The 591-page American Rescue Plan is full of “pork.” Supposedly it is to fight and provide covid relief, but the bill instead is designed to cure social inequities. Keep in mind that these amounts are in addition to what is already budgeted for in these areas. Even programs directly addressing the pandemic contain funds for items not directly related.
Sadly, I think the media is doing a disservice by not bringing these items to the public’s attention. Here are just some of them:
• $1.5 million for Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway development
• $1.5 billion for Amtrak — the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
• $1 billion for loan assistance to socially disadvantaged farmers
• $7.6 billion for improved internet access
• $19 million for the National Institute for the Deaf
• $270 million for the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities
• $39 billion for child care block grants
• $20 million to update the Affordable Care Act exchange technology
• $5 billion for homelessness assistance services
• $50 billion for FEMA
• $4 billion to farmers for loan forgiveness and to help those denied loans
• $4 billion to expand Child Tax Credit to $3,600.
• $73 billion to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit
• $130 billion for K-12 schools for covid and to hire support staff
• $40 billion for colleges for covid and increased low income student aid
• $39 billion for child care providers
• $35.5 billion for increased Affordable Care Act subsidies
• $350 billion for state and local governments
• $880 million to expand the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
• Tens of billions for government manpower and oversight
Tom Cerra, Latrobe
Think of others — wear a mask, get the vaccine
I want to applaud Lori Falce’s column “Why did I get the vaccine?”. I think it could be used by President Biden to head his “unity” mantra for all Americans. Well done, Lori!
It reminded me of a recent conversation I had with my BFF. I was telling her that I found my Uncle Mike’s letters home from his World War II tour of duty. He was stationed throughout the Pacific during the war for 43 months with no trips home. During this time, his four brothers were also drafted, and his father passed away. My uncle and his mother wrote letters to their representatives and senators and the Department of Defense, begging for his return home to help his mother. It was denied. Although several of his brothers were injured and suffered from PTSD, through the grace of God, Uncle Mike returned home and lived a quiet simple life with his family, in one piece, uninjured.
I never knew of his hardships; Uncle Mike was humble, happy and loved by his friends and family. I cried when I read his letters and wished I would have told him how proud I was of him, and offered sympathy for his sorrows. My BFF listened; she knew my Uncle Mike. After a quiet pause, she said, “And people complain about wearing a mask!”
Think about your fellow Americans and their safety; wear a mask and get the vaccine, for the love at least of all, your mother and loved ones.
Carmella Pucci, New Eagle
Legislators wrong to fight mail-in voting
I believe Trump supporter Leslie Rossi, Republican candidate for the state House seat in the 59th District, who’s urging like-minded voters in that district to go in person to their polling places May 18 and help her become their next state legislator, would vote to overturn our state’s mail-in voting law.
I’ve voted in person for every election since I turned 18. But now I’m at high risk for contracting covid-19 because of my age (71) and my autoimmune disease. I don’t drive, and my community has no public transportation to get me to the polling place. I voted by mail in the 2020 presidential election and I submitted my application for a mail-in ballot for this year’s primary election.
I believe overturning the state’s mail-in voting law is another GOP voter suppression tactic to stop hundreds of thousands of legally registered voters from casting our votes, decrease election turnout and favor Republican candidates. This will penalize voters who, because of their age, location, lack of transportation, inability to receive covid vaccines or other medical challenges, don’t want to risk going inside a polling place during this horrific pandemic.
Many Republican legislators say they support allowing mail-in voting for Pennsylvania voters who are active duty military and Pennsylvanians who work out of state. I want to hear how these state legislators will justify overturning the mail-in voting law while allowing exceptions for certain voters but denying others the right to cast our votes by mail, a right granted by both the U.S. and Pennsylvania constitutions.
Frances Weiss, White Oak
America’s dangerous money game
After having read the article “Board games provide low-tech alternative to online obsessions”, which claimed renewed interest in board games during the pandemic, I decided it might be a great day to blow the dust off the family Monopoly game. As my game dealer dealt me out the designated $1,500 to start the game, I couldn’t help but think that gaming money in the near future might eclipse the value of the few supposedly “real” funny money dollars I was carrying in my pocket.
