EDITORIAL by Dhiren Shah
Hello Readers,
2022 will be very important for selecting your representatives locally and nationally. So, we all should know the laws our representatives made over the years.
In 1939, the Hatch Act became law to stop federal employees from engaging in supporting politicians while they are on the job.
According to the US Office of Special Counsel, “The Hatch Act, a federal law passed in 1939, limits certain political activities of federal employees, as well as some state, D.C., and local government employees who work in connection with federally funded programs. The law’s purposes are to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation.”
The Hatch Act is named after New Mexico Senator Carl A. Hatch, a Democrat nicknamed “Cowboy Carl.” Violations of the Hatch Act carry serious penalties and disciplinary actions, or even removal of the federal employee from their job. However, I have not seen the same disciplinary action for candidates who uses government employees while on the job, as well as off of work.
Coronavirus is a way of life nowadays. We all live with some restrictions to protect ourselves. However, how the money is spent, especially our tax dollars is important to know. The government is not mentioning how they are spending our tax money in trillions of dollars. In India, the total cost to the government is about Rs. (rupees) 350 per person, which is less than $5 per person (about 2 vaccinations) with the calculation of 100% of the population.
In the U.S., the total cost of Moderna is about $15 per vaccine and about $22 for Pfizer’s vaccine. Plus, there’s clinical and/or pharmacy cost. The government did not declare their true spending on vaccinations yet. Pfizer and Moderna are overcharging the government, but I think the government does not care. They are only concerned about their political image.
Biden had a 55% approval and 32% disapproval rating at the beginning of his presidency. After one year (January 20, 2022) his approval rating is 42% and disapproval rating is 52.1%, according to realclearpolitics.com. Economy, inflation, border problems and handling of COVID-19 situations are the key to his approval rating.
Biden has announced the distribution of FREE COVID test kits and has already setup the website with USPS. I think this is the best managed distribution effort by the Biden administration. They have shaken hands with USPS.com and they are the best in distributing our mails and packages. Nowadays, the USPS has improved their service drastically, including notifying residential customers what mails will you receive every day. USPS was the only delivery source for mail for decades and we all were dealing with them, whether one liked it or not. But now, when they are improving, we should support them and keep them alive against the private companies monopolizing the distributions. USPS has improved since they started their priority mail service, in my opinion.
Lusia Harris died at 66 on January 18, 2022. She was an African American and basketball pioneer, who was drafted into the NBA by the Jazz in 1977 – the only woman ever to do so. She led her college team to three championships in the 1970s, and scored the first points in the history of women’s Olympic basketball. Local Talk salutes her, prays for her soul and offers condolences to her family, friends and fans.
Have a wonderful week.
I’ll talk to you next week.
