It wasn’t “Nice Mary” who showed up on Wednesday afternoon at the Alaska Oil and Gas Association candidate forum. It was “Mean Mary.”
It was also “Nervously reading all the answers to questions” Mary Peltola.
Rep. Mary Peltola’s big dig of the night at candidate Nick Begich came when it was her turn to ask a question of her lead opponent. Her question strongly implied that he has not paid his dues as lifelong government employee, as she has. And that everyone in the room was on her side in thinking that Begich had no right to run for Congress.
“I believe in public service. I think most Alaskans believe in public service. And I just think it’s odd that you have no record of serving the public, either on the municipal level or the state level and you feel like you can just go straight to the top.”
By implication, she was saying that all the oil workers in the room would also not have that right that she alone had earned.
Begich didn’t have the chance to respond in the debate format, but in fact he served on the board of the Alaska Policy Forum, was elected to the Matanuska Telephone Association, was co-chair of the “No on One” campaign to prevent the return to high oil taxes created by the ACES tax regime, and was finance chair of the Alaska Republican Party. In addition, he has invested his own money in start-up businesses in Alaska and across the world, and helped them grow actual jobs in the private sector.
But that’s not the kind of service she meant. Peltola meant the paid government jobs she has had all her life, either elected to the state legislature, or in the many government pass-through public commission-type jobs she has had. She has held gravy train jobs paid by taxpayers. In Peltola’s mind, only those who have taken government money for decades should run for government positions.
She also criticized Begich for jumping into the race in 2021 to challenge the late Congressman Don Young.
“A lot of us in this room are wondering whether this is more about your personal ambition than the best interest of Alaska. Why do you feel like you’re more qualified than all of us, especially Don, to represent Alaska?” she asked, reading her question from her prepared notes.
Notwithstanding that Young is now 18 months deceased, having died at the ripe age of 88 during the campaign in 2022, the question was set up to pit Begich against herself, the deceased congressman, but also Sarah Palin, who Peltola said was the greatest oil advocate the state had ever had.
It was Palin who signed the punishing ACES tax regime, which was then reversed by Senate Bill 21.
ACES was a devastating bill for Alaska because it made the state look like an unstable place to do business. The progressive and unstable nature of the tax made it hard for companies to know what their costs would be. No one in the oil world liked it.
The prepared notes Peltola read from tripped her up during the forum. The candidates had been given the questions in advance, and on every question, Peltola read her answers word for word from the page.
At one point, she read the wrong answer to the question that had been given.
“I need a turn,” she demanded from the moderator, Michelle Egan.
Then she began reading her answer, before stopping.
“Wait, am I even on the right question?” she asked.
“No,” Egan responded.
“Sorry, I don’t need a turn, ” Peltola said.
Although she wore a bolo to channel Don Young, this was not a Don Young performance. It was the performance of a 12-year-old child.
Overall, Peltola appeared wooden and stressed on stage in front of about 450 oil patch workers and legislators. Her entourage of campaign employees huddled around her afterwards. She had not won over the audience. Peltola did not flash her trademark smile except in her opening remarks, when she shouted “Willow!” as she took credit for convincing President Joe Biden to let the ConocoPhillips project go forward. That exclamation fell flat with the audience of professionals, who understand the seriousness of the investment climate they are in.
Begich checkmated her on her taking credit for Willow. He reminded the audience that Biden is on record saying he approved it only because Department of Justice lawyers told him he would lose in court, and in approving Willow, he would proceed to lock up the rest of the oil and gas fields in Alaska, something he did this summer as he locked up 28 million acres of areas in the Arctic and Beaufort Seas, and lands stretching nearly to the Bering Sea.
A question from the audience toward the end was to Peltola: Why did she miss so many important votes? She responded sarcastically that she had lost her husband and mother in one year and hopes that doesn’t happen again. This was an attempt to inoculate her from criticism, but earlier in the forum, Begich had pointed out that she had encouraged her Democrat colleagues to vote against the important “Alaska’s Right to Produce” energy bill for Alaska, when she only voted “present,” betraying her state once again.
Peltola had also ducked out of the House Chambers rather than vote on a bill to force the Biden Administration to restore safe levels into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a vote that came several months before her husband and mother passed away. And before their passing, she already had one of the worst attendance records in Congress.