It’s no secret we can print American money faster than the money that’s made to play the game. If this $1.9 trillion stimulus package comes to fruition, we all will suffer long-term consequences.
There are “help wanted” signs everywhere I look. The unemployed need to procure jobs rather than wait for this temporary Band-Aid. Those who don’t need this money had better sock it away, for the inflation and taxation which is sure to follow will demand repayment tenfold.
Our national debt is quickly approaching $30 trillion, which far surpasses the GDP. Washington’s profligacy and lack of a credible commitment to fiscal responsibility also threatens the country’s valuable status as the supplier of the world’s primary reserve currency: the U.S. dollar. This, most importantly, imposes an unfair burden on future generations by imperiling the American dream.
May God in his infinite wisdom help this world filled with greed, slothfulness and self-entitlement.
Jim Fontana Sr., Unity
Letter-writers should educate themselves
I resisted writing this opinion for a few weeks. As I read more letters, I realized I had to speak out. Thank God we have the First Amendment. And this page is just what it says it is, opinion. (We can write or say almost anything in this country.)
One writer discusses affidavits. Because it is signed by the writer doesn’t mean it’s true. Another writer broaches the subject of the stock market drop and says he lost three times the value of his first home purchase. Guess what — the next week you got the money back, and then some. Yet another writer addresses socialism and invokes Marxism, in an attempt to show that this country is moving in that direction. Not by a long shot. Because we take care of our own, and others as well.
So do me a favor before you write: Take a civics or political science course, and brush up on market economy and stock market history.
Leonard Mucci, Derry Township
Biden’s executive orders
President Biden, the man who promised to govern by consensus, having both the House and Senate under Democratic control, has already issued nearly 60 executive orders and actions, more than any other president in U.S. history.
It is my opinion that some of these “signings” can only be classified as dehumanizing, sinful and treasonous.
On Jan. 20, his administration froze President Trump’s Executive Order on Access to Affordable Life-Saving Medications that was to go into effect Jan. 22, and would have lowered the cost of insulin, epinephrine and other prescription drugs and which the pharmaceutical industry had opposed.
He revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and issued a temporary moratorium on oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other federal lands. Thousands of good-paying union jobs were lost overnight.
His Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation is a punch in the face to all young women who want to participate in sports on an equal footing with their peers.
He issued a memorandum to “ensure that regulatory review serves as a tool to affirmatively promote regulations” rather than discourage them.
Other actions put an end to border wall construction; revoked Trump’s order to streamline federal workforce; reversed Trump’s transgender military ban; banned the use of the term “China virus”; made climate change the focus of national security; revoked a regulation that prohibited U.S. foreign aid to be used for abortions; and expanded “protection of LGBTQ people around the world.”
Joseph Krill, Delmont
Trump must face consequences
It is imperative that President Trump suffer the criminal charges he may face. The proof of him inciting the crowd to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, and telling them he’ll meet them there, is on tape. The travesty is that aside from the radical fringe groups, most of the people at the riot were everyday working people, many who ruined their lives by being duped by Trump and didn’t receive pardons.
Even worse are the shallow cowards who still support him in order to get reelected by the Trump base — Reps. Mike Kelly and Guy Reschenthaler, Sen. Josh Hawley, who apparently thinks he’ll be president some day, and Sen. Ted Cruz, who sold his soul after Trump defamed his family members. They refuse to do what’s right, disregarding the scary reality that there could have been multiple deaths in this attempted coup d’etat at our Capitol.
Hopefully the rule of law will triumph over Trump, whom his former chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly, called “the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.”
Tom Tarosky, West Leechburg
Categories: Letters to the Editor | Opinion
March 07, 2021 at 12:01AM
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Sounding off: Too much pork in American Rescue Plan - TribLIVE
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