Wolf urged to focus on pro-business policy, not Paris accord
he following is an open letter to Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf:
Let me first start off by saying that I met you at a party in 2015 and asked for a photo. I am a lover of all things political and this was something I was pretty excited about (as nerdy as that sounds)! I find your governorship to be at odds with my thinking, but believe you are doing the best you can with a bad situation.
I am a Republican but voted Democrat most of my life. One of the things currently making me feel as if I stand on the proper side of the fence is the juvenile nature with which Democrats attack their problems. I saw a campaign by the “Tuesdays with Toomey” crowd to light up your phone lines intended to bully you into submission to whatever demand they have with regard to the Paris Accord. Quite frankly, I am alarmed and sick to death of this behavior.
I work in a building complex that also holds Congressman Meehan’s office. Protesters come often and park in spaces meant for clients and employees. Commercial real estate is not cheap. I am a CPA (please keep your sales tax off services, it makes Pa. incredibly non-competitive and will harm the Commonwealth). In March, our busiest time of the year, this became a frustrating problem. Our facilities manager went to a protester and asked that he move his car. He stated it wasn’t his car, so our facilities manager pulled up security footage of him parking the car. The protester asked, “Don’t you have anything better to do with your time?” Our facilities manager indicated that he didn’t because this was his job.
More importantly, we often have elderly folks and vets who need to use those phone lines and parking spots to meet with the congressman about matters outside of whatever the protesters are demanding. They are selfish, myopic and they are advocating mob rule.
Governor, the people in this complex (and those that utilize our services) pay, excuse my French, a s--- load of taxes. My job is to make sure my small business clients are in compliance with the ever-increasing regulations imposed on them and that they are kept abreast of all the changes to the tax system so that they may operate as efficiently as possible. Government, as you know, makes it really tough for small business owners to succeed. I am not sure how productive these perpetual sign holders are at determining ways to eliminate our $3 billion budget shortfall. I will say, I have yet to see a sign that is focused on the fiscal viability of the Commonwealth and not selfishly endeavored to bolster a Democratic party line.
I don’t know about these wellexercised screamers, but that 3 billion number keeps me awake at night. My father is an eighth grade graduate with a GED who recently retired from a forklift position after 30 years of service. He moved on to work as a janitor in his late 50s. My brother is a teacher working on his Ph.D. We are first-generation college grads. The pension issue truly hits home for me on both ends of the argument (as a fiscal conservative at heart and as a person who loves her family with the fierceness of a lion and wants their pension income, that they’ve earned, to be there for them). I am reasonable, smart, and sane and I ask that you knock the crap off with the Paris Accord and focus on the truly important issues in the state of Pennsylvania like our teachers, schools and finances.
The Paris Accord was an end run around a treaty that would require two-thirds Senate approval. How much benefit does it provide to Pennsylvanians? We do not know. Why should an incoming administration from the other side of the aisle be obliged to abide by an accord negotiated by a prior administration that sought no approval from its citizens or its Congress? This is unAmerican. It is undemocratic to tyrannically force the policies of a losing political philosophy and the interests of foreign nations on America.
When some wealthy European named Juncker, who is mostly unknown to Americans, insists that America may not leave a deal that our Congress did not vote upon, it makes me angry. It makes me afraid. How did America become bound to foreign nations in such a deal without the Senate’s input? Juncker states this is something that will take four years to “wind down.” This is the same language he uses to bully Britain. If foreign nations had that strong a hold over America, it certainly needed the approval of our senators and input from their constituents. This was misguided executive overreach perpetrated by President Obama and it is wrong.
I ask that you call on businesses, if they so choose, to come up with their own climate standards. The Pennsylvania government should not impose commercial climate standards upon Pennsylvania businesses that were dreamt up by a league of foreign nations without the approval of our Senate. European oligarchs like Juncker should not have a greater say over Joe Smith’s business than Joe himself or the American Congress.
I did vote for you, but I am not sure I will again based on your recent behavior, which indicates a submission to a radical left. You’ve lost the businessman in you and became a bureaucrat. A bureaucrat has no chance of helping me sleep at night with regard to my daughter being stuck with a $3 billion dollar budget shortfall.
The makers of Ambien should be pleased.
With gratitude for your service and hopefulness for the financial viability of a future Pennsylvania,