They’re Making Me

Rendell should focus on Pa. problems first

Before Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell started offering advice to President Barack Obama on Sunday, he might have checked his tongue at the door.

Because Rendell is not in a position to offer advice to anyone, not with all the problems we have to deal with right here in Pennsylvania.

Not that that matters in the world of politics, where everyone seems to have answers to everyone’s problems but their own.

Rendell, for example, has been in office for seven-plus years and most of the serious problems that plagued us when he entered office are still problems plaguing us today.

Not much has improved in seven years. If anything, it feels worse.

And yet there he was at a meeting of Democratic governors, offering Obama advice. “It’s got to be better thought out,” he said. “… they need to revamp their strategy,” he said. It’s got to be more proactive,” he said.

This from the man who was 100 days late getting his own recent budget passed.

There is something to be said, in circumstances such as this, for looking in the mirror and taking your own advice.

And what was Rendell’s answer when someone finally asked the only question that needed to be asked: What should Obama do to right his political ship?”

“I don’t know,” Rendell said.

No kidding.

No handouts for us … I hope

It was barely lunch time on Wednesday, when the first mention was made on TV news that some states, cities and municipalities in the area affected by the back-to-back snowstorms along the Eastern U.S. were preparing to go hat in hand to the federal government, looking for financial assistance to pay for the mess.

Oh no, I said to myself. Not another bailout.

Cleanup will be expensive. And there isn’t enough money in most state or municipal budgets to pay for it.

I wasn’t surprised. But I hope they think better of it. And I surely hope Pennsylvania (or any local governments) decides to clean up its own mess without looking for a handout.

Because it’s symptomatic of much of what’s wrong with government - federal, state and local - these days.

When something goes wrong, when something out of the ordinary happens, we look for someone else or something to solve our problems for us.

And we almost always seem to think the feds have the answers to all of our problems. They rarely do.

There was a time in this country when people took pride in being self-sufficient, self-sustaining, independent. They not only could solve their own problems, but they insisted on solving their own problems.

Somewhere along the line, that changed. And far too often for our own good, we started putting our hands out waiting for the federal government to fill them with green or gold or silver or whatever color represented the lucre of the day.

It’s a bad habit to have gotten into. Sometimes it can’t be helped - hurricanes in Louisiana, for example, or mudslides and forest fires in California. Maybe a flood here and a tornado there. Maybe terrorist planes destroying the Twin Towers in New York City.

But most of the time - as in these back-to-back snowstorms dumping 45 inches of snow on York County in four days - it should be our burden to bear.

And I hope we find a way to bear it without looking for a handout.

Because we can. Because we should.

No surprise the GOP has dirty hands, too

It was only a matter of time before state Attorney General Tom Corbett came out with a list of Republicans who were going to be charged with theft, criminal conspiracy, legislative corruption, conflict of interest, obstruction of justice and/or misuse of public funds.

Because you know darned well if the Democrats were doing it - as has been alleged - the Republicans were involved in it, too.

That’s the way it works in politics.

With a dozen or so Democrats having already been slammed about 16 months ago, and now 10 or so Republicans having been charged, it would behoove us all to sit tight while more people on both sides of the aisle get their fingers smacked.

I’m not the slightest bit shocked, either, that former House Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, was one of those charged Thursday. Saddened? Yes. But shocked? No. Also charged were his former chief of staff, Brian Preski, and former House GOP counsel Brett Freese.

Perzel is alleged to have headed up an illegal scheme in which more than $10 million in taxpayer dollars was used to help win political campaigns.

What will truly be of interest is to discover, as these cases plod their way through the justice system, how long these games were being played at taxpayer expense.

I’m thinking 20 years, at least. Maybe 25. These shenanigans were like a boil on the side of taxpayers, and finally that boil is being lanced.

It’s another tragic day in statewide politics because it clearly shows that the top priority in Harrisburg for many years wasn’t doing the work of the people, but using the people’s funds to assure certain campaign results and guarantee incumbent success.

And one party is as guilty as the other. Shame on them both.

How many reasons does one need to avoid national health care?

So let’s pretend you think the solution to all of our problems is to give the federal government free reign to solve them as it will.

Let’s even pretend you didn’t see the “60 Minutes” TV show from a couple weeks back, in which it was shown that the feds’ management - or mismanagement, from my perspective - of Medicare has resulted in fraud that costs taxpayers between $60 billion and $90 billion a year.

Then surely, by now, you must be aware of the horrid mismanagement of the swine flu vaccine program that has resulted in shortages of the vaccine all over the country. People are dying from swine flu - including one youngster from Adams County just last week - and the feds are still trying to get a handle on the vaccine shortages. Maybe we’ll get the rest of the vaccine by the end of November or December. Or maybe we won’t.

