The President of the Economic Policy Institute, Lawrence Mishel, came to Maine to spread his think tank's argument that government needs to spend more to create jobs, even if that means raising taxes in the midst of the recession.

The budget-cutting the Legislature goes back to work on this week is the wrong medicine for a state and nation desperate for jobs to help the unemployed, and the discouraged worker. That's the message Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington brought to Maine Monday morning. Mishel was scheduled to speak at a forum in Augusta sponsored by the Maine Center for Economic Policy, a progressive-leaning think tank. Mishel told MPBN's Irwin Gratz when states cut spending, the effects ripple out into the wider economy.