Game Theory

Our Federal Correspondent explains how Maine's senior Senator is playing for the MAGA team.

                                                    Oh the games people play now
                                                       Every night and every day now
                                                       Never meaning what they say now
                                                       Never saying what they mean
                                                              Joe South, The Games People Play

Sen. Susan Collins (left), husband Tom Daffron, Pepper (right)

When Sen. Susan Collins is candidate Susan Collins, she tells Mainers she is their protector, lover of Black Labs and the pride of The County.

A big Collins campaign pitch is how her seniority in the Senate enables her to bring resources to Maine. In her last run, in 2020, Collins said she’d do even better once she ascended to Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Now that she has that lofty perch, you’d think Collins would be able to ensure local libraries and schools get grants they need. And you’d expect her to make sure the federal government supports Acadia National Park. And you’d assume that she’d do everything within her power to help Mainers more broadly, whether they’re veterans, parents of disabled kids or seniors getting Social Security.

Nope. Sorry to disappoint you.

She’s not using the power she promised Mainers she’d wield on their behalf. Instead, the Constitutional Crisis Cabal of Trump, Elon Musk and Russell Vought are calling the shots, illegally firing the people who check water and land for toxins, work on cancer research, predict dangerous storms in the Gulf of Maine and fight financial fraudsters.

Republicans often say no one else should get help if there are veterans living on the streets. But they’re quiet now while Trump and Musk actually cut services for homeless vets and mental health services for suicidal veterans and those with PTSD. In total, the Musk-men plan to slash 80,000 jobs from the Veterans Administration.

Instead of standing up for Maine and Togus, though, Collins behaves like a supplicant to the cabal and sometimes its co-conspirator. Occasionally, Trump grants her tiny wins, which she then aggressively exploits for bragging rights, while ignoring the slash and burn budgeteers.

That’s the essence of the game Collins plays.

Sometimes, other Republicans order her to do things she claims to oppose and she follows their directions. Take the recent Continuing Resolution. According to Politico, in February, Collins said “she was ‘absolutely’ opposed to a funding patch.”

Then “Two days later,” Politico reported,“Collins divulged that Republican leaders had instructed her to start writing a partisan fallback plan anyway, while the final bill that would, indeed, fund government operations through the end of the fiscal year was drafted by House GOP leadership and rammed through with limited input from either chamber’s spending leaders.”

Collins’ initial public opposition to the CR might have looked like a prelude to her utterly caving to Trump and Musk, but it also could’ve been an attempt to hide her embrace of their dangerous extremist agenda.

Consider this: Collins had lunch with ultra-right House Republicans to plan strategy for the CR. After noshing together, Rep. Aaron Bean of Florida told Politico Collins was a valued member of his team.“Sometimes, on the far-right side,” he explained, “she gets an unfair reputation and is treated unfairly.”

That’s concerning.

And what did this negotiated CR do for the folks back home? It made Mainers less safe and less healthy, by slashing funding for clean water, energy technology loans, election security and food inspectors et al.

Grants to help Maine’s tribes with environmental needs were cut completely. So were funds for agricultural research facilities and an office in the Department of Health and Human Services that focused on children and families. In fact, the bill Collins helped write actually destroyed her ability to bring the bacon home, because the CR eliminated funding for specific projects in particular states, including hundreds of millions that Maine will now not receive.

As a so-called “top appropriator” Collins declared that Trump and Musk shouldn’t be able to cut funds Congress appropriated. Yet she voted for the new head of the OMB Vought, an architect of Project 2025, who asserts Trump can withhold funds Congress approved. And instead of doing something to defend the constitutional principle of checks and balances, when Democrats wanted the CR to order Trump to follow appropriations laws, Collins opposed that amendment, calling it a “poison pill.”

The contradictions are dizzying.

Meanwhile, Trump has been on a tear against Maine. He’s ramped up his retribution against Gov. Janet Mills, who dared to tell him to “take it to court” when he railed against our state laws protecting trans teens. Lately the autocrat-in-chief said “this case can be settled” if Mills apologized and promised not to challenge him again.

Mills, thankfully, has ignored Trump’s command.

So what does Collins do when Trump attacks Maine? When asked, for instance, about Trump freezing university funds because of its trans athlete policy, the famously thin-skinned Collins lashed out at a reporter, saying “I see that all of your questions seem to have a bias built into them” and then refused to comment when emailed by another reporter.

Simultaneously Collins is quick to claim credit when particular grants for Maine get restored, thanks to her extremely active, aggressive press operation. Among other things, Collins’ comms team suggests language for her followers and friendly groups writing columns and letters-to-the editor. Collins flacks have even asked for revisions for editorials that had already been published.

