Fat Cats

Suddenly, anybody who forked over $5,000 to attend Mayor Rendell's fund- raiser last February looks like a piker. Some of the well-heeled guests at a private, invitation-only dinner at his house last Thursday were hit up for $25,000 and more. By stuffing his multimillion-dollar war chest with fat checks from fat cats, Mr. Rendell makes himself virtually unbeatable for re-election next year. But there's a price: The average resident has to wonder whether these donors will get special treatment from City Hall.

The campaign for two seats on the Camden County Board of Freeholders has been reduced to trading accusations that the opposition is being funded by "fat cats. " At a debate last night, the Democratic and Republican candidates in next Tuesday's election exchanged allegations that their rivals are bankrolled by people with deep pockets and hidden agendas. "I'm very concerned about all that money flowing in from North Jersey," Democrat Robert E. Andrews said of the Republican's campaign funding.

No, the line-item veto isn't a magic wand that would balance the budget for the first time since 1969. That task will require a bipartisan deal that cuts back on entitlements, not a mini-veto that basically tells Congress: Hey, wait a minute. Still, giving the president this new power to reject spending items line-by-line - and to veto narrowly targeted tax breaks as well - serves the cause of fiscal responsibility. Call it a belated tribute to former President Ronald Reagan, who asked for it back while he was adding $1.4 trillion to the national debt.

Out in the real America, from New York to Los Angeles, April is tax time, when the average American taxpayer ruefully realizes that someone else must be enjoying all those fancy write-offs and deductions. In Washington, however, April is shaping up as a month when Congress is getting ready to pass even more breaks for the select few. Call it the Big Contributors and Influential Lobbyists Relief Act of 1997. If campaign-finance reform were on the books, the politicos wouldn't need to pay back their big donors so richly - but it isn't, and they do. That's entirely in keeping with everything else in the nation's capital these days - a city bankrupt of ideas, where money is all that matters.

IRONY HAS a wicked sense of humor. For those of us who have very little, the current government and Wall Street fiascoes will not be the catalyst that leaves us shaking in our old, well-worn, freshly shined boots. We have-nots have a survival experience that the "fat cats" only know about from watching "Lost. " While they stand frozen in fear, we just reach down a little deeper, making a little less go a little further. You see, we have a paper bag full of moves that their Louis Vuitton bags don't carry.

Budget crunch time usually comes toward the end of the city's fiscal year. Some time in March or April, the mayor discovers the city is running a little short. The reaction? First, the city imposes a hiring freeze. Then, it delays purchasing things like desks, lawn mowers, even toilet paper. When that's not enough to close the gap, it sometimes delays paying contractors until "next year. " This year is different. Only three months into the fiscal year, the budget crunch is hitting home with a vengeance.

Years ago, when insurance companies were dumping their customers in Pennsylvania and refusing to write new policies, no public official came to our rescue. Today, Lynne Abraham, funded by the state, comes running to the rescue of the fat cats of the insurance companies. No wonder Americans join militias or embrace socialist ideologies. The Daily News itself became an apologist for the capitalist fat cats when your reporter outright lied in saying local insurance rates are high because a segment of the population is insured in other states.

Now that Congress and the federal government can no longer afford to pay for the give-away programs they started, they are turning these programs over to the states. Great. There is one catch. We must reduce the federal taxes going to Washington since they are no longer funding these programs. They no longer need so much money. That way the states can increase their taxes by the amount the federal government no longer needs. Since Congress brought about the mess we are in with their deficit spending and only representing the special interest groups, we cannot let it escape the Gramm-Rudman noose.

Pigs flew over the U.S. Capitol Wednesday. Not really, but something happened that many had considered just as unlikely. Congress passed an honest-to-goodness reform of the poisoned, corrosive system by which federal political campaigns are financed. Don't lose sight of the central miracle of the bill known in the Senate as McCain-Feingold, in the House as Shays-Meehan. It is this: The politicians who voted to end the ugly reign of unregulated "soft" money could not be sure how what they were doing would affect their own futures.

EVERYBODY remembers where they were on 9/11, but it was the day after that I remember most. I worked the night shift on 9/11 after watching TV all day. On 9/12, there was no noise, nobody running for the bus, no children going to school, no airplane noise. People were walking around in a daze, some crying. It reminded me of the day JFK was killed when I was a kid. My father used to tell me about Pearl Harbor, and what Americans felt. I understand now, because on 9/12, I felt the same way. I wanted to go to war and make the people who did this pay. We all felt so helpless.

