Category: Guest Authors

Mullen Hangs Up

Mullen Hangs UpBy Joseph B Dychala 

In the April 3, 2015 Daily Times it mentions a news reporter getting hung up on upon reaching the Mullen household to inquired about a possible run for the seat in the 161st Legislative District vacated by Joe Hackett.

Around the same time, local 654’s own Business Report for Q1 2015, Paul Mullen solicited members to increase their funding for money earmarked to go directly to political candidates. Mr Mullen is quoted, “Relations within the political realm is important and helping candidates get elected is vital to us. ”

Mr Mullen has actively campaigned for Joe Sestak in his failed bid to unseat incumbent United States Senator Republican Pat Toomey. Mr Mullen also campaigned for Democrat John Kane. Kane, who happens to hold the same position as Mullen at his local, lost to Republican Tom McGarrigle in 2014. Kane now fully endorses Mullen complete with requisite yard signs. There have been accusations of misconduct and what happened remains unclear.

This raises many very important questions. The two most pressing however, is there some Quid Pro Quo involved with these campaigns, and why does Paul Mullen, a nearly two decade Republican, continually lend his endorsement and personal support to Democrats on a local and national level.

Paul Mullen has been very silent on his positions – liquor privatization, paycheck protection,property tax, pension reform, the Pennsylvania 10% corporate tax and the Governor’s plan to increase personal income tax and sales tax. These are the issues facing our great commonwealth today. He only provides vague platitudes on natural gas taxation and educational funding with no concrete stance. His opponents have made themselves not only clear and consistent but available to speak with the folks unlike the reclusive Mullen.

How are the voters of the 161st District supposed to to entrust their representation at the state house to Paul Mullen when he has been evasive on his positions and his intent since this house seat first opened.

 Mr. Dychala lives in Aston.

Mullen Hangs Up

Wolf Plan Unpopular With Public

By Chris Freind Wolf Plan Unpopular With Public Wolf Plan Unpopular With Public Wolf Plan Unpopular With Public

Who’s afraid of the big, bad (Tom) Wolf?

Not the Republican Legislature.

Pennsylvania’s new governor submitted a budget proposal that would raise taxes by a whopping $4.5 billion. That plan was promptly bitten in half by the GOP, with both sides now light years apart. And since the June 30 deadline has passed with no resolution, the Keystone State finds itself in a drawn-out budget stalemate.

Good.

What the governor does not yet understand is that he has little public support for his plans, making him a lone Wolf on the impasse. And so long as the Republicans don’t cave, they will win the day, and by extension, so will the people.

Let’s review the major sticking points:

1. Taxes: Raising taxes is never the answer. Doing so takes money from productive citizens and businesses — who would spend it as they saw fit in the economy, generating more jobs and, ultimately, more tax revenue — and throws it into the never-ending black hole of government spending. It’s bad enough that our taxes are so high — Pennsylvania already has the nation’s 10th-biggest tax burden and will soon have America’s highest fuel taxes — but to make the sin mortal, whatever money raised would be completely squandered, especially on education. High taxes can never be justified, but the pill might not be so bitter if at least the money was wisely spent. But we all know otherwise.

Wolf wants to raise the income tax, sales tax (and greatly expand the list of items covered by the that tax), and tobacco tax, and single out the natural gas companies for its own tax.

America’s 35 percent corporate tax rate is the highest in the world. Add in state and local taxes, and the burden becomes onerous. So in Pennsylvania, a company pays the highest federal corporate tax on the planet, on top of the nation’s second-highest state corporate net income tax (9.9 percent), on top of local taxes. (Philadelphia, which is always crying poor and which the rest of the state is always bailing out, is, cumulatively, the highest-taxed city in America).

Rather than lowering the sky-high rates that stifle innovation, cause job cuts, place a cap on new hires, and take capital from the free market, Wolf wants to expand such draconian policies. Instead of understanding why companies flee (and along with them Pennsylvania’s best and brightest), and figuring out what can be done to halt the exodus, the governor instead advocates penalizing the people and companies even more.

As an incredibly successful businessman, Wolf should understand the adage, “If you want less of something, tax it.” But he doesn’t.

2. Property Tax Red Herring: This is the biggest joke of all. Wolf’s tax hikes would allegedly provide some measure of property tax “relief.” The only problem is that it won’t work.

