Letters: Don’t be fooled by GOP tactics; Project Labor Agreements hurt taxpayers

Don’t be fooled by GOP tactics

If you’ve been watching TV, you know that the airwaves are now filled with commercials calling democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro, and democratic senatorial nominee John Fetterman, socialists, radicals and extreme left-wingers.

Republican candidates must be worried if they’re resorting to name-calling, lies and conspiracy theories rather than laying out their own positive agenda to improve the lives of Pennsylvanians. Instead, they’re up to their usual shenanigans. (Remember that the NYT documented nearly 31,000 lies told by Donald Trump during his single term, a record even the Prince of Lies would find enviable.)

The latest lie: The $80 billion allocated to the IRS to reverse more than a decade of underfunding will be used to audit more middle-income and poor Americans. The claim is untrue and absurd!

Fact: The IRS currently audits the poor at 5x the rate of wealthy Americans because it lacks the manpower to handle the more complicated tax returns of wealthy tax-cheats. Why do Republican members of Congress want middle-income and poor voters to believe that the IRS will be coming after them? To scare and enrage the base.

These are the same Republicans who deny women bodily autonomy, and then proclaim government-overreach when public health officials recommend vaccinations and masks to save lives from a deadly virus.

Republicans will continue these shenanigans so long as they’re rewarded for lying, name-calling and obstructing productive action on everything from climate change, lowering prescription drug costs to catching the big money income tax evaders.

Don’t be fooled.

Project Labor Agreements hurt taxpayers

Recently, Governor Wolf joined White House infrastructure coordinator Mitch Landrieu for a Pennsylvania tour to promote federal infrastructure investments throughout the commonwealth. What they failed to disclose is the Biden administration’s inflationary and anti-competitive labor policies for these construction jobs. These policies will not only needlessly raise costs, but also steer contracts to unionized contractors and workers.

This is bad news for taxpayers, the majority of Pennsylvania’s construction industry, and our roads, bridges, utilities, transportation hubs, schools, affordable housing and clean energy projects.

While Americans continue to fret over rising prices for food, gas and just about everything else, the president is implementing an executive order that mandates controversial project labor agreements on large-scale federal construction contracts that will hike construction costs by 12%-20%. PLAs also needlessly exacerbate the industry’s skilled labor shortage by excluding workers who have already made the choice to not join a union. This effectively eliminates 73% of Pennsylvania’s construction industry from working on these jobs.

Shovel-ready jobs make great photos that may make voters happy, but those smiles will fade when taxpayers see the price tag. We deserve better. Learn why PLA schemes are not the answer to building long-lasting public works projects safely, on time and on budget by visiting BuildAmericaLocal.com.

Dress-up suggestions for Mastriano

Now that governor candidate Doug Mastriano has been caught cosplaying as a Confederate solider, lots of people are mad, saying that it’s outrageous that Mastriano would wear the uniform of an army that killed 360,000 Americans.

As a big supporter of dressing up in fun clothes, I disagree! Hopefully Mastriano can read this letter, because I have some other suggestions for him: he could try on a Gestapo uniform for size, or maybe wear a People’s Liberation Army outfit (Korean War-era, naturally), or go really old-school, and put on one of those British redcoat outfits. If none of those sound good, he could extend his cosplay fantasies to television, and dress up as one of the Eyes of God, the secret police in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Those guys get to chase down “gender traitors” and force women to have children against their will. That sounds like it’d be right up Mastriano’s alley!