Roses to pair of officials trying to fight abuse of power

From the editorial page of the Pottstown Mercury:

ROSES to two public officials in Pennsylvania for trying to do the right thing, even if neither of their proposals has a chance. Chester County state Rep. Dan Truitt, R-156th Dist., is sponsoring a bill to eliminate the current per diem system in the Pa. Legislature. Truitt is asking fellow lawmakers to give up per diem payments in exchange for an expense-based reimbursement system. Truitt, who is in his second term, sponsored a similar measure last session. He received more than a dozen co-sponsors. But the proposals never made it through the legislative process. Truitt said switching to an expense-based system offers transparency and fairness to taxpayers — as well as lawmakers. The state could even come out ahead financially, he said. On the federal level, U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) announced that he will reintroduce legislation with Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) to establish term limits for members of Congress. Their legislation would create a constitutional amendment that limits Senators and Congressmen to three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and two terms in the U.S. Senate. “Congress should not be a body of career politicians who have forgotten why they were sent to Washington in the first place,” Sen. Toomey said. Both ideas aim to curb abuse of power; neither has a chance of becoming law. 

Roses to pair of officials trying to fight abuse of power