Even if taxpayers received a $1,000 rebate on their property taxes, how long do you think it will take counties and local school boards to raise property taxes after that? Try about five minutes. So Pennsylvanians would receive a small amount of temporary relief, yet be stuck with forever-higher sales and income taxes, all while watching their local property taxes continue to rise to fund a public school system that is failing our children.

Great plan, governor.

3. Education Black Hole: How many times does the obvious have to be stated, namely that throwing good money after bad isn’t just stupid, but ineffective.

Unless the teachers’ unions are reined in once and for all so that accountability can finally be instilled, thereby paving the way for reforms and competition, no amount of money will change a single thing. And this isn’t just a Philadelphia problem, but a statewide one.

There is no education funding “emergency.” The only crisis is the lack of educational achievement for the only ones who matter: our children.

The numbers tell the story:

School spending is over $25 billion annually, averaging nearly $15,000 per student (more than 39 other states), an amount that has doubled since 1996. Additionally, school district reserves grew by $445 million in 2013 to nearly $4 billion.

All this while the number of students has declined.

Despite a drop of 35,510 students since 2000, the public school system has added 35,821 employees in the same period. Therefore, by definition, increased funding, more personnel and decreased class size have not improved student achievement.

From SAT scores to literacy, Pennsylvania students rank near the bottom. Scores on standardized exams have not improved, and nearly one-third of all 11th-graders are not proficient in reading, while 40 percent do not achieve math proficiency on the dumbed-down PSSA tests. Yet, teacher salaries and benefits rank among the highest, and Pennsylvania leads the nation in school strikes every year.

So instead of fighting over more funding, which will produce squat, the governor and Legislature should focus on reforming the antiquated tenure and seniority rules and eliminating forced union dues that are used to wage multimillion dollar political campaigns to keep the status quo intact.

Then, and only then, will things start to improve.

4. Gov. Wolf vetoed bills that would have privatized Pennsylvania’s liquor stores and reformed the state’s exploding pension system. Both would have produced immense savings (negating the “need” to raise taxes), and, significantly, both had widespread public support. But taking a lesson from his incompetent predecessor (the other Tom), Wolf kicked the can down the road to our children. What a legacy after just six months on the job.

5. Taxing natural gas drillers: Once again, we’re told the energy industry needs to pay its “fair share,” an example of never letting facts stand in the way of fanciful political rhetoric.

First, taxing a particular industry is flat-out wrong. Second, that proposal implies the gas industry isn’t already being taxed. So the $600 million from the impact fee and over $2 billion in corporate taxes it has paid is make-believe? Imposing a job-killing severance tax on the grounds that other states are doing it is simply asinine. It would result in a production decline (thereby decreasing revenue) as the industry finds greener pastures elsewhere. And like all business taxes, it would be passed onto consumers.

Instead of penalizing the industry that has the best chance to revive Pennsylvania, Wolf should be embracing it. It has invested billions in capital projects, paid royalties to thousands of landowners, and created countless ancillary businesses, all of which produce jobs and fill government coffers.

If the GOP doesn’t stand its ground here, the goose that laid the golden egg will fly away.

Tom Wolf’s company makes cabinets efficiently and profitably, which is why it’s so disappointing to see the governor kowtow to special interests, forgetting all the lessons he learned in business.

If he had produced inferior cabinets, failed to hold his employees accountable, and lost money, CEO Wolf would have either gone out of business or changed things. That’s common sense. So why, as CEO of what should be a powerhouse state, has Wolf jettisoned those innovative ideas in favor of 20th-century “solutions” to 21st-century problems?

Tom Wolf has shown himself to be a sheep in wolf’s clothing. If he doesn’t start playing his cards right, he will soon be joining Tom Corbett in the one place he doesn’t want to be: the “One-Term Tom Club.”

Wolf Plan Unpopular With Public

Pension Cost Rising 800 Percent

By Sen. Scott Wagner Pension Cost Rising 800 Percent

The purpose of this column is to share with you why your school taxes keep going up.

The answer is: INCREASING PENSION COSTS.

The growing pension costs of the ten public school districts that are located within the 28th PA Senate District in York County are staggering.

On June 30th the PA House and Senate passed pension reform legislation and forwarded it to Governor Wolf – Governor Wolf vetoed the pension reform bill within days.

The elephant in the room continues to be the MASSIVE pension crisis facing Pennsylvania taxpayers.

