Featured Commentary category, Page 59
Ron Klink: Congress cracks down on shady PBM middlemen — and not a moment too soon
Congress is considering more than half a dozen bills that’d curb the power of pharmacy benefit managers. The increased, bipartisan scrutiny of these rapacious drug supply chain middlemen is welcome. In fact, it’s overdue. For years, they’ve been inflating pharmaceutical prices and bilking patients while providing little value to the...
Nancy S. Jecker: There’s no age limit for politicians — as people live longer, should that change?
President Joe Biden was “fine,” according to White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt, after tripping over a sandbag at a U.S. Air Force graduation ceremony on June 1. But his fall was caught on live camera — and people on social media speculated about what was behind it. Biden, approaching...
Dr. A. Jay Gross: Fetterman’s fight for affordable health care
Ranked fifth in the country by its size of seniors, Pennsylvania is home to over 2.2 million older Americans. As the population of seniors grows 20 times faster than the state’s general population, it is more important than ever that Pennsylvania has representatives who advocate on behalf of seniors’ needs...
Bev-Freda Jackson: Mahalia Jackson’s suggestion during 1963 march resulted in majestic sermon on an American dream
Every now and then, a voice can matter. Mahalia Jackson had one of them. Known around the world as the “Queen of Gospel,” Jackson used her powerful voice to work in the Civil Rights Movement. Starting in the 1950s, she traveled with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. throughout the South...
Vanessa Lynch: Clean air and a healthy climate can be Pa.’s future
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a “code orange” air quality alert for Western Pennsylvania last week, confirming what many of us already knew — there was something in the air. A cocktail of air pollution, heat and sunshine created unhealthy concentrations of ground-level ozone, also known as...
Andreas Kluth: If Prigozhin is gone, long live Putin — and Wagner?
Yevgeny Prigozhin might have retired in peace some day. Or he could have been found writhing in the throes of Novichok, a nerve agent favored by Russia’s spy agencies. He might also have fallen out of a window, crashed in his car or slipped in his bathroom — like so...
Judith Stepan-Norris and Jasmine Kerrissey: Strikes seem common, but number of Americans walking off job is historically low
More than 323,000 workers — including nurses, actors, screenwriters, hotel cleaners and restaurant servers — walked off their jobs during the first eight months of 2023. Hundreds of thousands of the employees of delivery giant UPS would have gone on strike, too, had they not reached a last-minute agreement. Nearly...
Scott Jennings: Trump won the GOP debate by being a no-show. But who came in second?
It is fair to wonder how the other Republican candidates for president can catch up to Donald Trump. What is their plan to beat someone with a 30-plus point lead in the polls and who’s been using his many arrests the way the Super Mario Brothers use red mushrooms —...
Timothy J. Kunselman: Our society needs competitive balance
Freedom must be championed and defended every day. Otherwise, the quest for power will eventually overwhelm us. Freedom cannot be without limits, or again, the quest for power will intrude and ruin. We have freedom of speech but, one may not yell “fire” in a crowded theater. One may not...
Dan DeBone: Westmoreland County manufacturers’ most valuable product — careers
Ask most Westmoreland County residents about the fourth week of May this year, and they’ll tell you it was just like any other. The Pirates hosted the Rangers for a three-game homestand. Students and relatives started to trickle in from out of town for Memorial Day. But it was anything...
Peter Morici: Finding the silver lining in Biden’s trade and industrial policies
President Biden’s industrial and trade policies are terribly controversial. Economists, pundits and the media — on the left and right — complain these will promote inefficiency and won’t address fundamental disadvantages — for example, shortages of engineers and similar workers with advanced training. Allies in Europe criticize that the Buy...
Dr. Andrew Smolar: Calling out incivility
After this past week, I feel dented. Last Saturday, my wife and I enjoyed dinner at a place in the Philadelphia suburbs. When the check arrived, I realized our waitress had confused our tab with the next table’s. When I walked inside to correct it, I noted there was a...
