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Posted on 09/24/2020 7:01:00 PM PDT by lightman
Gov. Tom Wolf is accusing the GOP-controlled General Assembly of acting irresponsibly in ways that will harm Pennsylvanians at a time when he is trying to save lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At a Thursday news conference that was billed as focusing on government reform and COVID-19 mitigation efforts, the governor spent a good part of the time criticizing lawmakers for pursuing “dangerous legislation” this week.
He was referring to the House’s failed attempt on Wednesday to override his veto of a bill that would have allowed local school officials to set attendance limits at sporting events and extra-curricular activities.
Additionally, both chambers this week passed legislation with strong bipartisan support to relax rules on restaurants and bars to help this financially struggling industry. It would allow them to expand their capacity, permit seating at the bar, and lift a requirement for a food purchase to buy alcohol. Wolf has said he will veto this bill as well.
“This irresponsible behavior simply has to stop,” Wolf said at the news conference held outside the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Susquehanna Township. “This is not the time for grandstanding. This is the time for doing things that are actually going to help people and save lives.”
Spokespeople for the state House and Senate Republican caucuses rejected Wolf’s remarks and called on the governor to work with lawmakers instead of acting on his own. They criticized Wolf for governing through news conferences to call on the Legislature to act on a particular issue, instead of working with lawmakers to find ways to compromise on them.
“He has held more than 15 press conferences since Aug. 1 and has not once talked with Republican legislative leaders himself,” said Senate GOP spokeswoman Jenn Kocher. “His continued posture is holding Pennsylvania back.”
Kocher added Wolf calling the high school sports bill “dangerous shows how out of touch Governor Wolf really is.”
The only communication that House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre County, has had with the governor were ones Benninghoff or the lawmaker’s staff initiated to assist with the release of federal CARES Act dollars to Lebanon County that Wolf withheld for violating his closure order, said House GOP spokesman Jason Gottesman.
“This has been a one-way street with us trying to work with them and them trying to do nothing but disparage and attack us publicly,” he said.
What’s more, Gottesman said it is disingenuous for the governor to stand before the media and “call on us to stop grandstanding while he is literally grandstanding.”
Wolf defended his news conferences, saying, “I believe that free press deserves to hear directly” from him. He further denied that there has been a lack of dialogue between himself and the GOP leaders.
He said he couldn’t recall the last time he spoke with them but said it wasn’t that long ago.
“I have them on speed dial. They have me on speed dial. We have all kinds of opportunities to talk together. I think that’s a red herring,” Wolf said. “I think we can all agree that’s a lame excuse.”
Besides, he said his chief of staff and their staffs talk daily, if not hourly.
Both Gottesman and Kocher denied that to be the case.
Along with lambasting the General Assembly for “wasting time fighting against public health measures,” the governor called on them enact some government reform measures.
They include putting in place a gift ban for all public employees as he has done for those under his jurisdiction; requiring public officials to disclose outside income sources, amounts, and the work done to receive it; and imposing limits on campaign contributions.
“These reforms are needed to restore confidence in government and curtail the role of campaign spending in the political process,” he said.
Suzanne Almeida, interim director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, said these proposed reforms "allow transparency, sunlight, and remove the appearance of impropriety and help restore Pennsylvanians' confidence in our democratic system.”
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I think the thing that would do the most good for public health in that state is committing Rachel Levine to a funny farm for the rest of his/her/its life.
Happy SIX MONTH ANNIVERSARY of, ‘Two Weeks to Flatten The Curve So We Don’t Overwhelm Our Hospitals!’
If ANYONE has been irresponsible, it is Governors, Mayors and City Council PUKES in BLUE states and communities! Enough already with your fear-mongering and panic!
H1N1 killed MORE PEOPLE (284K v 200K) with NO fanfare and NO masks and NO destruction to our economy! Because? 0bama! Enough, I say! ENOUGH!
LIBERATE WISCONSIN!
LIBERATE AMERICA!
That thing they call a health director in Pennsylvania is proof that the powers that be are beyond insane.
Sic sempre tyrannis
So much panic-prone idiocy and lunacy...combined with TDS. Pathetic proto-fascist losers who won’t admit they are wrong and nitwits .
The majority of us Pennsylvanians feel the same way.
Oh go cry on Rachel’s ample shoulder you worm.
“...I think the thing that would do the most good for public health in that state is committing Rachel Levine to a funny farm for the rest of his/her/its life....”
Fully agree. Wolf’s HeShitIt is allegedly a dead-beat dad that self-mutilated himself in the clinic’s men’s room when the docs told him he wasn’t mentally stable enough for the sex-change operation. He’s definitely a candidate for the loony farm, not running a state health dept.
Damn.
He is penalizing the citizens for 2016. Dude holds a grudge.
A wolf is a carnivore.
A caged and cornered carnivore is one deadly lame duck.
Tommie the Commie and Tranny the Nanny.
Where do you get your H1N1 numbers from?
Where are the H1N1 numbers from? All I can say is that harsh lockdowns don’t make much of a significant difference overall in the number who died. At least when looking at the various states. It seems as if high population density resulted in high per capita deaths.
Is this puke Wolf term-limited? Are there any legislative procedures for removing him from office? It seems like cretins like Wolf, Whitmer, and the rest are immune to any sort of application for relief from the citizenry.
He is term limited. This is it. January 2023 is in sight.
But wolves are carnivores.
And caged, cornered carnivores are d@mn deadly lame ducks.
I believe Diana in Wisconsinthe took # of hostipalizations to be # of deaths. CDC........60.8 million H1N1 cases, with 274,304 hospitalizations and 12,469 deaths in the U.S. alone. As of Wednesday, the number of cases in the United States was around 3,512,000 and the number of deaths was around 137,000.
Wolf said he couldn’t recall the last time he spoke with them but said it wasn’t that long ago....as he was scratching his butt!
How did he get elected in the first place? 2023 is a lot of time for a lame duck to cause damage. I refer you to the Obama Administration as an example.
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