RealClearPennsylvania Articles

To remote-work carpetbaggers fleeing soon-to-be-socialist New York and other failing cities who are looking to take advantage of Pittsburgh's developing-economy prices, I have a simple message that I’ve adapted from remarks given by former Vice President Kamala Harris: “Do not come. Do not come.” For me, the last straw was when one of these newly-arrived folks – a software engineer acquaintance of mine – referred to the Burgh as a nice “starter city,” a place to save a little money before he returned to a real metro somewhere else. Though a...

It’s rare these days to find a proposal out of Washington that checks every box: common sense, bipartisan, and pro-worker. That is exactly what Pennsylvania U.S. Sens. Dave McCormick and John Fetterman have delivered with their bill to relocate the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (OFECM) from Washington to Pennsylvania. It’s a smart move – and long overdue. Federal agencies have operated in the echo chambers of Washington, far removed from the communities they regulate. When policymakers and regulators live hundreds of miles away...

Pennsylvania is evolving, and our workforce development system needs to adapt to this change. For years, there have been flashing red lights on Pennsylvania's demographic dashboard. Our population is aging, and retiring workers are not being replaced by new workers quickly enough. It's leaving employers understaffed. Beyond that, there is a mismatch between the skills leaving the workforce and the skills entering the workforce. It’s an imbalance that threatens our broader economy if Pennsylvania doesn't focus on solving the gap between retiring workers and young talent. But what’s...

I have Thanksgiving dinner every year with only teachers. My mother, father, sister, brother-in-law, aunt, cousin, and my grandmother, along with all my great-aunts, have served as educators. While I’m the odd one out professionally, I value their work and service and the path they took to get there. My mother was a first-generation college student from Scranton paying her own way through college. When her student teaching came up, she had nowhere to live.  Luckily, a teacher in Sunbury had a practice of permitting student teachers use of her attic space as a bedroom suite as they...

Pennsylvania’s rural hospitals are struggling. Declining patient volumes, workforce shortages, and chronic underpayment have left many on a lifeline. About half are operating at a loss, according to fiscal year 2023 data from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. Another 17% are barely breaking even or operating with margins too low to make investments necessary to maintain facilities, enhance services, and secure long-term stability. Eleven rural Pennsylvania hospitals have closed over the past two decades. Many have had to reduce services. Labor and delivery unit...

Earlier this month, Aaron Rodgers finally signed with the Steelers, ending an exhausting offseason saga that directly impacted their draft. The 41-year-old quarterback’s arrival marks the beginning of what promises to be the weirdest chapter in franchise history. Good. Scouting reports paint a grim picture: diminished arm strength, slower processing speed, increasingly erratic decision-making in the pocket. This isn’t the MVP who torched the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. It’s a guy who is lucky he’s still able to throw more touchdowns than interceptions. But given that...

Gov. Josh Shapiro once said, “Leaders have a responsibility to speak truth.” Yet, truth be told, the governor’s lack of leadership on this year’s state budget is concerning. It all began with his budget address in February. Shapiro’s 2025–26 budget proposal was an unrealistic, irresponsible nonstarter. His $51.5 billion budget proposal – about 8% higher than this fiscal year – is chock full of excessive government spending, including hundreds of millions in handouts to government unions and other special interests. Pennsylvanians...

With all that’s wrong in public education today, what if I told you some good news? There are more than 69,000 students in Pennsylvania who have found a K-12 school that works for them – after trying two or more other schools that didn’t work. And there’s more good news: these schools only cost us about 68% of what it costs taxpayers to run public schools. If you’re a parent, taxpayer, or small-business owner looking for employees, you’re probably smiling. Well, sadly, you wouldn’t fit in among many politicians in Harrisburg. Instead of celebrating or...

“You guys don’t know how good you have it.” That is typically not a winning message for politicians heading into an election year.  Yet when it comes to energy prices, Pennsylvanians have never had it this good. After all, nearly all Pennsylvanians pay less for energy than they did thirty years ago. Accounting for inflation, Pennsylvanians’ electric bills are 46% cheaper than they were in 1996. What are legislators to do when the top issue on the minds of voters is their electric bill despite the cost declining by nearly half? Let’s start with how we got...

