Oh, don't worry, you only put your lives on the line. You'll be paid... eventually

[slm76.livejournal.com]

I'm sure a lot of you have heard about the budget woes of the state of... Pennsylvania. Yep, California managed to somehow cobble a budget together, but not PA. As as result, state employees aren't currently getting a pay check.

This is personal to my extended family; my sister-in-law's husband is a PA state trooper, based in the Pittsburgh area. He and his colleagues put their lives on the line every time they put on their uniform, and they're not getting a pay check right now. My sister-in-law had to hold a yard sale the other weekend. Thankfully, she had a lot of baby clothes to sell and made enough to make a mortgage payment. The state employees are ineligible for Unemployment because they're still working. They couldn't even apply for food stamps until this month. Welfare employees in Pittsburgh filed grevances with the Dept of Labor; they were expected to help other people get financial help but weren't being paid.

Now, we don't much like our brother-in-law, but why should he and his colleagues be forced to risk their lives for NOTHING? Sure, they'll get back pay, eventually. It doesn't help them now.

Finally, we learned that a partial budget would land on Gov Rendell's desk. He'd line item veto a bunch of it, but the state employees would get paid. Hurrah!

However...

House Democrats paid themselves ahead of state workers

How disgusting is that? Nevermind they get a stipend anyway. Every PA House Democrat needs to be voted out of office as soon as they're up for re-election. They're evidently not working for their constituents.

Comments

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

Disgraceful!

I don't care what party they belong to, politicians who do this kind of crap need to be booted out of office. I don't know how they sleep at night. But I guess it's pretty easy when you live in your own sheltered bubble and have no idea what real people go through.

[eajou.livejournal.com]

They need to be, but they won't. Too many of the major areas of PA are Democrats and no one bothers to become educated about these things. As a PA resident I've don't hold much hope of that happening.

[lilliew.livejournal.com]

I think they all should be voted out of office, but unless things continue to get worse beyond all imagination, I don't really think it will. Too many people have the mentality "but its not my Congressman/Senator/etc. that's the problem, it's all the other ones" and continue to vote for the same people that cause the problems and if the small sliver of improvement happens in the 2-3 months prior to the election, they will have forgotten all the woes that went on prior to it.

And the State Run media will continue to have too much control over information and the real stories will get lost.

Remember how much press Bush's economy got when there were job losses and unemployment and budget issues? What do we hear now when things are 10x worse?

I hold tight to a glimmer of hope that some people are waking up, however.

[kali-kali.livejournal.com]

Disgusting. But I can't say it surprises me. Politicians will always vote themselves huge pay raises and pay themselves first. Doesn't matter what political affiliation they are. This is why I really loathe politicians.

Politicians like to call themselves "public servants" or "civil servants" or whatever your local term may be - they're not. The non-elected folks - county clerks, the government workers, the police, etc. THEY are public servants. If you are elected (and apparently in the US you also vote for coroners in some places? WTH?), you're a politician. I don't get why so many positions in the US are elected positions, but it means that people worry more about getting re-elected than doing the job they were elected for.

[dark-weezing.livejournal.com]

And I live in the state, as well, so I know fully the political wankery of PA.

But, hey, they voted for Rendell, as they voted for Obama, despite knowing the truth and Obama's intent to bankrupt coal. Facepalm.

[sopdetly.livejournal.com]

Another PA-er here, though admittedly I'm a little shamefully ignorant of the state-level idiocy. And I'm so with you on the coal thing. At my voting area there was actually a Coal Workers union rep giving support for Obama. I just... I can't even fathom how that one works.

[dark-weezing.livejournal.com]

No worries, as it's rather complicated, myself.

Well, it's union zombies, and being Democrat is more important than livelihood, I suppose.

(I can't explain it, either.)