Dubious priorities

Who thinks Kremlin-connected oligarchs don’t have enough money? Turns out Pennsylvania’s Republican Sen. Pat Toomey does.

Mr. Toomey voted for a sweetheart sanctions relief deal to help Vladimir Putin’s buddy Oleg Deripaska. Mr. Deripaska gets $200 million in debt relief while restructuring his businesses to guarantee they’ll be no shortages of caviar, vodka or champagne on his yacht.

Eleven of Mr. Toomey’s principled Republican colleagues begged to differ and joined all Senate Democrats in trying to quash unwarranted favoritism toward this one particular oligarch. But Pat Toomey instead had all the sympathy in the world for poor Oleg. The multi-millionaire Mr. Deripaska hired a high-powered, politically-connected team of lobbyists last fall to convince the Senate that he deserved sanctions relief and he deserved it now!

While the U.S. government was crippled by a shutdown, Violence Against Women Act programs ran out of money, and our national security and airline safety deteriorated, Pat Toomey had time to help an oligarch. Don’t you find that charming? Will he now vote with President Donald Trump to rob money from the Defense Department’s housing repair budget already allocated to fix military base housing cursed with mold, vermin and bugs to pay for a national emergency that doesn’t exist?

Keep that in mind when he runs again and tries to convince you he’s really concerned about the working families of Pennsylvania.

LILLY GIOIA Forkston Township, Pa.