William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 6-19-15
You body weight changes from minute to minute.
Day: June 19, 2015
Pa Stays Open If Deadline Missed
Everyone is under the assumption that the state budget MUST be completed by June 30 or the State of Pennsylvania shuts down.
This is an outright lie that has been used in the past and will be used again to intimidate the citizens of Pennsylvania.
Putting on my private sector business owner hat – every Wednesday our payroll departments electronically transfer the deducted employee state taxes to the PA Department of Revenue.
In addition, every day transactions occur throughout Pennsylvania that generate sales tax and other taxes – so the cash flow to Harrisburg does not stop.
Governor Wolf’s budget does not address any cost cutting, expense controls or efficiency projects – Governor Wolf’s budget is very simple – RAISE REVENUE THROUGH MORE TAX REVENUE.
It is the goal of the PA State Senate to have a balanced budget without tax increases completed by June 30th to be sent to the Governor.
Let me be clear – Harrisburg does not have a revenue problem – it has a spending problem.
Prevailing wage mandates on public school districts, out of control benefit costs, and zero accountability for money being spent are a few examples.
I will be a NO vote on any tax increases – we MUST address the expense side of Pennsylvania Government first.
Governor Wolf continues to beat his drum that he wants to DUMP (and I use the word DUMP) $1 billion in the public school system.
I am in total agreement that education for our children is the number one priority – the public school system has many components that need to be fixed, changed or eliminated before a billion dollars is thrown at the problem.
In the private sector, throwing money at a problem without stopping the leak that is causing the problem is called throwing money down a black hole.
Until the structural problems in the public school system are fixed – the $1 billion that Governor Wolf wants to throw at the problem – the money will disappear – next year and every year to follow there will be some group who will be asking for more money to be DUMPED into the public school system.
Enough is enough !
Sen. Wagner represents Pennsylvania’s 28th District.
Pa Stays Open If Deadline Missed
Pope Accepts Global Warming, We Don’t
Pope Francis, yesterday, June 18, released Laudato Si the first encyclical addressing the environment in Catholic Church history. 
Most of it is hard to argue with. Greed is bad. Waste is bad. Pollution is bad.
Oh yeah, and abortion and euthanasia are bad.
However, Francis also felt obliged to chime in that global warming is primarily man-made and is an oppressive burden on the poor.
Taking that to its logical conclusion means those living in poor nations should no longer aspire to have global-warming producing things like refrigerators and air conditioners and computer networks, much less cars.
Saying people with brown skin should end their dreams of having these blessings strikes us as kind of mean.
Anyway, we remain global warming skeptics for the same reasons we stated in January:
1. The leading supporters hid data that contradicted their public conclusions and treated dissenters politically with attempts to punish and silence them rather than in accordance with the canons of science which would be giving them full and fair hearing then refuting them openly.
2. Falsities have been found in the arguments of those claiming anthropogenic global warming (AGW).
3. Hypocrisy has been found in the lifestyles of those claiming AGW. Really, if you believe that a particular behavior is going to destroy the lives of your children you don’t charter jets to catch New Year’s shows on different continents. Nor do you live in energy-wasting villas. Either the activists don’t believe in what they say or they don’t care. We find this strange if one is talking about the end of the world.
4. The commonsense and practical actions that would drastically alleviate the claimed causes of AGW have been ignored, and even opposed by the supporters of AGW. When was the last time you heard an AGW claimer exhorting for more telecommuting? How about nuclear power? If the effort was made circa Y2K to replace every coal plant in this nation with a nuke, alleged AGW gases would be half diminished by now. Even more bizarrely why do AGW claimers support the removal of hydro-electric dams to be replaced by AGW producing plants?
We can go on noting opposition to streamlining the removal of traffic bottlenecks by ending Davis-Bacon requirements, and toll roads.
Frankly, any of these by themselves is damning to the argument. As there are four of them color us extremely skeptical.
Also, while arguments from authority are anything but definitive, we will note that highly accredited and accomplished persons in the field of climate study doubt it is occurring. These include Joe Bastardi, longtime of Accuweather, and John Coleman, founder of The Weather Channel; and Dr. Roy Spencer, who pioneered temperature-based satellite monitoring.
For those who accept Francis’ declaration, we can find common ground regarding point 4. Are you green activists ready to fight to save hydro-electric dams and replace our coal plants with nukes? How about ending Davis-Bacon and other prevailing wage laws so we can free up some cash to remove traffic bottlenecks?
Another point: If you are willing to accept his declaration on global warming are you willing to accept his declarations on abortion and gay marriage?