Earn your fat paycheck
Pennsylvania’s new 2025-2026 legislative session needs to get things done. In the previous legislative session, only 239 of the 3,841 bills that were introduced got passed and signed into law by Gov. Shapiro. Pennsylvania, with the largest full-time state legislature in the country, is among the least productive. Unacceptable.
In 2024 our state legislators earned a $106k per year base salary with a built-in 3% annual increase, plus per diems and benefits. Pennsylvania’s General Assembly, one of the largest in the country, costs taxpayers more than $1 million a day. Work together. We want results.
Pass legislation regarding lead testing for children. Many lead-testing bills with bipartisan support have been introduced in the eight years since the discovery of lead-contaminated drinking water in Flint, Michigan, but the bills usually die in committee. Unacceptable.
Bills with strong bipartisan support should be given a vote in committee, and if voted out of committee they deserve a vote on the chamber floor. If bills pass in one chamber with bipartisan support, the other chamber should respect that work with a corresponding vote. We want results.
Marion Brown
Fox Chase
Mayor, Council owned by unions
A couple of things came out of the failed arena deal. First, the mayor and the 12 Council people who ignored all the negative studies and voted yes for the arena ended up looking like buffoons. Secondly, the taxpayers found how the mayor and City Council’s 12 yes voters are totally owned by the unions. The unions would have gotten the work no matter where the arena was built. Thirdly, the Sixers took the whole city for a ride with no ramifications. If the voters don’t start voting out the Council people, especially Mark Squilla (totally ignored his constituents), we deserve everything we get. They very overtly sold themselves to the devil and they ended up with egg on their face.
Richard Donofry
East Torresdale
Competitive products restore jobs
We have been discussing at length the importance of expanding manufacturing in America. Many products continue to bear the names of American corporations, but they are no longer made in the United States and we need to urge businesses to restore no less than 50% of everything now sold in America with an American-made label once again. We do that every time we seek our American-made products.
It is clear that a growing number of Americans are shopping with the intent of looking at labels and asking for American-made products. After considerable research, we find that for the price we are paying now for items with foreign-made labels, we could be purchasing a competitive American-made product for the same cost. This would allow us to get more Americans employed again.
Our research also indicates that one of the major difficulties in restoring America’s industries is that business owners and investors have focused on huge profits derived from foreign labor on products that are able to be sold in America for larger profits.
What is very interesting is that foreign producers are seeing for themselves that America’s importers are making a lot more money than the businesses and people being employed in foreign countries. As a result foreign producers continue to raise the cost of their products to America’s importers, which raises the cost to America’s consumers.
Inflation and the rising prices for foreign products has increased the willingness of America’s businesses to bring back production of their products to the United States, which would expand the American-made label and employ people in the country where we live.
Kindly continue to spread the word about the Buy American Made Campaign and don’t hesitate to send me your suggestions to Michael@AmericanWorkersRadio.com.
Michael Blichasz
Torresdale
