Card Check Bill Must Die (page 1)

Card Check bill must die

Published in Main Line Times- March 18

To the Editor:

The notorious “Card Check” bill, called deceptively the “Employee Free Choice Act,” the bill that would eliminate the secret ballot in unionization elections, must die. If passed, union thugs could intimidate workers into checking a card to vote for unionization of their workplace instead of voting using the secret ballot.

Last December union thugs from Teamsters Local 929 blocked and slowed Red Cross blood deliveries to area hospitals, threatening the lives of patients in need of blood until the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Department issued the picketers an injunction requested by the Red Cross.

Before that, in November, the notorious SEIU union for government employees tried to intimidate an Eagle Scout in Allentown performing volunteer service, clearing paths in a park. SEIU tried to insist that only out-of-work SEIU members should be allowed to perform volunteer work on public land.

We do not need more union power. Unions kill jobs, make businesses noncompetitive in global markets, keep small business small and raise consumer prices. In addition, unions no longer benefit workers. In my industry (construction) nonunion workers on the average make more money per year than union workers. We do not need more union gangsterism under the guise of “Employee Free Choice.” This is another bill that must be killed. Please go to www.petitiononline.com/lmn2010/petition.html and sign the petition urging our congressional representatives and senators to kill this bill!

WILLIAM A. WHEATLEY, Wynnewood

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Health-care reasoning

Published in Main Line Times- March 18

To the Editor:

Nearly everyone I’ve spoken with agrees that there is much we can do to fix the health-care system. Unfortunately the Senate bill on the table only addresses half of the uninsured and includes hundreds of billions of dollars worth of pork and payoffs. Because of the payoffs several attorneys general are ready to sue upon its passage because of the unfair subsidies and exemptions for Nebraska, Louisiana and Florida. Sadly our need to reform health care has allowed opportunists to take advantage, forcing the adoption of what would be the worst bill in history.

We are owed an explanation as to why Congress must pass something with so many strings attached, resulting in the medicine being worse than the disease. I implore Congress to find ways to reduce “cost” instead of attempting to reduce “price.” They only shift cost and perpetuate the problem. The only measure I am aware of that addresses cost is tort reform and it is not being seriously considered — most likely because campaign contributions have taken a front seat to we, the people.

Moreover, asking foreign countries to pay for our entitlements is dangerous, presumptuous and embarrassing. Liberal-progressives need to understand, advancing our citizens’ standard of living at the expense of other countries (with lower standards of living) is wrong and eventually will lead to our own demise. We have heard several times that health care is a right. Our founders had identified our God-given rights and it is not. Understanding that a respectable, mature society would and should attempt to increase access to those in need, it is mankind that provides health care and insurance. No one can claim a right that would demand another to provide or finance that right.

Shifting the burden to others in our society will eventually show structural cracks under the strain.

Congress should slow down and take a serious look at health-care savings accounts (HSAs). We live in a very generous society. Sponsors and generous benefactors could contribute to people in need with these accounts. Parents and grandparents could give and pass down HSAs through their estate to their children and grandchildren. Some of us cannot afford to give someone else health-care funds but could certainly organize fund-raisers like we often do for the Red Cross for example.

An honest and good bill wouldn’t require so much pork and payoffs to pass and wouldn’t be such a challenge with a large majority of Democrat control in Congress. Our congressional leaders need to stop the insanity, restore our country’s dignity and start to listen to their citizens.

GREG STRICKLAND, Belmont Hills

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Toomey inspires LM, Narberth Republicans at Lincoln Day Dinner

Published in Main Line Times- March 11

By Cheryl Allison

After a historic presidential election that shifted power — and a large chunk of area voter registration — to the other party, Republicans might have been excused to feel a little glum.

That was hardly the mood Monday night when a beyond-standing-room-only crowd packed the Merion Tribute House for the Republican Committee of Lower Merion and Narberth’s 45th Annual Lincoln Day Dinner.

“Could there be a better time to be a Republican?” marveled one speaker.

