Pennsylvania midterm elections: Q&A with 13th Congressional District candidate John Joyce

John Joyce (R) is running against Brent Ottaway (D) to represent the 13th Congressional District of Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives. 

All of Adams County is now in Congressional District 13, which also includes Bedford, Blair, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon and Somerset counties as well as parts of Cambria, Cumberland and Westmoreland counties.

This interview was condensed and edited for clarity.

What is one thing you want to share with the voters? I think there is a common sense conservative ideal that runs throughout southcentral Pennsylvania in what is the new Pennsylvania 13 district.

What is something you are proud of? I am proud of my ability to listen to the voters. As a doctor, I have been trained to listen to the patients and to work with the patients to problem solve. As a member of the House of Representatives, I look to listen to the concerns of the constituents of Pennsylvania 13, take those concerns to Washington and problem solve for the members of our community.

What made you want to run? The huge, looming problem of the inability of people to obtain reasonably priced health insurance. The health care crises has been brought forth by voters through all 10 counties in Pennsylvania 13 as the No. 1 agenda item that they are facing in their personal lives. It is the No. 1 item employers are facing in their businesses.  

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What is an experience that has prepared you to be a congressman? My ability to problem solve. I run a small business, and I realized the importance of keeping people employed. I sign both the front and the back of paychecks. I understand the tax burden that goes on both on the worker and the employer. I realize that the tax cuts that were pass last year are not permanent, and I have made that one of my personal agendas to go to Washington and make the individual tax cuts permanent. 

What separates you from your opponent? I am pro-life. As a doctor, I realize life begins at conception. I am pro-Second Amendment. As a life member of the NRA, I realize the importance of the Second Amendment. And third, as a business man I understand the importance of small business throughout southcentral Pennsylvania and how there needs to be less government regulation in small businesses. 

What are your policy priorities? Developing health care, something Americans can have at an affordable price that specifically addresses their needs. A fair market plan in health care, which allows the individual to choose the specific parts of health care that are important to them, that can decrease the cost and allow people to be treated in a fair manner. 

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Are there other policy priorities you want to mention? Yes, absolutely. I feel that a strong military is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. I look at how China and North Korea manipulate the world and how we rely more heavily on having a strong military to keep an even balance. Third, I look to protect medicare and social security benefits. These are funds that the worker has entrusted to the government so that they have health care and retirement available to them. And I will work to protect those funds so that they are available when someone retires. 

What does an immigration system look like that attracts the best and brightest and also secures the borders? I think we are looking for a system that carefully vets an individual before they come to the United States that allows us to look for the engineers, the scientists or the business components that our job markets here, as American citizens, does not support. Additionally, I think that through safe evaluation, we are looking for individuals who can come support our agricultural business, individuals who have no criminal records, who sustain and participate fully in our society, paying taxes and be upright and outstanding citizens. 

What should Congress be doing to make schools safer? I think schools, just like any venue — if you go to a National Football League game, if you go to a professional baseball game, if you get on a airplane — the security has to be maintained at every entrance and every exit. We have to protect the valuable resource of our children in schools. That can easily be done by an attentive system that limits the numbers of entrances and exits and carefully watches each one of those. 

Is there any gun legislation you would be interested in such as universal background checks or closing gun show loopholes? I am an advocate for maintaining the Second Amendment as it exists.

Congress already tried to repeal and replace Obamacare. How would you see to do it successfully and what does the replacement look like? We need to develop a fair market plan where an individual can choose what's important to them and their health care. The analogy I make is, when you buy auto insurance, you make decisions on what's important to you. You make a decision that you don't want rental replacement, you don't want towing because you have other ways of achieving that, because you belong to AAA or you have another vehicle. Health care should be handled the same way. It should be able to cross state lines. You should be able to choose which hospital you want to receive your care, which doctors you want to receive you care with. And these types of fair market plants will diminish the price of health care throughout the United States. 

What kinds of incentives do you want to create to get the private sector to invest in public infrastructure? You can have joint projects with government and with private investors that allows for development of better highways, better access. These have been implemented in other areas of the United States and can be easily implemented throughout southcentral Pennsylvania. 

What kind of useless regulations do you want to end that would spur job creation? Realizing that agriculture is the No. 1 employer, the No. 1 industry throughout Pennsylvania 13, I would look to limit the EPA regulations on our farmers. The fact that they can't create a new shed, a new barn without going through numerous evaluations, numerous reports, often redundant, stops the ability of the farmers to do this industry. Agriculture not only feeds us but it also employs so many people in this community. I would work hard to limit the regulations of the EPA on the farmers and on the agricultural industry. 

Could you give some examples of EPA regulations that you would want to end? I have been to over 30 farms and orchards throughout the Pennsylvania 13. They often have to go through months and even years of evaluations and recommendations and often repeating tests that had been done six months before. But they don't let the permitting occur because the evaluations and testing they have done, which are quite expensive to the farms, have to be repeated because it is not done in a timely fashion. I look at this over-regulation, this redundant regulation and feel it is slowing down the process of agriculture in our district. 

What is your opinion on political correctness? I think that civility and respectful discourse is how you address issues with all people. I think conservatives have strong ideals, and I can project those strong ideals in a calm and concise fashion. At the same time, be respectful and understanding of people with different ideas. 

How do you think President Trump is doing? Incredibly well. I think that we have a president who loves America and who wants the American dream to be achieved by every individual citizen. 

Sophie Kaplan is a reporter for The Evening Sun. Follow her on Twitter @yofisofi.