I don’t know how this came to pass but it’s striking that two emailed missives (below) I’ve seen about the restoration of USDA funds (and there certainly may be more out there) explicitly recognize Collins.

Collins is trying to use cuts to Maine programs and the subsequent reversals to her political advantage. She also gets tons of coverage if she says anything even mildly critical about Trump

But Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Collins doesn't really do anything meaningful. She could, for instance, force Musk to testify in public about the damage he’s done. But she hasn’t. In fact, according to congressional websites, her Senate Appropriations Committee hasn’t held a single hearing since November 2024. Meanwhile the House Appropriations Committee had 36 hearings (16 this month) since Trump’s inauguration

It’s quite the political game.

Meanwhile, Collins has also been missing in action when it comes to Social Security, the largest source of income for most of the 73 million recipients. About 400,000 Mainers receive Social Security or SSI, more in the Second Congressional District than the First. Three out of four are retired folks and others are surviving children or spouses or disabled people. Clearly, SS is being purposely vandalized by Trump and Musk.

Imagine a loved one in rural Maine near retirement or a forty- something friend battling metastatic cancer who is applying for Compassionate Allowance disability benefits. A question arises, but since Trump and Musk’s chainsaw massacre, some SS sites were shuttered and thousands of staff fired, requiring your loved on (or you) to travel further and wait longer for assistance. Which is extra-cruel to people with memory and mobility problems. Even crueler, according to a leaked memo, the SSA knows offices can’t handle extra people showing up, meaning more significant processing delays and troubles with benefits issues are to be expected.

Meanwhile, the rich elites in Trump World look down on people using Social Security to pay their bills. Billionaire Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick bizarrely claimed that the only folks who’d complain about a missed Social Security payment would be fraudsters.

Or consider the bizarre actions of Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Because he was mad Mills stood up to Trump, Dudek issued a mandate that made it impossible for Maine parents of newborns to check a box in the hospital to get their babies Social Security numbers.

Dudek eventually reversed his decision and admitted he did it out of spite. He’s since apologized, but not before Collins downplayed his decree, saying it was not “some sort of deliberate action to cut off funding for the state of Maine.”

(Not long before, Dudek threatened to shut down the SS whole system if Musk and his tech bros couldn’t have access to every American’s personal information.)

According to Axios, Dudek said, “Social Security had been too ‘thoughtful’ in considering beneficiaries before making changes.” Dudek knows that staff cuts and phone changes in the SSA phone system make people more vulnerable to scammers and that vulnerable Americans — including people who are hospitalized, kids in foster homes and those living in remote areas — will be effectively blocked from applying for benefits. But the White House wants the changes faster. So Dudek is pushing the cuts through, even as the Social Security website is crashing and phones are ringing off the hook.

Under Joe Biden, average wait times for calls to SSA were lowered to less than an hour. Now wait times can stretch long, often four to five hours. Some recipients have to wait months to have errors fixed -- without getting paid. Meanwhile DOGE is planning on moving SS off an old computer language, COBOL, in a matter of months. As a SS tech expert told Wired, that risks “not paying someone at all and not knowing about it.” And, given what’s being done to staffs and offices, recipients wouldn’t get help. Especially since many SSA offices don’t have basics like headsets, pens and paper. Due to new Musk-generated rules, almost no one can approve minor purchases. And, crazily, the list doesn’t include office supplies.

All these examples demonstrate how the incompetent and malevolent Dudek, Trump and the DOGE dudes hate the very popular and invaluable Social Security. Angus King noticed, calling the sabotage “Unconscionable...What’s going on is the destruction of the agency from the inside out, and it’s accelerating.”

King said he’s hearing from Mainers. “I have people approaching me all the time in their 70s and 80s,” he told the Washington Post, “and they’re beside themselves. They don’t know what’s coming.”

Collins must be getting the same calls. She must know SSA staffing is purposely inadequate. But, despite all her purported power over the federal purse strings, she’s done absolutely nothing to fix the problems.

Perhaps she agrees with the right wing’s dream to privatize Social Security? George W. Bush loved the concept but abandoned it because Americans really, really hate the idea.

While the chaos of Trump and Musk continues, Congress is preparing its big budget and tax bill. Although the cabal and congressional Republicans claim to care about debt and deficit, the $4.5 trillion in tax cuts they want (mostly for the rich) is far more than the cuts already made and planned by the DOGE-boys

Big cuts to IRS staff, for instance, will let the wealthy tax cheats get away with more while making it harder for average folks to get questions answered. Not only that, the cuts will also reduce revenues, by a half trillion bucks, in the 2024 filing season while increasing borrowing. That huge drop in revenue equals roughly half of what the federal government spends on every program, except the military, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Medicaid (known locally as Mainecare) nationally covers about 40% of births, over half of spending for seniors’ long-term care and a lot in-between. House Republicans passed a budget outline that would take away Medicaid from tens of millions, along with a slew of other hurtful cuts. Senate Republicans passed their own broad template with “massive unspecified cuts and huge tax cuts.”

