Voices News
Obama’s best bad option
by G. Terry Madonna and Michael L. Young on 02/09/10 at 12:39 pm
One of Shakespeare’s most popular plays is “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” a comedy, focused on magic and distinguishing fantasy from reality. Right about now, President Obama is probably having his own midsummer night’s dream, anxious to get back his old magic and separating fantasy from reality as he contemplates the upcoming midterm elections. For Obama, however, dreams could easily become nightmares if he fails to solve the political challenges now confronting him and his party.…
Full StoryThat other tax problem
by G. Terry Madonna and Michael L. Young
Taxes increasingly occupy the national mind. Should we raise them, lower them, let them alone, or just talk about them? Certainly we are doing enough of the latter.
The Obama administration seems particularly preoccupied with talking about them, even while wrestling with ballooning national debt, continuing high unemployment, and lethargic economic growth. But state governments, too, are absorbed with tax questions as they try to balance out-of-balance budgets, operate programs made more expensive by the…
Full Story25/08/10 at 8:38 am | Comments (3)
Pa. Dems: Caught between a rock and a hard place
After two years of reckless spending increases and a continued reliance on growing government to fix the economy, Pennsylvania voters know whose policies have left America in dire economic straits. With the election drawing closer and Pennsylvania experiencing further economic turmoil as the result of President Obama’s failed agenda, Keystone State Democrats have every reason to distance themselves from the president and his policies.
In Pennsylvania, 71,600 jobs have been lost since the failed economic…
Full Story11/08/10 at 12:55 pm | Comments (3)
A school choice governor?
Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett recently made headlines by announcing his support for full-fledged school choice in Pennsylvania. Democrat Dan Onorato has also expressed support for school choice, particularly the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC). A school choice governor will be a welcome change from the past eight years, during which Gov. Ed Rendell and his allies worked to stymie educational options.
Parental demand for school choice is growing. According to a recent Pew Study,…
Full Story10/08/10 at 12:15 pm | Comments (0)
Dumb and dumber
by G. Terry Madonna and Michael L. Young
Somebody needs to check Pennsylvania’s water supply. Perhaps it’s something those guys are drinking, or maybe smoking, that explains the faux pas outbreak spreading in the Keystone State. Either way, it’s threatening to become a serious epidemic.
First, Attorney General Tom Corbett, considered by many experts to be governor-in-waiting, recorded one of the truly boneheaded moments of the political season by trying to subpoena Twitter records in a legal showdown with a convicted Bonusgate defendant.…
Full Story05/08/10 at 4:45 pm | Comments (6)
DRPA and the race for governor
by Adam Lang
Guess what? The Delaware River Port Authority has been making news again and not about anything positive. It revolves around the same issues we hear about in our local city halls and in Harrisburg: abuse of public resources, inappropriate pay and excessive perks.
Back in April, I argued that transportation issues need to be a high priority for voters this year, in particular the DRPA. With the recent news coverage, it…
Full Story28/07/10 at 3:30 pm | Comments (5)
Can Tom Corbett keep his ‘no tax’ pledge?
Attorney General Tom Corbett has taken significant criticism for his pledge to not raise taxes if elected governor. That was to be expected from Democratic rival Dan Onorato, who hasn’t ruled out raising taxes to fill a budget gap expected to be as high as $5 billion next year. But it’s the friendly fire from state Senate Republican Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi that has wounded the AG (aspiring governor).
Speaking just days before he helped…
Full Story27/07/10 at 11:10 am | Comments (2)
Pennsylvania’s long-running, one-act play
by G. Terry Madonna and Michael L. Young
All sorts run for governor of Pennsylvania. There have been mayors, prosecutors, congressmen, judges, state legislators, businessmen, statewide elected officials, and even a lieutenant governor or two. Most have been qualified; a few perhaps have not. Most have been men; a very few have been women. Most have been career politicians, but occasionally private citizens have been candidates.
But there is one sort that never seeks the governorship of Pennsylvania—a sort that arguably is among…
Full Story26/07/10 at 2:29 pm | Comments (0)
Political courage needed on Wall Street reform
by Jesse Walker
A recent conference report vote on the Wall Street reform legislation provides a key distinction between Pennsylvania’s congressional Democrats and Republicans that should be duly noted by voters this November.
The legislation, the American Financial Stability Act of 2010, begins to combat key catalysts of the 2007-2008 economic meltdown. The bill makes many unregulated derivatives transparent and sold on an exchange, forces banks to spin off CDS (Credit Default Swap) operations, and implements new rules…
Full Story13/07/10 at 9:03 am | Comments (1)
Uncertainty killing job creation
by Pat Meehan
Over the past few months, I have met and spoken to many small business owners and managers to see how we can restore growth in our economy. Despite spending hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on bailouts and stimulus programs, we continue to see high unemployment. With so many people not going back to work, the inescapable question is “Why not?”
Some truly astonishing figures recently released by the Federal Reserve offer a clue. Those…
Full Story12/07/10 at 12:50 pm | Comments (4)













