Starting now.
Commonalities where guests find
common ground through uncommon
conversations, politics,
religion, finances,
all the topics your grandmother told
you not to discuss with friends.
And now your host, Matthew Dowling,
and today's guests on commonalities.
Well, welcome to another
episode of Commonalities.
I'm your host, Matt Dowling.
And, uh, I have.
A, a guest with me today that is,
uh, not just a former colleague,
but a former friend, or actually,
I guess we're still friends.
We're current friends, buddy Stein.
Yeah, we're a current friends,
uh, former colleague, uh,
representative Aaron Bernstein,
north of the Pittsburgh area in, uh,
the district that he represents.
And I believe your district number just
changed with reapportionment, is that.
Correct? It did, Matt. Yeah, it was, uh,
we were previously the
10th legislative district,
and that had areas of Beaver
Butler and Lawrence Counties.
And now we are in, uh,
just Lawrence County and Butler County.
And we're currently the eighth district.
So, um, you know, uh, a little
bit of the district change,
and obviously that happens every
10 years as you're well aware. Uh,
constitutionally required where the
districts change and we kinda re even up
across the board and across
the commonwealth and across
this country. So, uh,
we're really excited about
our new district, a lot of
agriculture areas, which,
as you know, I have a background
in and really excited to be there.
Now, in addition to, uh, you
know, being a farmer and, uh,
and things like that, you've also had
success in business. You've, uh, taught,
uh, at the collegiate level.
Why don't you give us a little bit of
your personal background before we get
into, uh, any of the politics of.
Today? Yeah, absolutely. And
thanks Matt. And obviously,
thank you so much for having me on
this show. I, I love podcasts. Uh,
the only thing I was disappointed was
you said I had to put my camera on,
and I know I have a face
Greek for radio, so, uh,
hopefully most people are listening
just to the podcast piece and not the
actual, uh, picture of me. But,
um, yeah, so my background is,
I was actually born and raised in
Minerva, Ohio, a little farm town, uh,
in Stark County. Uh,
very close to the football Hall of
Fame for those that are familiar.
And by the way, from,
if you're on Western pa,
you ought to take a trip over
there. It's a real short trip.
My little guy loves it. And, uh,
ultimately moved whenever I was a
freshman in high school to Newcastle,
Pennsylvania. I graduated
from Union Township, uh,
union school district in Union Township.
Went on to Penn State, uh, graduated.
Uh, then I went, I really worked in, uh,
human capital management in
which we worked with companies.
I worked for a company called a D p and
that company, we worked with company,
we worked with them on issues
like payroll, tax filing,
any compliance issues,
employees clocking in and out.
And I always tell people it was the,
it was the craziest job I ever had.
They throw you to the wolves,
about 15% of people make it. Uh,
you either sink or swim and you're out
knocking on doors with companies that
have between one and 10 employees and
the people you're trying to get them to
fire their mother from doing their payroll
and their small business and hiring
you. Uh, so if you can do that,
you, you're doing okay. Uh,
rose through the ranks there at ADP,
left for a short period of time
to go to a startup company. Uh,
we grew that company from about 80,000
in revenue to about 800,000 in annual
revenue over a 20 month period.
Came back to ADP in
which I worked with, um,
very large companies, US Steel,
84 lumber companies like that on their
human capital management services.
And then Matt, I said, you know
what? I want to do public service.
I'm interested in some of these
different things. And I, I, I went to a,
and I'll shorten the the story
for you, but I went to a, uh,
small municipal building of where I'm at,
which is New Beaver Borough
in a meeting. And I said, Hey,
maybe I wanna run for council
or local town mayor. Right?
Obviously not a full-time thing. And I
went there, I came home and my wife said,
Hey, you think you're gonna do it? I said,
no, these guys are doing a great job,
right? They're doing a really good
job at the stuff they're doing.
So I started just peeking around
and I said, you know what,
maybe I'll run for state
representative. Uh,
they told me I could never win the
Republican nomination. The party was, uh,
squarely behind another person.
We went on in a three-way race,
and we were victorious in that
race. 60, uh, 75 to 16 to nine.
And then they said, well, no
way you can beat the incumbent.
He's been here for a decade. And we
went on to win that race by 16.9%,
and that was in 2016. And
I'm really fortunate, um,
that my 65,000 bosses, and you
and I have talked about this,
I call my constituent, my bosses.
My 65,000 bosses have continued
to elect me in not only 16,
but 18, uh, 20, and then
just recently in 2022.
