With Sen Ted Erickson (third from left) are Delaware County Patriots Marie Heider, George “Whitey” Coyne, Regina Scheerer, Cathy Craddock and Bill Lawrence
Pennsylvania State Sen. Ted Erickson (R-26) gave a contingent from the Delaware County Patriots a private rundown, this morning, Aug. 13, on legislative issues about which they had concerns. While not everything about what was happening and where he stood on things was what the group wanted to hear, there was a significant amount of agreement.
Erickson also listened to the explanations the group offered with regard to why these issues were a concern and he appeared sincere in his attentiveness.
The Patriots is one of the many groups that started in the nation in response to the Democrat Party’s drive to take over the nation’s health care system under Barack Obama. The prescient wisdom of these groups is become more apparent daily, unfortunately.
The first issue discussed with Erickson was Common Core, the rather underhanded attempt to federalize the educational system that is causing grassroots opposition pop up through out the nation. Gov. Tom Corbett has stopped the implementation of it in this state.
“I don’t know what will happen right now,” said Erickson in regard to the program. “I’m willing to look at Common Core and go from there.” He said as a former educator he was strongly in favor of school accountability, and that No Child Left Behind was a failure. He said, however, he was fine with pending legislation in the State House that would maintain Pennsylvania’s independence in developing its own curriculum.
Much discussion was had over the failure to privatize Pennsylvania’s sale of liquor and wine. Erickson noted the Senate passed a bill to do so and placed the blame on the House for failing to agree to certain amendments. He said his big issue with the House bill was the way it overestimated the proceeds of the sale — $2 billion versus $400 million — from the state stores and that it would spend the money at once.
He said the issue is not dead and will be revisited.
He said he supported increases in gas taxes and tolls to raise money to repair infrastructure. The Patriots made it clear that this was a very bad idea, would cause an enormous amount of suffering among the populace and that they were very much against it.
They pointed out that a better idea would be to pass legislation ending prevailing wage, the existence of which adds an estimated 20 percent to the cost of construction projects.
He said the unions were too strong in the state, at which point the success of pro-citizen legislation in even more union-strong states like Michigan and Wisconsin was brought up. The members of the group noted that this is why many Pennsylvanians who are inclined to vote Republican are becoming very upset with the party as it controls the legislature and the governor’s office.
Erickson noted that he does not oppose paycheck protection — a law ending forced deductions from workers’ paychecks to pay for the salaries of union officers and lobbyists — and would vote for such a bill.
Erickson also said the looming ObamaCare changes are going to place a great burden on the people of the state, and have a major and negative impact on health care.
He noted that legislation he created and fought for establishing community-based health care clinic has finally become law and will help ease some of the suffering. The Patriots noted that was an excellent idea and praised him for it.
Erickson indicated he agreed with many of the groups fiscal concerns as well as those regarding the way some government officials seem to be shunting aside the rule of law. He expressed a willingness to work with the group on areas of common interest.
Sen Ted Erickson Gives Legislative Rundown To Delco Pats
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