Letters to the Editor | Oct. 16, 2025

I found Fred Hearn’s recent letter about Democratic lawmakers’ concerns about Medicaid cuts to be misrepresentative. He writes that the budget standoff is about new Medicaid requirements for able-bodied men with no small children to work 80 hours/month. He doesn’t mention the other serious issues with the cuts: onerous, sometimes weekly reporting requirements for recipients, overall cuts to Medicaid, loss of healthcare for many, expiration of subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, and the elimination of federal funds for emergency healthcare for undocumented immigrants.

Mr. Hearn supports cuts to such emergency healthcare, claiming undocumented migrants “largely” don’t pay taxes. In 2022, nearly $100 billion in taxes came from undocumented workers. About 75% of those workers also file their income taxes (although if the IRS provides their addresses to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, that will likely change). Furthermore, despite being ineligible for Social Security and Medicare, undocumented immigrants pay a third of their income taxes for those services, which they will never receive. Migrant workers also pay property taxes, sales taxes, and state and federal income taxes. Reducing access to healthcare, especially for hardworking immigrants, is bad policy for a great nation.

Janet Kestenberg Amighi, West Chester

The opinion by The Inquirer Editorial Board to give Donald Trump credit for the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal should be more circumspect. Does Trump get credit for the eight months without a deal, during which he gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu license to kill and starve more civilians, and turn Gaza into further rubble?

It is a bit myopic to narrow the deal down to whether Joe Biden could have achieved the same peace. Circumstances have materially changed in the eight months since Trump’s inauguration, mainly that Hamas has been bombed into submission and saw its chief ally — Iran — battered, too. Let’s not forget PBS NewsHour reported last year that Trump instructed Netanyahu not to agree to a ceasefire with President Biden, whose team presented a very similar deal to him, because it would have helped the Harris campaign.

I urge The Inquirer Editorial Board to continue to follow progress in the difficult negotiation process — and to follow the money. Was this a peace deal or a business deal? After all, fortunes were made all around the table for the Abraham Accords, and Gaza presents glorious opportunities for capitalist ventures. Just check out the parties involved. Start with the chief negotiator and his boss — Steve Witkoff and the president, both real estate men.

Al Singer, Ballston Spa, N.Y.

To all the Phillies’ so-called fans who immediately jumped all over Orion Kerkering after his National League Division Series-ending throw, I offer a reminder of what Phillies manager Jim Fregosi said about the heart-wrenching Mitch Williams pitch that ended the ’93 World Series. “He’s the one that got us here,” Fregosi told reporters. “That’s the situation I use him in … Without him, we would never have got to where we got. And that’s how I feel.” It’s how we should all feel about Kerkering (and, by the way, every other Phillies player whose NLDS performance may have come up shorter than we wished for). He’s one of the reasons we got here, and I, for one, look forward to seeing him throw again next season.

Beth Z. Palubinsky, Philadelphia

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