An Anti-business Senate

The Issue:M The Senate’s anti-biz approach to a seriously sinking and fragile local economy.

Our View: The usual dish of spineless political solutions to serious economic concerns.

It is clear that the Senate, in its infinite wisdom, has no inkling of the disastrous effects of its band-aid solution to the three-year stay limitation.

It isn’t willing to let go pf an inadequacy–its failure to thoroughly review the current controversy a year or so ago–until the issue turned into an eleventh hour urgency.

This blind and dangerous attitude amidst a continuing downward spiral of the local economy. It seems it is willing to ensure a financial meltdown to boast off its ability of fueling uncertainty in the future of investments in these isles.

Interesting that while it harbors such anti-business sentiment of the worsest order, it still thinks that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Perhaps we should require each senator to ask the secretary of commerce how many businesses have shut down over the last four years and why.

It was bad enough for all industries struggling to survive external influences that saw a 30 percent drop in tourism and volume of busineses in other industries. As though this wasn’t enough, ill-poised policymakers fueled the downturn with protectionist measures as though time and resources are all in the palm of their hands.

Senate President Paul Manglona ought to sit down with the budget people on both sides of the street and see for himself what services had to be cut as a result of the lack of revenue generation. Mr. Manglona ought to know by now that these cuts include unnecessarily sacrificing scholarships, medical attention in off-island hospitals, deficit spending to the tune of $40-60 million annually, among others.

It goes to illustrate the obvious lack of leadership, vision and commitment to ensure that he and his colleagues do not kill the goose that lays the golden egg, so to speak. Perhaps it is the Senate’s agenda to inflict joblessness and hopelessness in these isles in the short term.

Is this leadership or a total case of wild adolescency? Is it justice to impose greater hardship upon the ignorant because of your warped agenda? Is the Senate capable of absorbing some 5,000 employees when all industries begin downsizing? Interesting that the lights are on but nobody’s home. Hello?