The answer from keynote guest Pat Toomey, the likely Republican nominee to be Pennsylvania’s new senator, was emphatically upbeat.

“I think what is happening in Washington is an unmitigated disaster, but I am extremely optimistic about our future,” he told the crowd of more than 250. “There’s this great American awakening happening, and we’re all a part of it.”

That awakening, said Toomey, a former Allentown entrepreneur and three-term congressman from 1999 to 2004, is building in reaction to what he termed “the most liberal elected government in the history of the Republic” under President Barack Obama and current Democratic leadership, “a government that has attempted to take us on a lurch to the left that we haven’t seen in 80 years.”

“What’s happening is that we’ve got a government that never really believed in the traditional American model of limited government, personal freedom and responsibility, and free enterprise,” he charged, but rather “always wanted a European-style welfare state with a powerful federal government.”

“People all across the country are rising up and pushing back, and it’s clear to me,” Toomey said, “that we can prevent this from happening.”

Toomey, who lost narrowly to veteran Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter in the 2004 primary, is the clear Republican front-runner to take an aim at the seat again in November. The prospect of a tough primary rematch was a factor in Specter’s decision last April to switch to the Democratic column for a run for a sixth term.

After a career in finance and as a business owner in the Lehigh Valley, Toomey since 2004 has been the president of the Club for Growth, an organization that advocates for limited government and free enterprise.

In his speech in Merion, Toomey called for a return to fundamental American principles and criticized the Obama administration and Democratic leadership, touching on the same themes as Republican lawmakers in Washington and elsewhere in recent weeks.

Those include opposition to what Toomey called “serial bailouts” of failing companies, attempts to “nationalize whole industries,” the attempt to “borrow and spend our way to prosperity,” interfering with employees’ traditional rights of secret balloting in companies undergoing unionization (the issue known as “card check”), and health-care reform.

On that last, especially volatile topic, he suggested a “series of modest reforms,” including allowing people to buy insurance “from anywhere in the country” to promote competition and enacting tort reform to lower costs, “instead of a 2,000-page, $2-trillion set of mandates.”

And finally “I think this administration is going in the wrong direction on the war on terror.” Toomey echoed some others in charging that it is adopting “a pre-9/11 mentality,” viewing attacks and attempted attacks by Islamic radicals as “a series of incremental criminal events.”

Recalling former Vice President Dick Cheney’s criticism of the handling of the “underwear bomber” incident, “I would want to find out everything we can learn about that person and then put him away for life” rather than “give him a lawyer and reading him his Miranda rights,” Toomey told the group.

There is ample evidence that many Americans are frustrated and dissatisfied with the country’s direction, Toomey said, from the rise of the Tea Party movement and the town-hall meetings, to the results of governors’ elections in New Jersey and Virginia, to the capstone event, in his view — new Republican Sen. Scott Brown’s election to fill the late Ted Kennedy’s seat in Democratic stronghold Massachusetts.

“We as Republicans have a great opportunity because of what they [the Democratic leadership] have done,” Toomey said. “There is an opportunity for us to restore the fundamental principles of our party and our country and have terrific success.

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What has happened to Lower Merion Township, School Board?

Published in Main Line Times- February 26

To the Editor:

What has happened to Lower Merion and how can we fix it?

Local government in Lower Merion, once a model for good government, is now defined by excess, secrecy and abuse of power. Residents, business owners and taxpayers are already feeling the disastrous consequences of a local government that is out of touch with the residents. Multiple pending lawsuits will make matters worse, costing Lower Merion dearly in dollars, reputation and property values.

The majority of the Board of Commissioners continues to ignore the spirit if not the letter of the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act. Last week President Bruce Reed and Vice President Mark Taylor avoided public scrutiny by holding a secret meeting barricaded in Police Headquarters. Citizens who respectfully and peacefully attempted to gain access to the meeting were turned away. How contemptuous of the public they pretend to serve!

The Lower Merion School Board directors are in the midst of federal litigation for alleged racial discrimination. Just days ago news broke that the school district has enabled the laptop computers it provides to students with software that allows the district to take pictures of students in their homes. The “spying” scandal has resulted in another lawsuit.

