Don't blame me, I voted for Swann

Gee, I wish I had written this:

My point, and I do have one, is that the state has never even tried to cut expenses. There has been no "belt-tightening" anywhere! The first response to any cash shortage in Pennsylvania is always "soak the taxpayers."

An editorial in the Daily News on Wednesday called the 1 percent sales tax increase "the least objectionable of (Rendell's) proposals." Statewide, the tax would go to 7 percent. (Sales taxes in Allegheny County would be 8 percent to account for the Regional Asset District fund.)

But according to this table, state sales taxes in Ohio are 5.5 percent. West Virginia's are 6 percent on all purchases except food (5 percent). Connecticut's are 6 percent. Left-wing, liberal, tax-and-spend New York levies a sales tax of only 4 percent. In Massachusetts --- that's "Taxachusetts" to Republicans, you know --- it's 4 percent.
. . .
I don't know about you, but I find a sales tax increase highly objectionable under these conditions. It's suicidal for Pennsylvania to raise its sales tax to a rate higher than nearly all of the other Mid-Atlantic states. (Except for New Jersey --- their sales tax is 7 percent. Hooray for us --- we'll be as bad as New Jersey!)

And that brings me to the final news item that caught my eye this week --- the Quinnipiac University poll that shows Fast Eddie with a 61 percent approval rating --- an all-time high.
Perhaps the survey sample was comprised entirely of Rendell's family and cheesesteak vendors in Philadelphia. They sure didn't ask me. I would have a hard time pointing to one accomplishment of the Rendell administration, other than the highly dubious achievement of legalizing slot-machine gaming.

When Rendell won re-election last year --- against a Republican candidate whose qualifications were weak and whose campaign was weaker --- I hoped that winning a second term would embolden the governor to take some stronger stands to reform state government.
Let's just say that the first two weeks of Rendell's second four years in office do not fill me with optimism.

Full disclosure: The rabble-rouser who wrote that is a good friend of mine, despite the fact that he clearly has a bad attitude. He also demonstrates on a regular basis that you can actually use a blog to commit journalism. But there are a few things he leaves out in his discussion of the governor's odious plan to raise the state sales tax. Like the $6 million in state aid that the governor gave American Eagle to move its headquarters from one part of Allegheny County to another. Like the $4 million so the Steelers can build an amphitheater on the North Shore. Or the $30 million so PNC can build an unnecessary office tower Downtown.

And don't get me started on the Penguins.