Voters in the 9th Congressional District will see a rematch of the 2022 election.
Republican incumbent Rep. Dan Meuser and Democratic challenger Amanda Waldman will once again compete for the seat. The district stretches from Lebanon County and Berks County north to the New York state line. It includes Berks, Lebanon, Schuylkill, Carbon, Northumberland, Montour, Columbia, Luzerne, Lycoming, Sullivan, Wyoming, Susquehanna and Bradford counties.
U.S. representatives serve a two-year term and receive an annual salary of $174,000.
We asked the candidates to respond to four questions:
Amanda Waldman
Residence: Lycoming County.
Age: 49.
Background: Waldman is a financial representative for a Medicare provider in Pennsylvania. She also is a board member for Roads to Freedom Center for Independent Living, an AmeriCorps alumnus and a community volunteer. She holds an English degree from Bloomsburg University.
Website: waldman4pa.com
Q. Name a single problem facing the district you are running to represent and how you would address that issue if elected.
A. This may seem an unlikely choice of topics, but I’m going to discuss one of the “invisible” problems facing the district — the dramatic increase in homelessness in these rural communities. I have spoken with numerous unhoused constituents in every one of the 12 counties of the district. The vast majority of these people have been applying for jobs, but without an address, they cannot obtain employment, and without employment, they cannot obtain a physical address.
In each case, the towns I was in at the time have multiple empty apartment buildings and storefronts that could easily be utilized to address the lack of affordable housing and the unhoused population. As a former case manager at a homeless shelter for families, I understand how municipal governments can partner with nonprofits to renovate blighted properties, offer jobs to some of the skilled workers among the unhoused population and make the communities more successful and attract new residents. All at no cost to taxpayers.
Q. What specific actions should Congress take to make life more affordable for the people living in your district?
A. There are a number of actions Congress can, and could have taken, to make life more affordable for the people living in the 9th District. Passing a Windfall Profits Tax would have significantly helped Americans afford their basic necessities, like gas and food, by discouraging corporations from price-gouging and artificially inflating the prices of goods. Passing legislation such as the PRIME Act would increase the productivity of small-scale livestock farms and improved their access to the market while lowering the cost of meat for consumers. Congress could also had invested more in job creation in our rural communities and encouraged economic diversification of our rural communities by improving infrastructure and access to transportation.
These actions could have been taken over the past six years but, because our government is so divided by political parties, the legislation that would most directly impact the cost of living in rural communities across the 9th District has not been passed.
Q. What do you believe is the biggest threat to national security, and what can Congress do to confront it?
A. The biggest threat to national security is political party rhetoric, and finger-pointing, blame-laying, divisive elected officials who are supposed to be leaders. Instead, they choose to spread misinformation and lies in their districts, while not addressing the serious concerns the residents of their districts want solutions to. The responsibility of our elected officials is to govern for all, to be responsive to all and our job as voters is to hold them accountable. None of this is happening at any level. This divisiveness affects all other major issues we face — the economy, job creation, health care, the environment, the “brain drain” of our rural areas, affordable housing, homelessness and literally everything. Our country doesn’t function properly with only one political ideology; our best ideas and policies come from cooperation and compromise. That’s exactly what I will do if the constituents entrust their votes and their voices to me in November — be a responsive and accessible representative for all.
Q. Whose political career do you most admire, and why?
A. The political career I most admire is that of Congressman Meuser. After previously being investigated for Medicare fraud, he decided to enter politics. After entering politics, he found himself under investigation for insider trading. In spite of that investigation, his personal stock portfolio outperformed Bill Gates and Warren Buffet by 30% in one year, and he increased his personal net worth by nearly $20 million. And all this time he has done absolutely nothing for the residents of the 9th District. In the span of a single year, the poverty rate rose by nearly 10% under his watch, while the median household income only rose 1.04%. Yet the people of the district are still considering reelecting him.
