Robert MacDonald, mayor of Lewiston, said on Sunday that he wanted to publish a registry of welfare recipients because he was annoyed by disabled children coming to the state for help.
In a column last week MacDonald explained his plan to publish names, addresses and other personal information of welfare recipients.
"We will be submitting a bill to the next legislative session asking that a website be created containing the names, addresses, length of time on assistance and the benefits being collected by every individual on the dole," he wrote. "After all, the public has a right to know how its money is being spent."
During an "Entitlement Nation" segment with the caption "Name and Shame" on Sunday, the mayor explained to Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Sunday that it was not fair for the names of state pensioners to be public while welfare recipients were not.
"This is something born out of frustration," he said. "For three and a half years, I've been putting all kinds of welfare laws, I've been submitting them. And the legislature is just tanking them. And what really hurts is the legislatures from Lewiston are basically stabbing me in the back."
According to MacDonald, Somali refugees were not the problem in his city because they had jobs. But he complained that "the domestic people" were abusing welfare benefits.
"They're coming into our state, and what's happened here is we have a school system," MacDonald opined. "And one of the things about our schools system is second to none, it's special ed education department that attracts them all."
