Governor Paul LePage has compared the United States Internal Revenue Service to Hitler’s Gestapo, in his weekend radio address. The comparison was part of LePage’s attack rhetoric on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision upholding the individual mandate provision of ObamaCare.

“The decision has made America less free. We the people have been told there is no choice. You must buy health insurance or pay the new Gestapo — the IRS,” said LePage in the radio address.

“The governor’s language is intentionally offensive. This goes beyond political rhetoric,” said House Democratic Leader, Representative Emily Cain of Orono. “The experience of the Holocaust survivors and the veterans of World War II who witnessed the true terror of the Gestapo should not be trivialized for political shock. The governor must apologize. We urge our Republican colleagues to join us in condemning this language.”

The Gestapo was dictator Adolf Hitler’s official secret police during Nazi rule of Germany in World War II. Gestapo agents used intimidation and terror, seeking out, arresting, torturing, and often murdering Hitler’s enemies.

“The governor’s comparison of the IRS to the Gestapo is shameful and ignorant. His comment trivializes an historic atrocity and mischaracterizes ObamaCare for the sake of political divisiveness,” said Assistant Democratic Leader Senator Justin Alfond of Portland. “This is yet another instance of the governor choosing hostile language over substance. He’s gone too far and owes not just the people of Maine an apology for his degrading language but to the families who were the victims of the real Gestapo.”

LePage said his administration would do everything they can to resist the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in Maine.

LePage claimed that the law, which was upheld last week by a U.S. Supreme Court decision, contains uncertainties, such as how new eligibility requirements will work and how federal matches to state investments and a national health care exchange will be funded.

In a Democratic radio address last week, Rep. Linda Sanborn, D-Gorham, who is a retired family physician, talked about the benefits of the Affordable Care Act.

“The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the health reform law ensures hard-working, middle-class families will get the security they deserve and protects every American from the worst insurance company abuses,” said Sanborn. “Because ObamaCare was upheld, if you are a family of four living in Maine earning $46,000 a year, you will soon be eligible for a $10,000 tax credit. And by August, thousands of Mainers will receive a rebate because their insurance company spent too much of their premium on administrative costs or CEO bonuses.”