It’s staggering how much freedom Mainers have lost in the few short months since Democrats took charge of state government.

With the legislative session wrapped up last week – the first in eight years when the Democrats had complete control of the House, Senate and Blaine House – let us count the ways the 129th Legislature has clamped down on liberty and is frivolously spending our hard-earned money.

John Balentine, a former managing editor for the Lakes Region Weekly, lives in Windham.

First off, the budget has ballooned by about 10 percent to $7.98 billion. Did you receive a 10 percent raise in salary this year? So why do legislators need 10 percent more? To fulfill their wish lists, of course. All this and they didn’t even pass a bond package for road improvements, which is something Maine desperately needs.

The new state budget is predicated on best-case economic scenarios and would be impacted if the economy sours. Spendthrift Democrats foolishly hope for the best while Republicans anticipate the worst and budget accordingly. Here’s hoping the economy stays hot and doesn’t bring down the Democrats’ house-of-cards budget.

The session also yielded some culture-war fodder that will reverberate for years to come, including euthanasia and more widely available abortion.

Death-demanding Democrats passed a manipulatively labeled “Death with Dignity” (really, physician-assisted suicide) bill that allows terminally ill patients to end their lives with the easy swallow of a pill. This will ultimately lead to people struggling with all kinds of maladies – mental and physical – taking their lives so they aren’t burdens to society.

These same death-draped Democrats also passed a bill that upends years of Hyde Amendment harmony by forcing taxpayers – many of whom don’t support the on-demand killing of babies on religious and moral grounds – to subsidize abortion for poor women.

Many voters never realized until this session how important abortion is to Democrats, both here and nationwide. They tried to ruin Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh over his stance on abortion last summer, and several state legislatures, including ours, have gone to great lengths ever since to make sure babies can be killed whenever, by whomever and for whatever reason. Life, it seems, is an inconvenient truth for Democrats.

Democrats also banned single-use (another misleading misnomer) plastic bags – you know, the ones you get at the grocery store with the convenient built-in handles. You won’t be seeing any more of these wonderful, handy, ingenious carrying bags because Democrats think they’re bad for the environment.

Instead, you’ll have to remember to bring your reuseable (if the handles don’t break after the first use, as mine have) bags that cost you several dollars to buy in the first place. If you do forget your bags, be prepared to pay 5 cents per paper bag, which might last long enough to make it to your vehicle before soaking through or ripping. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t reuse their plastic bags. Why take them away?

When you finally make it to your vehicle, make sure you don’t touch that cell phone because Democrats have banned its use while driving. (For some reason, it’s still OK to talk on a hands-free device, as if that’s somehow not distracting.)

Granted, there are times when talking on a cell phone and driving are unwise, but there are other times when it’s convenient and necessary. Liberty-suppressing Democrats don’t trust the public to realize the difference.

I wish everyone luck in obeying all the new laws. Just remember, vote Republican next time and avoid these dunderhead Democrats and their dimwitted demands.