She left Washington to return to Bethel to process fish earlier this summer for over a week, saying it was important that she help feed her family. In reality, she makes $170,000 a year as a member of Congress and, as her children are all adults, is not struggling to make ends meet. This is the best-paying government job she has ever had, in a long string of government jobs.
How dare the peasants think they have the right to run for office!
Know your places, serfs.
I guess she was out fishing for husbands when the whole “of the people, by the people, for the people”
concept was taught.
She really took the mask off with that one. Not that almost 50 % of Alaskan voters care.
You know who is qualified to serve in Congress? Basically any American that will show up to work and not skip 2/3rds of the votes to (alegedly) pick berries and smoke salmon.
Or smoke something
Peltola is wrong for Alaska. Lazy. Out of touch with reality. Slothful. Vote her out.
“It was the performance of a 12-year-old child.”
Not surprised. Leftists are just adult sized children.
.
The tantrum, and ridiculous claims that her opponent is not qualified reinforce the toddler level behavior. Seriously, I am the only one qualified to… is a stupid argument. Especially since there is nothing to back it up aside from her own self aggrandizement.
Was she wearing a bolo or more appropriately a BOZO tie?
Actually his family have been notable members of “the polite society” as she alludes to which is recognized conceptually in the Law of Nations. He was born into recognized polite society of family public service so he has great credentials for even the US Presidency unlike VP Harris.
Mary Peltola is a willful liar.
She just needs to go moose hunting this fall.
Sounds like she has a little panic party going on.
GO NICK
Political office was never mean to be a career.
exactly!
Cleanup on aisle 7!
Begich mopped the floor with Peltola in that debate.
I’ve said that many times! I introduced myself to Begich w/that line! It doesn’t matter though. Leftists have such complete control now that fixing elections is easy for them.
Working for the government is a disqualifier for a congressional or senate office. That said, congressmen and senators should be required to display the logos of their corporate sponsors, like NASCAR. They serve their sponsors, not the public.
In Government all her life, No wonder she is AOC stupid Plain as day She’s only in it for the money.
I hope she does more of these forums so the Alaskan people can see her true colors. In reality she has done very, very little for Alaskans and her record proves it.
Mary, again you are showing your ignorance! I don’t know who the hell you think you are but I do not take advice from someone that can’t show up to work!!!
Thank you, Ms. Downing, for this report. As I have suspected, Alaska’s congressperson is a bit dim-witted and unsteady, but yet possesses the oh-so-important talent of being a loyal Democratic Party member.
So, we Alaskans ought to give Mary Peltola the opportunity in 2025 to do what she does best, which would be to work directly for the Alaska Democratic Party. I’m thinking of her next job title… Alaska Director of Chirpy Democratic Dissimulation.
So like all Democrats/Leftists, Mary believes that only people who have never held a real job in their lives, are all knowing and should rule over you, and make all major decisions for you. This isn’t surprising. It’s only surprising that she let it slip out.
“but also Sarah Palin, who Peltola said was the greatest oil advocate the state had ever had.”
The greatest advocate for oil???
On what planet? Upon getting elected governor, Palin immediately attacked the oil industry with an astonishing ferocity.
She has spent her career screeching and chirping about being the greatest Conservative ever, “you betcha”, but in actuality, governed like a typical Democrat.
And like a typical Democrat, her hatred and attacks on “big oil” was biting the hand that feeds her, given that at that time, oil proceeds from the N. Slope comprised 90% of the state’s revenue.
While ACES was on the books, Alaska was the only oil producing province in the entire world with declining oil production.
Peltola and Palin are both Leftists and grifters, which easily explains why they get along so well and are buddies….
I think every perspective elected official should have private sector employment on their resume, preferably running their own business. Peltola can have very little grasp of economic or financial reality having never worked in the private sector. Government produces nothing. Except when they print their make believe money. All real money comes from the private sector. Way too many of these ‘career politicians’ have zero comprehension of this essential fact. Biden and Harris are two more ladder grasping career politicians also completely clueless.
Interesting take on qualifications. Those who have been in Government for a long time appear to do quite well for themselves year after year while the rest of the population suffers more and more every year. Those who have been in office for a long time, are responsible for the mess, especially at this moment in time.
Mean Mary is who I know. Before she was “Congresswoman for all of Alaska” and was in the legislature she would ignore anyone who wanted to speak with her on statewide issues. She would be outright mean to anyone wanting to talk with her on anything but what she wanted and what would advance her. Now those past actions are coming to roost. She does not deserve to represent us! Vote for Nick!
