'Rendell appears on the verge of becoming unhinged'

Leave it to Lowman S. Henry of The Lincoln Institute to put the state's annual budget morass under Gov. Ed Rendell into proper perspective.

From his latest post at Lincoln Blog:

The fact is Pennsylvania's budget woes were caused by Governor Ed Rendell himself along with both Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly who went along with his profligate spending for way too many years. Our friends at the Commonwealth Foundation have pointed out that if state government had simply increased the budget each year by the rate of inflation we would currently have a budget SURPLUS. Instead, the budget went up at two, three, even four times the rate of inflation causing the current deficit.

The proposed PIT hike is dead on arrival. The governor, unable to shake his spending addiction, is intent on triggering a budget stand-off.

So be it.

The time has come for Pennsylvania state government to tighten its financial belt and live within its means - just like the rest of us.

Read the full post at Lincoln Blog.