I was recently forwarded the pension information contained in this email for the school districts in the 28th PA Senate District.

Listed below are charts showing the pension costs from the 2008-09 to 2019-20, a span of twelve years.

The first chart shows each school district’s actual pension costs for the 2008-09 year and the second chart shows the projected cost for the 2019-20 year of each school district.

The final chart shows the percentage increase from 2008-09 year to the 2019-20 year.

As you review the charts, please note that for the 2008-09 year the total pension costs for the ten schools districts WERE $12,535,778  , the projected costs for the 2019-20 year WILL INCREASE to $103,057,888  , an INCREASE over a twelve year period of $90,522,110   per year.

Pension Cost Rising 800 Percent

Pension Cost Rising 800 Percent

Pension Cost Rising 800 Percent

The information that I am sharing with you is for ten school districts in York, Pennsylvania – there are over 500 school districts in Pennsylvania.

Please review the charts – I am sure you will agree that the Pennsylvania pension system is a ticking time bomb.

Pennsylvania must join the rest of the real world and go to a 401K retirement system.

History is history – the past is the past – NOW is the time to correct this problem.

By the way, in this email I only talk about school district pensions – there are many other departments affected by this pension mess – State Police, Penn Dot, Judges, State Universities, and workers from all other state agencies.

Over the next 30 days I will be meeting with various people in the private sector – not Harrisburg insiders – to discuss new ideas and options for a plan to move forward to diffuse the ticking time bomb.

To review the year by year details for each school district please click here.

I also want to report that Senate and House leadership have been meeting with the Governor over the 2015 – 2016 budget.

As I have continued to report, the solution cannot be higher taxes and more spending.

In the event that a budget deal would be reached, the Senate is on a 6-hour call – we would promptly reconvene to vote on the budget.

Addendum:  A reader who follows my emails closely sent the following response:
“Scott–You are close to making a key point that appears to be missing in the debate about Wolf’s budget proposal.  He wants to increase the state’s contribution to education.  It sounds nice, like he is trying to help kids.  But the fact is all of that additional funding and more will be poured into the black hole of pension costs.  If he really wanted more for education and to relieve property taxes, he would start by repealing prevailing wage and tackle pension reform.  But his budget shows what he really cares about….not schools and students, but rather the unions and their constituents.”

Great points about where the money is really going.

Sen. Walker represents the 28th District in the Pennsylvania Senate.

Pension Cost Rising 800 Percent

GOP Choice Fails Scrutiny Test

GOP Choice Fails Scrutiny TestBy Joseph B Dychala

Delaware County is about to make history…

Never before has the Grand Old Party had a union leader, and not just any union leader, but the president of a chapter AFL/CIO endorsed to run as a candidate in any election as a Republican.

Are the local party bosses telling us the most Republican candidate we have is someone involved in an organization that has been clearly antithetical to the Republican party for almost a century? Or perhaps they think this is their best chance to run a candidate who would certainly not pass the scrutiny of a primary election cycle? The candidate endorsed by the Republican party is AFL/CIO president Paul Mullen.

The logic presented by party leadership is that they need to be more inclusive. Where have we heard that argument before? We clearly see how dysfunctional our federal leadership is for these very same reasons. Time and time again on the national level conservatives are told they cannot be elected because they need to change their stance on illegal immigration, raising taxes, a whole host of social issues plus (insert cause du jour) many other reasons. This is simply false.

Voters want clear choices in a campaign. Yet at the same time voters seek middle ground and compromise when it come to governing. Compromise should never mean conservatives must abandon everything we hold true to appease the opposing viewpoint while receiving little or nothing in return. That is not compromise that is capitulation.

All of Delaware County is watching very closely the 161st Legislative District over the next few weeks, so too will most of Pennsylvania. This seemingly minor election in the Philadelphia suburbs also has the potential to affect politics on a national level. There is a true conservative choice with ‘write in’ candidate Republican Lisa Esler.

Delaware County will most certainly make history in a few short weeks but the question is how…

Will the voters of the 161st vote in favor of the GoP endorsed candidate to further blur the lines between the two major parties and contribute to a single party government under two separate names OR will we heed the clarion call to reject such a notion and stand firm in our opposition to bigger government and concentrated power that always leads to less liberty.