I think a lot less of Begich when I hear he supported the bankrupting of Alaska with SB-21. That corporate welfare bill has cost Alaskans dearly. A famiy of four has now lost over $40,000.00 in lower dividends because of the hit to state finances brought about by SB-21.
Prudhoe Bay remains the largest oil field in North America. We don’t need to pay corporate welfare and earn Alaskans the least of any oil field in the world.
Do t worry about the dividend. Ds and rinos will have that gone in 3 years.
M says: “A famiy of four has now lost over $40,000.00 in lower dividends because of the hit to state finances brought about by SB-21.”
I think you’re confused. It wasn’t SB21. It was Bill Walker supported by democrats and “bipartisan” Republicans who caucus with them who stole and continue to steal the PFD. Cheers –
Agimarc. Maybe the numbers will help you connect the dots. Deviating from the statutory formula was because we didn’t have the money. Paying 700,000 Alaskans $3,000.00 each costs about $2.1 billion dollars- each year.
We used to be able to pay full dividends- until SB-21, where we pay $8 dollars per barrel in corporate welfare.
For perspective, 500,000 barrels per day of TAPS throuhput at $80 dollars per barrel is about $14.6 billion dollars of oil taken from Alaskans per year.
We only get a fraction of that- for the oil that we own, on oil fields we’ve paid billions to develop.
The PFD is supposed to be paid first, then government gets the rest.
All this mess is on Bill Walker
MA. We can’t print money like the feds do, and money doesn’t grow on trees. We don’t have enough money to both pay full dividends AND pay for government which includes paying $ 8 dollars per barrel to have our oil taken. That corporate welfare is expensive, so you lost your full dividend.
Thanks for giving up full dividends. My Conoco stock is doing really well. $$ Your loss, my gain.
But we can stop spending money on useless and unworthy programs. Better to start with a $0 budget, figure out the most important ‘needs,’ fund them to the minimum level, and then make decisions about dispersing any remaining funds, either to enhance ‘needed programs’ or starting to fund the never-ending list of wants.
We don’t need to print money. We need to spend what we have more wisely.
That’s Bravo Sierra! Apples and oranges here!
Aces was replaced with SB21 in 2014 and we received full PFDs every year even with the low oil prices in 2013 until Bill Walker decided to cut it in half. That the legislature can not budget is not the oil companies problem. Furthermore Walker needed that money to make his pipe dream fiscally attractive to investors from China.
“For perspective, 500,000 barrels per day of TAPS throuhput at $80 dollars per barrel is about $14.6 billion dollars of oil taken from Alaskans per year.” This is not oil “taken from Alaskans” but oil we the people gave permission via a lease for oil companies to get out of the ground and monetize! BTW the Permanent Fund is funded by royalties not oil taxes per se and should have been an independent revenue source per the statute, not a piggy-bank for boondoggles for legislators and the governor.
If you don’t want oil companies to have a profit for all the money, time and research they put into getting that oil out of the ground for us, then I suggest you move to the north slope, take your little bucket and shovel and start digging. Oh and invite Dermot Cole to come with you as that sounds just like his diatribe.
A Taxpayer. My, that was quite a rant. However, you are flailing away without facts. Here are some facts:
1. Under ACES we built up over $20 billion in savings. We spent $2 billion per year on infrastructure. The economy was doing very well, and we paid full dividends. It took a whie to spend the savings we built up under ACES after the corporate welfare provisions of SB-21 drained our accounts.
2. Walker was the guy who had to deal with the fiscal realities of the loss of revenue, and the $8 dollars per barrel we had to pay in corporate welfare for the removal of our oil from the largest, most profitable oil field in North America. Today we’ve spent every dollar we had saved under ACES. The Permanent Fund is under threat because it does not produce enough earnings to be properly inflation proofed (which is essential) and pay dividends, and pay for state government. Guess what? Your dividends got a lot smaller. Too bad, so sad for you. And Duneavy has allowed this to happen. But that is what you get when you want to give away your oil, and pay corporate welfare. That you can’t connect the dots is why my friends in the oil industry think taking money from Alaskans is like taking candy from a baby. You just aren’t very smart.
You claim Walker needed the money for the pipeline. The problem with your claim is that there isn’t a gas line. So, the money was never spent on it. So your claim is false.