The Occupy Philly protesters have worn out their welcome at their tent-city encampment on Dilworth Plaza in Center City. For the Occupy movement nationally, it's also time to reassess its strategy to bring about economic, governmental, and social change. Americans struggling to emerge from a devastating recession don't see how the Occupy camp-outs are making any difference. With their numbers in Philadelphia swelled by the homeless, reports of a weekend rape in a tent, the arrest Tuesday of two men who police say punched others at the site, and with what city officials view as a growing public-health threat from unsanitary conditions and fire hazards, it's clearly time for the Occupy Philly contingent to move on. Beyond the obvious fraying of conditions at the loosely organized protest, the local Occupy folks are standing in the way of a $50 million makeover of the plaza due to start this month.

EVERYBODY remembers where they were on 9/11, but it was the day after that I remember most. I worked the night shift on 9/11 after watching TV all day. On 9/12, there was no noise, nobody running for the bus, no children going to school, no airplane noise. People were walking around in a daze, some crying. It reminded me of the day JFK was killed when I was a kid. My father used to tell me about Pearl Harbor, and what Americans felt. I understand now, because on 9/12, I felt the same way. I wanted to go to war and make the people who did this pay. We all felt so helpless.

HICH Side Are You On?" is a song written in 1931 by Florence Reece, the wife of an organizer for the United Mine Workers. But the lyric "It seems like it's illegal to fight for the union anymore" feels very current as even the right to collective bargaining is under attack by many state governments. Unions are a very important part of our history, yet it's a topic rarely taught in schools. Given all that's going on these days with organized labor and jobs, especially public-sector unions, maybe it's time to reflect on who we are, and what we stand for. When "Which Side Are You On?

GOV. CORBETT has been criticized for not engaging the media early in his term. Well, if he acted like a silent movie star before announcing his first budget, then his actual budget address and his recent interview with me have been treated with the fanfare of a big- budget Hollywood blockbuster. In his budget address, Corbett struck the theme that the commonwealth is facing a $4 billion hole, and what he calls the "education industry" shouldn't be insulated from helping to fill it. This has led to proposed cutbacks in state funding for local school districts, but the most controversial cutbacks involve Pennsylvania colleges and universities that receive significant state funding.

MANY OF YOU are likely familiar with the provocative TLC reality show "Honey, We're Killing the Kids," a series that illustrates the consequences our children suffer when bad parenting and lifestyle habits get out of control. In short, the program highlights the serious toll obesity is taking not only on adults, but also the health and future of our most precious resource, our children. Sadly, our pets are suffering, too. "Honey, We're Killing our Dogs," cats and other pets could be the next reality show coming to your local cable station.

Illinois, infamous for political corruption, enacted its first-ever campaign contribution limits last week, on the one-year anniversary of the arrest of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Pennsylvania should be next. Only 11 states, including Pennsylvania, have yet to limit how much money individuals or political action committees can donate to candidates for public office. It's a failure that erodes public confidence in the legislature and allows special interests to dictate public policy coming out of Harrisburg.

The Republican National Committee is unwisely attempting to turn back campaign-finance law to the days when fat cats played an even bigger role in elections. The RNC has filed suit in federal court to overturn restrictions on parties and candidates working in unison, and to get rid of the ban on unlimited contributions known as "soft money. " A three-judge panel is expected to rule on the case by this summer. The court must reject the RNC's case, or risk sending the political process back to an era when corporations and other special interests dominated elections with six- and seven-figure donations.

IRONY HAS a wicked sense of humor. For those of us who have very little, the current government and Wall Street fiascoes will not be the catalyst that leaves us shaking in our old, well-worn, freshly shined boots. We have-nots have a survival experience that the "fat cats" only know about from watching "Lost. " While they stand frozen in fear, we just reach down a little deeper, making a little less go a little further. You see, we have a paper bag full of moves that their Louis Vuitton bags don't carry.

There's a new fat cat in town. When Prince Chunk, the reported 44-pound pussycat, was discovered in Voorhees in late July, the tubby tabby made national headlines and captivated morning television news shows. This week, a pretender to Chunk's throne arrived on the scene. He's Shamu - a 35-pound, black-and-white furball - who was found in Camden on Monday and dropped off at the same Blackwood animal shelter where Prince Chunk launched his 15 minutes of fame. Shamu looks chubbier than his predecessor - and he may well be. "Chunk was a big cat with a large bone structure.

Prince Chunk, the beige-and-white cat from New Jersey who attracted public attention with his considerable girth, has landed on his paws, so to speak. The 10-year-old feline was placed with an adoptive family yesterday after blood work at the Camden County Animal Shelter came back normal. "This is a fairy-tale ending," said shelter director Jennifer Andersch. "The only physical problem with this cat is that he is overweight. " Andersch said Chunk's new family, who were not identified, was picked out of 500 others who applied to adopt him. The family was chosen because it owns a cat and dog, mirroring what the chubby puss was used to in his prior home.