That choice is yours, my friends, and that choice is very clear…

Mr. Dychala lives in Aston

GOP Choice Fails Scrutiny Test

Waldron Mercy Academy Right To Cut Teacher

Waldron Mercy Academy Right To Cut Teacher
By Chris Freind

The marriage between Waldron Mercy Academy and Margie Winters, the school’s former director of religious education, was definitely not a match made in heaven. In fact, it ended in a nasty, very-public divorce, with reconciliation seemingly out of the question. And both sides in this contentious debate undoubtedly have their axes to grind.

The issue is that Winters, who has been in a gay marriage since 2007, was fired after parents complained about her marital situation, a legitimate beef since gay marriage is contrary to Catholic teaching.

Par for the course, a group of Waldron parents rallied behind Winters, creating both a social and mainstream media firestorm. Also par for the course, many of those supporters are simply wrong in their thinking, a result of their entitlement attitude.

Here’s a look at the real issues in this case:

1. At the core, this is not about gays, gay rights or gay marriage. It is about a private entity exercising its right — yes, its legal right — to choose employees it believes are best suited for the business.

Pennsylvania is an at-will employment state, meaning employers have the right to terminate employees whenever they wish, for almost any reason — or no reason at all. Additionally, as a religious institution, Waldron is exempt from numerous government regulations concerning “discrimination.”

People are free to criticize Waldron’s decision or denounce it as bigoted, but the school is within its legal rights. Attempting to undermine that fundamental right is sinful.

2. Waldron is located in Montgomery County. So state Sen. Daylin Leach has been spouting off that it is in violation of the county’s anti-discrimination ordinance because some students receive Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit scholarship. He contends that because the school receives such “state funding,” it is not exempt from anti-discrimination regulations. He is wrong.

EITC dollars are not state-appropriated funds, but monies from scholarship organizations that are funded by businesses receiving tax credits for their donations. Therefore, the money comes from private organizations — not the state. Further, Pennsylvania has no statewide law protecting gays from workplace discrimination.

Bottom line: Let’s stop with all the extraneous talk about an anti-discrimination lawsuit, which would have no legal standing and only serve as a time-wasting publicity stunt.

Sidenote: Leach’s comments, while wrong in this case, should nonetheless serve as a warning to any entity taking government money. Once you’re on the hook, the government has you, and it will move in to regulate, dictate and do social engineering, because that’s what government does. Buyer beware.

3. Speaking of clueless politicians, Philadelphia mayor-to-be Jim Kenney blasted the Philadelphia Archdiocese, calling it “cowardly” after Winters was fired. Pay no attention to the fact that the archdiocese repeatedly stated it had nothing to do with Waldron’s decision (and why would it? Waldron is a private school not under the purview of the archdiocese. And disregard that Kenney fully admits that he has absolutely no knowledge that the archdiocese was involved.

After all, that’s the kind of shoddy leadership we’ve come to expect in Philadelphia: Shoot your mouth off on issues that are none of your business as a way to score cheap political points, while ignoring the monumental problems facing the city. Bad start for Kenney, unless he wants to achieve the impossible and actually make Michael Nutter look good. And at that point, all the prayers in the world won’t be able to save his mayorship.

4. The parents fuming over Waldron’s decision need to pipe down and remember a very basic, commonsense idea: We live in a free country, where you are permitted to make your own decisions. Translation: If they don’t like what Waldron did, fine. They can vote with their feet and leave. But they don’t get to change the rules just because they don’t like them — the same rules, by the way, they knew about when they enrolled their children.

Likewise, if Ms. Winters didn’t agree with the church’s position on gay marriage, she shouldn’t have taken the job. But she did. In doing so, she should have known that this issue was one that could — and inevitably would — rear its head. And in that case, she should have been prepared to face the music with dignity. Instead, the opposite has occurred. There are Facebook pages, fundraising drives, protests galore, vitriolic rhetoric (this is all part of the Catholic Church’s “discrimination and hatred”), and even an appeal for Winters and her wife to meet with Pope Francis when he visits Philadelphia in September.

Really?

Does everything we dislike always have to be made into a cause celebre by the frenzied, self-absorbed and sometimes imbecilic social media crowd, so often bereft of facts? And is it really necessary to place every “victim” on a pedestal, elevating them to hero, and even martyr, status?

It grows very, very old.

