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The Ryan-Corbett budgets, voter ID and The Supremes, and more from PA
Mitt Romney's selection of Rep. Paul Ryan promises to transform the presidential campaign into a national debate over the role of government in society. Thanks to Gov. Tom Corbett's cuts to education and the safety net, Pennsylvania is already having that fight.
The Ryan-Corbett budgets, voter ID and The Supremes, and more from PA
“Oh no they didn't ...” is Daniel Denvir's weekly blog post on the past week in state politics. Philadelphians know precious little about the legislature or governor, but pretending that Tom Corbett doesn't exist will not make him go away. Follow on Twitter @DanielDenvir.
Mitt Romney's selection of Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate signals his desperation to shake up a race that seems increasingly tilted in favor of his opponent, President Barack Obama. It also promises to transform the presidential campaign into a national debate in which progressives are eager to engage: Should social safety-net programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security be defended or destroyed?
That debate will dovetail with the political conflict underway in Pennsylvania, where Republican Gov. Tom Corbett has slashed spending on education, and on programs for the poor and disabled.
Progressives are excited about this debate because the majority of the public backs spending on education and aid to the safety net. The “Ryan budget” (which House Republicans have now passed twice) would scrap Medicare and instead give the elderly vouchers that would not keep up with medical costs, cap and block-grant Medicaid spending to the states, and deeply cut spending on pretty much every federal program that is not the U.S. military.
Ryan's plan, according to polls, is unpopular. So was George W. Bush's failed proposal to privatize Social Security which, incidentally, Ryan pushed him to introduce.
Corbett and his cuts are also unpopular.
In Pennsylvania, a July poll found that 49 percent of voters disapprove of Corbett, and just 32 percent approve. And a June poll, like others preceding it, found overwhelming opposition to Corbett's cuts-first approach.
Republicans and business-friendly Democrats have subjected the safety net to decades of attack: Ryan and Corbett are the coup de grâce. And so this debate is important not only because it provides Democrats a useful cudgel with which to beat up Mitt Romney, but because it gives progressives a chance to pull Democrats leftward on economic matters. In a time when millions are out of work and falling into poverty, the left should campaign for safety net expansion.
The labor movement, which rallied tens of thousands of workers this past weekend in Philadelphia, is trying to do just that. Instead of merely pillorying the Ryan budget as an extremist dismantling of the safety net, they are putting forward a Second Bill of Rights based on the one originally proposed by Franklin D. Roosevelt. The principles include full employment, a living wage and high-quality education for all.
In Pennsylvania, Corbett's unpopularity is prompting chatter over who might challenge him in 2014.
The list includes former Allegheny County executive and past Democratic nominee Dan Onorato, Philadelphia rich person Tom Knox (Romney, Trump and Bloomberg, it turns out, are not the only people who suffer from the idea that personal wealth entitles you to political power), former primary candidate and Auditor General Jack Wagner, former gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Sen Bob Casey, State Treasurer Rob McCord, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (who lost this past Senate race to Pat Toomey after beating Arlen Specter in the primary), and U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz.
This November will be a proxy for an ongoing debate over the role of government in society. In Ohio, the Obama campaign has already compared Ryan's ideology to that of union-busting Gov. John Kasich. Last November, voters overturned Kasich's law restricting public employee collective bargaining.
A similar Democratic effort in Pennsylvania might prove useful for Obama this November and also soften Corbett up for 2014. The Democratic National Committee, in an effort to take advantage of women's anxiety over the GOP social agenda, has already released an ad attacking Corbett for his statement that women who don't wish to view a mandatory pre-abortion ultrasound “just have to close your eyes.”
Now that Ryan is on the ticket, Democrats could make Corbett's cuts a centerpiece of their Pennsylvania campaign. Voters here are ready to hear that message.
Voter ID and The Supremes
Michael Smerconish, a conservative Inquirer columnist who it is increasingly hard to call “conservative” given how far right the Republican Party has moved, had an interesting piece on the lawsuit challenging the state's controversial voter ID law (which, as we've reported ad nauseum, could keep a lot of people from voting) in the Sunday Inquirer.
Smerconish notes that however the Commonwealth Court rules, state Supreme Court Chief Justice and former Philly District Attorney Ron Castille could be the deciding vote. Though Castille is a Republican, he is a notably independent one.
The court is split 3-3 thanks to Republican Justice Joan Orie Melvin's suspension while she faces corruption charges. A split decision would uphold the lower court's ruling, so if Commonwealth Court Judge Robert E. Simpson Jr. upholds the law, Castille could be the key to a 4-2 ruling to strike down the law. If Simpson Jr. strikes down the law, Supreme Court Democrats will have enough votes to kill the law on their own.
Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney had an enlightening column that emphasized that while voter ID might disproportionately impact the poor and non-white, people from all walks of life could be impacted. Case in point: Tia Sutter, a former Philly assistant D.A. who cannot get the necessary ID.
PA foreclosure-prevention program back from the dead
Pennsylvania is set to restart the Homeowners' Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (HEMAP), a program that helps keep homeowners out of foreclosure. Corbett, who came under criticism for eliminating the program in 2011, is funding the program with $66.5 million from a settlement in a case filed by state attorneys general nationwide against mortgage servicers.
John Micek of the Allentown Morning Call has the details:
In a statement released this afternoon, Gov. Tom Corbett said the program "directly helps families in danger of foreclosure. This multi-year funding of HEMAP will not only help troubled homeowners, but will play a role in restoring the health of our state's housing industry."
The administration's press release makes no mention of its original decision to shutter the program during its first budget in 2011.
State employees using text messages to avoid public scrutiny?
State employees are being told that a new phone system's instant messaging feature can be used to evade Right to Know requests, according to a letter from Pennsylvania Office of Open Records executive director Terry Mutchler to Gov. Corbett.
"We are training nearly 57,000 employees on the new phone system," Office of Administration spokesperson Dan Egan told the AP. "I cannot vouch for what transpires in every single class; I can only tell you what information is supposed to be presented to employees and what I have witnessed in training myself. I have not seen the letter you are referring to, but if there is incorrect information being conveyed to employees, we are of course very concerned and will take immediate steps to correct it."
Obama campaign bars WHYY's Dave Davies from interviewing supporters
The Obama campaign made an enormous error in barring WHYY journalist and Fresh Air co-host Dave Davies from interviewing supporters outside of a campaign event. The increasingly scripted mode of contemporary politics takes a turn toward the illegal when you bar people from exercising their First Amendment rights in a public space. The Obama campaign should explain why Davies was harassed and pledge that this will not happen again.
Criticism on Corbett handling of Sandusky investigation spreads
I have scrupulously avoided reporting on Penn State and the Sandusky scandal since every single other journalist in Pennsylvania and planet earth seemed to have it covered. But as Will Bunch reports in the Daily News, there are growing calls from right and left to investigate whether Governor Corbett botched the Sandusky probe―perhaps for political reasons in the lead up to his 2010 election.
Is the NRA a paper tiger?
Last week I examined the power of the NRA in Pennsylvania, in case you missed it. Gun control proposals go no where fast thanks to the gun lobby's perceived power. But is the NRA's power mainly grounded in that perception rather than actual strength?
Daily News and Scranton-Times Tribune call neo-Nazi led organization "white people's rights group"
The Philadelphia Daily News ran a Scranton Times-Tribune story that somehow described an organization led by one of Pennsylvania's most prominent white supremacist neo-Nazis a "white people's rights group," I reported on Friday. Though neither paper has issued a correction, the AP, which may or may not have been involved, told me that I was threatening my "journalism career."
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