
Armstrong County Commissioner Pat Fabian (right) greets Senator Bob Casey as he enters the door of A Mano Eatery in Kittanning.
Senator Robert Casey, Jr. visited Armstrong County on Saturday afternoon to spend approximately a half-hour with about 30 local Democratic community leaders.
Casey came at the request of Armstrong County Commissioner Pat Fabian, who introduced the Senator at Amano’s Eatery on South Water Street.
The Senator’s message primarily centered on defeating “the Republicans”, centering on health care issues.
“This campaign is going to be about protecting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. They are basic middle-class issues. If you are a middle class family, I don’t think you should have to worry because a group of Republican politicians in Washington want to please their hard-right corporate benefactors that we are going to have Medicare and Medicaid ripped away from people and Social Security undermined. We are ready for that fight. 68% of the roughly 5,700 got their health care through Medicaid expansion. We must make sure we protect that.”
Commissioner Pat Fabian said he has personally seen the need for the Affordable Care Act in our county.
“I hope he continues to fight the battle on Affordable Health Care,” Fabian said. “I don’t think people realize how it impacts Armstrong County. We had 750 people hit the emergency department (at ACMH). 70% went on to enter (drug) treatment. I can guarantee you that a big portion of that 70% were people who were in some way connected to that Affordable Health Care.”

Freeport Mayor Jim Swartz
Jim Swartz has been mayor of Freeport over the past ten years. He had previously served on Apollo Council for 26 years. Because of the high number of elderly people in his borough, he said he is concerned about changes to Medicare.
“We want to keep health care they way we have it now. The ‘rich’ is going to have to start paying to help with these benefits,” Swartz said.

Retired Air Force Major Anthony Shea (KP 2015 File Photo)
Anthony Shea is a retired U. S. Air Force Major. Now a software engineer for UPMC who ran for Armstrong County commissioner in the last election, he said will be running in 2019 again. He was interested in the message Casey delivered.
“I think the Senator is focused with where the Democrats need to go in the future,” Shay said. “I am part of the Democrats who focus on what is more important to people, not to the ‘left’ but the issues day to day. We can still be fiscally conservative and do what we need to do.”

Apollo Mayor CIndee Virostek
Apollo Mayor Cindee Virostek is in her first year of political office. She said she was looking for reassurance that health care will be strong for all Pennsylvanians.
“I feel comfortable that the Affordable Care Act will stay in place,” she said. “I will soon be of Medicare age, so that is a personal concern of mine. There are also other people on Medicaid that I would like them to continue to have Medicaid.”
In July, Armstrong County ranked highest in unemployment in the region, tied only with Lawrence County at 4.7%. The lowest were Butler and Allegheny counties at 3.7% - under the state average of 4.2%. Casey addressed the shortage of workers.
“Armstrong County is like a lot of communities in southwest Pennsylvania. Part of the challenge is to retain an industrial base to keep young people in this county. Lack of wage growth is a problem in a lot of these communities. We have to figure out a way to lift wages. One of the best ways is to have a tax policy that doesn’t give the top one-percent tens of billions of dollars this year, which is what the tax bill the Republicans passed will do. We must give a much greater share of the tax breaks to the middle class. That what (the Republicans) failed to do in the tax bill they rammed through in 2017.”
Fabian said a viable local work force is a regional problem.
“On a county level, we advertise positions and we are aware that our neighboring (counties) have better wages. Sometimes we feel like the ‘farm team’ because we train people in different departments and then they leave for other counties because they pay a little more. As a county, we are trying to be more competitive, but at the same time we have a budget that we have to stay within,” Fabian cautions. “It’s important that when we advertise, we are getting ‘home-grown people’ - people who live here, have homes here, and are going to stay with us for awhile. Work force is a regional issue right now. 80% of manufacturers have job openings right now. The problem is finding people that will show up to work and pass a drug test. It could be a wage issue too.”

Walking and talking - Senator Casey and Commissioner Fabian don’t let a moment go by without talking about issues that affect Armstrong County.
Casey also addressed the need for jobs for youth.
“In a county like this, one of the best ways to retain young people is to continue to create opportunity. To jumpstart the economy in southwest Pennsylvania is to pass an infrastructure bill to rebuild roads and bridges. In this county alone, you have more than 40 bridges that are structurally deficient. You have roads that need repaired. You have rural folks that are without broadband services in parts of the county. We should be investing in a major infrastructure bill. In a county like this, we need a strategy that is going to grow wages, jobs and economic opportunity.”
Casey has represented Pennsylvania in the U. S. Senate since 2007. He previously was Pennsylvania Treasurer from 2005-2007 and was Pennsylvania Auditor General from 1997-2005. He is 58 years old and from Scranton, PA.
His opponent, Lou Barletta, is a Republican Pennsylvania State Representative for the 11th District since 2011.