Every time I hear Ryan Mackenzie say One Big Beautiful Bill, I cringe. Before its passage, he was astute enough to say that his support would be conditional on maintaining certain benefits and safety nets. Since his yes vote, he has decided to bet it all on Trump. He has been touring local businesses, owning his vote on it.
By now most of my highly informed readers know that Allentown is to receive $20 mil, intended to increase employment. The $20mil coming Allentown's way is preordained to be wasted. Mayor Tuerk says...This funding is advancing a comprehensive strategy. Tuerk plans to distribute it to forty different non-profits, with the pretense of creating 650 real jobs in the manufacturing sector. Tuerk is entrusting his former employer, Allentown Economic Development Corp., to lead the effort. A sub-organization has been created called Allentown Works Cohort. Neighborhood captains are being hired. The usual excuses will be offered for the unemployed... they will need computers to learn of the available jobs. They will need cars to get to a job. They will need childcare while they work. The reality of an unmotivated class, satisfied with harvesting various government programs instead of working, is never considered.
In five years if they audit how many new employees were created, and what it cost the taxpayer per job, it will be no surprise if the effort wasn't cost effective, to say the very least and be polite. When questioned if the grant could get eliminated by the Trump administration, we're assured that Congressman Ryan Mackenzie will make sure that doesn't happen. SO, it appears that the congressman is all for the Big Beautiful Bill eliminating waste, except locally, where people vote for him!
This blog post may well offend everybody... Democrats, Republicans and fellow independent conservatives, but I'm an equal opportunity offender when it comes to stating the obvious.
ADDENDUM 6:00AM: After touting the Big Beautiful Bill for the last two weeks, Mackenzie spent yesterday running around telling local non-profits not to worry about losing funding. Maybe Ryan should have thought about these cuts before he voted yes with the other yes men. He's standing up in Allentown (since yesterday), will he stand up in Washington?
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We're making America great again!!!
ReplyDeleteDespite the hopes and prayers of his fervent critics on the left, right, and in the middle, the BBB is a good bill to stake one's political future on. Those betting against it are the one's who should be sweating. Ryan looks very relaxed, he knows he's holding a great hand.
ReplyDeleteIf you pour water down a hole, it winds up going down the drain.
ReplyDeleteI am certain the city departments could use an infusion of funds to help with their assigned duties outlined in the city charter. Not giving it to unaccountable outside sources.
Oh there will be ongoing process evaluations written into the receipts
Deleteobligations. There just won’t be any timely or meaningful outcome data.
The Big, Beautiful Bill is a net positive for the vast majority of Americans. The silliness in Allentown is solely a problem Allentown residents need to deal with.
ReplyDeleteThe only jobs this grant will fund is the jobs of the staff of the NFP’s getting the cash.
ReplyDeleteNaturally those organizations and the people who work for them will be staunch Mayor Matt loyalists.
They love the hand that feeds them.
This is a transparent scam that feathers the nest of parasitic nonprofits.
The poop will be on the Bicycling Mayor’s sneaker when this boondoggle doesn’t do squat for the unemployment numbers.
ReplyDeleteBy then no one will care and 20 million dollars will have washed around and put a big smile on the faces of the organizations who have been feeding at the trough.
Hold on.
ReplyDeleteIsn’t it the job of the State Employment Office to assist people in finding employment?
Am I missing something?
It’s time to get Alan Jennings back in the saddle again.
ReplyDeleteYeah, sure... Jennings is one of the king putzes that benefited from these money laundering SCAMS! So sick of this FORCED taxpayer funded BULLSHIT... fix the roads, fix the parks, and fund the police and stop keeping them from doing their jobs. Quit pissing our taxpayer money away!
DeleteYou are stuck with Mayor Tuerk and his liberal philosophy for as long as he chooses to stick around. Residents in Allentown will vote for just about anything with a (D) after the name. That’s how one party government works folks.
ReplyDeleteHiring more bureaucrats and non profit employees is not a real job improvement policy. How about convincing manufacturers by giving assistance and incentives to locate in Allentown.
ReplyDeleteI suspect they have no idea how to actually increase the GDP of Allentown. Just how to add jobs on the expense side of ledger.
I thought the rising tide of the NIZ was going to lift all boats in Center City?
ReplyDeleteThe money will help prop up the kingdoms of numerous local poverty pimps.
ReplyDeleteThe Hipster Mayor has brought the bacon home!
So now when someone defends Trump and suggests that the BBB will largely be a significant success you can say “I won’t be tolerating any national R vs D stuff here”.
ReplyDeleteMayor Matt is but a River to His People, with apologies to Laurence of Arabia.
ReplyDeleteI too cringe when I hear Mackenzie say Big Beautiful Bill. I suspect he gets emails from the White House telling him how many times a day he is obligated to say it. Mackenzie can never represent his constituents. He must vote the way Daddy Trump instructs. He voted yes, but comes back to boo-hoo at a local food bank that will lose funding. As for the wasted funding- I’m finishing my 501c-3 application so I can declare myself chairman and ceo. I want to get in on this.
ReplyDeleteHe is now telling the food bank and other non-profits that what the bill states, and what actually will get funded, are two different things. He also approved all the sycophant department heads... may well be the first one termer in my memory.
Delete@8:22AM
DeleteYou cringe whenever you hear anything associated with Orange Man Bad, because you’re a reliable partisan. You never offer any alternative. You will cringe no matter this POTUS does. You are blinded by Go Team mentality, but you get an A+ for consistency.
8:22 Earth to you he has already bucked Trump a time or two. Ot was reported in the local media.
