Stifling competition
On Jan. 7, state representatives returned to Harrisburg to be sworn in for the new legislative session. As one of their first orders of business, legislative leaders and many rank-and-file members voted to block my efforts to introduce changes in House rules that would have prohibited legislators from using taxpayer-funded legislative accounts to purchase broadcast TV and cable airtime to run so-called public service announcements during election years, and to hire outside telemarketing firms to make automated phone calls to constituents and send bulk e-mails. The PSAs, the phone banks and the spamming are portrayed as constituent outreach, but in reality, are thinly-veiled attempts to increase incumbents’ name recognition before elections. These efforts amount to using tax dollars for campaign purposes.
Last year, approximately 60 House Republicans and 10 Democrats spent $1.7 million on these PSAs. Most of them were aired in the critical summer months before the November election, and most of them were aired by incumbents locked in tough re-election battles.
Legislative leaders and some rank-and-file members defend the PSAs and other efforts as necessary tools for informing constituents about state programs like the Do-Not-Call list, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and LIHEAP. If this, in fact, were the case, we would see them spread evenly among legislative districts and during both election and non-election years. In any case, state agencies and legislators already have adequate means of informing constituents about these programs. There’s no real need for politicians to appear in these ads at all.
Incumbents in the General Assembly already have a huge institutional advantage when running for re-election, including newsletters and press releases, cable shows on public access channels, Web sites, constituent service offices, etc. – all paid for with taxpayer dollars. There’s no excuse for spending even more tax dollars to give them a bigger advantage.
Far from the helpful and informative tools these PSAs and other efforts are portrayed as, they actually are harmful.
They stifle competition in our legislative races, restrict voters’ choice of candidates, and waste scarce tax dollars at a time when this state faces a severe budget crisis.
Voters should ask their state representative how he or she voted on this issue, then remember that vote next year when that representative shows up on television 10 times a day claiming he or she has their best interests at heart.
Rep. Greg Vitali
Delaware
Top 10 enemies
Now that the New Year is upon us and there is talk of war, it is time to evaluate who this nation’s real enemies are. I have concocted my own list, which I am sure many will disagree with but here goes anyway. The list includes the most sinister to the least sinister on down.
1. The trial lawyers association and their frivolous and outrageous lawsuits (especially against the medical profession).
2. Plaintiffs in civil cases, who accept with alacrity, jury awards which far exceed what is fair and justified.
3. Stupid and demented juries who award monetary compensation to plaintiffs that are dozens and even hundreds of times the amount, which is justified.
4. The unconscionable and colossal greed of America’s pharmaceutical companies.
5. Oil companies that use the slightest and most far-fetched excuses to raise gasoline prices excessively.
6. The U. S. Department of Justice and their total disregard of the civil rights of American citizens.
7. The U.S. Department of Defense and their jingoistic and bullying activities here in the USA and throughout the rest of the world.
8. Osama bin Laden and his evil terrorists.
9. Iraq and Saddam Hussein.
10. Kim Jong II and North Korea.
August J. Bachetti
Brownsville