These outlines will get spelled out with dollar details in the full budget. And to hit Republicans’ targets, they have to slash food deliveries to seniors, food and heating assistance, childcare, infectious disease prevention and control, education, weather monitoring and forecasting, veterans’ services, Social Security staff, health care, cancer research, tracking and stopping toxins in our air and water, and more.

Sen. Collins will almost certainly be in the room, writing this big bill. Then she’ll vote for the measure and truly own it.

At the same time, while the games Collins plays are frequently focused on federal funds for Maine, there’s a whole lot more for which she should be held accountable.

The laundry list of constitutional sins gets longer by the day. Trump ordered his Attorney General to harass law firms bringing cases challenging his administration. Trump deported Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador without any hearings, setting it up so judges and lawyers were kept in the dark. Totally innocent people swept up and trapped in brutal conditions. Not to mention the harsh treatment of regular tourists (and Trump’s imperialistic threats toward Canada) harming our national reputation and keeping Canadians away from Maine. Bookings in Old Orchard Beach (aka the Atlantic Riviera for the Quebecois) are reportedly down a whopping 75 percent from last summer.

Maybe Collins is too scared to take a stand? After all, her GOP colleague and good friend, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, says a lot of Republican senators are afraid of Trump. (At the same time, Murkowski proclaimed she won’t “compromise my own integrity.”) While, according to Politico, Murkowski “left the door open” to ditching the GOP and becoming an independent to sidestep severe political pressures, it’s hard to imagine Collins following suit.

Collins’ machinations, as Mainers have come to realize, are nothing new. But now the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been. Trump, Musk and Vought are on a rampage. Average Americans’ lives are being endangered, as Collins stands by, expressing concern while the cabal shovels piles of our tax dollars from the treasury and into their private vaults. Even more, she’s cooperating with this awful agenda.

A real leader would have, months ago, stood up to the pillaging oligarchs. But that’s not a game Collins is willing to play.

Amy Fried spent many years as a political scientist at the University of Maine, teaching and mentoring, earning multiple awards and her current title of Professor Emerita, and publishing research in numerous academic books and articles. At various times, she served as the faculty advisor for the College Republicans, College Democrats and the Young Americans for Liberty. She is probably best known in Maine for her biweekly column in the Bangor Daily News, which ran from fall 2011 to early 2025. Fried also publishes outside of academia in national venues and is interviewed widely for her political analysis. Fried has helped other professors develop skills for engaging with the public, press, community groups and elected officials. She loves to kayak, box and travel. You can find her on Bluesky at @asfried.bsky.social

Links:

Trump and DOGE Propel V.A. Mental Health System Into Turmoil Trump administration plans to cut 80,000 employees from Veterans Affairs, according to internal memo As Trump and Musk loom, congressional spending leaders’ morale hits rock bottom Maine’s federal delegation could play role in Republican effort to avoid a shutdown Susan Collins won’t say if she blames Donald Trump for Maine’s funding uncertainty What's in the House GOP government funding bill H.R.1968 - Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 Senate Republicans’ budget bill rules out federal earmarks for state projects Cancer research, long protected, feels ‘devastating’ effects under Trump EXCLUSIVE: Memo details Trump plan to sabotage the Social Security Administration Policy Basics: Top Ten Facts about Social Security Social Security Says DOGE Ruling Could Force Agency to Shut Down Trump Social Security Commissioner Suggests Anger At Janet Mills Contributed To Contract Cancellations Trump official ended program for Maine newborns to get back at Janet Mills Social Security rushing service cuts at White House request, sources sayLong waits, waves of calls, web crashes: Social Security is breaking down Tax revenue could drop by 10 percent amid turmoil at IRS IRS Predicts DOGE Lost Half a Trillion Dollars for the USA 10 Things to Know About Medicaid House Republican Attacks on Medicaid Expansion Would Threaten Coverage for 20 Million People Senate Budget Lays Damaging Path, House Expected to Consider Own Harmful Plan With New Decree, Trump Seeks to Cow the Legal Profession What the Venezuelans Deported to El Salvador Experienced Alien Enemies Act Deportations Were Carefully Orchestrated To Keep Courts In The Dark Maine Inn Owner Reveals Damning Impact Of Trump’s Canada Rhetoric On His Business Murkowski says her colleagues are ‘afraid’ of Trump and Musk: ‘I’m not going to compromise my own integrity’