Paul LePage falsely claims he’s a self-made man. LePage actually had several rich benefactors. Olympia Snowe’s first husband Peter Snowe got LePage into college and paid his first year, while two other well-connected people gave Paul a place to sleep and a hand up.

LePage told a Tea Party gathering January 2010. “I would still be on the streets and I would still be on welfare. If it wasn’t for Peter Snowe, seriously, I would still be in generational poverty.”

Yet, he has no compassion for the poor and homeless who need a hand up like him. In 2009 he told Robert Shaffer “The system is designed to breed dependency once you’ve become skilled at milking the system, breaking free is almost impossible. To this day, I have no idea what people mean when they say … that cutting welfare will hurt people.”

LePage regards the poor and homeless as lazy users.

Deanne Danforth

Wilton