Well, congratulations on the,
uh, the reelection and, uh,
the new district that you have
through reapportionment. Now,
this has been quite an election
cycle because if you asked me
before we went into things,
how things would end up shaking out
for the Democrats and the Republicans.
Yeah. Uh, looking purely
at party politics, um,
in this year's election cycle,
I would've thought that the
Republicans would've come out, um,
strong victors. Uh,
I wasn't sure that we had
the ability to pull off, uh,
the governor's mansion
win here in Pennsylvania,
but I did think that we would have
a US Senate seat. Um, you know,
I thought that race would
go a little bit differently.
And what really shocked me was what's
happened in the Pennsylvania House.
And, uh,
and that continues to kind of be a
point of discussion because, you know,
things aren't settled.
So let's talk the numbers and what's
going on in the Pennsylvania House of
Representatives.
Sure. So 203 members are in the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Uh,
you and I have worked on
a bill when we were there.
I think we both think that's far too
many. Um, and, uh, in, in my world,
less politicians you have out
there, the better. I think that's a,
that's a big win, uh, if we could
ever get that reduced. But, um,
it's tough to get people to
vote themselves out of a job,
although you and I tried very, very
hard to, to make that happen. And we've.
Voted for it before, uh,
both of us. But <laugh>.
Uh, Matt, you there? Yeah, I'm here.
Okay. Sorry. Something tripped over on my,
uh, on my phone there. Um, oh,
that's okay. But, uh, yeah, so,
so 203 elections there.
The Democrats won 102 of those election.
The Republicans won 101 of those
elections. Now, interestingly enough,
although they won 102 of those
elections, one of the individuals, uh,
is deceased. He, he was
dead when, when he ran, um,
because he, he, he died of cancer.
Uh, very good fellow, by the way,
and Tony.
DeLuca.
Great guy, great guy, great
guy. Uh, by the way, we, we,
we agreed on about nothing on policy,
uh, but about everything, I think,
in terms of life. And, uh, he's, he's
a good man and very good man. Um,
so that makes it 1 0 1, 1 0 1.
And then two other Democrats were
elected that will never be sworn in.
And those two Democrats were a person
that won for Congress and then a person
that won for Lieutenant
Governor. So in summary,
now Republicans have 101 members.
Democrats have 99 members with three
special elections coming up. Now,
we could spend the next hour talking
about how many of those special elections
are gonna be and what's the
situation with that. Um,
but basically ours have 1 0 1,
theses have 99 Republicans will have
a majority for a period of time.
Whether that period of time is about
one month or whether that period of time
extends to as much as four months, we
don't know until those special elections,
the courts determine when those
special elections will actually happen.
So what we do know is that
out of 20 months or 24 months,
that Republicans will have that, you know,
one or two months or as many as four
months out of that 24 month period.
And then we're gonna have a change in
power in terms of who's in the majority.
And, you know, I, I think that, uh,
the point that I wanna make is that
I feel that the Democrats are being a
little bit presumptuous. Now that
being said, I think that, uh, this,
if it wasn't, I don't know what would
be a wake up call for the Republicans,
uh, that are in leadership, both in
the house and in the state party.
Um, because the, the special
elections that are out there,
if we had to throw darts at a board
right now and pick who would win,
would probably go to the Ds. And so
it's, it's likely, and, you know,
I'll say this, you don't
have to agree with me,
but it's likely that the Democrats will
be in the majority in the Pennsylvania
house. Um, but I do think it's a,
a little presumptuous without seeing
what the final numbers, uh, come down to,
uh, that the Democrats are,
are claiming victory and, uh,
ready to name a speaker and.
So forth. Yeah. So if I could, let's
address those three things separately,
because I think we talk
about why did it happen.
And that was one of the
things you talked about.
You talked about the three elections,
uh, or I'm sorry, that, um,
you talked about the Democrats
being presumptuous and
saying that they're in the
majority. And then also you talked about
the three elections that are out there.
So let me handle the
easiest one first. Uh,
there are three special
elections that are gonna happen.
Republicans have absolutely zero chance
to win two of those. Uh, the other one,
they're a very, very, very strong, uh,
underdog. A very, very major underdog.
Listen, at the end of the day,
um, you're not winning. Two, we
know that. Um, the other one,
I think it'd be very, very difficult
to win. I don't see it happening,
but it could happen. So, you know,
ultimately we're gonna end up
with a 1 0 2 to 1 0 1 majority,
uh, with either Republicans or
Democrats being in charge of that.
And that's probably the Democrats,
right? That's what you just said.
