Is It Time For Todd Eachus To Resign???

Editorial published in the Hazleton Standard Speaker, Citizen's Voice, Republican Herald Pottsville, News Item Shamokin, Sunday Review Towand.

It is a stinging indictment of the legislators in Harrisburg, but particularly pointed at the lack of leadership including House Majority Leader Todd Eachus. His dismal failure at his first crack at majority leader demonstrates what everyone has known all along. Just like Obama you can buy Eachus on QVC, well not literally, but he is a canned package and presentation. The record shows that what he says is not what he really is or does. He has the public hoodwinked about PACE and I blame the mainstream media for not doing its investigative obligation.

Eachus demonstrated his inability to work with others in promoting collaborative cooperation in an effective manner. When his interests directly conflict with the interest of others he is not interested in creating win-win situations. He believes in the zero sum world where the gains for him are only obtained at a cost to others. Instead he should be looking to bridge disparate interests. Issues on the table are as important as issues off the table. His bias promotes competition and stifles cooperation.

Lou Barletta has been Mayor of Hazleton for 8 of the 12 years Eachus has been a House Representative. His disdain for Lou Barletta has cost Hazleton residents in money and growth. He has failed to get the biggest city in his district its fair share of state funding due to his ongoing blatant efforts to tarnish the Mayor. I challenge him to list the accomplishments he brought to the City of Hazleton.

Todd Eachus can face serious competition for being guilty of the same transgressions Frank Harrison committed in the 11th Congressional district that allowed Paul Kanjorski to win the seat from him. He is ignoring the biggest Democratic base in his district. Being drunk with power has not allowed him to sober enough to see the light, maybe one too many political science courses at Pitzer College.

His blind rage has stifled cooperation. He carried that same attitude to the office of House Majority Leader. He may blame Lou Barletta but if the same thing is happening in Harrisburg there is one common denominator, Eachus.



Over the course of the eight-week state budget impasse, lawmakers have succeeded only in converting a political failure into a moral failure. The crisis is not just financial in nature. It is a colossal failure of governanceIt is apparent that Pennsylvania suffers not just a budget deficit, but an even more damaging leadership deficit.

Pennsylvania's most vulnerable citizens have begun to pay the price for their government's inability to carry out its most fundamental task.

And, for all of state politicians' mewling about their fidelity to taxpayers, their failure to adopt a state budget already has begun to adversely affect those taxpayers at the local level. Several Pennsylvania school districts already have arranged for loans to cover the state government's failure to provide the first two state subsidy payments of the new fiscal year. The cost of that borrowing will be added to local school budgets. So far, school districts statewide have been denied about $1.2 billion in anticipated state subsidies.

Vulnerable citizens harmed

Social service agencies, the safety net that ensures quality of life and, in some cases, life itself for the poor, the very young and the very old, have begun to suspend services. Thousands of vulnerable citizens have nowhere else to turn.

Lawmakers continue to collect their pay, however, with a few notable exceptions. Rep. Kevin Murphy of Lackawanna County, for example, has declined to accept his pay until a budget is adopted.

Pennsylvania's government faces the same economic crisis as every other state government. But 48 of those other state governments have managed to pass a budget, despite a wide array of related problems. Even California, with one of the worst state budget deficits in American history, has a budget. So does New York, even as the legislature in Albany wrangles with a crippling in-house political crisis. Only Connecticut and Pennsylvania are without budgets.

Time for leadership

Many proposals are available to shape a budget compromise. It's long past time not only for a budget but for leadership. The governor's budget proposals are clear, as are the Senate's, along with those of both caucuses in the House. There is, alas, no apparent authority for the Legislature to be forced to remain in continuous session until it emerges with a budget. But that does not preclude lawmakers from sequestering themselves - or at least sequestering the legislative caucus leaders - basically locking the Capitol door until they emerge with a balanced budget. They should do so as public penance for their moral failure, but more important, to end the suffering that they have imposed on their fellow citizens through fruitless political posturing.