This is a virus we’ve known about since last spring. The feds, working with its own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, determined it would need 200 million doses of the swine flu vaccine to see us through the crisis. And it picked five manufacturers - four from outside U.S. borders - to produce the needed number.

But they’ve failed miserably. Here we are in early November, and we only have about half the number of swine vaccines we’re supposed to have - 90 million doses so far. And many of those have gone to children, who have been hardest hit by the virus. That’s fine, but it leaves about 100 million U.S. citizens hanging by their fingertips waiting for supplies to arrive - preferably before the flu season passes, of course.

And guess what? Because the makers of the swine flu vaccine are behind the eight ball, there also is a shortage of the seasonal flu vaccine the feds are supposed to make available to about 110 million American citizens every year.

Maybe it’s just me, but if this is an example of how the federal government hopes to manage a national health care system, I think we’re all in trouble.

Maybe I’m in the wrong business

It was published this week in a York Dispatch story about the York City School District’s negotiations with York City Police over hiring city cops for security duty at football games, that the city district could save $3,000 for the season if it hired three city cops instead of five.

Did anyone do the math on that deal? I know, I’m a pain in the neck. But $3,000 for five home football games works out to about $75-$100 an hour per police officer for either a three- or four-hour football game assignment. That’s a full week’s pay for a lot of people, who work for less than $10 an hour.

Come to think of it, that’s doctor and lawyer territory.

Downtown restaurants might not be getting fair shake

It was a Wednesday in mid-August. Around noon. And the restaurant owner was pitching a fit.

Something about York City officials doing him no favors when they approved the location of not one, but two, hot dog carts within spitting distance of his front door.

“They forget who’s paying taxes and who isn’t,” he said. “And they forget that because of Central Market days on Tuesday and Thursday, restaurant owners in the first three blocks of North George Street (in downtown York) have to make their money on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, plus weekends, if they’re open then.”

Especially in the summer months, I said. “That’s right.” And especially during lunch when workers in the downtown area are out and about. “That’s exactly right,” he said. Then he added something about making hay while the sun shines.

It’s not easy, I said. “No, it’s not easy,” he replied. “And the city doesn’t make it any easier.”

Maybe, but what’s the alternative? Should the city ban hot dog vendors from operating on downtown streets? Maybe the city should stop encouraging potential restaurants from locating on “Restaurant Row” on North George Street if they’re also going to allow hot dog vendors to operate on the streets. Or maybe they should give the permanent restaurants a break on their property taxes.

I counted the number of restaurants. Three in the first block. Three in the second block - plus one that shut down last year. And two more in the third block north of the Continental Square. This is the city’s Restaurant Row. That’s how the city promotes the area.

But as you read this, one had disappeared altogether, one is shut down, three others are holding on by their fingertips and the rest are doing the best they can under difficult circumstances.

Then add two hot dog vendors to the mix on the same street. Hey, we have a free-market system. I support that. And I totally agree that competition should determine the winners and losers in any business environment. Let the best restaurants win.

That said, profitability for a restaurant is a delicate thing. A few dollars here and a few there can make a huge difference.

Plus, the hot dog vendors get to set up right on the heaviest walking traffic areas. There is an advantage in that.

And you just know that the hot dog vendors aren’t going to make an appearance during the three or four coldest months of the year, when it’s darned difficult to find workers willing to venture outside in search of lunch.

I don’t know what the answer is, but I’ll say this much. The restaurant owners have made a significant investment in their buildings, their equipment and their employees. And if they can’t make a profit - for whatever reason - they’re going to be forced to shut down or move elsewhere.

Which, in the end, could leave downtown workers with few options for lunch - in a worst-case scenario, two hot dog stands for two-thirds of the year.

There is a limit to the number of hot dogs one person can eat in a week.

So I’ll be packing lunch. Or driving out to the suburbs.

We could do with fewer experts

I don’t know if anyone else heard it, or if they even made a connection when President Obama said in a press conference last week that there was a panel of “experts” already working on various aspects of his national health care plan. Real problem-solvers, these “experts.”

It’s called the MedPAC program - a Republican invention, President Obama said. And basically what these health care “experts” do is get together and think up ways we can get better quality, lower cost health care.

At quick glance it sounds like a decent idea. Let the experts make recommendations.

But in about 10 seconds of thinking about it, I changed my mind. Where have these “experts” been for the last 20 years? What we need in Washington, D.C., is fewer “experts,” not more.

If health care “experts” really and truly had any ideas about providing better quality, lower cost health care, it’d already be done, wouldn’t it? I mean, they wouldn’t be sitting around waiting for a presidential invitation, the problem would already be fixed. Right?

