserve and protect the Social Security system.

"While I work to protect Social Security and pensions, politicians knowingly and deliberately falsify information to get your vote. One of those is 30-year politician Michael Michaud. This is the same Michael Michaud who voted to cut Medicare by $716 billion. And the same Michael Michaud who voted to tax your Social Security. Luckily for all of us, Gov. King vetoed it and stopped it. I strongly agree. I will never allow politicians to tax Social Security."

Medicare and Social Security are really just welfare

"It doesn't matter what liberals call these payments, it is welfare, pure and simple," LePage said in the statement. "Liberals from the White House all the way down to Democratic leadership in Augusta believe that redistribution of wealth--taking money from hard-working taxpayers and giving it to a growing number of welfare recipients--is personal income. It's not. It's just more welfare expansion. Democrats can obfuscate the numbers any way they want. The fact is that we have created thousands of jobs, more Mainers are working, and their income is going up."

Rep. Mike Michaud, LePage's Democratic opponent in this year's race for governor, called LePage's comments "an insult to Maine seniors."