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Unanswered Questions to
John Bear
F. Patrick O’Keeffe
At Rep.
John Bear’s Talk Back this past Thursday, I left the event with more
questions than I had when I arrived. I never had a chance to ask any
of them.
Rep. Bear
posted a slide with a listing of teachers’ salaries. He pointed out
that they were higher than the Pennsylvania average income. Wouldn’t
it make more sense for our government to focus on raising the average
income of all Pennsylvanians? I value the long term contribution that
dedicated teachers make to our community. If we are going to follow
the “Let’s Drag Everybody Down” model, what about the legislators and
their staff? Are their salaries and benefits above the Pennsylvania
average, or does that standard just apply to teachers?
Rep. Bear
mentioned “scammers” as his justification in cutting the Department of
Public Welfare budget. What about the scammers in corporate America?
Scammers made obscene profits while wrecking our economy on Wall
Street. Corporate scammers dodge paying their fair share of state
taxes through the Delaware Loophole. This past year most of us
working Pennsylvanians paid more taxes individually than either
General Electric or Exxon-Mobil. Wouldn’t we contribute more revenue
to our state budget if we went after corporate scammers rather than
the poor, senior citizens, and people with disabilities?
The little
toy footballs that Rep. Bear gave out had his name and “Not paid for
at taxpayer expense” written on them. Who paid for them? What do
they expect in exchange for their generosity? The “Recent News”
handout that was distributed to us did not contain any actual news
about the government. They were all just self promotional stories
about Rep. Bear. Rep. Bear’s self promotion skills are outstanding,
but it begs the question; was this constituent communication or a
campaign event?
Everyone
liked the high tech instant feedback question and answer. Still, I
wish he would have ended with one important question. We could have
selected either;
-
Talk
Back delivered on the advertised promise of lots of straight talk.
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Talk
back was mostly politician double speak, dancing around issues
without really saying anything.
The answer
to that question would have been very useful to Rep. Bear in planning
future events and to us in evaluating him as our state representative.
F. Patrick
O’Keeffe
fpokeeffe@gmail.com
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