David R. Busang – 6/20/06

This page was last updated on June 20, 2006.

House Democrats blew it; David R. Busang; Beaver County Times; June 20, 2006.

This is the fourth letter from Mr. Busang in three weeks.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“What thoughts go through your mind when the top Republican state House leader tells you that the health and welfare of you and your loved ones is not as important to the state as property tax reform, lobbyist reform, and the budget? And then proceeds to prove his point.

“That’s what happened when the House Health and Human Services Committee voted against a bill to ban smoking in most public and workplaces. They just don’t care about our health.

“Ten Democrats jointed with their fellow Republicans to prevent this bill from reaching the full House. You expect that from Republicans; they will always favor big business interests. But you would expect the party associated with health care and worker welfare would support the interest of the little guy, the middle class.”

[RWC] As you will read below, “Ten Democrats jointed with their fellow Republicans” is a gross distortion of the facts.

“Where was the House Democratic leadership on this issue? Was the leadership unable to persuade just one of those 10 Democrats to support this bill? Or maybe, like their fellow Republicans, they just couldn’t resist the influence of the big business and tobacco lobbyist.”

[RWC] When 75% of the Republicans on the committee vote for the smoking ban, that’s an example of “the influence of the big business and tobacco lobbyist?”

“House Majority Leader Sam Smith in [sic] right about one thing; - lobbyist spending disclosure should be a priority. But second to the health and welfare of our citizens?

“Wouldn’t it be nice if our legislators showed as much bipartisanship in supporting legislation for the benefit of all Pennsylvanians instead of just legislation filling their own pockets?”

[RWC] Mr. Busang is apparently trying to deceive us by claiming Republicans prevented the anti-smoking law from getting a vote by the full House. In truth, Republicans on the committee voted 12-4 to pass the bill to the full House. It was Democrats who overwhelmingly voted (10-2) against it.

This is another example of Republicans voting the way a writer wants them too, yet the writer tries to lead us to believe otherwise and bashes the Republicans. This is the definition of partisanship.

By the way, regardless of their true reasons, Democrats tended to vote correctly on this bill and Republicans were wrong. Anti-smoking laws infringe on property rights and our right to choose. To date, I can’t figure out why Democrats and Republicans voted as they did.