Younze

From Crooks and Liars:


The GOP-dominated PA state house approved their new budget last night, and thanks to a lot of tricky last-minute bills, amendments and little public input, it looks like a right wing Christmas list -- with Gov. Tom "I'm Owned by The Gas Industry" Corbett as Santa Claus. About the only bright spot in this mess is that a last-minute push for school vouchers failed -- but Corbett says he'll bring it back in the next session. The other highlight is that the budget displaces many, many costs to the local municipalities under the guise of "preventing" tax increases:

When is the local piece of paper trash and it's brown-shirted managers going to vent their collective spleens at the Republican Governor (Tommy "Space Cadet" Corbett) and the Republican run legislature for their "late night" meetings to screw the public?

VND reporter Tommy Yerace has no problem covering the Highlands board Meetings so his masters can bitch about questionable procedures and "illegal" meetings. The ultra right wing partisans at the editorial part of the garbage dump that passes itself off as a newspaper don't have the balls to report or editorialize about the "secret meetings" Pa. Republican lawmakers have held to add shit to the budget that will help big business and hurt the people.

Come on, Dom. Get your head out of Richard's butt and at least pretend to be a journalist or whatever you think you are.

Let's see a front page report on those late night Republican meetings and while you're at it, kindly show the residents here, especially seniors, how cutting spending like the asinine Ryan Plan, when there's no money coming in to workers, will lower the budget deficit in Pa. or the U.S.?
Betcha can't do it!


These are the people you residents voted for - at work late at night so that you have no input into what they decide is best for you.

Are you voters really so stupid to believe that the person with the best ads, biggest lies and nicest haircut are the most qualified to run this state? Why don't you vote for Paris Hilton or Britney Spears? They are as qualified and maybe more so!

But you know better and now you're bitching because Tommy Corbett cutting education funds so that your local taxes will go up; so that the costs of everything you buy will go up rather than see a Republican tax the Marcellus Gas Drillers , who, by the way, in case you live under a rock and only watch network TV, the majority of Marcellus Drillers have been bought by Exxon/Mobil and other big oil companies! Guess what that's going to do to natural gas prices? Don't forget, now that the Marcellus shit is owned by big oil, they don't have to pay any tax on the Pa. gas (thanks to "No Tax for Big Business" Tommy) they get while being able to charge you outrageous prices! Nice deal...for them. Screwing for us. And you're ready to blame everyone but yourselves for not trying to learn all you can about the issues...probably because it may take up 20 minutes of your valuable Dancing with the Stars or Survivor time.


That's right. The majority of the GAS rights in Pa. now belong to Big Oil with their subsidies and tax breaks. And you bitch about the deficit and Social Security and Medicare?

Remember! YOU voted to allow these Republicans to screw you, so don't complain...
at all!

Tip o' the hat to Anna at
millsriverliberal

This guy is an idiot. He's bad for Pennsylvanians, especially for seniors and the young who absolutely NEED to be educated.
He has no concern for anyone other than business and the wealthy.

But the most interesting and ridiculous comment he's made is :
Bluntly, Corbett said education is not a must have but a nice-to-have.


What a piece of fecal matter this space cadet is. Of course, he got his education in a public school then had enough money to go to college so now it's time for him to deny others the RIGHT of a basic education...unless you want to pay a private business to give you what ever they consider an education. The man is morally despicable.

The Corbett Dilemma: Close Schools, Build Prisons
by dymeck

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett's new state budget is expected to be put into law by July 1, 2011. That is when the new fiscal year begins for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
In his budget comes steep cuts for education but also, Gov. Corbett is continuing the plans to build more prisons.
Hence, the Corbett Dilemma. Close schools and slash funding for education and build more prisons.


Governor Corbett is demanding that there be $1 billion cuts in education. Meanwhile, the Governor is continuing with plans (initiated under previous Governor EdRendell ) to build three more State Correctional Institutions. The cumulative cost of these three state prisons is expected to be at least $600 million.

In January, the Pennsylvania State Auditor General Jack Wagner warned against using taxpayers dollars to build new prisons.
He said the prison population has increased from barely 8,000 inmates in 1980 to more than 51,000 now.
The average cost of keeping one prisoner locked up, meanwhile, has nearly tripled from $11,000 a year to $32,000.

There were expected to be four prisons built but one project was cancelled. Unfortunately, the majority of Pennsylvanian's find acquiring gainful employment hard to come by and the cancelling of this state-run prison construction is going to cost the area ofHuntingdon County nearly 650 would-be jobs.

The Corbett Dilemma is transfixed on cutting costs yet by maintaining a judicial system set on keeping people incarcerated, defunding education, and still not allowing a competitive market for job creation (outside of the prison-industrial complex), Corbett is dead-set on refusing to introduce new taxes, increase new taxes, or tax the booming natural gas industry in Pennsylvania.

Never mind you that Gov. Corbett was a lawyer for the energy industry earlier in his career.
Corbett's budget introduces cuts to services that help the disabled and the elderly as well as cuts to K-12, early, and higher education, as well as a proposed deduction in the state workforce by at least 1,500 jobs.

Times are tough. When simultaneously discussing the cuts to education and the desire to not tax the natural gas industry, Corbett said his budget was about the "musthave's and the nice-to-have's."

Bluntly, Corbett said education is not a must have but a nice-to-have. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth is in a $4 billion hole and taxing the exponentially booming natural gas industry is not a must have.

The Corbett Dilemma is a fierce one. This can't easily be solved but one way to help steer clear of continued problems financially in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is to cut costs across the board with the Department of Corrections, which runs the prisons. Second, those costs which could be cut could open up to maintain the current level of funding plus some for education. Meanwhile, even more revenue will be generated by lightly taxing the natural gas industry and keeping the money in the areas where natural gas drilling is occurring to stimulate local development for those communities.

No, Corbett does not see things this way. He is continuing to maintain the status quo with the big natural gas industry while continuing to hit the regular folks the hardest.

Unfortunately for Pennsylvanians, the Corbett Dilemma is going to hit everyone hard. If Gov. Corbett was not raised in such a wealthy family he may understand this, instead, his values are paid in full by the energy industry.