In October 1862, Irish mineworkers in the rural coal mining villages of western Schuylkill County rose up in armed opposition to Pennsylvania’s first attempt to create a drafted militia to add soldiers to the United States Army. They marched from mine to mine across Cass and New Castle Townships, shutting down mining operations as they went. Several hundred men, some armed with pistols and other weaponry, stopped a train carrying recruits for the Army at the village of Tremont and ordered them to return to their homes. Chaos reigned through mid-October in Schuylkill County, raising...

César B. Liriano embodies the striving, entrepreneurial spirit of generations of immigrants. Like many Hispanics, he came from the Dominican Republic by way of New York City and found rural Lebanon, Pennsylvania appealing. He bought a three-apartment building, lived in one, and rented out the others. His family loaned him the money for a downpayment, including $27 from a sister’s piggy bank. Four years later, he paid them back. Now he wants to repay his community by running for mayor of Lebanon County’s only city. Liriano is a staunch Democrat, though his program would be...

This past weekend in Doylestown, protestors gathered for a “No Kings” rally, holding signs that compared federal immigration officers to Nazis – one reading, “Nazis used trains. ICE uses planes.” These kinds of messages aren’t just offensive – they’re dangerous. And they’re becoming far too common in politics. This same weekend, across the country, Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman was shot and killed in a politically motivated attack. While the investigation is ongoing, the timing is chilling – and it reminds us that words...

Pennsylvania's budget process is a byzantine effort that is critical to the functioning of the Commonwealth but largely ignored by the public. The news that does slip out ranges from depressing to infuriating as legislators and the administration often struggle to find consensus on issues with high public agreement. We all agree that we need strong schools, but there are knock-down, drag-out fights year after year about how to spend education money. We agree, moreover, that communities need safe roads, bridges, and transportation infrastructure that gets people to their...

Pennsylvania is on the short list of destinations for cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI). However, the commonwealth – thanks to ill-advised policies pushed by Gov. Josh Shapiro – remains ill-equipped to handle this emerging market. On Monday, the governor announced a $20 billion investment by Amazon to develop data centers statewide. Though a laudable investment, the governor’s publicity stunt highlights a glaring issue: State policies make it extremely expensive to set up shop in Pennsylvania and tap into the state’s abundant...

Pennsylvania just caught the attention of the world’s most powerful company. Amazon recently announced it will invest at least $20 billion to build multiple high-tech cloud computing and AI innovation campuses across the commonwealth. The projects are expected to create 1,250 high-paying job – likely just the beginning of a larger wave. Two communities – Salem Township in Luzerne County and Falls Township in Bucks County – have already been identified as anchor sites. Additional towns across the state are under active consideration. The significance of...

Are the party positions on always-newsy senior U.S. Sen. John Fetterman flipping here in Pennsylvania? Fetterman continues to dominate the state’s “political attention” economy, as he has for a long time. Last week in Boston, he and Republican Sen. Dave McCormick participated in a debate sponsored by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate and the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation. (It took place at the Kennedy Institute’s full-scale replica of the Senate Chamber, where Fetterman was free to wear his signature cargo shorts.) Most of the juicy sound bites...

Last week, John Fetterman’s chief of staff Krysta Sinclair Juris walked out the door, becoming the latest in a string of staff departures that would sink most politicians. The hulking Pennsylvania senator’s mental health struggles have been laid bare in unflinching detail. He’s become what many political consultants would call a “loose cannon.” And yet, against all logic and beltway wisdom, Fetterman’s popularity with swing voters and Republicans is surging. A Morning Consult poll released in April found that 50% of Pennsylvanians approve of the job...

At this time last year, I was serving in the state House of Representatives and leading the Human Service Committee, so I’ve seen up close how difficult it is for my former colleagues on both sides of the aisle to produce a balanced budget – especially in a challenging year like this one. I also know just how vital it is for my former colleagues to address Pennsylvania’s home care crisis because I’ve seen it firsthand. I saw my mother and my daughter, both now deceased, have their lives extended – at home – thanks to incredible in-home caregivers, but...

Share prices of US Steel surged on the news that Japan’s Nippon Steel will at last acquire the company. Well, share values should rise. Without a deal, US Steel was staring bankruptcy on the face. Now shareholders will get some $14 billion from Nippon, far more than the company’s market capitalization and than any potential buyer has offered in the past. Nippon has also pledged assurances to make the deal attractive to US Steel employees and the federal government in Washington.  As it stands, the deal nearing completion is much like the original deal that the Biden...