Latest / Meet the Candidate - Pittsburgh & Western Pennsylvania / Ken Krawchuk for Pennsylvania Governor (L)

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Ken Krawchuk for Pennsylvania Governor (L) · Meet the Candidate - Pittsburgh & Western Pennsylvania

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  Speaker 1: And welcome to Meet the Candidate, designed to give you
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  Speaker 1: an opportunity to hear directly from the people asking for
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  Speaker 1: your vote. No endorsements, no debate, just a conversation about
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  Speaker 1: the candidate, the issues, and where they stand, so you
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  Speaker 1: can make up your own mind. Today, we're talking with
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  Speaker 1: Ken Krawchuk, the Libertarian candidate for governor of Pennsylvania. Ken Krawchuk,
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  Speaker 1: welcome to Meet the Candidate.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Johnny. It's great to be here. Appreciate the opportunity.
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  Speaker 1: All right, so if there's one thing you want voters
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  Speaker 1: to understand about your campaign, what is it?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to
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  Speaker 3: take it anymore. There's so many things fundamentally wrong with Pennsylvania.
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  Speaker 2: And number one on my list is what's going on
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  Speaker 2: in the schools.
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  Speaker 3: Do you know that in Pennsylvania, more than half the
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  Speaker 3: kids in the government schools cannot read at grade level?
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  Speaker 2: Almost two-thirds can't do math at grade level. This is crazy.
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  Speaker 3: Our Constitution says that the state needs to run a
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  Speaker 3: thorough and efficient means of public education.
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  Speaker 2: Well, obviously, it's not thorough.
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  Speaker 3: And in terms of efficiency, a typical private education costs
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  Speaker 3: half as much as a government education. $ 24, 000 for a
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  Speaker 3: government education, about $ 11, 000 for a typical private education.
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  Speaker 2: So it's not thorough. It's not efficient. That's one of
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  Speaker 2: the main reasons I'm running.
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  Speaker 3: Another one alongside of that, because there are two issues
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  Speaker 3: that are combined together, is the property tax. The property
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  Speaker 3: tax is what funds that system. So what I want
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  Speaker 3: to do is I want to privatize the schools. That
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  Speaker 3: way we can win the economic benefit of half the price.
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  Speaker 2: Plus your private schools, about 90% of the kids are
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  Speaker 2: doing math and reading at grade level. So the kids
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  Speaker 2: will be better. The cost will be lower. Excuse me.
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  Speaker 3: And the thing is, the difference in cost between the $ 24, 000
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  Speaker 3: that the state pays.
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  Speaker 2: And what an $ 11, 000 that the private schools Schools charge.
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  Speaker 2: It's made up of property tax. What I'd like to
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  Speaker 2: do is take.
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  Speaker 3: That $ 11, 000 that the state is giving to the school
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  Speaker 3: districts and redirect it and give it directly to.
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  Speaker 2: Each child as a scholarship.
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  Speaker 3: $ 11, 500 scholarship. And the parents can choose any private school
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  Speaker 3: for the child that they want. Once we move that
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  Speaker 3: funding away from the school districts, they could be shut down.
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  Speaker 2: Property tax goes away with it.
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  Speaker 3: So we can privatize the schools, get kids a real education, thorough.
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  Speaker 2: And efficient, and get rid of the property tax all
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  Speaker 2: at once. This is why I'm running. It's very difficult
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  Speaker 2: to stand against that. Do you like dumb kids? Okay,
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  Speaker 2: you can say that.
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  Speaker 3: I don't.
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  Speaker 2: Do you like paying high property taxes for a failed system? Well,
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  Speaker 2: maybe you do, but I don't. I have been counting.
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  Speaker 3: I have found Six people. I've talked to thousands of
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  Speaker 3: people in the campaign. I found six who do not
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  Speaker 3: agree with my approach.
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  Speaker 2: So there you go. There's an overview. There are other things, too,
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  Speaker 2: but that's number one on my list. Help the kids
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  Speaker 2: eliminate property tax.
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  Speaker 1: Can you give me an example of where those kind
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  Speaker 1: of policies have worked?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, sure.
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  Speaker 3: Mississippi has done that, and they are now one of
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  Speaker 3: the best school systems in the nation. If you want
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  Speaker 3: to look at it just generally speaking, private education is
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  Speaker 3: always better than a government education. Government, we know, is
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  Speaker 3: just bad at everything. It doesn't matter what they touch.
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  Speaker 3: It's too expensive. It's too inefficient.
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  Speaker 2: And our public schools are a monopoly.
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  Speaker 3: Essentially, 90%, 95% of all kids go to the government
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  Speaker 3: school system.
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  Speaker 2: And like any monopoly, the costs are high, the choice
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  Speaker 2: is low, and the quality is not really that good.