So secondly, let's talk
about the presumption. And
this makes no sense to me,
Matt, listen, you and I aren't
the smartest guys in the world,
and I can say that cuz we're really
good friends. Um, and you know, we,
we've had a lot of conversations
over our, our time of being together.
And I really enjoy you and your
friendship. Um, you know, me,
I'm a pretty straight shooter. Uh,
I don't know how in the world that
anyone can think that the number
99 is greater than the number 101
that just doesn't add up to me.
So Democrats saying that they're in
the majority is clearly inaccurate. Uh,
we don't elect parties in this
country. So they say, well,
the party won a hundred,
two 11, it doesn't matter.
We elect people in this country, and
you can, if you don't want to do that,
you can go ahead and move to England.
Then they basically elect parties in that,
in that country.
So Republicans are gonna have the
majority for a short period of time,
and then more than likely Democrats
will have that majority. Uh,
you have Joanna MCC Clinton
that's going around saying, look,
I'm the acting speaker,
I'm the acting speaker. Uh,
there's no such thing as an acting
speaker. It doesn't exist. And,
and I think one of the things that, uh,
I've always been passionate about since
I very first started is we're gonna tell
the truth. And sometimes that
truth makes people uncomfortable,
and sometimes that people don't like that,
but we're always gonna tell the truth.
And the truth is that there's
no such thing as acting speaker.
The truth is that Republicans
currently have the majority.
Then the truth is that very,
very soon the Democrats will
have the majority probably, uh,
in the Pennsylvania State
House of Representatives.
So that covered one and two,
if I could go into number three of what
the heck happened, I, I'd be happy to.
Is that where you'd like me to go next?
Sure. Yeah, yeah. Let's take.
It there. Yeah. Well, I know this is
only a 40 minute, uh, show. So, um,
<laugh>, but, uh, listen,
I, I think twofold on that,
uh, number one, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna talk about the way that
things are done in Harrisburg.
And if you get elected to run in
Harrisburg and you get elected and you run
on certain things,
you ought to be telling people
the truth about what you're about.
And so many times you and I have been
in the caucus room for those that are
listening that don't
know what this is, uh,
the caucus room is where a particular
party gets together at this case with,
with Matt and I was the Republicans,
and we talked about bills that were coming
up and when we should run 'em and how
people are gonna vote
and things like that.
And you basically hash it out amongst
your, you know, amongst your teammates,
right? Matt, how many times
were you in that room?
And people would stand up
consistently and say, well,
this is a tough vote for me.
And, and, and you know,
you mentioned that,
and I don't mean to veer
off of where you were going,
but I remember a particular time when
you got up following someone saying
that and said, we get paid to
take tough votes. Okay? So,
and you know, that's something
that I always believed as.
Well. So it, if I get pushed back, I
said a little bit different. I said,
we get paid to take votes,
not to take tough votes cuz there's
no such thing as a tough vote.
Because at the end of the day, what,
what people mean by a tough vote is
this may make someone angry at me.
This may make somebody upset.
My phone may ring. Matt,
you got 65,000 bosses,
okay? They elected us,
they elected you, they elected me to go
to Harrisburg and do something, darn it.
And, and they elected us to take
votes. We were paid to take votes,
and that is what we
receive our salary of what,
a hundred thousand dollars
or whatever it is, right?
Which is pretty darn good to
go and do the job of. And, and,
and if you remember, I didn't make too
many friends after that speech. Uh,
and if I remember correctly,
I believe that I got a text message from
you that said, that was really great,
or thanks for saying that.
And, uh, now that you're gone,
I can tell people that you said
that. So, um, but you know,
and that's the truth, right?
We are paid to do the job of taking
votes and we are sent there to
execute on an agenda.
And what happens is people shy away
from actually doing things because,
and now I'm gonna roll
into part two of this.
The truth is that the general public,
the vast majority of the general
public is very happy having a
representative or a center senator.
They don't say they're happy,
but the data proof, so of saying, Hey,
just show up at my little fire hall
event and send me a Christmas card and I
really like you and you
do a great job. Okay?
And I can give you a great
example of that here in Lawrence,
Lawrence County until he got beat
this last time is Chris Sonata.
I don't know that Chris Sonata has ever
actually been involved in any single
piece of legislation, but he did call
old people on their birthdays, okay?
