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Health & Fitness

The Latest General Assembly Shenanigans

Partisan Maneuver Initiated by State GOP While the Public Good is Overlooked

The Republican majority in the Pennsylvania General Assembly has not been willing to eliminate the noose of property taxes and our inane and costly reassessments, to end the era of prohibition by finally opening liquor sales to private industry, to kill the state's onerous and cruel death/inheritance tax, which steals 4.5 to 15% of an estate (depending upon the relationship of the heir to the decedent) from every heir except a surviving spouse, nor has it rolled back the 10% hike in the punitive state income tax enacted under Governor Edward "Spendell," but it is attempting to engage in mischief by changing the manner in which votes are allocated to presidential candidates from "winner take all" to a convoluted, more proportional system which would be unique to Pennsylvania.

We are told, of course, that this proposal is being floated not for partisan purposes, but in the interest of fairness, this despite the fact that the state's presidential voting pattern of the past two decades has placed all electoral votes in the Democratic presidential candidate's column.

Would a more proportionate means of allocating electoral votes be more fair?  Certainly, but only if implemented nationwide.  There should not be a hodgepodge of such systems throughout the United States for a presidential election.  I wonder how enthusiastic the Pennsylvania General Assembly members would be about a state like Texas, which has historically been firmly in the Republican column, implementing such a system which would take votes from the Republican candidate to be placed with the Democrat.

There is much work for the Republican-controlled State House and Senate if the members wish to benefit the public at large, the operative word being "if." The proposal to change the allocation of electoral votes would be geared exclusively to Republican members of the public.  If it is rammed through, it will be seen for what it is, a partisan maneuver.

How about if our state "leaders" get to work on legislation which permits the Commonwealth's hard-working middle class families to keep more money in their pockets rather than to promote partisan shenanigans that are bound to destroy any cooperative spirit that remains in state government?

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