School-district taxes have nearly doubled in the last 10 years and township taxes have risen 44 percent. In the same time period, township debt has doubled and combined district, township and county debt is now almost half a billion dollars. Lawsuits, added to excessive spending and borrowing, will continue to drive taxes higher.

There is hope for the future but it lies with us. It lies with “we, the people,” not with our government. If we want better results, we must demand accountability from those responsible for such poor judgment and poor results. To fix local government we need changes in the management of local government and in the leadership of those we elect to supervise them.

Sincerely,

RICHARD KAUFMAN, Bala Cynwyd

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Misplaced priorities and wasteful spending in LM

Published in Main Line Times- February 26

To the Editor:

During my time on Lower Merion’s Board of Commissioners I witnessed the negative consequences of misplaced priorities from a unique vantage point, i.e., from the inside looking out. Now that I have left the board, those consequences are just as evident from the outside looking in.

The failure of local government to perform effectively during the recent storm and its aftermath is an illustration of the harmful consequences of misplaced priorities and wasteful spending. Unfortunately it was most vivid in Ardmore. Managing the impact of a major snowstorm is no small task but is an essential function of local government. Plowing roads and parking lots should be a top priority. However, it seems that a majority of commissioners places a higher priority on discretionary projects than on the delivery of essential services.

While the board has allocated tremendous time and resources trying to “revitalize” Ardmore it has clearly lost sight of the basics, the essential services that neighborhoods and businesses depend upon. For example the board recently voted to allocate $175,000 of taxpayer money towards the construction of a fountain in Ardmore. Discretionary fountain projects are nice but effective snow removal is essential. The recent snow event was significant, but effectively managing its impact would have given our local businesses a leg up on the busy period during Presidents’ Day and Valentine’s Day. Instead customers were faced with impassable township sidewalks and treacherous township parking lots. Yet again Ardmore businesses and residents were left out in the cold.

Neighborhoods and businesses cannot thrive unless government prioritizes essential services over discretionary spending and borrowing. Ardmore too will thrive if the board majority gets back to the basics: prioritizing essential services over discretionary projects.

Republican Commissioners Jenny Brown, Lew Gould, Phil Rosenzweig and Scott Zelov have consistently demonstrated that they understand the proper role of government but if essential services are to be prioritized they will need bipartisan support from other commissioners.

If we value our quality of life, we must prioritize providing our neighborhoods and businesses with essential services before allocating our resources towards discretionary projects such as the Ardmore fountain.

LANCE ROGERS, Former Commissioner and Co-Chair, Republican Committee of Lower Merion and Narberth

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Message from Township Commissioner Scott Zelov

January 9, 2010

Dear Friends on the Republican Committee,

As many of you know, I was running for the open seat in the 6th Congressional District of PA.  I have spoken with many of you, and I received lots of encouragement and support.  Contributions were coming in, 2 fundraisers were scheduled, more were being planned, and a formal announcement was forthcoming.   It was starting to get very exciting and promising as I geared up for the May primary.

However, between late Thursday and Friday afternoon, Jim Gerlach withdrew as a candidate for Governor, and he then became a candidate for the Congressional seat that he now holds.  While this is a big disappointment for me, this is good news for all of us in the 6th Congressional District.  Jim is the incumbent, he represents us extremely well, and he deserves to be re-elected.  So, I have decided to no longer run for this Congressional seat, and I’m supporting Jim Gerlach for Congress.

I am going to actively support Jim in his campaign for re-election, and I hope you’ll join me in that effort.   It’s important that we all support Jim even if the primary remains contested.  Jim is the best candidate to win in the fall, and we want this to remain a Republican seat so we can keep the pressure on the Democrats and their big spending big government philosophy that has overtaken Washington.

Although brief, I thoroughly enjoyed and learned from this experience.  I am extremely grateful for your support and enthusiasm for me as I embarked on this journey to become a member of Congress.   I look forward to continuing my public service as a Lower Merion Township Commissioner.

Thank you very much,
Scott

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