News & Brews May 2, 2025
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Here’s how much taxes could go up if Trump tax cuts expire
The National Taxpayers Union Foundation says that “Pennsylvania will face an average tax increase of $2,521 if the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expires at the end of the year,” the Center Square reports. This is slightly lower than Maryland ($2,806), New York ($2,745), and New Jersey (2,794) but higher than Delaware ($2,418), West Virginia ($1,423), and Ohio ($2,140).
Another Dem enters PA-7 congressional field
After former Democrat U.S. Congresswoman Susan Wild announced she would not run again in the Lehigh Valley’s 7th congressional district following her loss to new GOP U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, Democrat Carol Obando-Derstine, who has never run for office before, officially launched her campaign yesterday, after being introduced at the launch event by Wild. She is now the second Democrat to announce, following Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure. Meanwhile to the north, former Democrat Rep. Matt Cartwright, who lost last year to GOP Rep. Rob Bresnahan, is reportedly considering a rematch.
Delco township requests Nat’l Guard help as hospitals close
The Delaware Valley Journal reports that with two Delco hospitals set to close this week after the Crozer Health closing, officials in one township are asking Gov. Shapiro to activate the National Guard. “In a letter to Shapiro … released Wednesday, Lower Chichester Township Board President Rocco Gaspari Jr. wrote, ‘Would you please deploy the Pennsylvania National Guard Medical Units headquartered at Fort Indiantown Gap to staff hospital-type trauma units/emergency rooms … until these crises are resolved?’” Several towns have declared states of emergency over the Crozer closures.
‘Public schools & the moral neutrality myth’
The Left has often claimed that government must be morally “neutral” when it comes to certain things—for example, public schools curriculum. But Princeton University’s Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in Ideals and Institutions, blasts the “long-exploded myth that liberals themselves can no longer defend with a straight face, and rarely today even go through the motions of trying to do so. While our constitutional order does prescribe some instances of non-preferential governmental treatment (for example, the government cannot endorse a particular religion), no serious constitutional scholar or jurist—right, left, or center—holds that the Constitution requires the strict separation of moral judgments and public policy decisions.”
Bernie Sanders joins anti-Trump Pa. protestors
Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke to protestors gathered yesterday outside City Hall in Philadelphia. The Inquirer reports, “On a day of national May Day protests against President Donald Trump’s administration that ended with the arrest of dozens of protesters a few blocks from City Hall, the 83-year-old former presidential candidate said: ‘The American people by the millions are saying no to oligarchy, no to Trump’s authoritarianism.’” Per police, about 70 people were arrested for obstructing the highway. Not joining Sanders at this event was fellow socialist Rep. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , who has been with him at previous events.