Posted on 01/20/2014 7:41:46 AM PST by Timber Rattler
In March 2012, York's Republican Committee Chairman, Bob Wilson, made the following comments regarding the local "tea party" group, the York 912 Patriots: If the leadership of the York 912 group wanted to make a positive impact in York County and in Pennsylvania, they would be focusing their efforts on defeating Barack Obama, Bob Casey and Eugene DePasquale.
Each year, the Liberty Index compiles a score for Pennsylvania's legislators based on how well they advance an agenda of limited government and economic freedom. Each earns a grade based on his voting record, and is ranked in order from best to worst.
Let's look at the 2012 Liberty Index scores for some of York's representatives, listed in order:
Seth Grove D+
Will Tallman D+
Keith Gillespie D
Eugene DePasquale D
Ron Miller D
Stan Saylor D
Seth Grove ranked 68th. Eugene DePasquale, Ron Miller and Stan Saylor all tied for 147th. Our senators fared no better.
According to its website, the Pennsylvania Republican Party claims to champion the following: Reducing the size of government, streamlining the bureaucracy, returning power to the states.
The site goes on to say the state Republican Party believes in encouraging ownership and investment, making tax relief permanent, protecting the rights of the unborn and bringing education reform to high schools.
If the GOP was serious, it should have been working to dethrone Ron Miller and Stan Saylor, who don't do such a bang-up job of advancing the party's principles, at least no better than former Democratic Rep. DePasquale.
Thanks to their 2001 vote to increase their own pensions by 50 percent, Miller and Saylor will be handsomely rewarded for their below-average performance in the General Assembly. Like the doctor who leaps from his car after running over a pedestrian and says, "Thank God I was here to help," Reps. Saylor and Miller will be hard at work this year fixing the pension crisis they created.
With no plan to fund the upcoming pension spike, our Republican Legislature felt a $2.4 billion tax increase to fund infrastructure projects was warranted. All their boasting about the passage of the transportation bill should outrage every citizen of the commonwealth.
Maintaining infrastructure should have taken priority in the budget, and other spending should have been curtailed to pay for the repair of roads and bridges. At least two representatives, Stephen Bloom and Daryl Metcalfe, put forth viable plans to pay for infrastructure improvement from existing revenue, so a $2.4 billion tax increase was not necessary.
Unfortunately, Reps. Grove, Saylor, Tallman, Miller and Sens. Alloway, Smucker, Vance and Waugh disagreed, because all supported the massive tax increases in this bill. Their claim that incremental increases in gas prices and licensing and registration fees will minimally impact Pennsylvania's drivers is hogwash.
Did they consider the significantly increased costs to the companies that deliver goods and services across the state, which are always passed to the consumer? Talk about death by a thousand paper cuts.
How having some of the highest gas prices in the nation and imposing crippling licensure fees on commercial vehicles encourages ownership and investment in Pennsylvania is beyond me.
Since the party of tax relief was raising taxes anyway, it threw Philadelphia and Pittsburgh a $500 million bone to subsidize their public transit systems, and $40 million to themselves in the form of walking around money. On the bright side of things, they raised the prevailing wage threshold to $100,000, although nearly every publicly funded construction project far exceeds that amount.
The education reform our Republican representatives are talking about must be the federally led and highly controversial education overhaul, Common Core, as not one, save Will Tallman, made an effort to oppose it -- or even bring it before the General Assembly for discussion. Surrendering to the feds on the education of our children does not quite jibe with returning power to the states.
As for protecting the rights of the unborn, Rep. Grove, Rep. Miller, Sen. Vance and Sen. Waugh all received stellar ratings, 100 percent each, from Planned Parenthood, Pennsylvania's largest abortion provider. Planned Parenthood even went the extra mile for Ron Miller by supporting his 2012 campaign, his reward for voting to allocate millions of tax dollars to the organization.
Fortunately for our Grand Old Party, they absolved themselves from any accountability to their principles by adding to them the caveat, "As the party of the open door, while steadfast in our commitment to our ideals, we respect and accept that members of our Party can have deeply held and sometimes differing views."
Maybe the Pennsylvania GOP should have adopted their party platform from Groucho Marx, who quipped, "Those are my principles; if you don't like them, I have others."
In October 2013, Chairman Wilson once again opined about the York 912 Patriots, "Teaching people to dig holes in the ground for the impending government collapse or zombie apocalypse, whichever comes first, is not contributing anything positive to the political spectrum."
If I had to put my money on which comes first, a zombie apocalypse or the Republican Party actually upholding its principles, I'd have to go with the zombie apocalypse.
Elizabeth Roberts is a member of the York 912 Patriots group. She lives in Dover Township.
The state party has always been full of tax and spend liberals. Conservatives have no chance here.
One of the biggest problems with the PA GOP is its long-time chairman, Rob Gleason.
This is a long read, but a very enlightening one, from a great patriot who tried valiantly to unseat Gleason’s close buddy and partner in corruption, John Murtha:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2626696/posts
The Republican party doesn't want to win elections so they can do what is best for citizens and the nation.Proof?They want to win elections so they are first in line at the pig trough.
Just look how the acted during the Bush administration.
Dear Mr. Wilson,
If you and your liberal buddies at the State level would do what you are supposed to be doing, York’s 912 wouldn’t exist. As it is you and all of the GOP Rinos have destroyed any hope of the people winning our country back. You and the rest of your cowardly bastards need ousted if we are to have a chance.
Virtually nobody in the GOPe ever speaks highly of the Tea Party. If they respected and believed in Tea Party goals you would expect to hear words of encouragement and support instead of derision and disrespect.
The GOP just wants our money and our votes, but not our principles and convictions.
Is the donkey the elephant’s ass, or is the elephant the ass’s ass?
I heard that in the Marines, they tear down a recruit to remake him as a Marine.
I think the GOP may need to be torn down to a degree to make it a functional conservative political party.
Uniparty Ping!
All Tribute Flows to Rome.
Red has one that's even better!
The truth is the GOP are co-conspirators in the treasonous plan to destroy the country. If you can’t see that by now you have a powerful defense mechanism than lets you see only what you want to see. It’s scary to think you don’t have a dog in the fight so many people simply refuse to face the truth. People don’t want to think they’re in danger or that there is no hope. Well, there’s no hope with any of the two parties and very real danger is at the doorstep. It’s useless not to face the truth but I do understand why people are reluctant to do so.
Yes! :-)
Both those are Excellent!
Glad to see the term is catching on the Bleeding Edge of News Sources! :)
(apologies)
Mr Wilson, as a lifelong “registered” Republican and York County resident, I find your actions deplorable. Sadly much of what Mrs Roberts say is true. That you would seek to quell her freedom of speech within the party saddens me. It may be why I no longer self identify as a Republican when asked and simply identify as an American. If we are to save our Nation we must fight the progressive agenda at every turn. The PA GOP does not seem to have the stones to do that. Be careful. You need every vote you can get. You should not be trying to throw any away.......
bump
That’s exactly right....after alienating the TEA Party base, I don’t know where these GOP-E poo-bahs expect that they will make up the lost votes. Illegals aliens suddenly made legal by Boehner and company? Cross-over Rat voters? Really?
Just for giggles, let’s assume that the gop wing of the uniparty isn’t all that interested in winning elections in the first place. That their reason for being is less to win elections than it is to be a sort of political honeypot for conservatives. Or to provide a facade of opposition where there really is none. Or both.
It would explain a lot.
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