As we know progress in Pennsylvania on the GOP agenda has been a little slow. No one anticipated that the 3 arms of GOP leadership in Pennsylvania could bluster so much prior to the election about how they would do things differently if elected, and do so little about it after they were elected.
Some of that inactivity may have more to do with pledges that Gov. Corbett, GOP members in the House, and to a lesser extent, members of the Republican Senate took to constrain their own flexibility by limiting their own tax policy to an Amish-like mentality that freezes taxes in time, never to be changed...unless downward...not even allowing the substitution of a new rational tax for an old irrational one.
But even in Texas (Gov. Corbett's favorite state south of the Mason Dixon, and maybe anywhere) Gov. Rick Perry has encountered an obstacle keeping his Republican majorities in line with the Luddites.
Last week the Texas House defied the governor's veto of a measure to expand the sales tax to a number of Internet retailers who heretofore didn't collect sales tax. This by the way sounds like a pretty good idea especially to the Main Street retailers who feel the pinch of "no tax" competitors.
Maybe it's just that GOP chief executives aren't used to being responsive, or maybe because they're only held accountable to voters every 4 years. But one thing is for sure, Gov. Corbett can expect more of these GOP-clashes in his own state if he continues to value his pledge to Grover Norquist more than he values the opinions of Pennsylvanians.
