Miller would pull back government's scope

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JUNEAU, Alaska, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Joe Miller, the Tea Party-backed Republican in Alaska's U.S. Senate race, says he would work to drop the federal minimum wage and scale back government's reach.

Decisions about wage levels is within the purview of the states, he said, noting that Alaska's minimum wage is higher than the federal level, ABC News reported.

"The minimum (wage) level ... should be the state's decision," Miller said, adding that he wasn't going to Washington "to play ball; we're going to make sure things get done."

Miller said he also wants to roll back the scope of the federal government to a degree not seen in at least seven decades, restricting the federal government's powers to those enumerated in the Constitution, ABC News reported.

"What I'd recommend that you do is go to the Constitution and look at the enumerated powers because what we have is something that we call the 10th Amendment that says, look if it's not there if it's not enumerated, then it's delegated to the states," Miller said. "Everything that's not there is reserved to the states and the people."

Miller defeated incumbent Lisa Murkowski in a stunning upset to win the Republican nomination. He is in a three-way race against Democrat Scott McAdams and Murkowski, now running as a write-in candidate.