5. Anyone actually believing the pope will intervene has clearly drunk too much altar wine. There’s not a chance in the world of that happening. It’s a pipe dream perpetuated by those who cannot see the difference between a compassionate pope — “Who am I to judge homosexuals?” — and one who innately understands that keeping an open homosexual involved in a same-sex marriage as director of religious education in a Catholic school would open the floodgates, destroying the very essence of what makes Catholic education unique.

6. Where does it end? In the spirit of “mercy,” as we keep hearing from Winters’ supporters, what’s the harm in keeping her? Under that rationale, should it be acceptable for a Catholic school to employ a rabid pro-abortionist as a teacher, principal or, for that matter, priest, even if that individual is beloved?

Flip the coin. Should Planned Parenthood be forced to employ a devout pro-lifer as the person who counsels women to have abortions? Since doing so would be bad for “business,” and contrary to the organization’s goals, Planned Parenthood would rightfully reject that.

Would it be a good idea to have a vegetarian ideologue employed as spokesperson for a meat company? Again, where does it end?

Waldron’s decision was right, and the only one it could make to maintain its integrity.

Does being in a gay marriage make Margie Winters any less of a person? Of course not. Did she do a good job? By all accounts, most definitely. But the issue isn’t about Margie Winters. It’s about a Catholic entity adhering to the rules of the Catholic Church.

Should Rome take a look at changing, or at least updating, its positions on homosexuality, birth control, marriage for priests, and woman priests? Sure. Likewise, should the church be called on the carpet for employing heterosexuals who divorce, then remarry, since that is also against Church tenets? Good point.

Discussing ideas with full transparency should always be on the table, as honest debate often leads to long-overdue reforms. That doesn’t mean things will change, but constructive dialogue would allow the flock to feel that they have a say in their church.

So to those who think they’re entitled to change the rules of the church just because they don’t like them, say three Hail Marys and make a good Act of Contrition.

Waldron Mercy Academy Right To Cut Teacher

PCAR, NSVRC Celebrate Anniversaries

PCAR, NSVRC Celebrate Anniversaries
Stop sexual assault. Please don’t vote Democrat.

By Delilah Rumburg

At the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, we hope that, one day soon, we’ll be an organization whose services are no longer needed.

It seems odd to say, but when your work each day is centered around preventing sexual violence and helping those who have survived sexual assaults, you strive to reach a point where you can put yourself out of business by eliminating rape and abuse from the culture in which we live.

While we certainly have not reached that point— in the United States, according to Centers for Disease Control data from 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey , 25 percent of men and 63 percent of women experience some form of sexual violence in their lifetime.

We have come a long way toward that goal in the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape’s history.

As the oldest rape crisis coalition in the country, PCAR is a leader both in the Commonwealth and throughout the nation, assuring communities have access to quality victim services, resources to help prevent sexual violence and advocating for public policies that protect victim rights, fund services and promote community safety.

This year, we’re celebrating these accomplishments as a part of our 40th anniversary observance.

From an initial office with fewer than five full-time staff, PCAR helped to unite local rape crisis centers in the state during the mid-1970s including what is now the YWCA Harrisburg.

Right from its inception, PCAR was a staunch advocate for sexual violence-related legislative changes. Much needed changes.

To provide some context as to how far sexual violence-related laws have come, consider this:

When PCAR first organized, rape laws were based on English Common Law which viewed women as men’s property. Rape laws essentially were designed to protect the rights of husbands and fathers, not victims.

Through its history, PCAR has advocated for important legislation that provided protections and services to victims of sexual violence, held offenders accountable and enhanced community safety.

From protocols for the examination of rape victims in the emergency room—a process that became a national standard—to the first law in the nation to provide absolute  privilege to confidential communications between sexual assault counselors and victims—just to mention a few.

We, at PCAR, led the way.

That continues today, both in public policy advocacy and as a valuable resource for training and technical assistance to the network of 50 rape crisis centers throughout the Commonwealth and nationally.

Our coalition launched the Vision of Hope Fund in 2005 to support the prevention of child sexual abuse.

The Fund, through its Vision of Hope Gala & Auction has raised more than $1 million and funded projects such as Internet Safety Training for Parents and Mandated Reporter Training.

Fifteen years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognized our leadership abilities when it selected PCAR to found the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) in 2000.

Both PCAR and NSVRC are located in Enola. The national resource center collects and disseminates a wide range of resources on sexual violence including statistics, research, position statements, statutes, training curricula, prevention strategies and program information.

