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Taxpayers deserve charter reform

It’s hard to turn on the TV or radio these days and not see some sort of advertisement for a cyber charter school. The ads are all quick to point out that they are public schools and parents can have their child attend at no cost to them. While this is absolutely true, what the ads don’t say is that the cost is covered by taxpayers, who are funding a second public education system. Charter school funding comes mostly in the form of tuition payments from local school districts for each one of their students who chooses to attend the charter school. School districts will spend ...

Time to get the Trump vaccine

Former President Donald Trump deserves the credit. Through Operation Warp Speed, he cattleprodded the pharmaceutical industry to produce a vaccine to combat the coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease that it causes. His effort succeeded spectacularly. In record time, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson turned out vaccines that have proved to be indisputably safe and highly effective. The have been so successful that they can and should be called the Trump vaccines. And the former president has endorsed the COVID vaccines created under his watch. In an April interview with the ...

Congress should lower drug costs

In Congress, policy negotiations often center on a couple questions: How much does the bill cost and how much does the bill save? But the intense focus on these numbers can have the effect of distancing members from the real-world impact on Americans. Congressional caucuses, like the Rare Disease Congressional Caucus which Joe Crowley co-founded, provide opportunities to hear from people who confront life-altering decisions. Hearing directly from people affected by rare diseases changes the way members consider legislation. As our former colleagues begin to consider H.R. 3, the ...

Other voices: ‘Marines don’t cut and run’

PA state senator offers prospective By Devlin Robinson Watching as Afghanis clung to the sides of American transports during takeoff only to plummet to their deaths as their allies flew off, is a spectacle beyond bearing. I once fought on the very ground their falling bodies struck. I fought in Afghanistan and many of my comrades did not return. We went there with a simple task: Oust a terrorist regime and deliver the country from the grip of extremist zealots. We fought with the certainty that our sacrifice would bring a flourishing democracy to a people who had endured ...

Following Federal Reserve follies

Middle class wage stagnation and a widening wealth gap characterize the U.S. economy today. Our central bank, the Federal Reserve, through its interest rate policies, exacerbates these problems. Here’s why: Interest rates constitute the most important prices in our economy. The level of interest rates affects, directly or indirectly, every saving and spending decision. Interest rates encourage or discourage current consumption. High interest rates discourage consumption as interest increases the product cost (for example) of acquiring a home or automobile. Low interest rates do ...

‘Stuff’: A major part of our lives

“Stuff” is a simple five-letter word that people seldom think of or pay any attention to and never in conjunction with anything of importance. It is just “stuff.” “Stuff” can be something you put in a box to protect an item. When someone opens up the box later, he removes the item and throws away the “stuff.” The word “stuff” is universally applied to many items, and in many ways, it designates those items as unimportant, unnecessary or even undesirable. So, why does “stuff” play such an important role in all our lives? Everyone has too much ...