You’ve Been Duped

Apparently our April Fools Day news release hit a little too close to home for some. We announced that under new legislation CF will receive an automatic payroll deduction of $50 per month from all state workers and school district employees, and place an individual mandate on all Pennsylvanians to contribute to CF. Anyone who is at all familiar with the foundation would quickly realize we weren’t serious, but just in case we included a quote from Rep. Ben Dooped (I – Naiveville).

But we’ve heard that folks have been contacting the Department of Education, other state offices, and their legislators expressing outrage that money will be taken out of their paycheck to support our organization.

Of course, that was partly the intent of our satire – only hoping to illustrate the irony of groups that do force taxpayers to contribute to their cause. Public sector unions like the PSEA, SEIU, and AFSCME all receive mandatory cuts of state and school employee’s paychecks, even if the employee chooses not to be a member of the union.

Dozens of special interests groups – like PennFuture, Hollywood film producers, and the Keystone Research Center – are collecting taxpayer subsidies. And of course, the federal health care bill did include an individual mandate, taxing those who don’t buy coverage (subject to specification by the feds) from health insurance companies.

Pennsylvania taxpayers really have been duped, but not by us.