And they thought he was doing a
great job because of that. Well,
you know me well enough, that's not my
style. And, and, and I've told people,
they're like, well, hey, why don't you
do some of those things? This guys,
I'm busy. Like I'm, you know, if,
if I showed you today the stuff that
was on my computer and everywhere else,
and I have a million things going on,
well, we're trying to move a real agenda,
uh, to get things done. This
is my binder right here. Um,
you can probably see it here in the
background for those that are actually
watching with all these papers in here
are bills that we're running and we're
doing, and we're moving an agenda.
So the general public wants people
then all mo it's acceptable for them
to not be really aggressive.
I'm very concerned about that because
they don't say that's what they want,
but they vote that way.
The last part is this Democrats
outspent Republicans seven to one and
State House races across Pennsylvania.
I don't know if you're aware of that or
not. Uh, but it was seven to one, Matt.
And here's the truth,
that Republicans go to the polls and vote
and think they're doing a great thing.
Then once in a while they'll get on
Facebook. Never, not so much Twitter,
but maybe more now with, uh,
with Elon taking over and
Instagram once in a while.
And then they'll troll a
Democrat. Okay? Democrats do this.
I talked to one of our colleagues
that is extremely liberal, okay?
I like her. I don't like her
policies, but I like her as a person.
And she laughed and she goes,
you guys, she goes, she is.
Your people don't get it. I
said, what do you mean? She goes,
you're conservative people. You guys
don't get it. She is, they're cheap.
She goes, it's all about them. I said,
what are you talking about? She goes,
Erin, I,
my volunteers and the people
in my campaign that make $10
an hour go to their boss and say,
I wanna work two extra hours a month.
And then for that two extra hours
a month that they made their $20,
they contributed to a campaign
and they contribute to my campaign
so I can get our message out and
make sure that we keep winning.
Your people make 50, 60,
$70,000 and you can't get 'em to
write you a hundred dollars check.
My people are doing these
things each and every day.
And that's how we outspend you.
That's how we out, uh, maneuver you.
And oh yeah, by the way, in addition
to that extra time that they're doing,
they're also writing postcards,
asking their friends to get involved.
They're working polls, they're
doing all these things. So one,
we're being outspent by the
big, by the big donors, right?
Cuz the big lib donors come in.
Secondarily, the small donors,
people are really working hard. The
Democrats are working hard on that.
I'm actually starting a pack to do
that as well on the Republican side.
And then third, we're
being out hustled, uh,
by the regular rank and file individuals
who are putting forth the effort
of knocking on doors. I don't
know if you know this, Matt,
but around here and around in my area,
Democrats are already knocking
on doors for 2024 races. Okay?
Volunteers are actually
out knocking on doors. I,
in last week I got a report.
So that was what, the 12th,
13th of December for 2024 for candidates.
Well, and,
and I've started now to consult with
candidates for future elections. And,
uh, and we're looking at that cycle
at this point in time too. Uh,
but you know,
if someone doesn't already have some
claim to fame or name recognition for
2024 right now, at this point in
time, it's almost too late, uh,
to, to outwork the Democrats. Yeah.
And you make a great point
about those small 20,
$40 donations that come in. You know,
sometimes that $40 is, uh,
more of a sacrifice for
that individual than the
$500,000 check that you get from, um,
a small business owner. Uh, albeit
they're struggling as well. Um, but,
you know, those people take great pride
and they want that candidate to have
their financial support
and their contribution,
and that makes all of the
difference, uh, when we get to that.
Yeah. Matt, what, what.
We have to get a, oh, go ahead, Aaron.
Yep. Sorry. I was gonna say, you know,
I'm moving to a model with a
new political action committee.
I'm starting calling called
Accountable Leadership Pack,
where we're asking people
to contribute monthly.
And I don't care if that's $3 a
month, I don't care if that's $10,
whatever it is.
But we're asking them to contribute
monthly because we want to go out and help
those other candidates be successful.
You know, Aaron, we gotta get a quick
break in. Uh, when we come back,
I want to talk about, uh, kind
of the core values of this show.
And that's one of the reasons why I
had you on to discuss these important
political issues. Uh, when I, uh,
dreamt up the show commonalities,
I could have had, uh, just a
right wing, uh, podcast and,
and done my best rusher
Hannity, uh, impersonation. And,
uh, and you know, you know,
I was in the top 10% of conservative
members of, of the Pennsylvania House,
uh, and my votes prove
that, that being said,
what's even more important to me than
my personal agenda or the Republican
agenda or the conservative agenda,
is the fact that people follow
the rules and follow the laws.
And that's what government is
here, uh, for us, us to do.
And if you're not, uh, following
the legislative process correctly,
uh, you can get into some real problems.
