Remember that slogan from the 1992 presidential campaign, "It’s the economy, stupid”? Eighteen years later, many politicians might be saying the same thing.

With the official unemployment rate at 10 percent, the figure economists sometimes call the real unemployment number estimated at about 17 percent and the national debt now running at more than $12 trillion, it should be little of a surprise that area politicians might be repeating that classic political line.

For Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-6), the economy is likely to be the defining issue of 2010.

"If you look at all the polling both locally as well as nationally, 2010 is about jobs, jobs, jobs,” Gerlach said during an interview with Main Line Media News last week.

Of course, there probably hasn’t been a major politician since the 1930s who hasn’t promised to "create more jobs.”

Short of hiring someone to cut their grass, just what does it mean when a politician makes that promise?

For Gerlach that means getting the government to step aside and allowing free-market capitalism to step in and create those jobs.

"I think there’s been plenty of examples in our nation’s history where if government just gets out of the way and allows more opportunities for the private sector [to invest] into job creation, those jobs will in fact be created. And when the jobs are created, the revenue to the coffers at the local, state and federal levels often goes up,” Gerlach said.

Gerlach was interviewed by Main Line Media News for both a print article and a video-recorded segment to be broadcast on its Web site, www.mainlinemedianews.com.

Along with a brief discussion on jobs and the economy, Gerlach discussed other issues. In the coming weeks Main Line Media News will hold a similar session with Congressman Joe Sestak (D-7).

Another economic issue that has been discussed in recent years is the mountain of debt that has been on the rise over the past several years. Gerlach believes there is only one real remedy to the debt problem in this country.

"I’m getting more and more convinced that we are going to see excessive spending in Congress unless or until we see an amendment to the Constitution requiring a balanced budget and having some sort of limit on the growth of government,” Gerlach said.

According to Gerlach the majority of political subdivisions in the United States down to the township and borough level have to follow some type of balanced-budget mandate.

Another issue that’s been discussed lately is the health-insurance reform debate that has been going on in Washington over the past several months.

Like most politicians have indicated, Gerlach says he agrees that some reforms in the system are needed.

"There certainly is a need for health-care reform in terms of accessibility of health insurance, the portability of health insurance and the affordability of health insurance,” Gerlach said, adding that he thinks these issues can only be addressed legislatively.

A concern Gerlach said he has over the current bills that were recently passed by the House and the Senate is that they are a little heavy on creating a more expansive government.

"For the past four, five, six months there have been many in Washington that want to address those issues by creating more government programs, more government debt, more government bureaucracy to handle health-care decision-making, and I think it’s very clear that the American people don’t want that. If they really wanted that, that legislation would have been passed a long time ago and we wouldn’t be talking about it today,” Gerlach said.

Gerlach, who two weeks ago abandoned his bid for the Republican nomination for Pennsylvania governor, announced recently that he would run for his fifth term as congressman for the state’s 6th District. The district includes portions of Chester, Montgomery, Berks and a small part of Lehigh counties.

Another issue that seems to come up from time to time is immigration reform and what to do about the millions of people who are living in the United States illegally.

For Gerlach, protecting the borders is also about protecting the nation.

"I think it’s absolutely essential that we do all we can to protect our borders and try to reduce the amount of illegal immigration as much as possible,” Gerlach said.

According to Gerlach about one-third of the people who are here illegally came here legally. In those cases they might have come here on a student, work or another type of visa and overstayed the time they were allowed to remain in the country. Gerlach said that is a sign that shows there are problems with the administration of the country’s immigration laws that need to be dealt with and fixed.

Although Gerlach said he doesn’t support amnesty for illegal immigrants, he says there are other things that can be done to ensure people are here legally and they go through the proper process in being legal residents.

"It’s always been my view that there ought to be a process – some call it an Ellis Island center process – where you would require them to go back to their country, and if they have employment here in the United States and ... their employer wants them back and thinks that that person is a good employee, you allow that person [to return to America] to go through an Ellis Island center.

"Through the center they could then get whatever paperwork is needed to be done and then processed with any criminal and health checks done on them. Once they check out and pay any fees or back taxes that are owed, they are on a path to establishing a legal status under the nation’s laws.”