DeleteNon Binary human, you’re more fun when you use your name.
DeleteBiological Male
Mackenzie will probably win at least one additional term because the Democrats offer next to nothing in the way of rational, sane, alternative policies or “leadership”.
ReplyDeleteIf Wild would have been even half way effective she would have held that seat from life as an incumbent.
MM don’t be blinded by personal bias against Donald Trump. He is the President who has delivered on more campaign promises than any other in your lifetime.
Anyone who wants to continue to see our Mayor succeed, and we are the majority of the voters, will support the good things that this grant money will accomplish.
ReplyDeleteMatt is delivering for his constituents and regional voters will appreciate that when it is time to vote for Congress.
The "mayor" et al, is robbing us blind. ENOUGH ALREADY! When we built the new city hall/police dept./parking deck/prison etc, we were promised it was all we needed for a long time... all of a sudden, NOTHING is enough or good enough. Government will never economize as we must.
Deleteanon@9:07: Mackenzie rode Trump's coattails, but only beat Wild by a hair. Trump has delivered on the border, but everything else, IMO, is a disaster. All his appointment have been counter-productive to the country.
ReplyDeleteComments should be limited to the Allentown Work Grant and/or Mackenzie's predicament..
Why does anyone so readily throw shade at Mackenzie? All the man did was run for office to produce a better result for his district.
ReplyDeleteHad Susan Wild not been such a waste of time, Mackenzie would have lost.
Same for Biden/Harris/whoever was at the controls. They all failed to convince enough voters they were the best possible option. So, Trump wins and is working hard on our behalf.
MM 8:43 said: “He also approved all the sycophant department heads...”
ReplyDeleteIs Mackenzie a Senator? If not, how did he approve any “department heads”?
Time to turn off the CNN and MSNBC, and to see a psychiatrist about that TDS.
anon@10:08: my economy cable package does not include those stations. You're correct Mackenzie did not approve those appointments, but I heard no disapproval from him.
DeleteSo Mackenzie should be disapproving of people even though it’s not his role and he’s not in any hearings interviewing the appointees? That’s ridiculous.
DeleteAs to your economy cable package, I can tell you that NBC, ABC and CBS are not reliable either.
Hopefully, Trump’s cuts to PBS will spare you from being misinformed there.
Right, you expect a freshman Congressman to criticize appointees made and confirmed by their own party.
DeleteCool.
So Tuerk is going to CREATE 650 new manufacturing jobs in the city by distributing the $20 million in funding to non-profit groups.
ReplyDeleteThat works out to $30,769 per job created, which seems a little steep.
Perhaps before any funding is disbursed, the 40 non profits should explain how their share of the funding will be used to create new manufacturing jobs, and how much will be siphoned off for the non-profit’s administrative fees.
They should also provide a detailed timeline of when the jobs will be created so we (and the Mayor and council, of course) can track the progress. I would also recommend only disbursing the funds in blocks as those publicly-available benchmarks are met, instead of as one lump sum at the beginning.
Surely Tuerk already has the plans of each non profit (or how would he have announced the “plan” for 40 non profits in the first place) so that should made be publicly available NOW.
It would be appropriate to “table” this entire gambit until many more specifics are made known.
DeleteWas nothing learned about the failed NIZ experience? Here we taxpayers are 15 years later, millions and millions of dollars wasted, and we still don’t know the how it ever got approved, the full and complete annual financials, nor why that scheme continues on digging a money pit deeper and deeper.
Allentown Works, at the moment, appears to be more money laundering.
12:18... if you mean more of a SCAM, I agree.
DeleteI think it’s much too early to evaluate the MacKenzie term. Secondly, he has nothing at all to do with decisions made by Mayor Tuerk. If Allentown homeowners are unhappy they’ll just have to vote in someone else.
ReplyDeleteNobody in the city votes Republican anyway.
DeleteAny future comments that mention which TV channels somebody must watch, will not be printed, on any post of mine. Mackenzie will be in trouble in 26. Although the partisan Republicans refer to promises kept(?), that doesn't resonate with the independents. He has based all appointments on loyalty, rather than expertise.
ReplyDeleteRemember the old song, "Dream when your feelin blue, Dreams sometimes do comes true, so dream, dream, dream"? So keep dreaming Mike.
DeleteIndependents in Pennsylvania were pivotal in electing President Trump.
ReplyDeleteJust a fact.
Registering Independent probably means you are unhappy with both major parties. That such thinkers would naturally be attracted to Democrats is unwise.
DeleteI just rejected four comments: I forgot to mention that comments that mention TDS will not be printed.
ReplyDeleteScott@5:06: I'm not wishing that Mackenzie gets beat, he is probably more acceptable to me than who the Democrats pick. I'm predicting that he will get beat, because Trump has been nothing but disappointing to independents and numerous Republicans as well. Republicans in play will have to distance themselves from Trump. Mackenzie would help himself by never again saying Big Beautiful Bill.
ReplyDeleteThis is the part I don’t understand. Without passage of that Bill, the original personal tax cuts would have ended. Each of us would have had to begin paying much more. As Seniors, we both would be paying thousands more in taxes for years to come. What’s not to like?
Deleteanon@5:35: I know you didn't read the bill, I doubt that Mackenzie did. The name (BBB) alone offends me. DOGE offended me. The 2017 extension was only a few pages.
DeleteI can tell you Ryan understands what's in the bill. He's a true wonk. Very bright guy, loves details. Not your average politician.
DeleteThe summary offered by 5:35 is accurate. I will add, even RMD payouts will come at lower tax rates, too!
Delete