And that's why I wanted to talk about
the makeup of the house between the
Democrats and the Republicans, and the
fact that, uh, we have these rumors that,
uh, that one party's in the majority,
and there's an acting speaker. Uh,
when we get back, I want to touch on
just briefly even the fact that, uh,
that we had an issue
with the chief clerk, uh,
and we will explain the
chief clerk's position, uh,
here in the Pennsylvania
House recently, um,
where she actually cited with
one party over the other, uh,
and over the law.
So we'll get all that in when we
get back after this brief break.
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Believe in the political don't have any
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We live in a political.
World. Well, you're
listening to commonalities.
I'm your host Matt Dowling here
on W N B S five 90 am 1 0 1
0.1 fm,
and as a podcast downloadable
every place you find your favorite
podcasts. With me today is a
great friend, former colleague,
representative Aaron Bernstein. And,
uh, before we went to break, uh,
representative Bernstein, we were
talking a little bit about, uh,
about things that have happened, uh,
since this election cycle that maybe
haven't been completely kosher or that
would give us some pause
or worry as we look for,
uh, the way that, that the next
two year session will be run, uh,
in the Pennsylvania House in Harrisburg.
And I know that I had brought up
the situation where the chief clerk
sided with the Democrats
over the law, and, uh,
I actually saw that a co-sponsorship
memo was put out by another friend
of mine, uh, and a friend of yours,
I'm I'm sure as well. Yeah. Uh,
representative Don Keefer, uh,
that would actually remove the chief
clerk from office. The Chief clerk,
of course, is, uh,
hired by the Bipartisan Management
Committee and is a paid employee
that is there to uphold the
integrity of that chamber,
uh, and to uphold the
law. And in this case, uh,
it doesn't look like that was done.
And I'm not sure how familiar you
are with that situation, Aaron,
but if you'd like to talk about
that, I'd like to go there for a.
Minute or two. Yeah. So, um, you know,
a lot of folks working
very closely on that one.
I'm focused on a couple
other things, but you know,
clearly I'm well aware of what's
going on. Some of my things,
different court things that
I'm focused on as, you know,
you only do so many
things at once. And, uh,
but what I do know about that is as
follows. And I know that the, um,
the clerk said that she acts literally as,
um, almost like a
passthrough, okay? Like, yes,
this did happen. And yes, I'm sending
this along to the Department of State, uh,
and you're talking about what, what
you're discussing is that the Ritz, uh,
for the special elections
were sent over from the
Democrats. Uh, the Republicans
did those same bricks as well,
and those were also sent over by
the chief clerk. And, uh, so listen,
I think this is something that the courts
are ultimately going to decide on who
had the authority to do that.
I'm a firm believer that the Republicans
had the authority to do that, and,
and we'll ultimately see
what transpires with that.
I think one of the things that I get
very concerned about is this is when
people don't have, or there
isn't a direct answer,
and there's ambiguity in
someone's role. And in my, in my,
uh, assessment, uh, there's
ambiguity and the chief clerk's role,
and I'll tell you, you know,
I don't know how this hasn't happened
in the last <laugh> long time,
250 plus years that, uh, that
Pennsylvania has been around. But,
you know, the,
these are the types of things that we
need to have really smart folks looking at
for each of these official roles and
making sure that we have as little
ambiguity in these
particular roles as possible,
and that we understand what the role is
actually supposed to do. And Matt, Matt,
Matt, if I could add to that,
I don't think that's any different in
politics or business, right? Um, you know,
whether people should have
clearly defined roles and,
and what authority they have in
order to perfor perform those duties.
Absolutely. And, uh,
and that that's something as a business
owner and as someone who's worked for
other organizations that, uh, that
I've believed as well, you know,
I never thought it was fair to, uh,
to terminate or give a bad review to
an employee that didn't know what the
expectations of their jobs were. And
if coaching wasn't put into place,
uh, at some point in time going
through the process. And, uh,
and so having those clearly defined
roles is something that I know is,
uh, is extremely important.
Yep. Um, you know, and, and,
and we do have these people
that, uh, that work in, um,
in a position of authority
where they're safeguarding for
the, uh, the people of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, uh,
the integrity of a chamber of,
of the House or the Senate. Um,
and they really have to
be bipartisan. And, and,
and that's a difficult thing to
find, um, because as you well know,
and as our listeners
would probably agree, um,
if you have someone who's interested
enough in politics to get involved,
they generally lean one
way or the other. Yeah. Um,
but what's important is that we keep
the, the, the playing field fair.
And we don't use any, um,
any advantages that we may see out there.
