Commentary

Health Care

Expanding Medicaid: Eat Now, Starve Later

• Nathan Benefield
• March 20, 2013

When the governor released his budget last month, the loudest opposition hinged on Medicaid - government insurance for the poor and disabled. Advocates of expanding the program via the Affordable…

Commentary

Health Care

No “Free Lunch” with Medicaid Expansion

• Nathan Benefield
• February 28, 2013

If I offered you a "free lunch" every day for the rest of your life, you'd take it, right? Oh, but there are a few strings attached. The lunch may…

Commentary

Education

Education: America’s New Civil Right

• February 26, 2013

Education can and should be America's newest civil rights issue.   Today, too many schools are failing too many children. The system is broken, and access to a quality…

Commentary

PLCB Should Not Pass Go

• February 11, 2013

Growing up in Pennsylvania, we enjoyed playing games over the holidays and none more than Monopoly.  The possibilities were endless, the rules clear and the objective simple - heck, it…

Commentary

Privatization Poll

• February 11, 2013

A strong majority of Pennsylvanians favor ending government sale of wine and liquor according to a comprehensive poll conducted by nationally-renown pollster, FM3. The poll found more than 3 out…

Commentary

Liquor Privatization: Just the Facts

• February 9, 2013

In a recent Delaware County Times webcast on Pennsylvania liquor store privatization, on which I was a panelist, there was a great deal of information thrown into the mix which may have…

Commentary

State Budget

Standing with Taxpayers

• Nathan Benefield
• February 6, 2013

Most Pennsylvanians probably weren't aware – or don't care – that Governor Corbett delivered his 2013-14 budget proposal this week.  But they should!  Spending $20,900 per family of four, the…

Commentary

Education

Cyber Proposal Undermines Cherished School Option

• Priya Brannick
• January 29, 2013

The Matunis girls are just two of some 32,000 students statewide who are thriving at cyber schools.  New legislation unveiled in Harrisburg, however, could do serious damage to cyber…

Commentary

Regulation

Pension Bomb to Hit Pennsylvania Families

• Nathan Benefield
• January 18, 2013

Are you ready to pay an additional $1,000 in state and local taxes alone?  Prepared to see your child's teacher laid off? Thanks to bad promises politicians made to good…

Commentary

Taxes & Economy

Promise Land Panned: Mike’s Story

• January 7, 2013

In the movie Promised Land, Matt Damon plays a smooth talking land man who is sent to rural Pennsylvania to secure the rights to drill for natural gas on locals'…

Commentary

Regulation

Averting the “Lottery Cliff” for Seniors and Taxpayers

• Elizabeth Stelle
• January 3, 2013

From the greatest generation to the latest generation, Pennsylvania’s seniors have worked a lifetime to build this great commonwealth through hard work and sacrifice, but are now being told the…

Commentary

Education

Handouts Hurting Poor, Help Up a Better Way

• Charles Mitchell
• December 12, 2012

The holidays are a great time to be grateful for the gifts we've received.  And, as we remember well, fallen Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney claimed that some Americans have…

Commentary

Education

Pa. Must Pull Parent Trigger to Save Education

• September 28, 2012

Martin Luther King Jr. believed that, "unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality."  If correct, then no stronger love or enduring truth can personify his…

Commentary

Public Union Democracy

Why Cities Fail

• Matthew Brouillette
• September 10, 2012

Harrisburg is broke.  Literally.  So are 26 other cities across the commonwealth that are stuck in the state's Act 47 program for financially strapped municipalities.  Many enter in – like…

Commentary

Government Accountability

Labor Day is for Taxpayers, Not Unions

• Matthew Brouillette
• August 29, 2012

Comprising the government employee unions, private sector unions, trial lawyers, extreme greens, and other nonprofits that feed off taxpayer money, the Union Party is aligned for a single purpose:  To…

Commentary

Taxes & Economy

Fix Welfare to Protect Poor, Save Taxpayers

• Elizabeth Stelle
• August 21, 2012

Despite prevalent evidence showing the current welfare system does irreparable harm by trapping families and children in a cycle of poverty, presumptive Republican vice-presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to…

Commentary

Criminal Justice Reform

Don’t Fire Arrows without Arrowheads in Corrections Reform

• July 24, 2012

Reforming our state corrections system is not being soft on crime—it is being smart on crime.  To achieve transformative corrections reform, lawmakers should finish this critical legislative package and build…

Commentary

Education

Massive Strategic Victory for Kids

• Matthew Brouillette
• July 16, 2012

I've long been convinced that Thomas Jefferson was exactly right when he wrote, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never…

Commentary

State Budget

Olympic Hurdles Grab for Gold in Pennsylvania Budget

• Nathan Benefield
• July 3, 2012

This July signals the beginning and end of two feats requiring amazing determination, stamina and perseverance—the start of the 2012 Summer Olympics and the on-time passage of the Pennsylvania state…

Commentary

Criminal Justice Reform

Pennsylvania Passes Proven Prison Reform

• June 29, 2012

Pennsylvania's inmate population and rate of recidivism have reached crisis levels in recent years.  Since 1980, Pennsylvania's inmate population increased over 500% between 1980 and 2009. …

Commentary

Education

Lawmakers & Businesses Can Rescue Students Now

• Priya Brannick
• June 14, 2012

If lawmakers were in any doubt about how dire Pennsylvania's education crisis has become, they need only look to Harrisburg mother Taisha Bartow and her 5-year-old daughter, Alayaisha.

Commentary