Buy your own damn meal

By Dan Fagan
Publisher
The Alaska Standard

Let me get this straight. Our current crop of legislators have at worst, killed the gas pipeline, at best, they’ve delayed it at least three years with the silliness that is AGIA.

This bunch is also responsible for doing nothing about a cruise ship initiative that is driving away passengers in droves. The cruise ship industry averaged in recent years spending $75,000,000 a year promoting Alaska globally. But since the initiative passed (backed by environmentalists and unions hoping to get a sweetheart deal) the industry this year will spend fewer than 17 million promoting our state. $75 million to $17 million overnight. What have lawmakers done to fix the problem? Squat!

These men and women we’ve elected to represent us in the senate and house have also done nothing to fix ACES which has already cost the state’s oil patch thousands of jobs and it will get a whole lot worse before things get better. Most of these legislatooooors were on duty when ACES passed. Most of them are turning a blind eye to the devastation the job killing tax regime is currently causing.

So we are closed for business in Alaska and what are our fearless leaders working on? Raising the limit to how much free stuff they can get.

Our brave men and women of the 2010 class of the Alaska Legislature say they can no longer lead us under the over burdensome requirement of having to report the free meals they get from lobbyists.

Currently the same people responsible for sending more than 2000 oil field workers to the unemployment line (with many more to come until ACES is fixed) say they want to raise the $15 dollar threshold for when lobbyists can buy them a meal or some boos without reporting it.

These sorry bunch of afraid to lose their power, kiss ass legislators say they want lobbyists to be able to buy them $50 worth of free food and drink without having to let the public know. It will be their little secret they say. 

North Pole Republican Sen. John Coghill, a man who should wake up every day feeling awful about the fact that he voted in favor of ACES and that vote has left more than 2000 families with many more coming out of work, is leading the effort to raise the $15 dollar cap. He told the Daily News the following,

"Is a meal unethical? No. Should it be reported? Well, maybe. If you spend $100 bucks on a meal, I think people have a right to know. But if you're just sitting down to a meal with somebody, what's the big deal? It's nothing unethical,"

Mr. Coghill, is it unethical to abandon your conservative ideas, principals, and values because you are afraid of a 110 pound woman who says “You Betcha” a lot. Is it unethical to go along with her plan to make Alaska the highest taxing oil and gas province in the world when you clearly know better?

Poor Mr. Coghill is more worried about his own comfort during his free lunch than the thousands of families he is directly responsible for putting out of work. Listen to this whiney crap he spewed to the Daily News,

"What happens is that $15, when you sit down with the lobbyist, that becomes the discussion, rather than what are we here to talk about, or are we enjoying each other's company. It's always, 'Is this $14.99 or is this $15.02?' It really becomes almost a comedy on what we're trying to do," Coghill said. "It makes it less legitimate, and that's really unfortunate because we are really trying to figure out what's ethical and what isn't."

How about taxes killing jobs and opportunities for Alaska families? You want to figure out what is ethical and what isn't, how about you chew on that for a while Mr. Coghill?

Rep. Mike Doogan is a man equally responsible for killing thousands of Alaska jobs. But he’s a socialist. It’s his job to kill opportunity and grow government.

At least Doogan is calling this raise the threshold so I can get more free stuff issue like it is.

"This isn't about they can only spend $15," Doogan said. "It's about they can only spend $15 without having to report it. I am not very sympathetic. I keep hearing people talk about that stuff, but really what they're saying is, 'I want to go out and do this and not have my name show up.' "

I wonder if any of the out of work Alaskans are eating lunches under $15.