Sounding off: Minimum wage, Biden, Trump at top of week's letters

Pennsylvanians need a raise

State Rep. Jesse Topper hit the nail on the head when he said Pennsylvanians need more money in their pockets (“We can stop the pinch who stole Christmas,” Dec. 20, TribLive). But he was tone deaf with his answer. We, the struggling middle class, need a pay increase to deal with the high cost of living. Topper’s solution, a decrease in taxes, will not get us where we need to be. We need an increase in wages.

The minimum wage has been frozen at $7.25 for 15 years. Like his Republican colleagues, Topper has voted against increasing our minimum wage. Yet these same representatives give themselves an automatic pay raise every year, 2020 being an exception. They now earn over six figures. Pennsylvania has the third highest paid legislators in the country, right behind California and New York.

Considering that a living wage in Pennsylvania is around $22 to $24 per hour, but a comfortable wage is reported to be double that amount, it leads to the conclusion that a living wage covers the absolute bare minimum. When you consider that 6 in 10 U.S. jobs pay less than $25 per hour, you can understand why people are angry.

Pennsylvania Senate Bill 1186 would raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour but is being blocked by Republicans, including Topper and our own Sen. Kim Ward.

I cannot understand why our Republican representatives feel they deserve a raise but their constituents do not.

Sandy Kremer

Youngwood

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Biden is unfit and should be removed

In my opinion, President Biden has proven that he is unfit for office, but he is still there. There is a set process to remove him if he is unable to do his job. To me, the people trusted to protect the country are showing themselves just as unfit. Shouldn’t the Supreme Court be able to jump into action to save our country? Waiting until the last second of his term is extremely foolish.

Edward Biskup

Penn Township, Westmoreland County

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Trump’s promises and priorities

Is anyone registering what Donald Trump is now saying about the price of groceries and Social Security? I watched at least six times as he promised to lower prices of groceries “on Day 1.” Now he is saying it is complicated and won’t be easy (hint, it’s not going to happen).

What about his promise to not touch Social Security? We’re already hearing from GOP Congress members that they will be looking at ways to “rein it in,” including raising the retirement age to 70 and adjusting benefits. I think what Trump is doing instead is laying the groundwork for the $4 trillion tax cut for the very wealthy and large corporations.

Speaking of his priorities, how about going after Ann Selzer for releasing a poll that had Kamala Harris in the lead? Revenge and retribution seem to be his priorities, as well as shutting down any media that isn’t his lap dog. And the people cheer, not understanding that freedom of the press is one of the bedrocks of the Constitution. We need journalists reporting on government activities that don’t align with America, not just Trump mouthpieces.

I see letters loving that he is nominating cabinet members who have no credentials or experience for the position. I mean, what could go wrong there? The absolute wealthiest cabinet group in American history with the majority being billionaires. The rest are just measly millionaires. Surely they understand our pain and problems so they will be looking out for our interests, not their own? If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.

Karla Thomas

Hempfield

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Trump-haters will be eating their words

I read with some sadness the letter “Let Trump’s destruction play out” (Dec. 27, TribLive). In his first sentence the writer steals from the greatest talk show host and conservative commentator of all time, Rush Limbaugh, who coined the term “low information voter” years ago to describe people just like this writer.

I do, however, agree that Democrats need to stay out of President-elect Trump’s way so he can achieve the clear mandate that America has given him, which is not to destroy the country as the writer suggests.

In true liberal fashion he attempts to tie Russia to Trump by stating someone in Putin’s inner circle stated Trump has an obligation to those who voted for him. That is absolutely correct but has nothing to do with Russia.

He also suggests Trump is a habitual liar and a traitor. I am saddened because the hatred of Trump from people like him and other indoctrinated liberals is something I thought I would never see in my lifetime. They have no empathy and refuse to listen to opposing views. In my experience, with all liberals it is always pot kettle black.

You will be eating your words over the next four years.

John Pierce

Cocoa Beach, Fla.

The writer is a former Monroeville resident.

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Have we elected a king in Trump?

The headline “Judge rejects Trump’s bid to dismiss hush money conviction because of Supreme Court immunity ruling” (Dec. 16, TribLive) caught my eye. Reading the AP article raised my eyebrows, and I had to read and reread the last line of the first paragraph, “But the overall future of the historic case remains unclear.” Unclear? Only to those who haven’ been paying the least bit of attention.

The case, much about Donald Trump paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 for sex he says they never had, resulted in a jury conviction for falsifying business records. But thanks to Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices dreaming up presidential immunity from prosecution for federal crimes (not state), appeals have been made in the state case. His stall-and-appeal lawyers have won. Trump is above the law.

The indictments against Trump for stealing classified documents and inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection have vanished into thin air. The Georgia case dealing with election interference is on life support.

Our nation’s founders, fresh off a revolution cutting ties with the British monarchy, made an effort when writing the Constitution to provide a system of checks and balances that promised to prevent future heads of the executive branch of government from having king-like powers. They failed and must be rolling over in their graves.

American voters have elected a king.

Glenn Plummer

Unity

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Cost of covid treatment evidence of drug companies’ gouging

A few months ago a friend of mine contracted covid. Soon after, her medical insurance company issued a statement stating they had paid the drug company $1,453.55 for the Paxlovid treatment. The high cost of the antiviral was a little concerning and I decided to do some research into the situation. Here are my findings.

The National Institutes of Health received billions of dollars to fund the research and development of treatments for covid. Those dollars came from taxes paid by you, the American taxpayer.

The drug company’s production cost is $13.38. The cost to you the consumer is $1,390 to $1,455. A 100-times mark-up.

How did the drug industry use those massive profits? The large drug company CEOs’ compensation is in the tens of millions of dollars yearly. The drug industry further enriches the CEOs and shareholders by spending billions on stock buybacks. The industry spends more on stock buybacks than on research and development.

The industry also spends billions of dollars in advertising and billions of dollars on lobbying. The pharmaceuticals use their excess profits from price gouging us to legally bribe our lawmakers to work for them instead of we, their constituents.

It is time for us to demand a change.

Gloria Gralewski

Manor

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Destroying our foundations

Webster defines murder as an unlawful killing, and it should be condemned. The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, however, has been hailed by some and justified by others (such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who stated that “you can only push someone so far”) as though this murder were a lawful act, like a soldier killing in combat.

This perverted attitude toward murder and the law reflects the depravity of social norms. This is observed also in liberal attitudes of redefining an illegal immigrant as an “undocumented person” or calling a biological man a woman. By changing the definition of words, we destroy the fabric of our legal system and thereby the foundation of our society. If the definition of unlawful becomes warped into lawful, then murder becomes condoned, and reality becomes delusional.

I believe this trend to alter the meaning of words has been promulgated throughout our liberal education system in an effort to destroy Western civilization (“Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Western Civ has got to go”). The foundation of Western civilization is stated in the Ten Commandments — “Do not murder” — which has been stricken from our schools and public institutions by liberal ideologies under the false narrative of separation of church and state.

Dr. Joel I. Last

Greensburg