The, there's no room for power grabs,
um, that are not legal
within our institutions.
Of government. Yeah, absolutely. And,
you know, and I would even go further,
I think people even that
aren't in politics still
have some leanings one way or
the other. Right. Uh, naturally you're
going to be biased in some sense,
and I think that's normal.
Uh, the, the question is,
do you have the ability and the, um,
I wouldn't even say the integrity
because sometimes it's not even a bi
integrity,
but do you have the
ability to be completely
nonpartisan, not bipartisan,
but nonpartisan in your decision
makings that impact policy?
And, and I'll tell you, to be honest
with you, Matt, like, I don't, okay.
So I wouldn't apply for a job
like that. I know that, uh,
I know that about myself.
I'm, I'm getting a con,
I'm gonna side with the conservatives on
issues and, um, you know, so I think I,
I think that's something
that's, that's, uh,
that's why you have to have
those very clearly defined roles
of not, of, of, of those that
are unelected and not elected.
Yeah. Of those that are unelected.
And for those that are elected,
and you touched on this earlier, uh,
it's important for them to be transparent
about who they are with their voters.
Um, you know, there's always the old
imagery that people joke about that,
you know, if, uh, we as
politicians wore, uh,
racing jackets like, uh,
like they do in nascar,
you would know exactly who was, uh,
who was backing us and what we were
supporting and what we didn't support. Um,
unfortunately, sometimes you
have to read between the lines a.
Little bit. Yeah. So, one
thing, if I could on that,
and I think this is kind of interesting
where, and I've been hit on this,
and I'm sure you, you've been hit on this
too when you were in office, you know,
say, oh, this person gave you money,
so you're doing X, y, Z. Right?
Um, first off, listen, I, I don't, that's
just not the way I live my life. Um,
you know, I, I don't live my life
in a way that somebody, you know,
writes a campaign check. So I do X, Y,
Z, but what does happen is this. And,
and, you know, I'm a pro Second
Amendment guy, right? Uh, you know,
I constitutional carry, uh,
we worked very hard on some of those pro
gun bills together with you being the
former leader of the Second
Amendment caucus. Uh,
thanks for all your your
help on that, by the way.
We were able to get that to the
governor's desk. It obviously got vetoed,
but secondarily on this,
um, because of that,
and because I push those issues,
there are Pro-Second Amendment groups
and Pro-Second Amendment individuals that
contribute to my campaign because they
want me to continue to do that Now
because of that ceasefire pa,
which wants to take away all of
our guns and let you have no, uh,
rights to anything in this country,
is the deals of protecting yourself
clearly donates to someone that I'm going,
that, that runs against
me. Um, that it's not,
it's not because someone provides you
compensation that you do a certain
thing. It's typically that you did a
certain thing or do a certain thing.
So someone writes a campaign
check to you to support you,
to continue to allow you to, to
move that for that policy forward.
So, you know, I, I want to shift
gears here a little bit, uh,
in the second half of the show and talk
about what the next two years in the
Pennsylvania House is going to look
like. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh,
if you and I had a crystal ball, where
would we see it going? Obviously,
we're going to see much
closer numbers, uh,
between the Democrats and Republicans.
We've already lined that out. It's, uh,
it is very possible that the Democrats
will be in the majority and therefore
will control the calendar, uh, which
means they'll call up what bills, uh,
get to be voted on, on the floor. Uh,
they will have the chairman within the
committees. So those committee actions,
uh, could be slanted one direction mm-hmm.
<affirmative> or the other. But we,
we had a very wide gap in the
number of members and, uh,
a large majority, uh,
for the Republicans, uh,
for the six years that
I was in office. Uh,
and during that period of time, uh,
I found that it was,
it was hard to find common
ground or consensus to work with
the other party. And sometimes it was
hard to find consensus within, oh,
there are party, you talk about some of
those conversations in the caucus room.
Uh, some of those were a lot nastier than
anything that we ever saw on PCN that
happened on the, the house
floor. Um, you know, because we,
we've really got into it
with each other. Yeah.
We are now going to be
so close in numbers.
Do you think that that's going to force
people to work together more than they
did before? Or are we gonna see
things come to a screeching halt?
So, Matt, I, I do not think that it
will get people to work closer together.
I, I, I do not.
I think that what happens is people
will get even more d and well,
when I say people to work together, I
mean, of opposite parties. Okay. Um,
I do not think that,
I think that what you'll see is that
Republicans will be dug in and Democrats
will be dug in, and it will be about
how can I make the other side look bad?