With these resources, the NSVRC assists coalitions and advocates, and collaborates with others interested in understanding and eliminating sexual violence.

In 2014, the NFL selected NSVRC to distribute funds to support access to sexual assault hotlines across the country – 49 states and five U.S. Territories received assistance from the NFL.

Since then, we have forged an exciting multi-year partnership with the NFL to invest in strategies to prevent and respond to sexual violence. With their help, NSVRC will administer grants to support services to victims and families, expand access to effective prevention programs and enhance the nation’s understanding of sexual assault, and most importantly, how it can be prevented.

Our work is far from complete, but our coalition and national resource center strive each day to create a world free from sexual violence.

Together, we can end sexual violence.

Delilah Rumburg is the President and CEO of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape.

If you go: The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center will celebrate their anniversaries with an open house July 16 from 5-7 p.m. at their Enola offices. For more information, visit www.pcar.org.

Tom Wolf Fiddles While Pensions Explode

By Scott WagnerTom Wolf Fiddles While Pensions Explode
I am writing to respond to the June 25 Op-ed from Frances Wolf, first lady of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

It’s unfortunate that nearly a half-year after his inauguration Gov. Tom Wolf remains in campaign mode, crisscrossing the state with Mrs. Wolf and others making absurd claims about education spending.

Mrs. Wolf writes that King Elementary school, part of the Lancaster Area School District, has a library filled with 30-year-old textbooks and Mrs. Wolf is quoted saying, “They don’t have the funds to replace them with updated versions.” She leads readers to believe it’s the result of “devastating cuts” in state funding.

A quick check by my office reveals that the school district is sitting on a funding balance of $15.24 million.

And while the governor promises a windfall of new spending to help schools, he ducks action on the number one cause of school cutbacks and property tax hikes: skyrocketing pension costs.

That same school district the First Lady visited will see their pension costs go up by $4 million in 2016, which alone wipes out all of the promised new funding from the governor.

The fact is, Pennsylvania spends more on schools today than it ever has in the history of the Commonwealth, $27.4 billion.

That’s more than all but five other states in the nation.  Pennsylvania is ranked 12th in per-pupil spending, at around $15,000, while the U.S. average is $11,300.

Obviously, if commitment to education was measured by dollars spent, Pennsylvania is among the most committed states in America.

But, if we measure that commitment by reining in the skyrocketing costs that are placing a crushing burden on schools, such as pensions and unchecked union dominance, then we have work to do.

Wolf wants to raise taxes – personal income taxes, sales taxes and impose a natural gas extraction tax. But in seeking his tax hikes, he should get off the campaign trail and make an honest appeal for his priorities.

State Sen. Scott Wagner, a Republican, represents the York County-based 28th District.

Tom Wolf Fiddles While Pensions Explode

Honesty Highest Political Value

By Father Frank Pavone Honesty Highest Political Value

As I point out in my new book, Abolishing Abortion (due in August from Thomas Nelson/HarperCollins), there is a profound blind spot in the views and policies advocated by many public officials regarding the unborn. Hillary Clinton tops the blindness list. Her attitude toward children in the womb is that they are not welcome to enjoy the basic constitutional protection our nation affords to everyone else’s life.

But then again, Hillary is seeking her party’s nomination for president, and the Democratic Party is affected by the same blind spot so severely that it’s not imaginable that anyone can seriously seek that party’s nomination without being blind to the children in the womb.

Now some will say that, even in political debate, we need to be nice. Particularly in church circles, as we go into the 2016 political cycle, the pleas for ‘civility’ will probably be louder than the pleas for the children in the womb.

But the fact is that civility is not the highest virtue in political discourse. Honesty is. This doesn’t imply that we need to be mean or coarse. But it does imply that when there’s a holocaust going on around us, and an entire political party not only denies it but fosters it, we can’t sit back and pretend that the main thing that matters is that we be nice and non-partisan. Someone has to start sounding the alarm, and it might as well be us.

Interestingly, Cecile Richards, who heads up the largest abortion business in the world (Planned Parenthood), recently made a public call for the need to talk about abortion. Yet the pro-life movement has been making the same call and engaging in the very same effort for decades. What makes the abortion supporters all of a sudden feel the need to talk about abortion? They have never done so before, and they still don’t. All their talks in favor of “abortion rights” speak not about abortion but about choice, freedom, women’s health, constitutional rights, etc. But not once, neither in Cecile Richards’ comments nor in speeches by President Obama or any other abortion supporters will you ever find a description of the abortion procedure.

