{"id":7209,"date":"2016-01-13T19:57:31","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T00:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=7209"},"modified":"2024-01-14T12:42:27","modified_gmt":"2024-01-14T17:42:27","slug":"rep-groves-diatribe-was-off-key","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=7209","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Grove\u2019s Diatribe Was Off-Key"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published in the York Daily Record, January 13, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s always funny and sometimes sad when national entertainment trends filter down to our local communities. The rapper or metal band in our community may have picked up some of the moves and rhythms of the big stars, but they seem to be pale imitations at our local venues.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how Rep. Seth Grove\u2019s\u00a0diatribe against Governor Tom Wolf<\/a>\u00a0comes across. Grove wants to sound like one of the agitated and aggrieved conservative radio stars or Republican presidential candidates (who are hard to tell apart these days). Like them, he seeks to shock us and motivate his followers with personal attacks. Like them, he seeks to create a rhetorical whirlwind that hides inconvenient facts.<\/p>\n

But his performance seems off-key here in Pennsylvania. (And, to his credit, he doesn\u2019t seem entirely comfortable with it, either.)<\/p>\n

Gov. Tom Wolf is not some distant, high-handed ruler. He\u2019s someone a lot of people around the state, and certainly in York, know. (Although many of us didn\u2019t know his middle name until Grove told us.) Grove\u2019s personal attack against our plain spoken and undramatic governor is not the Pennsylvania way.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also not the Pennsylvania way to launch ideological attacks that overshadow the facts. Far from seeking to \u201cincrease the spending, size and scope of state government,\u201d Gov. Wolf seeks to better fund our local (and locally controlled) schools, restoring some of the $800 million in cuts that took place under Gov. Corbett.<\/p>\n

And, far from abandoning his promise to generate most of that money from a severance tax on natural gas drilling \u2014 almost all of which would be paid by the consumers in other states who buy our gas \u2014 it is Rep. Grove and his allies who have blocked that source of revenue. And then they have been trying to block new funds for education from a small increase in the personal income tax, which falls more on those with higher rather lower incomes.<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania way is not one of ideological warfare but of moderation and compromise. That\u2019s the approach that led to a budget framework agreed to by Gov. Wolf and the House and Senate leaders of both parties. It\u2019s the approach that led to an overwhelming majority in the Senate for an appropriations bill that restores most though not all of Corbett\u2019s cuts in classroom funds.<\/p>\n

Rep. Grove has been one of the leaders in the House seeking to undermine that agreement. He has taken an extreme stand against any new revenues to fund our schools.<\/p>\n

But we are not Mississippi. We in Pennsylvania believe in the power of education to raise our children and our economy up. And we are willing to pay a bit more to restore more teachers to our classrooms and expand education in science and technology, music and art.<\/p>\n

And most of all, we want our politics to be honest, respectful of different views and based in common sense, not ideology. People I know in Harrisburg speak highly of Rep. Grove. So I have some hopes that he will soon stop trying to bring the unwelcome antics of national politics into the political life of our commonwealth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published in the York Daily Record, January 13, 2016 It\u2019s always funny and sometimes sad when national entertainment trends filter down to our local communities. The rapper or metal band in our community may have picked up some of the moves and rhythms of the big stars, but they seem to be pale imitations at our local venues. That\u2019s how Rep. Seth Grove\u2019s\u00a0diatribe against Governor Tom Wolf\u00a0comes across. Grove wants to sound like one of the agitated and aggrieved conservative radio stars or Republican presidential candidates (who are hard to tell apart these days). Like them, he seeks to shock us and motivate his followers with personal attacks. Like them, he seeks to create a rhetorical whirlwind that hides inconvenient facts. But his performance seems off-key here in Pennsylvania. (And, to his credit, he doesn\u2019t seem entirely comfortable with it, either.) Gov. Tom Wolf is not some distant, high-handed\u2026 Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[197,56,107,201],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pa-budget-and-policy-center","category-pennsylvania","category-state-budget","category-published-op-eds-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p35YuU-1Sh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7209"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7996,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7209\/revisions\/7996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}