Congress is failing us

An open letter to the United States Congress:

To the radicals on the right: You are not conservatives, you are obstructionists.

To the radicals on the left: You may be “woke,” but you are not awake.

Stop acting like a bunch of amateur circus clowns and start doing your damn jobs.

You weren’t elected to continuously make allegations against the opposing party, or hold endless investigations and hearings, or continuously threaten to impeach the president.

You weren’t elected to post self-serving cutesy social media posts and to be in never-ending campaign mode.

You weren’t elected to brainlessly do the bidding of your party’s leadership.

You were elected to serve your constituents.

You were elected to create meaningful legislation that enhances the security of America and the well-being of its citizens.

You were elected to be responsible stewards of the hard-earned tax dollars that citizens pay, not to drive the country into bankruptcy.

You were elected to solve serious issues confronting the nation, including the invasion of millions of illegal aliens, the quickly approaching insolvency of Social Security, and the inconceivably huge and unsustainable national debt, among others.

You were elected to do what is right, not what is easy and self-serving.

You are failing at all the above, and America and its citizens are paying the price!

Michael Bitterice

Freeport

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Taylor’s election influence

As I try to recover from the trauma of the Punxsutawney Phil debacle, now the holy war is all about Taylor Swift and her possible election endorsement. I have heard ludicrous propaganda schemes before, but this one ranks No. 1 and is infuriating. Whether you’re a Swiftie, MAGA or Biden booster, you should agree that this type of election obstruction should be no part of campaigns.

Swift got 35,000 new voters; that’s great. However, they say 70% of her fans would choose her candidate, should she endorse someone. This reminds me of the Chicken Little verse: If she told you the sky was falling, would you run for cover or have better sense?

I’m not Debby Downer on Taylor; she’s quite talented, a vigorous businesswoman and, in some cases, very generous. But her influence is no better than Punxsy Phil’s forecast. She’s not going to put food on your table, make gas prices fall, change interest rates or skyrocket your drained 401(k).

Most of these stars likely hide their money in foreign banks or claim citizenship in less tax-burdening countries. The cast of cronies we choose to idolize probably know nothing of economic hardship.

We all grew up with posters on our bedroom walls, fan club letters and tokens from concerts, but soon found out when our feet hit the pavement that we just padded these people’s pockets. Mentorship in America should be about folks who bring about groundbreaking cures and research on a better quality of life, not about Kelsie haircuts and singing along with a song.

Cheryl Koloshinsky

Latrobe

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The despicable Joseph R. Biden

We are living inside the Theater of the Absurd. This is not an overstatement. If anything, it fails to fully convey the impossibly dishonest, diabolical, disastrous administration of Joseph R. Biden. No dystopian novel ever written could have portrayed a more terrifying vision of a world and nation gone mad amidst the chaos and defilement of societal norms happening over the past three years of this inane and incomprehensible administration.

The litany of lies began on day one, perpetrated by Biden and his advisers. Allow me to refresh your memories. “I have never spoken to my son about his business dealings”; the Afghanistan withdrawal was an “unprecedented success”; the Republicans want to defund the police; “white supremacy … is the single most dangerous terrorist threat in our homeland”; voter ID “makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle” (wwwwhat???!!); there is no crisis on the southern border (repeated for three years), and, recently, the southern border has been in crisis “for the last 10 years” and we need Congress to act so we can solve the crisis at the southern border. (Any president can take emergency action to respond to a crisis. Never mind that it was his action that created the crisis.)

It might be too late to alter the trajectory of tragedy. If the despicable Joe Biden gets another four years, the freest, richest, most glorious nation in history absolutely crumbles. My biggest fear is that left-wing power brokers will not allow an election in November if they don’t believe they can control the outcome.

Richard Byers

Mt. Pleasant

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Trump’s no victim

People keep asking, “How could the corrupt DOJ indict the leading ‘Republican’ candidate for POTUS? It’s political interference, it’s unfair, it’s Biden’s fault!” It’s no secret that Donald Trump is flawed; so is President Biden, but Trump is likely running for POTUS to save himself from prosecution.