Seriously though, admiring politicians isn’t something I’ve spent much time doing. There are actions taken by politicians that I applaud in the moment like former Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney for putting country over politics, and constituent concerns over party rhetoric at the cost of their careers; or Sen. John McCain who stood up to lies and misinformation, knowing that doing so could cost him support of ill-informed voters and possibly his presidential race. Anyone that would risk their job to focus on the work their constituents elected them to do instead of what a political party says is someone to be admired because they understand what being a great public servant requires.
Dan Meuser
Residence: Luzerne County.
Age: 60.
Background: Meuser was first elected to the seat in 2018. He previously served as secretary of revenue in the Cabinet of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett and president of the Pride Mobility Corporation.
Website: meuserforcongress.com
Q. Name a single problem facing the district you are running to represent and how you would address that issue if elected.
A. The biggest problem facing our district is rising inflation caused by the Biden-Harris administration’s policy agenda. Excessive government spending coupled with a backward energy policy that placed significant hurdles to domestic energy production has caused prices to soar.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, because of wildly excessive spending, demand was stimulated, not supply, which caused inflation. They have overstimulated demand by infusing dollars into the economy. In short, too many dollars were chasing too few goods, causing inflation levels at a 50-year high. Over the last three years, the cost of goods has increased by over 20%. Prices for essentials like food and gas have surged, while families have seen their disposable incomes shrink. We need to implement policies that promote American production by stopping excessive spending, reversing regulatory restrictions on energy production and making the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed under President Trump made corporate tax rates competitive with the rest of the world, provided small business tax incentives, R&D tax credits, 100% capital purchase depreciation and doubled the child tax deduction. Such a plan strongly encouraged investments in businesses large and small, strengthening the economy through sound policy and not government overreach.
Q. What specific actions should Congress take to make life more affordable for the people living in your district?
A. The best way to make our nation more affordable for American families is by supporting a pro-domestic energy policy agenda. We must work to jump-start domestic energy production by reducing unnecessary and burdensome regulations. The high costs of energy impact the prices of all consumer goods. Our district has plentiful resources to harness, especially natural gas, nuclear and coal. We can power Pennsylvania, our country, and even parts of the world with energy in the 9th District. We must reduce our reliance on foreign energy sources.
Additionally, we must make the Trump tax cuts permanent. The last thing the American family can afford is a massive tax increase that will fuel more excessive government spending.
Q. What do you believe is the biggest threat to national security, and what can Congress do to confront it?
A. The biggest threat to our national security is the crisis at our southern border. Since Biden and Harris were sworn in, more than 10 million illegal immigrants have been encountered at our border, including 350 individuals on the terror watch list. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas own this national security crisis.
We must immediately undo the open-border policy agenda. We know how to fix this issue because President Trump successfully implemented policies that helped reduce illegal immigration. We must secure the border by investing in infrastructure to place physical barriers and monitoring to police the border, invest and increase our complements of brave border agents, restore the Remain in Mexico policy, end Catch and Release and make it known to the world that the United States is not open for the world to push their criminals and drugs across our border.
Additionally, we must work to stop the flow of deadly drugs like fentanyl from streaming across the border. Again, President Trump has succeeded in accomplishing this before, and if he is reelected, I am confident we will again.
Q. Whose political career do you most admire, and why?
A. There are several, but I will speak about my respect and admiration for President Trump and the movement that he has built. President Trump never held elected office before winning the presidency in 2016. Like me, President Trump was called to public service after a successful career in the private sector. President Trump did not take a salary and was the first president to see his overall net worth drop due to his service. That is a sacrifice that many of the career politicians in Washington have not made. I admire how President Trump has transformed the Republican Party as the voice of the American working class.
While the Democratic Party has migrated to a base of celebrities and high-earners, the America First agenda is centered on helping the American worker succeed by increasing opportunities for better-paying jobs, reducing government spending, cutting taxes, promoting domestic energy production, stopping endless wars by promoting peace through strength, securing our borders and focusing on ensuring our public safety by punishing those who commit crimes.
Source: Berkshire mont