Issue Position: Government that Works

Issue Position

Pennsylvania's diversity presents many types of needs that the private sector will not or cannot meet. Our children must be protected from abuse and neglect and our parents must be able to age in their homes. Travelers must have bridges and roads and the ill and disabled must be cared for. The young must be educated, neighborhoods must be safe, consumers must be shielded from fraud, food must be edible and faucets must provide clean water. These types of things are where government begins. I believe it ends where services are unnecessary or will be effectively provided by the private sector. In between, government must be run in a prudent fiscal manner. Not every wish is a need and not every need can be met. They must be balanced against the fiscal and policy realities that exist or that can be reasonably forecast. For example, we have an oversized legislature that I have introduced legislation to reduce. What might have been necessary in 1870 is bloat today. Similarly, while there is no doubt that the private sector would take over alcohol sales here if the state system was sold, I oppose doing that because it is both fiscally unwise and socially imprudent.

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