Go ahead and tell us how you would cut the budget. Be specific. Don’t give us vague claims about cutting waste. Be specific. Should we close the prisons, and let the convicts loose? Should we fire the State Troopers? How about getting rid of DOT. We don’t need snow removal, right? (Sarc.) How about ending the $8 dollars we pay in corporate welfare for each barrel of oil taken from Alaskans?
As far as the oil companies go… sorry, I am a stockholder. I make a lot of money off their dividends. I know just how badly Alaskans are being fleeced. So sad for you. But hey, its what you want, right?
Again Apples and Oranges M!
The PFD, to my knowledge, is and never was, tied to oil taxes, but to royalties, so your entire reasoning here is flawed. The legislature by statute already received 50% of the earnings each year, while the rest was distributed to the citizens on a rolling 5 year average.
“Building up savings” by fleecing the oil companies via ACES to build up the general fund is a completely different pot of money, than the PFD. That money did not go into to corpus of the permanent fund, as it would have been inaccessible to the legislature. Therefor your analysis/comparison is erroneous.
So, according to you, we had $20 billion in general revenue. It’s like any household budget, if you have to dip into savings you are spending too much! So what did we do with it? We grew government.
In typical fashion you are following the ASD example of threatening to fire a teacher, while you have 5 program administrators pushing paper instead of teaching kids. We do not need assistants to assistants to assistants, we need people who actually do the job, so no let’s not fire troopers/firemen/mechanic/engineers/road crew etc., but 4 of the people pushing paper for each of their departments.
As for Walker, he was looking to get re-elected and was not about to tighten the purse strings.(Besides he made his money suing oil companies and there was no love lost) It always seemed that the purpose behind his monkeying with the PFD was to get the states hands on in all to use permanent fund money as collateral, to make it attractive for a company to actually build the thing. All we got out of the multiple trips to China was a Memorandum of understanding, which basically gave the farm away. It went nowhere and the legislature instead of deciding which budget items are the most pressing/important or demanding that ALL funds be swept back into the general fund at the end of the fiscal year, now has a ready made pool of additional funds to just continue business as usual, spending like drunken sailors (my apologies to sailors everywhere)
I repeat my earlier statement if you want the oil companies out of Alaska you tax them severely (like ACES) and make their profit margin unattractive. However then how are we Alaskans going to monetize “our oil”?? Tax incentives are how governments entice industry to produce the natural resources present, but have no business producing themselves. It is only fair that those, who take all the risk and hard work should be compensated for their labor and our legislature needs to learn to work with the money they have not rob the people or extort the resource industry.
Hmmm… The real culprit was the AK Supreme Court saying the legislature didn’t have to follow the law… That alone will cost you your entire PFD within the next two years…. It’s also going to get you a State Sales Tax…
Voting for Democrats and Rinos has been the States downfall…
Willy you got it soooo right. Thanks, Liberty Ed
Willy, the court got it right. The Constituion makes it clear the legislature has the power of appropriation. Funding a dividend, or not, is entirely their option.
You want a full dividend? Okay. Vote for people who will end the corporate welfare that has made all Alaskans poorer. The sad part of this is the Democrats- usually not our friends- are the ones that claim they’d do this, while Repubicans, who are supposed to be fiscal conservatives, refuse to end corporate welfare.
Based on the loss of revenue from SB-21 I predict the dividend will be going away, or will become vastly smaller.
But at least my ConocoPhillips stock is doing well.
Wake up people!
The very fact that she read from a pre-determined script should tell you everything you need to know to make a reasonable choice in November.
This Candidate and sitting Congresswoman is in no way fit for the office she currently uses for the benefit of her handlers!
She couldn’t even keep her place in the notes…..
Gross incompetence.
How much more embarrassing could MP make it? Losing oneself in canned cliff’s notes talking about something she didn’t understand or comprehend anyway. Are Alaskans gullible enough to think she is “good” for her clientele in a DC ghetto overrun by vipers and snakes?
Yes in yet she can keep in line with the rest of the lost sheep in DC!
She fits right in there with Biden, Harris, Walz… a brainless wonder who has managed to reach the top.
DO NOT VOTE FOR “NICE MARY” … it is a completely untruthful and despicable facade!