And, and I'm concerned about that. I
think that's disappointing. Now, you know,
um, remember,
I think it's also my duty and what
people have sent me to do here is stop
bad things from occurring and stop bad
things from happening. For example,
anytime these gun grabbers come in
and try to revoke our Second Amendment
rights,
I'm going to use every single tool
necessary or possible that I can
utilize in order to stop that
from happening. So, you know,
I think that what we're gonna see is
we're gonna see dug in 203 members dug in
instead of, uh, collaboratively
working together to do things.
So I think we're gonna
see a screeching halt.
So what do you see as being
legislative priorities for
both parties? Uh, and,
and maybe more so, uh,
for the Democrats moving forward as
this will be their first chance to,
uh, to have control, uh.
Of the house? Well, I can tell you
this. I, I think that there are,
there are a great deal of
Republicans that are gonna be, uh,
the number one issues, the budget.
Okay? Uh, we talk about that,
and that's the most important
thing that happens every year.
I think you're gonna see Republicans that
are absolutely thrilled when it comes
to the Democrat budget. Uh,
every Republican out there consistently
says that they want to cut spending,
they want to cut spending, they
want to cut spending. But Matt,
you and I have been in the room and we're
smart enough to know and look around
the table,
and we see that although people tell
their constituents they want to cut
spending, they wanna cut spending for you,
they wanna cut spending in Fayette County,
they wanna cut spending
in Lawrence County.
They want cut spending in Butler County.
They're not real interested in cutting
any of their quote unquote pet projects.
Now, I think the difference
with me on that is this, I,
I think we gotta cut spending
across the board. Uh,
I'm one of those guys that openly says
that we spend too much on K through 12.
Uh, we spend over $20,000 per student
on K through 12, which as you know,
is third highest in the entire
country. Uh, I think that we,
that we're sending money to Penn
State who consistently raises tuition,
we're sending massive amounts of money
to pit that consistently raises tuition.
We should get something back for that
and make sure that our students are
rewarded now. So to me,
I think that there's gonna be a lot of
Republicans that are very excited to
spend even more money, uh, cuz
that money will be dis distributed.
And you talk about electoral
issues like we talked about before,
they get to walk around with
those big checks, right?
Those big checks and stand in front
of fire departments. I, you know,
that is incredible to me that these
folks do that. You know, they,
they stand in front of a park, they
stand in front of a police car,
they stand in front of these
different things, and they say, well,
I'm bringing money back. Well, first off,
it never should have been sent
to Harrisburg to begin with.
And if it didn't go to Harrisburg and go
through all the filters that took a cut
out of it, we could have actually more
money for these types of things. Um,
this is, you know, it's
a gimmick that's played,
and it's a gimmick that's played solely
for the purpose of getting politicians
reelected. And I continue to
be concerned about that issue.
You know, you look at
the power of incumbency,
and I think this is one of the biggest
reasons why incumbents have that
power. You know, listen, I've been open
about the, the problems that I had,
uh, yes. You know, leading
up to my decision to,
to not run for reelection this
fall. Um, that being said,
because I was an incumbent,
had I raised a little bit of money
and kept my name on the ballot,
there's a good chance that I
would've been back regardless.
Of, oh, listen, you don't want.
You know what I did? Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, and, and,
and, and if, if I could,
I'm not gonna go too much into the
detail on this thing, okay? But I,
I told you I thought you should
have stayed. Uh, you know, I don't,
I don't deny about that. I, I really
did. And I, because I think you did, uh,
not, I think you did.
I know you did one heck of a job for
your constituents and, um, but that,
you know, that's neither here, nor
nor there. You may, you know, you,
Becky and the kids all made
a decision and, um, listen,
I fully support that as
your friend. Right. Um,
but I'm telling you as a colleague,
I, I think that was a loss. Um,
and I think it's a loss for your.
District, but it does, it does
become scary that, you know,
you can have people that
have personal problems or,
or things that are taking them
away from their legislative duties,
but because they are the incumbent,
because they bring those big checks
back and, you know, I feel like we're,
we're picking a little bit
on the fire and ems. Yeah.
A lot. I just use that as an example.
Those communities. Uh, but it is,
they need funding. So, you know,
if we can bring 500 bucks back
to 'em, you know, that, that, uh,
you know, secures you at least a
few votes whenever you do that. And,
uh,
and you said there are gonna
be Republicans that will
be happy with a Democrat
budget. Yep. Um, you know, I,
I right now could make a
list of at least a dozen, uh,
of my former colleagues that will be
happy to see spending, uh, in increase.
