A Sense of Entitlement

Presume for a second that you are a wannabe politician and you want to run for the General Assembly. The salary is nice, but maybe not a living wage for your area, but the freebies can perhaps add 50 percent and repeated incumbency can add seniority to the mix making you a committee chair or leader in say 14 years. Do you take take take? Keep in mind, you alread, once you get elected anyway, get contributions to your political campaign fund form, well, whomever you seek out I suppose, but let's say at the very minimum, from lobbyists and PACs that influence the committees you have been appointed to serve on. There are actually members that select committees due to the political contributions they expect to take in, and the perks that lobbyists give, free stuff, evening meals, while still filing for per diems, even with this alleged lobbyist reporting law we finally have, the loopholes are yet to be known. Even in this new age of reform, we'll see just how much additional money will be asked for. Can you justify your state fleet car at $7,000 vs. mileage reimbursement for $12,000 vs. a now outlawed private lease for $14,000 additional in compensation a year. Can you justify the per diems, or the free incumbency protections offered by PR staff and district operations staff, that raise your name recognition and perpetuate the cycle of entitlement. Would you let your wife get that PHEAA pedicure or those falconry lessons or that hot stone massage. Do people really expect to live like that, especially off someone else's dime, esp. when they are already in most cases, fairly well off already. The reason Sen. for Life Vince Fumo was permitted to exist was that his MENSA level nefarious IQ was able to outwit, outlast and outplay the system, he, the ultimate political survivor, a millionaire banker, but also a millionaire in scammish drawdowns from various public coffers. Let's home the real person ethics influence the Gang of 55 newbies. Let's see if they listen or if they get coopted into a system that inevitably will become complacent and corrupt again. We can't rely on the allegedly muckracking press to keep up their attack dog investigatory journalism ad nauseum as the public, more interested in voting for Sanjaya to stay on American Idol than voting for good politicos to go to Harrisburg. Next: let's see how many vote for Local Tax Study Commission recommendations on the ballot in 6 weeks. All I know, is that I did the math, and it will cost me $50 extra, so tell me why I should be...altruistic instead of selfish. Oh yeah, out of a sense of entitlement...to keep the money I earn from sucking off the teat of the Legislative System in PA...