The ”experts” working on our behalf are why this country is already in the shape it’s in.

Who’s working on our financial crisis? Financial experts. Who’s been working on our auto industry disaster? Auto experts. Who’s been trying to solve the problems of public education and improved test scores? Education experts. Who’s been trying to improve the federal tax code? Tax experts.

No matter what area of societal interest we talk about - OK, let’s talk about the military, it’s the military experts who are guiding us - there’s always a bunch of experts hiding around the corner.

Everywhere we turn there’s another “expert.” And you know what, they’ve done a damn poor job of solving any of our problems. If anything, they’ve made them worse.

So now, we’re turning over President Obama’s national health care plan - already at risk of blowing up in his face - to another bunch of “experts.”

Nah! I don’t think that’s such a great idea. This time, how about a bunch of regular folks who actually have to live in the real world - people who might actually have a few ideas of their own about health care?

Could they do any worse than all these experts? I don’t see how.

Feeling like a socialist yet?

Just wondering: Feel like a socialist yet?

In the last six months we’ve seen our federal government take over a big piece of the insurance industry - AIG - and the banking industry in a trillion-dollar bailout.

Then the feds dropped $70 billion in the domestic auto industry, effectively taking over General Motors and controlling the future of Chrysler.

Then, once taking over GM, the feds moved to use tax dollars to support a “cash for clunker” program, designed to encourage people to dump their old cars in favor of new cars. And if that wasn’t enough incentive, they added a nifty income tax deduction that would encourage the purchase of a new car - a Chevy, no doubt.

And don’t forget the feds’ interest in the national health care industry. If President Obama has his way, he’ll control that by the end of the year, too, even if it means raising taxes he promised a year ago he’d never raise.

So what’s next? The residential housing industry perhaps? There’s already an $8,000 taxpayer-paid incentive for first-time home buyers.

The list keeps getting longer by the week.

But don’t worry. If you aren’t feeling like a socialist yet, I have a hunch you’ll be getting plenty more opportunities in the upcoming months.

What’s next? Public education perhaps. Or, the airline industry?

A nightmare in the making

Last week, 10 of this country’s banks announced their intention to return $68 million they received in government loans from the $700 billion TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) fund.

They didn’t really need the money anymore. Plus, they wanted to get federal regulators off their backs.

My first thought was “hooray.”

But then I wondered what the feds would do with the $68 million when they get it. True to their nature, the feds were making it more difficult to repay the money to the government than they made it to obtain the money in the first place.

It made no sense. This was a good thing, repaying a loan to the American taxpayer. But what if the feds take that money and simply deposit it into the federal government’s general fund, to be used for some other purpose such as paying the utility bill in the nation’s Capitol.

Or worse, since the TARP fund is resting at about $110 billion, down from the original $700 billion, the feds could simply use the $68 million to replenish the fund.

Ouch.

I’d much prefer that the feds send that $68 million, drop in the bucket that it might be, to China as a partial repayment of the loan they made us last year. A show of good faith perhaps.

Because sooner or later, that bill will have to be paid. Better for American taxpayers that the feds pay part of it today so that deal can be laid to rest.

Any other plan would only add to the nightmare … and the national debt.

Glad Ridge decided not to run for Senate

I may be in the minority, but put me down as one York countian who couldn’t be happier that former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge decided not to run for the U.S. Senate.

I have a long memory - too long, maybe. But I can’t forget that Ridge, on his way out of the governor’s mansion eight years ago, negotiated a deal with the high and mighty in the General Assembly that resulted in a pension deal that now threatens to bankrupt the state and everyone who lives in it.

This is no exaggeration.

Perhaps you recall the behind-closed-door deal in 2001 between Ridge and high-ranking legislators from the state House and Senate that resulted in pension increases of 50 percent for lawmakers, 25 percent for teachers and other state employees.

It pretty much allowed legislators, teachers and state workers to retire at almost 90 percent of their top salaries.

The only problem is that the pensions are defined-benefit plans. What that means is if the pension funds lose value because the stock market drops, taxpayer contributions must be increased to make those pension plans whole.

Well, guess what? Those two pensions took a $28 billion combined hit in 2008. And millions more this year.

And we (taxpayers) are on the hook to make up the losses. Starting in 2012 or before, the increased taxpayer contributions will jump from the present 4.76 percent (teachers) and 4 percent (lawmakers and state workers) to 28 and 29 percent of payroll, respectively.

That’s a killer for taxpayers.

And I hold Ridge as responsible for this mess as the lawmakers who conspired with him to make it possible.

Based on that alone, I don’t think taxpayers could afford to have Ridge in the U.S. Senate. It’s enough of a mess as it is. No sense making it worse.