It wasn’t “Nice Mary” with whom I spoke at a political fundraiser for her. During six-month period, I requested her assistance in resolving a problem I have had for years at the Anchorage VA. I made the same formal request three times. Nothing was ever done because she could not keep a staff at either of her Anchorage or DC offices. EACH TIME A STAFF PERSON RECEIVED MY REQUEST HE AND SHE QUIT. After somebody QUIT, there was nobody to pick up where the last employee left off. SO, I filed three requests for assistance and none of them were addressed at all. After six months of getting nowhere, because she did not have a consistent staff, I went to her fundraiser to speak with her directly.
“Angry Mary” told me she would not help me because I was “angry”. After six months of her ineptitude, she had the nerve to chastise me for her incompetence! I am an 80% service-disabled veteran and after six months of no action from her or her office, I was angry. There was probably smoke coming out of my ears, but I did not ever use any inappropriate language or anything similar.
DO NOT VOTE FOR MARY PELTOLA … she does not represent all Alaskans and told me in plain language that she will not help me with VA benefits I am unable to access.
Am glad to watch Mary get her dander up. She looks as foolish as she is in person and certainly very ill mannered.
Let her B.S. her way around the “have to work for my family”
Mary maintains her looser position as usual.
Being on the dole works well for her
GO BEGICH!!
You have to have worked in government before you are qualified to work in government!! The most circular logic I have seen for some time! Something only a big government person would even consider a valid argument. SMH.
So by her logic you are not a Veteran unless you put in 20 years in the military and retire. You are not a Veteran if you put in 20 years you are a retiree as the VA told me.
MIA Mary turns up to yell at people? Page from the Biden regime and Old Yeller? She’s so done.
Yea right she should run for dog catcher.
She fails to understand everybody has rights.
Try reading the constitution. Mary Mary quite contrary, how did your garden grow? On a bed of lies stacked multiple husband’s high… racketeering for strategy?
Nick, it’s time to put on your big boy pants and really go after this little POS. Send her packing back to Bethel. Maybe you can find her a new husband. She would like that.r
This time we need to find her a man that will take her hunting.
What is it with ‘Mean Mary’ and ‘Kommie Kammie’ that they both insist on having notes in hand for a debate???
Everyone knows that public “servants” are grossly out of touch with regular people. Nick is a man who has the private sector experience needed to represent THE PEOPLE.
The “captain” only represents herself.
Since Mean Mary brought up her deceased husband, does that mean the mourning period is over and we can talk about how corrupt Buzzy was when he was working for the federal government? There are so many stories about his taking quid pro quo. And about his huge collection of guns that she inherited — who did he take those from when he was a Fed? Does she have the receipts for those or did he just confiscate them and take them home?
No one who is going to decide this election saw, or even heard about this performance. That is just the sad truth. They see the tv and internet ads and see a pleasant woman and hear the radio ads and hear a pleasant voice. That is what you have to get over. From here on in I doubt substance on issues means anything, sadly.
Go away Mary. You are nothing more than a plague of locust coming for the farmers field. Like others of your ilk, you destroy everything you touch
Now that she is in Congress, Peltola says that nobody in the room at AOGA should dare run against for Congress unless they’ve already been in the system, like you. How insulting. Read the room, honey. We were not impressed with that argument that your boy Anton came up with.
Examples of those who had not held elected office … before they did:
Gov. Walter J. Hickel, RIP
President Donald Trump
President Dwight Eisenhower
President Ulysses S. Grant
President Howard Taft
President Herbert Hoover
Someone who should be in the Senate, if not for corrupt Lisa Murkowski: Kelly Tshibaka
Sen. Ted Stevens, RIP
As you say, Mary, how dare anyone think they can succeed in life without paying their dues on the Bethel City Council and climbing the ladder of multiple husbands.
I’ll just pass the rest of the list along to Nick, while you stay home and flip fishcakes for all those Bellingham fisherman you protect.
………don’t forget Joe Miller, who actually beat Lisa Murkowski in 2010.
Thank you! Excellent comment!
We’ve seen what career government politicians can do to our republic, and it’s not good. We’ve also seen what a outsider business man can do, and it’s good!
Mary’s free ride with RCV is OVER. Nick will beat this hypocrite, grandma Democrat when the facts on Mary start coming out.
NB3!
One reason I support Nick Begich 3 is his extensive private sector experience producing real, tangible results with true value. Experience signing the front of paychecks is priceless compared to that of career bureaucrats (elected or otherwise). On this point, Mary Peltola could not be more wrong if she tried. Amazingly, she believes so-called “public service” is something to boast about… with its gold-plated over-compensation, benefits, retirement, immunity from firing, and absolutely zero accountability. She revealed a staggering level of disconnect from reality.
