Sounding off: Executive orders, pardons, deportation on writers’ minds
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Why no conservative outcry over executive orders?
When Barack Obama was president he signed a few executive orders. Conservatives went ape, accusing him of being a dictator, carrying protest signs showing a Hitler mustache on Obama’s face, and demanding his removal from office for over-using executive orders. Now look what we have with Trump. In a few days he signed dozens of massive, sweeping executive orders that seem to ignore the Constitution, Congress, the will of the people and the rule of law. I don’t see many conservatives protesting his use of executive orders.
Also, it seems very obvious to me why Trump didn’t put his hand on a Bible when he took the Oath of Office. Afraid of Hell?
Richard Graham
Sheraden
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Costs of deportation
First off, I have no problem deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes. As for the remainder:
Immigration is using C17s to fly illegals out of the country. The passenger capacity of a C17 is 130 passengers. And it costs approximately $30,000 per hour to operate one. Assume it takes a few hours to fly down to Central America and a few hours back: at 5 hours round trip, that one trip would cost $150,000.
According to the GOP, there are over 10 million illegal immigrants in this country. 10,000,000 divided by 130 passengers = 76,923 flights! 76,923 flights each at $150,000 (conservatively) = $11,538,450,000!
From www.bipartisanpolicy.org: The IRS estimates that undocumented immigrants pay over $9 billion in withheld payroll taxes annually. Undocumented immigrants also help make the Social Security system more solvent, as they pay into the system but are ineligible to collect benefits upon retiring. In 2010, $12 billion more was collected from Social Security payroll taxes of undocumented workers than were paid out in benefits.
So not only is there a tremendous cost for deporting over 10 million illegal immigrants, there is an additional cost of lost income into our system. This isn’t rocket science (President Musk) to do the simple calculation above. Did any of the brilliant minds behind this ever do a cost/benefit analysis? Doesn’t appear so; unless President Musk volunteered to pay for it all. And hell will freeze over before that ever happens.
Jack Sillaman
Latrobe
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Reining in Trump’s inappropriateness
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay becomes so involved in the game that he often wanders into the area where the side judge is to have clear passage, or sometimes even onto the field. To address this problem, the Rams have employed a “get back coach” who follows McVay and pulls him back when he wanders into areas where he is not allowed.
President Trump is in dire need of a get back coach. The second Trump decided he was going to talk to the media so soon after last week’s tragic air collision, the get back coach would have pulled him back. Obviously, he should have left the task to his spokesperson.
The president is a mixed bag even to his supporters. He too frequently says inappropriate things at inappropriate times. He clearly lacks the self-awareness that would allow him to regulate his speech. You would think there must be someone close to him who can convince him of this problem.
We have all met that person whose over-the-top behavior and decisions allowed him to become successful, who arrogantly acts like the smartest person in the room. This person never doubts his behavior or decisions, as they were the key to his success. Unfortunately, it appears Trump has this condition — on steroids.
Trump’s inappropriate speech and timing make it easy for Democrats to criticize his actions and agenda. Let us hope that his at times inappropriate behavior does not impact his ability to achieve what he was elected to do, and is already doing.
Rob Smith
Irwin
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A rundown of the last 8 years
Many Americans are conflicted about what significant events actually happened politically in, and to, our great country, over the past eight years. Both sides accuse each other of continually lying. As a political junkie of many years, here is my summary of the essential, pertinent, verifiable facts of the last eight years as I see them.
From 2020 to 2024, President Biden did a really lousy job of running our country. His left-wing big government spending, and his efforts to eliminate the use of American fossil fuels, drove the inflation of prices from 2% a year under President Trump to over 7% a year, and spiked our bloated federal deficit.
His aggressive border policy created havoc and accelerated drug and child trafficking and crimes by illegal immigrants. Wars flared up in Ukraine and throughout the Middle East. He used the Department of Justice, the FBI and state prosecutors as weapons to try to destroy Trump. They attacked Trump personally, and not for his policies or job performance.
In 2024, Trump went directly to the American people who voted overwhelmingly to put him back in office and clearly rejected Biden/Harris, the Democrats, and their mainstream media accomplices.
In measuring Trump, don’t judge him on what “they,” the media, say he said. Judge him for what he does, because unlike Biden, many politicians and the left-wing media, he tells it like he believes it is.
Ron Raymond
Buffalo Township
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Recent pardons signal trouble ahead
On Jan. 20, two presidents set a troubling precedent by each issuing broad pardons in the span of a few hours.
President Biden preemptively pardoned family members and government officials to prevent hypothetical future prosecution.
In a much more troubling move, President Trump pardoned over 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters, including many violent offenders, signaling that under his administration, ideological loyalty takes priority of the verdicts of juries.
Every president has issued pardons, often controversially, but these recent announcements make it easy to envision a new era in which future presidents are increasingly willing to issue sweeping pardons for their allies, completely circumventing the role of the judicial system. This opens the door for bad actors both within and outside the government to act with impunity without fear of repercussions for criminal behavior. If criticized for the pardons, a president could simply refer to prior presidents’ similar actions or make vague claims about political persecution.
It is critical that future presidents restore the confidence of the American people by avoiding unwarranted pardons and trusting our justice system to do its job fairly.
Christopher Bailey
McCandless
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Fiscal ineptness in Westmoreland
It seems to me that an unyielding virus of fiscal ineptness has developed in the Great Land of Westmoreland (GLOW).
It started when two of the three county commissioners — the regular one and the bald one — went scorched earth on taxpayers a year or so ago after they got out of their beds one morning and realized their spending had put us on the brink of going broke. What ensued was possibly the largest county real estate tax hike in history.
Now the fever of fiscal folly has spread from the golden-domed headquarters of GLOW and resurfaced in the form of fees levied by the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County. MAWC is an “authority” run by a subset of individuals appointed by the commissioners of GLOW to run an aqua dynasty. The appointees are essentially responsible for gathering up clean water and putting it into the pipes that service the taxpaying and ratepaying great unwashed.
Over time the MAWC big thinkers jumped across Westmoreland’s borders to acquire foundering water operations in Allegheny, Armstrong, Fayette and Indiana counties. Has this thirst to expand contributed to today’s financial situation?
Today MAWC is apparently a fiscal dumpster fire. Last year it raised fees 9%. The other day the leadership gave its rate-o-meter another spin and came up with an additional 9.5% increase.
This reason for this gouging is, it was explained, is that stuff costs more.
George Beidler
Hempfield
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What will $25 million for Norwin stadium do for the area?
Regarding the massive improvement planned at the Norwin football/sports stadium: $25 million for upgrades at a facility used by 15% of the student population? That number may be higher or lower. But the point is, what is the benefit of this investment?
Will it improve our standing locally, statewide or possibly nationally as a competitive sports facility? Is the facility used for post-competition to the regular season? Is Norwin School District compensated for that usage? Will it improve the education efficiency of our educators? Will it pay for itself in, say, five to 10 years?
Will it bring more permanent residents to our community? From what I’ve seen, there is a shortage of housing where people are wanting to move. North Huntingdon is a major landing spot for many. Yet our school board, community leaders, etc., seem to believe we need to invest in an entertainment facility to draw attention to an already existing monument. It wasn’t that long ago that a massive amount of money was used to “improve” this stadium. Did any of the previous improvements contribute to any type of championship?
These massive spending sprees help none of us. I’m all for paying aggressive educators. I’m also pro sports. Yet without education, sports will never succeed.
Jim Richardson
North Huntingdon