If Trump is elected, he can probably make most of his legal problems go away. He knew last fall before announcing his candidacy that he was being investigated on multiple fronts in multiple states, and chances were high he would face possible indictments. Unlike the rest of us, he’s never done anything wrong. It’s laughable!

We all know he brought most of this on himself because he thinks rules don’t apply to him. Trump’s not a victim of a conspiracy; he’s never willing to conform or adhere to any rules, from his businesses to politics to his personal life. Everything he does is self-serving for his own enrichment. Has he financially helped anyone who’s been indicted trying to help or defend him? If he had we’d surely hear about it.

There’s never been a great president in my seven decades and there won’t be one in anyone else’s. Each POTUS had his flaws. The presidency is too difficult for anyone to be great. We need to tamper our expectations of the office but not our democracy — it’s what this country was founded upon.

The question is, where has our integrity gone? We vote these people into office to serve us, and they end up serving special interests, their party and lastly, maybe us. Our politicians don’t even try to hide it anymore. They don’t care what we think once they’re elected.

We are the problem. We blame everything but the person we see in the mirror every morning.

Rick Parker

Jeannette

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Straight talk about MAGA

During the last century, America became a great nation — great in terms of education, industry, energy, agriculture, health care, the arts, infrastructure and wealth. In short, America was the envy of the world as we came together to rebuild nations ravaged by war and support underprivileged nations as they struggled to modernize.

Over the past decade or so, America has become increasingly divided between conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats. Conservatives believe in Making America Great Again (MAGA). That consists of limited government, fiscal responsibility, freedom of choice, hard work and the nuclear family as the formula for a successful future. Conservative government provides low inflation, low interest rates and lower taxes.

Liberals look to expand their influence by making more people dependent on an ever-expanding government, resulting in higher taxes, deficit spending, increased inflation and interest rates.

America now has a liberal presidency and Senate, and a conservative House of Representatives. In seeking reelection, the president has referred to MAGA Republicans as a threat to America’s democracy. Nothing could be further from the truth!

If continued, Democrat liberalism will result in America’s bankruptcy and the rise of a dictator- led government. Examples include Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the Eastern bloc, China, Cuba and Venezuela. Just two generations ago, Venezuela, with its huge oil reserves, was the wealthiest nation in Latin America. Today, many of its people are starving in the streets or fleeing to our open southern border.

Ask yourself — is that the America you want for your grandchildren?

Maury Fey

Murrysville

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Fix immigration system by enforcing existing laws

To all those who think the reason why we have so many immigrants coming across the southern border is because our immigration system is broken, consider this: We have approximately 370 laws already on the books to deal with illegal immigration. Many of them are not being enforced because of choices made by the Biden administration.

If our immigration system is broken, it is only because our politicians and bureaucrats have failed their oath of office by refusing to enforce many of the laws that are on the books.

What makes you think one more law is going to fix the problem? I say enforce the laws we have before passing another law that only will be selectively enforced, and let’s see what happens.

Ralph Dunsworth

Oviedo, Fla.

The writer is a former Murrysville president.

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Who wants to be a police officer today?

I read with dismay the article lamenting the decline in municipal police officers and the lack of new recruits (“Interest in local police work drops in Western Pa. despite jump in state police academy applicants,” Feb. 7, TribLive). Gee, I wonder why that is. It couldn’t be the result of being forced to take an experimental vaccine (city of Pittsburgh). I doubt it’s because officers don’t like having frozen bottles of water and urine thrown at them (the “summer of ‘love’ ”). Maybe people are too scared to put their lives on the line every day for those who do nothing but demonize them (George Floyd).

Perhaps it’s because the mayors and DAs don’t back them up and allow many of the criminals they arrest back onto the streets to do it all over again. Lastly, it might be because they’re afraid to defend themselves in a bad situation because they might end up in jail.

Other than that, I got nothin’.

Trudy Olsen

East Huntingdon

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