Editorials from around Pennsylvania

 
___
FLIGHT, NOT FIGHT, Jan. 20
Things have gotten so bad in the state Legislature in Harrisburg that a number of inmates are fleeing the asylum.
So far, 16 incumbents_ 11 Republicans and five Democrats _have announced they will not seek re-election. Some are doing it for career reasons. State Rep. Dwight Evans, for instance, is quitting to run against U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah.
But a number said they are departing the scene because they essentially have lost faith in the chambers where they have served. As state Rep. Peter Daley put it: “I’m benching myself for a while.”
Daley, a Democrat from western Pennsylvania, has served in the state House for 34 years. In his view, “Harrisburg is becoming a very difficult place to get anything done and I don’t think it is going to get better.” In reality, the political system of compromise that allowed for two-party rule in the capital has been seriously damaged, thanks mostly to a cadre of tea party conservatives who would rather see government falter or fail than see taxes raised.
We fear it will get worse, because a number of Republicans who are retiring were moderates who found themselves increasingly at odds with fellow party members. Many are likely to be replaced by hard-right conservatives.
Consider state Sen. Scott Wagner, a wealthy York County businessman, who is the Sgt. Rock of the hard-right conservatives.
While some Republicans are ashamed that their party has lost the will to compromise, Wagner is damned proud of it. He’s happy that the Legislature and Gov. Wolf have been unable to reach agreement on a new budget.
Wagner looks forward to the next budget fight with Wolf. As he told one Republican group recently: “We had him down on the floor with our foot on his throat and we let him up. Next time, we won’t let him up.”
The next time is rapidly approaching. Wolf is scheduled to deliver his budget proposal for the 2016-17 fiscal year to the Legislature on Feb. 9. It might seem silly to propose a new budget when the old one hasn’t passed, but it’s a requirement of law.
The state is operating under a stopgap budget that Wolf signed after various budget deals fell apart late last year. It funds most of government for a half-year, which means that in the spring, we will see a repeat of what happened last fall_ payments to school districts and social service agencies sliding to a halt. By signing this stopgap, Wolf and the Legislature gained time, but not a resolution to their differences.
The fundamentals of the state’s financial troubles remain the same: It spends more than existing taxes yield. It has done this for a number of years, but the problem was papered over by gimmicks and by making deep cuts in aid to education.
Unless more money comes in, the state will face increasingly larger deficits. Wolf has proposed increasing taxes to stabilize the state’s financial condition and to restore the cuts made to education. Wagner and other Republicans like him in the Legislature blocked all attempts at compromise last year.
It proved impossible to get a budget funded with tax increases last year. We fear it will be even harder this year, with so many legislators facing re-election, except for the 16 who are fleeing the scene of what looks like another train wreck.
_The Philadelphia Daily News
___
GUNS: A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY, Jan. 19
Shoot first, repent later.
An Ohio man is experiencing that after fatally mistaking his own 14-year-old son for an intruder.
Police say the Cincinnati boy had left for the school bus stop on Jan. 12, but apparently returned home, entering through a back door. His father heard a noise in the basement, opened a door there and shot the teen.
What happened to “Who goes there?” What happened to “Call 911!”? Sadly, guns often give people a false sense of security_ and a false sense of bravado. Instead of summoning help, they take on their own defense.
Conventional “wisdom” that guns make us safer is wrong, sometimes fatally. A study by New York University School of Medicine authors that looked at 27 developed nations found a significant correlation between the number of guns per person and the number of firearm-related deaths.
Further, a 2013 study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that having a gun in the home makes occupants more likely to successfully attempt suicide_ and that homeowners who keep guns are more likely to be victims of homicide.
The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution ensures individuals’ right to bear arms. But it doesn’t guarantee people will use them properly. Obtaining a driver’s license requires a permitting process and many hours of practice. Those acquiring a gun would benefit from similarly intensive instruction. Firearm safety courses would help educate gun owners and gun users on ways to use firepower as a last, not a first, resort.
Guns may make people feel safer. They don’t always work that way, as the untimely death of the 14-year-old from Cincinnati so tragically shows.
_The Pocono Record
___
SEN. MCCONNELL, IT’S TIME TO TAKE A STAND, Jan. 20
While clamoring for more aggressive military action against the Islamic State group, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and many of his colleagues can’t even summon the political courage to take responsibility for that action.
McConnell said Sunday that he will not advance a war powers measure to govern the escalating fight against the IS.
Consequently, the Obama administration will continue to rely on the legally dubious congressional authorizations aimed primarily at al-Qaida following that terror group’s Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.
McConnell’s feeble explanation is that he does not want to limit the next president’s options. That is a classic political cop-out. Failing to pass an authorization to use military force might not tie the next president’s hands, but it allows McConnell and company to engage in limitless criticism without taking any responsibility for the military response.