And when Sen. Rand Paul recently called on Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the head of the Democratic Party, to answer a question as to whether she thinks it’s okay to abort a baby at 7 pounds in the womb, she failed to directly answer the question. Again, they do not want to talk about abortion; they only want to pretend to be talking about abortion.

The blind spot continues. It is up to us to call for honesty as the highest virtue in political discourse. With legislative proposals now underway to protect children from 20 weeks forward and to protect them from dismemberment abortion, it is a fair and urgent question to ask any public official or any abortion supporter in any profession why dismembering children in the womb should continue to be permitted in our nation.

Frank Pavone is national director of Priests for Life. One can pre-order his  book, Abolishing Abortion, at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Honesty Highest Political Value

161st Race Getting State-Wide Attention

161st Race Getting State-Wide Attention
Lisa Esler

By Lowman S. Henry

While all eyes are riveted on the looming state budget deadline in Harrisburg, the political story of the summer is now playing out in Delaware County where a special election for a seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives has become the latest flashpoint in the ongoing internal GOP battle between union-leaning southeastern Republicans and the party’s pro-worker freedom grassroots.

The drama began to unfold when state Rep. Joe Hackett, R-161 of Ridley Township, resigned at the end of April. Despite having been re-elected just months earlier, Hackett decided he wanted to return to his old career in law enforcement. That set the stage for a special election which will be held on Aug. 4. Nominees in legislative special elections are chosen by the respective political parties rather than by voters in a primary. Thus, a candidate not selected by committee members has no recourse other than to run a write-in campaign. Such write-in campaigns had previously proven to be fruitless, until state Sen. Scott Wagner scored a historic write-in victory in a special election in York County last year.

The Delaware County Republican committee members participating in the selection of a nominee for Hackett’s 161st district seat chose a candidate who has riled grassroots conservatives across the commonwealth. They picked as their candidate Paul Mullen, who is president of the Delaware County AFL-CIO and business manager of IBEW Local 654. In doing so, the committee passed over Lisa Esler, a local school board member and co-founder of the Delaware County Tea Party Patriots.

As a labor union boss, Mullen can be expected to oppose most of the pro-worker freedom agenda being advanced by the Republican-controlled Legislature in Harrisburg. Pension reform, liquor privatization and paycheck protection are but three important issues that enjoy widespread support among the GOP grassroots and in the Republican caucuses in the Legislature. Progress on all three of these reforms has been blocked by the labor unions. Worse, Mullen supported Democrats Barack Obama, Joe Sestak against U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, and Tom Wolf over Gov. Tom Corbett, making his selection by the GOP even more curious.

The Mullen pick lit a power keg of fury among conservatives. Esler has stepped forward and will challenge the union boss in the upcoming special election by running a write-in campaign. Her efforts should be taken seriously for two reasons: The Wagner win proves it can be done; and the district is almost evenly divided by party registration meaning this is more than just a GOP intramural competition.

Sen. Wagner’s election has changed the political landscape in a number of ways. Most notably party domination of special elections is now a thing of the past. With active and highly effective conservative groups now operating in the state, a write-in candidate such as Esler now has access to funding, consultants and grassroots workers previously unavailable to such challengers.

The Wagner write-in victory in York County, the first time in state history a write-in candidate won a special Senate election, proved the playing field has been leveled. Wagner was well funded, had substantial grassroots support from the local tea party and benefitted from a voter backlash over the high-handed campaign run by those supporting the party’s nominee.

All of those factors are at play in the Delaware County race. In what will be a low turn-out election in a small geographic district, Esler will be a force with which to be reckoned. The outcome will have no impact on party control of the Legislature. The GOP has a historically large majority, but it will impact the GOP caucus. A small group of southeastern Pennsylvania Republican representatives, out of step with a majority of their caucus, have sided with Democrats on labor power issues. Those looking to enhance worker freedom in the state will be anxious to prevent another member from being added to their number.

And that is how what should have been a routine, sleepy special election in the dead of summer could turn out to be the political battle of the year.

Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal. 

161st Race Getting State-Wide Attention

Pa Stays Open If Deadline Missed

By Sen. Scott Wagner 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