Is it as maddening to you as it is to me when government seems to make the same mistake over and over again but never learns? It can happen again in Pennsylvania if we don’t make needed changes to our public pension system. I have introduced a commonsense plan in the General Assembly that will […]

Americans have always been an aspirational people. Instead of hardening into permanent class resentment, the less-well-off or just-starting-out generally prefer to think of themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires, as John Steinbeck put it. That faith in the future is vital to our success as a society and we all must see it vindicated. The post-recession […]

During the last three state budget debates, education discussions focused on spending. Unfortunately, what has been lost is a meaningful conversation about how we improve the quality of our education system. This has been to the detriment of our children. Is the answer to our challenges a never-ending supply of taxpayer money? Far too often, […]

There is one thing about our economy that everyone seems to agree about–things are looking up, but don’t be too optimistic.President Barack Obama is calling it “stability, not security” in his current rounds of economic talks. Recent Wall Street Journal headlines echo this “glass half full, glass half empty” assessment, noting that while housing is […]

The steamboat conveying Andrew Jackson up the Ohio River toward his tumultuous 1829 inauguration had brooms lashed to its bow, symbolizing Old Hickory’s vow to clean up Washington. But sweeping out Washington’s Augean stables, like painting the Golden Gate Bridge, is steady work, so steady it never ends. Neither do the policies that cosset sugar […]

AMERICA, WHICH NEVER LOST ITS HIGH-TECH DOMINANCE, IS NOW SEEING A JOBS BOOM IN NATURAL GAS Remember the 1980s? It was to be the decade of Japanese dominance. A post-Jimmy Carter America would be unable to compete with the efficient Japanese jobs machine. Aging technology, lazy management and high-cost labor would ensure America’s rapid demise […]

At first I thought the IRS scandal was leaked to distract from the Benghazi scandal. But that didn’t make sense because the IRS scandal is a more obvious abuse of power than the White House lying about the murder of four Americans in Libya. Before I had resolved which scandal was distracting from which, we […]

An all too familiar scene was enacted on the campus of Swarthmore College during a meeting on May 4th to discuss demands by student activists for the college to divest itself of its investments in companies that dealt in fossil fuels. As a speaker was beginning a presentation to show how many millions of dollars […]

American businesses have the highest liability costs in the world by a mile, according to a study from the Institute for Legal Reform (ILR). The good news is that the results of a poll, also commissioned by ILR show, people blame the excess costs on the ones who benefit the most from an out-of-control legal […]

Signs of spring in Pennsylvania are all around us. It is a season of change and growth. However, these signs of change have been ignored in Washington, where the metaphorical windows stay locked and thoughts remain unchanged. Many politicians continue to make inaccurate blanket statements about the energy industry. They say the industry needs to […]