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Leaving 94 percent of caregivers behind

I am outraged that Governor Shapiro and the Legislature once again passed a state budget that ignores 94 percent of Pennsylvania’s direct care workforce. Only a small portion of home care workers, those in the participant-directed program, received funding. The rest—the caregivers employed by home care agencies serving older adults and people with disabilities across this state—were left behind.  These are the most compassionate people in our workforce. They spend their days caring for others, yet many cannot afford to care for themselves. Because the state refuses to raise ...

Topical

Every decent doctor knows you don’t treat a deep skin cellulitis with topical medicine. One must give oral or IV antibiotics. One could draw a parallel to the fix for big-city crime. What the Trump administration is doing currently with the National Guard is providing a slick, savvy, yet superficial remedy to a far deeper problem made worse by their cuts to education. It will make it worse because it is the wrong medicine. But I suppose, the bigger the problem, the greater the application of Trump’s own remedy. In the end, he might just prove himself right through sheer ...

The shutdown and the rest of us

We should all be thankful for the thousands of federal government workers who have continued to work without pay during the weeks of shutdown. Air traffic controllers, National Weather Service employees, members of the military services and National Guard, altogether hundreds of thousands of people whose services we depend on to keep the country running and keep us safe. But there are just as many federal employees who have been furloughed, who aren’t working and aren’t getting paid. And this is to say nothing of the millions who depend on SNAP benefits to feed themselves and their ...

Our house

I and millions of other Americans recoiled in shock and anger at the first images of the demolition of the East Wing of the White House. Wrecking cranes scavenged through the rubble like raptors in Jurassic Park. From the air, the sacred site looked like it had been bombed. The White House belongs to the American people: it’s not the private property of our billionaire president. Yet he claims the right to do whatever he wants with it – tear off a wing or burn it to the ground. He is planning to build a massive gold-gilded ballroom reminiscent of the Russian Tsar’s Imperial ...

‘Everyone that does Evil Hates the Light’

Charlatans and anarchists redefine words. They also demand, to differentiate between forms of totalitarianism, (which only offer freedom to, ‘the select’), such as: Communism, Fascism. Socialism, Nazism, Marxism, monarchy, dictatorship, theocracy, etc....to insist on specific differences between the models; to force a senseless debate. To sidetrack those, working to restore the vision of our Founders, so Liberty will flourish again. Antifa is an organization! To claim otherwise is laughable. Proof: A flag (symbol of ideology, and identification. To rally people together for a ...

Government shutdown

Sept. 30 of each year there is to be a budget passed. This year the proposed budget was given to be voted on at least a month early so that Sept. 30 budget could be voted on and passed. But the Congress is still not going to pass one. Now all the government employees are to receive back pay, what about all the SNAP recipients — do they get back benefits? A simple solution to cut spending: Put government expenses on exploring new ideas on hold, cut the benefits of the pork barrel, the your-vote-for-my-idea in return, cut the pay to congress with no back pay. Vote next election ...