After many years, in fact my entire time since retiring to the Bluegrass State, I was represented in the House of Representatives by a steady, if unspectacular Republican. Now that Republican, Andy Barr has been elected to the United States Senate, replacing the retiring Mitch McConnell. But, alas!, I will now be represented in the House by a Democrat named Zack Dumbo, oops, sorry, Zach Dembo, which means, in effect, that I will not be represented at all. He supports prenatal infanticide, wants to double expenditures for Obysmalcare, wants a path toward citizenship for illegal immigrants, and involve the government in homebuilding projects, including “massive public-private partnerships to increase (housing) supply”. He wasn’t out there calling himself a “progressive,” but he’ll go along with any cockamamie scheme that the further left congresscritters propose.

This, to the right, was actually a tweet from a Philadelphian named Alan Fisher. The Democrats took over the Pennsylvania State Senate, giving them ‘trifecta’ control of the state legislature, and the little people are already spending money! This fine gentleman wants passenger trains from Philly to Scranton, Reading (believe me: there’s no real reason to ever go to Reading!), Allentown (which is less than half an hour up the Northeast Extension), and Pittsburgh, and he expects all of this from the taxpayers. During the kerfuffle over funding for SEPTA during the last budget battle, the one thing nobody ever seemed to consider was raising fares!

The Keystone State is already running a $5.56 billion deficit, it’s just that it’s hidden by accounting tricks:

With the commonwealth facing a structural budget deficit, lawmakers got creative in this year’s cycle to make sure that the state’s budget is balanced – at least on paper. The $50.8 billion budget includes two so-called cycle rolls, or delayed monthly payments of $1.32 billion that will defer spending into the future.

The cycle rolls apply to two Department of Human Services payments – one in fiscal year 2025-26 and one in fiscal year 2026-27 – that provide the state with $2.64 billion in temporary, one-time savings, according to an analysis by the state’s Independent Fiscal Office.

That $2.64 billion in ‘cycle rolls’, times two, will have to be paid in subsequent budgets, so it’s like Fiona Gallagher in Shameless, deciding what bills to pay this month and what can wait until next month before the gas gets shut off. But Mr Fisher — whom I do not know, but am using his tweet just because — is representative of what so many of the Democrats want, to spend, spend, spend! And they can’t do that without raising taxes.