And, you know, we all
do have personal, uh,
issues that we need to look at
within our districts in, you know,
in my district, there's one set
of problems in Philadelphia,
there's a completely different set.
And so of course they're gonna fight
for money for septa, for example,
um, and for public
transportation, where in my area,
that's just not something that is
necessary. But the only way to do this,
um, fairly is to reduce, uh, the spend,
the overall spend of the budget,
um, on a universal level that,
you know, equates, uh, with the
number of people in a certain, uh,
area or municipality, very
much like we do Reapportion.
Yeah. And, and you know, our good
friend, um, good mutual friend, uh,
Ryan Warner has the Bill Taxpayer
Protection Act. I, Matt, if, if,
and if you want to change
Harrisburg overnight, like tomorrow,
12 20 22 <laugh>, right? If
you wanna change it right now,
very simply, you need to institute
TPA or Taxpayer Protection Act.
And for those that
don't know what that is,
taxpayer Protection Act limits
the overall spending on,
on the Pennsylvania state budget
to inflation plus population growth
and, you know, cpi. So it's,
it's imperative that we lock in that
spending number and say, and people say,
whoa, we should cut spending guys,
that's not gonna happen. Okay.
We do not have the votes for that.
Republicans don't even wanna do it.
I wanna do it. Matt wanted to do it.
Brian wants to do it, but Republicans,
then I'll, we don't even have
the votes for that. I don't,
I I bet you we don't have
half the Republican votes
in order to get that done.
So Taxpayer Protection Act is the most
important thing that we could do in order
to stop the spending, uh, that
is happening in Harrisburg.
Yeah. And if there's one thing that, uh,
that I hope to work on
one way or another, uh,
now that I'm back in the
private sector, uh, it,
it would be to help as a private
citizen advanced legislation like
tpa. Not, not, because I think that is,
that's so important and it's gonna be
important for my kids and your kids. Yeah.
We have young kids, right,
that are gonna be left holding the
bag years from now. A generation.
From me, Matt, there is, I, I've
said it before. I'll say it again.
I've been saying it
for the last six years.
There is nothing more important
than Taxpayer Protection Act,
not, not lowering corporate net income
tax rate, not lowering the gas tax,
not the most important thing that
we can do for the financial, uh,
sanity of the Commonwealth.
Pennsylvania is tpa. Hands down.
Well, uh, representative Bernstein,
we gotta get one more break in
and then we'll come back and, uh,
give our parting thoughts. Uh,
40 minutes goes really quick when you got
two people that don't know how to shut
up.
Like me, that's us.
So, uh, last break, and
then we'll say our goodbyes.
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We live in the political world,
love, don't have any place.
We're living in time for men, commit
crimes and crime. Don't only have a face,
we're live in a political world.
Well, you're listening to
commonalities on w Nmb,
S five 90 am 1 0 1 0.1 fm,
and downloadable any place you
find your favorite podcasts.
I'm your host Matt Dowling, alongside,
uh, my friend and colleague,
representative Aaron Bernstein.
And Aaron, we just have about, uh,
90 seconds or less. So
final thoughts for today's.
Show? Listen, Matt, I think I love
the show and what you're doing here.
I think the most important thing that
we need to do not only is, is uh,
is a society here in
our Pennsylvania area,
but also across the entire Commonwealth
or also across the entire country,
is truly find commonalities
that we can work together on.
And you and I may have a different idea
of an issue, but at the end of the day,
people are just people trying to
do the best that they can. And,
and I think that we,
there's so many commonalities that
we have with each other and so many
commonalities, even when
you don't think you do, uh,
with people that may currently view the
world differently than you do. So, uh,
I love what you're doing on the show.
Always happy to be here. And my guess is,
uh, with me and you and
our Rattling Mouse, uh,
we could probably do about an eight hour
podcast and still be ready to go. So.
<Laugh>, I don't, I don't know that
anyone want, want to listen to that.
They, they, they would not.
I can tell you that show.
<Laugh>, I wanna get you back on
the show at some point in time,
perhaps to go point, counterpoint
with, uh, with someone like, uh,
representative Jordan
Harris. Yeah. Uh, who again,
I don't agree with on politics, but,
uh, love him as an individual. Yeah. Uh,
the two of you would be great to, uh, to
go point counterpoint with us and, uh,
help us find some common
ground. Thank you so much,
Aaron Bernstein for being with me
today. Thank you Matt. Here on w MB,
S 5 91 0 1 1 fm.
This has been commonalities,
a show where guests find common
ground through uncommon conversations.
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