Good article. Good videos. Great comments! Mean Mary has to go if we are going to have a chance to save Alaska.
How brave of Mary to come out from hiding to publicly shame Begich. The nerve that woman has is about as pompous as her late husband’s with the way he weaseled his way into the lucrative carbon capture business.
If she doesn’t want to carry out the job duties of a congressman, she should retire to her village so she could live out her fish dreams. Perhaps Begich can also shed light for Mary on how politicians make bad businessmen, but businessmen make better politicians because they understand how policy works instead of how it feels.
Revealing. Mary believes public service should be a career. That’s not public service; that’s a career path.
Another better option for society is public service after a successful private sector career…like Nick Begich.
All the more reason why we need get rid of rank choice voting.
Ol riverboat cpt Peltola struggling in a legit open forum debate. None of that 2020 covid bs done through video. Where they were asked questions and raised a sign that said yes or no.
Mary, Mary quite contrary – words v actions – good grief Alaska, don’t let the fools like Lisa and Mary speak for us, they’re communist supporters if not full blown communists themselves!
We still have to convince all of the villages that Peltola does not care about them.
Peltola is a flat out liar.
She claims to be “listening” to north slope residents.
There are meetings currently taking place where leaders across all the affected land Joe and Kamala’s lockup includes with outcry against local state level BLM reps who claims their hands are tied by Washington’s commanders in chief (Clintons Obamas Biden/Harris).
The Salmon Sister’s(Murky & Mary)will prevail if voters dont vote and thats all they have.
Peltola’s performance matters only if someone was watching it.
What a useless freaking grifter…
A part of the issue – where Mary has been born and raised (to address her world view that only people that work for the government should run for the government) is ANCSA created the law that mandates regional corporations to disburse 70% of their resource development revenue to all other regional and village corporations.
This distribution and that law has not evolved in step with the success and business diversity that regional and village corporations now enjoy.
Now we see regions that may have the highest regional amount of villages and overall population coupled with the least amount of incentive to utilize their resources.
We see other regions that consistently burden the State of Alaska to protect and maintain that region’s industry with endless subsidies, bailouts and blocking national interests for domestic production such as mining.
Additionally, we see global federal contracting ‘small business’ set-asides that provide jobs, development and security for places and people all around the world – except for at home.
And to put the cherry on top, these regions with those revenues do not pay into the ANCSA 7j-7i pool for redistribution throughout the rest of the native corporations.
Unfortunately-the regions that do not pay into the ANCSA 7j-7i vote against their neighbors – ASRC, Doyon, SeaAlaska – PROVIDERS who are spending 70% of their revenues – mandated by law – to the people that lobby against the industry that pads their pockets.
And those regions and people are freely taking that annual money and actively shooting their own selves in their own feet.
But, they are employed by government funded entities – because that is the only game in town.
Unless, you work for the local AC Store – a Canadian company that gouges rural Alaskan locals out of food security in the name of socialism.
Because, Canada figures they are only taking from the US government funded SNAP program- so ‘who is really getting hurt anyway?’
Laws such as ANCSA need to evolve – instead of holding some regions hostage and others entitled without contributing to the spirit of that redistribution ideal.
How does GDP affect people?
Generally, rising global income translates to a higher standard of living, while diminishing global income causes the standard of living to decline.
‘https://www.investopedia.com › ask
How Does GDP Affect the Standard of Living? – Investopedia
She is just one in a long list of complete blood sucking parasites who are basically a welfare recipient with the authority to govern! She is the perfect example of what we do not need in public service.. They are just like many are who are in public education , they claim they are doing it for the people, or for children lol, but their real intentions are all about getting as much out of the tax payers wallets by doing the least amount of work. As far as I’m concerned you should not even qualify for any public sector position anywhere until you’ve went out and actually produced or contributed for at least 10 years doing REAL work… That being said, have you all ever noticed, the majority of people always trying to get into other peoples wallets are Progressive Democrats. At least we still do have some (fewer and fewer)who are in public services for the right reasons, but a lot of these scum bags just need flushed out. yes they are always looking for new deceptive ways to steal from their employer, the tax payers, the REAL tax payers in the PRIVATE sector ! Remember the Private sector people pay 100 percent of all the taxes!