Talking with Joe part 2

I had an opportunity to spend some time with Dr. Joseph Leonardi who is seeking the Republican nomination for Congress in the 11th District of Pennsylvania. I'm paraphasing.

Drugs:

Education and arrest people. Look at the way NYC turned around. Take money from social services and redirect it to the police. Take that model to small towns. The broken window theory. Put police on the street. They are not going to do anything if a cop is driving by.

I give Mayor Haggerty a lot of credit, I look out of the window of my office I see a police car pass by a couple times a day. Why can't we do that in W-B.

We have been locking up people over drugs for 50 or 60 years, is there another way of doing it?

The problem with drugs is 2 fold. There is an education issue that need to be addressed . Dare has had a small degree of success. What you need to get serious about the supply which leads to the problem of the borders. If we could close down the borders .. to the drug problem and illegal immigration. The drugs would have a harder time getting in. The other problem is there is a demand for it. We need to find a way to curb demand.

Blaming other countries for our drug problem?

That's where education comes into play. That's where just locking people up. Not just lock up the user. The person that should be targeted is the supplier that is using. Who's is trying to fix his own habit. They are people who should be targeted who have an incentive to get other people hooked.

"I'm not a big fan of mandatory minimums, and I know that doesn't sound appropriate coming from a Republican. I think that everything should be dealt with on a case by case basis. "

Obviously you are a strong war supporter?

I am?

Are you?

I think we have to do what it takes to end it and get out. Iraq seems to be on a good track. When you think about it you can't give into the terrorist mindset. Israel pulled out of Gaza and it wasn't enough. That's why appeasement will never work. They can't compromise. Was Iraq the right place at the right time? We won't know that for 10 years. The President had certain information and was elected to go through the intelligence and make a decision. Intelligence is not an exact science.

The government reaction to 9/11, the patriot act, the real id act?

If something else had happened since 9/11 people would feel they didn't do enough. I don't know if the Patriot Act was an overreaction. Passing the Pat Act without reading it was an overreaction. It seems now the 2nd time through more attention has been paid to it. I'm upset they have loosened the rules on carry-on items for aircraft.

"One of the things that upset me about the Congress is the way Congress gave up it's power to declare war in the Iraq situation. " All they did was authorize the use of force. That bothered me to no end. This was a war and they should have declared war. It's up to the Congress to declare war not the President. You don't give somebody a blank check.


Health care, big problem?

Is it as big a problem as people say it is? There could be some better ways to get coverage. I treat people everyday with decent coverage, they may have to pay more for it than they did in the past, but they have it. I don't see national healthcare as the answer. Health care problems go with the economy if the economy is doing well it's not as big an issue. Every time you're health premiums go up people complain, but so do your car insurance and life insurance premiums. That's part of the market economy.

Medicare Drug Plan?

"What a farce." If you are going to have a single payer Medicare plan then you should have a single payer drug plan. The reminds me ofMedicareicare hmo's, I don't think that there are any left. I'm a conservative running as a Republican however I'm not going to support this.

Social Security

I believe strongly in the SS system. I don't have a problem with being able to invest part of our incomes in it, but there will be a transistion stage that will cause a lot of suffering. SS is not an investment plan and I don't like the way it is being played off by both parties. I liked Santorum's law guaranteeing benefits. SS is not an investment, it is a promise from one generation to take care of another. You can really judge a society by the way it takes care of it's least fortunate and least well off. I don't have a problem to pay part of my income to help someone who has gotten older and maybe not as fortunate and providing that safety net.

Would you favor means testing? "Sure "