As it now stands, McConnell is committed to the fight against the IS, unless he isn’t. A new authorization to use military force also would force McConnell and his slippery cohort to stop sniping and, through their votes, publicly state their support or opposition.
To his credit, House Speaker Paul Ryan has instructed several committee chairmen to begin the process of crafting and adopting a new authorization.
McConnell should do likewise.
_The (Wilkes-Barre) Citizens Voice
___
RAISE THE LEGAL SMOKING AGE TO 21, Jan. 18
Amid the mourning and tributes following the death of David Bowie last week, we were struck by the number of photos that accompanied news stories or were shared on social media that showed the legendary singer holding or smoking a cigarette. While there has not been any elaboration on the type of cancer the 69-year-old Bowie succumbed to, a lifetime of smoking can be a culprit in several different types of cancer. It is also a contributor to cardiac problems, which Bowie also apparently endured in the last decade of his life.
Smoking was as commonplace as chewing a stick of gum in the postwar Britain where Bowie came of age_ in the years after World War II, when the country’s economy was straitjacketed by rationing and austerity, cigarettes were among the few items readily and abundantly available. It hooked hordes of people in Bowie’s age cohort, and many are now dealing with the consequences, if they have not already died off.
Thankfully, the number of tobacco smokers, both here and in other parts of the developed world, has been steadily declining in the half-century since the surgeon general warned about the dire health impacts of tobacco consumption. And lawmakers in several parts of the country are taking an additional, crucial step that could lower the number of people lighting up even further_ raising the age at which people can legally buy tobacco to 21.
Hawaii became the first state in the nation to raise the smoking age, with the law going into effect Jan. 1. Legislators in other states are considering similar measures, and a bill made it to the desk of Gov. Chris Christie in New Jersey. State Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown, a Democrat from the Philadelphia area, introduced a 21-and-over bill for tobacco use in the Pennsylvania House last year, but considering she is defending herself against bribery charges, Brown is hardly in a position to take to the hustings in support of the bill. Cities like Cleveland and New York already raised their legal smoking age to 21.
There’s a reason so many lawmakers are taking action on this_ there’s plenty of evidence it works. A study from the Institute of Medicine estimates smoking rates would decline by 12 percent and death rates from smoking would fall by 10 percent if the legal smoking age were raised to 21. Fewer people smoking also means lower insurance premiums and reduced Medicare and Medicaid expenditures, even for nonsmokers.
Then there’s the example of Needham, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb which shifted its legal smoking age to 21 in 2005. A decade later, there are 50 percent fewer smokers there than in the rest of the state.
We can also look back to the 1980s, when the legal drinking age returned to 21 in most parts of the United States. For a roughly 20-year period beforehand, the legal drinking age was lowered to 18, with a corresponding increase in the number of drunken-driving fatalities. In the 30 years since, the number of alcohol-related deaths on our streets and highways has been sliced in half.
Opponents of raising the smoking age counter Americans over age 18 can legally marry without parental consent in 48 of the 50 states (Mississippi and Nebraska are the exceptions), can join the military and cast a ballot. Why not let them make their own decisions when it comes to cigarettes? Besides, it’s about “freedom.”
It sounds reasonable enough, but when you tally costs incurred, whether in doctors’ offices and hospitals, lowered productivity, diminished vitality and lost lives, diverting young people from smoking at an age when they are most likely to pick up the deadly habit is something clearly be beneficial to us all.
_The (Washington) Observer-Reporter
___
KEEPING THE EXPORT-IMPORT BANK AT BAY, Jan. 19
Through weasely maneuvers by Congress’ champions of crony capitalism, the Export-Import Bank once again is open for business. But not for any big business, per se.
That’s because a quorum (three members) of Ex-Im’s board must approval all financing in excess of $10 million. As of now, only two of the five-member board’s seats are filled, meaning no big taxpayer-backed loans or loan guarantees to benefit Boeing, Caterpillar, General Electric and other corporate behemoths that feed at the bank’s trough.
President Obama last week nominated Republican J. Mark McWatters, a member of the National Credit Union Administration board, to a four-year term on the bank’s board. But Obama’s last nomination, Democrat Patricia Loui-Schmicker, who was up for a second term, went nowhere; her name reportedly has been withdrawn.
And there’s nothing to suggest that the Senate Banking Committee is in any rush to approve nominees, reports The Daily Signal’s Melissa Quinn.
Given that the Export-Import Bank failed to gain reauthorization on its own merits last year_ let alone the clear case against its corporate wealthfare _there is no reason for the Senate to confirm Mr. McWatters or any other board nominee.
_The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review