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  Speaker 2: And there are other things in there, too. For example, tenure.
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  Speaker 3: Tenure means a bad teacher stays forever. It's just not
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  Speaker 3: bad enough to get rid of them. And most tenured
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  Speaker 3: positions are in the government school system. So we can
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  Speaker 3: get rid of bad teachers too when we privatize this.
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  Speaker 3: So it's worked in other states, can work here. The
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  Speaker 3: free market is always the better idea.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of voters know what Democrats and Republicans generally
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  Speaker 1: stand for, but Libertarians may be less familiar with them.
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  Speaker 1: What does Libertarian mean to you, Ken?
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  Speaker 3: But we libertarians are different from the two old parties
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  Speaker 3: because we are the party of principle. Every law we support,
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  Speaker 3: every law we oppose comes back to one central idea.
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  Speaker 3: The idea that your life is yours, that your property
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  Speaker 3: is yours, that you have the inalienable right to live
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  Speaker 3: your life your way without interference, provided only.
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  Speaker 2: That you respect the rights and property of others. That's it.
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  Speaker 2: That's what it means to be a libertarian. Your life,
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  Speaker 2: your way, as long as you respect others.
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  Speaker 3: It's the golden rule on a political level. And let
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  Speaker 3: me add that since our founding in 1971, we have
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  Speaker 3: grown to become the third largest party, hands down, outnumbering
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  Speaker 3: all the other, I'm calling them now fourth parties, all
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  Speaker 3: put together. We have over 200 people in office currently
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  Speaker 3: in Pennsylvania. So we do win, we are winning, and
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  Speaker 3: we're building from the bottom.
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  Speaker 2: Up, which is definitely the way to build a political party.
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  Speaker 1: What is the single biggest thing the next governor can
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  Speaker 1: do to help Pennsylvania businesses grow? create good-paying jobs, and
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  Speaker 1: keep people working?
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  Speaker 2: Wow. There are several things.
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  Speaker 3: Well, first of all, if every kid has an $ 11, 500 scholarship,
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  Speaker 3: that's going to encourage people to move into town here.
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  Speaker 3: But when you're looking at it economically, the cost of
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  Speaker 3: government in Pennsylvania has been rising at more than three
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  Speaker 3: times the rate of inflation for over 50 years.
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  Speaker 2: But when I'm governor, that trend will end.
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  Speaker 3: I'm promising I'm going to veto every single tax increase
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  Speaker 3: that crosses my desk So I'll be able to hold
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  Speaker 3: the line on the growth of the cost of government.
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  Speaker 3: Second thing is I have the line item veto from
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  Speaker 3: the Pennsylvania Constitution. That means I can go through the
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  Speaker 3: budget and cross out whatever I don't like. Things like, oh,
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  Speaker 3: I don't know, the $ 200 million a year that we
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  Speaker 3: give to horse racing. I hope you're not a horse
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  Speaker 3: racing fan because.
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  Speaker 2: When I'm governor, gone. So many other things.
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  Speaker 3: $ 100 million going to the states, the wine and spirits stores.
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  Speaker 3: Maybe you like wine and spirits. We're not going to
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  Speaker 3: subsidize that. So many other things. Convention centers, another $ 200 million.
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  Speaker 3: If you go out to my website, kenk4pa. com, you'll find
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  Speaker 3: that I've identified over $ 3 billion in pork barrel wasted
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  Speaker 3: special interest spending. And I'm going to use a line
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  Speaker 3: item veto to get rid of those. So the cost
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  Speaker 3: of government goes down, more money in your pocket. And
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  Speaker 3: certainly once that property tax is gone, I just paid
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  Speaker 3: mine a couple of weeks.
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  Speaker 2: Ago, thousands and thousands of dollars. Do you know what
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  Speaker 2: a stimulus that would be for the state?
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  Speaker 3: What we need is somebody in the Harrisburg who's going
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  Speaker 3: to treat your money as yours, treat your life as yours.
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  Speaker 3: So when you're looking at the economy, there's nothing better
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  Speaker 3: you can do than to vote for a libertarian.
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  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania has an opportunity to play a major role in
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  Speaker 1: America's energy and technology.
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  Speaker 3: Uh.
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  Speaker 1: how do we create those jobs and attract the investment
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  Speaker 1: while also protecting the communities where the that development is happening.
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  Speaker 3: But it depends what exactly what you're talking about one
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  Speaker 3: of persons i say all the time is why orange
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  Speaker 3: all the government buildings covered with solar lot of companies
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  Speaker 3: put solar up there for free and the cost for
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  Speaker 3: you is less than the market value we did that
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  Speaker 3: on every state building We'd be saving taxpayer money. We'd
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  Speaker 3: be stimulating the future economy of solar. And I think
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  Speaker 3: electric is definitely the future. So that's one simple example.
