Stop Predatory Gambling

A republic if you can keep it

by spgadmin

At the close of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 18, 1787, a woman asked Benjamin Franklin as he emerged from the long task now finished: “Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” “A republic if you can keep it,” Franklin famously responded.

If Franklin were alive today and observed the present conduct of Pennsylvania state government, he would unequivocally declare that is not how we can keep a republic.

This week government agencies were told to start planning for staff furloughs in case the state legislature does not pass a bill expanding legal gambling by the end of this week.

Governor Ed Rendell announced last month that eliminating government jobs would be one of the steps necessary to plug the $250 million budget hole if the state does not enact predatory gambling legislation.

“I sincerely hope furloughs do not become necessary, but as I said last month, at this late date, I must create a plan to balance the budget if we cannot generate the revenue we anticipated,” Governor Rendell said on Monday. The governor set a January 8 deadline for passage of table games legislation before the furloughs begin. The state says 995 out of 51,577 positions may have to be cut, including one in the governor’s office.

That’s right…you read it correctly. According to Rendell, the future of state government in Pennsylvania hangs in the balance because of…casino table games? Just like property tax relief for homeowners in that state was dependent upon legalizing more than 60,000 slot machines. And how college tuition relief for the state’s young people was hinging on legalizing 40,000 video poker machines in bars and taverns.

The government program of predatory gambling is the biggest and most damaging scandal to hit our republic in the last fifty years. It has exacerbated the massive budget deficits facing America and is a major driver behind the personal debt culture that is shrinking our country’s middle class. We need to stop it now.