There is nothing quite so insulting to one's intelligence as a snake oil salesman. Even worse is one who comes back to the same place, peddling exactly the same shoddy goods as the first time. An editorial that appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review last week is one of the finest examples of snake oil salesmanship that I've read in quite a while. The author, hailing from the conservative Commonwealth Foundation, is hawking the same old batch of peculiar remedies that conservatives have been promoting since the early eighties. Pennsylvania's population is declining, he laments, and it's all because of the reckless tax and spend policies of Governor Wolf! Breathlessly, he relates just how many Pennsylvanians are leaving the state, crushed under taxes, longing to breathe free elsewhere. If only the state would slash taxes, our residents would want to stay, and corporations would beat down the door to open up shop here--utopia would be achieved! This argum...
Occasional author. Lover of coffee.