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  Speaker 3: One of the larger examples are data centers. People are
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  Speaker 3: talking about data centers left and right.
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  Speaker 2: Right now, the problem with the data centers is not
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  Speaker 2: the data centers themselves. They can be very good.
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  Speaker 3: They bring in high-tech jobs, high-paying construction jobs, long-term tax base.
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  Speaker 2: They can be very good.
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  Speaker 3: On the other hand, though, they could be very bad.
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  Speaker 3: They could use too much water, too much electricity, drive
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  Speaker 3: the costs up. The problem with the data centers is
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  Speaker 3: not the data centers itself, but state law. State law,
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  Speaker 3: the Municipal Planning Code, MPC, mandates that if a township
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  Speaker 3: can accommodate a certain zoning, they are required to. So
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  Speaker 3: we've got a problem right now up in the Poconos
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  Speaker 3: area of Pennsylvania, Archibald. They're building a data center there
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  Speaker 3: that people don't want it. But there's nothing they can
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  Speaker 3: say because the municipal planning code insists that they do it.
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  Speaker 3: They can't stand in the way of it. More important
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  Speaker 3: than solving a problem correctly is to solve the correct problem.
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  Speaker 3: And the correct problem here is the municipal planning code.
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  Speaker 3: We need to change it to allow locals to decide
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  Speaker 3: if they want it or not. Now, I can imagine Scranton,
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  Speaker 3: they could put data centers in all those abandoned coal mines.
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  Speaker 3: Scranton is dying. Johnstown, another town, is dying. They've got
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  Speaker 3: these old brown stones, brown fields, old steel plants. They
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  Speaker 3: could turn those into steel mills.
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  Speaker 2: Listen to me. Turn those into data centers. But the
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  Speaker 2: locals should decide, not some law in Harrisburg.
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  Speaker 1: Now, if you're elected governor, you're still going to need
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  Speaker 1: to work with Republicans and Democrats in Harrisburg to get
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  Speaker 1: things done. How would you approach that?
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's one of the nice things about being a libertarian.
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  Speaker 3: People on the left, generally speaking, believe in a high
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  Speaker 3: degree of personal freedom, but a low degree of economic freedom.
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  Speaker 2: People on the right are the opposite. They believe in
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  Speaker 2: a high degree of economic.
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  Speaker 3: Freedom, but a low degree of personal freedom. Well, we libertarians,
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  Speaker 3: we believe in personal freedom and economic freedom. It's freedom
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  Speaker 3: all the time. So if the Democrats are looking to
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  Speaker 3: get something done on the personal freedom front, I'm there
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  Speaker 3: for them. If the Republicans are looking for getting things
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  Speaker 3: done on the economic front, I'm there for them, too.
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  Speaker 3: And the best part is, with Pennsylvania's divided government, very
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  Speaker 3: closely divided, you know, we're a swing state, I can
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  Speaker 3: be the dealmaker to come out, and in the end,
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  Speaker 3: what's going to win is freedom for Pennsylvania.
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  Speaker 1: Last word is yours, Ken. What do you want Pennsylvania
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  Speaker 1: voters to know before we wrap things up?
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  Speaker 2: You know, people tell me, Ken, I love your ideas.
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  Speaker 2: I hate the property tax. Yes, kids should learn how
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  Speaker 2: to read. Yes, veto all those tax increases. But Ken,
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  Speaker 2: face it, you're not going to win. But wait, I
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  Speaker 2: can win. Thanks to the two old parties.
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  Speaker 3: They have disenfranchised so many voters, a lot of people
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  Speaker 3: just aren't going to vote this year. Typically in these
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  Speaker 3: off-year elections, you get 30, 35, maybe 40%. If you
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  Speaker 3: crunch the numbers, you'll find that all it takes to
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  Speaker 3: win a libertarian victory is to attract the vote of
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  Speaker 3: one out of six voting-age Pennsylvanians.
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  Speaker 2: One out of six can stop their tricks.
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  Speaker 3: And even better, if you look at the voter registration rolls,
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  Speaker 3: one out of six people are not registered with either
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  Speaker 3: of the two old parties. So if all the independents
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  Speaker 3: get together and say, enough is enough in a competitive
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  Speaker 3: three-way race, I can win.
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  Speaker 2: So get out there.
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  Speaker 3: Visit my website, kenkaferpa.com. Check out my stands. Vote for freedom.
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  Speaker 3: Vote for liberty.
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  Speaker 2: And vote for me, Ken Krawchuk, Libertarian for Pennsylvania Governor.
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  Speaker 2: Because I don't know about you, but I have had
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  Speaker 2: enough of the other parties.
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  Speaker 1: Ken, thank you so much.
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  Speaker 2: Johnny, thanks for the invite.
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  Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.