Peter Roff: A U.S. agency you’ve never heard of is destroying innovation
Recent and expected Supreme Court rulings regarding the authority of federal regulators have put the regulatory bureaucracy in the spotlight. Too many of them have the power to make or break industries. Some, like the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), are begging to have their wings clipped. Its mission is...
Cal Thomas: Questions I would ask the GOP candidates
Wednesday night’s GOP primary debate in Milwaukee for the Republican candidates for the presidency will be more a Q&A session than a classic debate, but that’s OK. Viewers will have a chance to take the measure of the men — and woman — who wish to become president. Each candidate...
Rick Goodling: State regulation means an end to illegal games
I was in a Western Pennsylvania grocery store recently and the owner detailed to me all the renovations he is making to his business and the health insurance he is able to provide for his employees. Having this type of conversation is not unusual for me. I am part of...
Dr. Vanessa Kerry: Hawaii wildfires another wake-up call that the climate crisis imperils our health
The world is on fire. The devastating wildfires in Maui have led to over 100 deaths, with many hundreds more people unaccounted for and injured. We have seen homes and livelihoods destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed with smoke and burn victims. These wildfires, fanned by winds from Hurricane Dora after years...
John Tamny: The term limits movement is alive and politically potent
The power of incumbency in politics used to be near absolute at the congressional level. Once elected, the job was, in a sense, yours for life. That was true until 1994. It was then that House Speaker Tom Foley was put out to the political pasture. This was earthshaking news...
Point: Do presidential debates still matter?
What nominee would bet on the proposition that the presidential debates don’t matter and then choose not to prepare? Jimmy Carter’s desultory prep in 1980, combined with Ronald Reagan’s reassuring and masterful performance — “There you go again” — arguably turned a close election into a landslide that reshaped American...
Counterpoint: Rethinking the significance of presidential debates
Televised presidential debates during the general election are viewed as the ultimate candidate showcase. They give voters the opportunity to watch competing worldviews and policy positions clash on America’s most significant political stage. Viewers get to test their assumptions about the candidates in real time. Voters want to know how...
Frank Larkin: Support our Pa. troops and veterans
Pennsylvania ranks in the top 10 for military veterans, meaning that the multifaceted and unique challenges that face these men and women are especially present in the Keystone State. Most glaring is the understood yet still lingering tragedy that the suicide rate among veterans is significantly higher than the civilian...
Erika Strassburger and Josh Joswick: Better oversight of U.S. pipelines needed
An estimated 3 million miles of natural gas pipelines crisscross the U.S. When these pipelines leak, harmful pollutants are released that threaten our communities’ safety, exacerbate the climate crisis, and result in the loss and waste of a taxable public resource. And, as is often the case when it comes...
Elwood Watson: Lizzo and the peril of celebrity culture
Voracious popular culture connoisseur that I am, I have been avidly following the drama surrounding pop icon Lizzo. As an academic who teaches race, gender and sexuality studies, for me, the story has all the intersectional elements that make for a riveting story. Over the past couple of weeks, the...
Cal Thomas: Arms or money for hostages — what’s the difference?
The Biden administration is transferring $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets in South Korea to an account in Qatar, which Iran will be able to access, in what appears to be an attempt to get Iran to release five imprisoned Americans. National Security Communications Coordinator John Kirby offered this twisted...
Chris Soriano: Ban ‘skill games’ that threaten public safety and Pa.’s gaming integrity
In my role at PENN Entertainment, I am charged with ensuring our company meets the appropriately high standards required to earn and retain a gaming license in every jurisdiction in which we operate. At our four properties across the commonwealth, we aren’t simply running casinos — we are providing an...
E.J. Antoni: Default by another name — why U.S. debt deserved a downgrade
Trust is always harder to build than to destroy, and that’s true for financial markets, too. The U.S. has borrowed tens of trillions of dollars and promised to pay it back, but investors have become increasingly skeptical. On Aug. 1, U.S. debt received a downgrade, meaning the Treasury appears less...
