That old-time pandering

I was cooking in the kitchen last night when I heard, from the TV in the living room, a candidate for a state House or Senate seat in Pennsylvania say on her advertisement that she had never voted to raise taxes and NEVER WOULD! I don't know who the candidate was or her political affiliation, but that's a pretty idiotic thing to say. We don't know what the future holds for the state, particularly amid this national economic meltdown. Certainly, there is fat that can be cut from the state budget (see the Legislature), but in addition to the economic crisis, we have severely outdated infrastructure that desperately needs attention. Unless one has a crystal ball, one should not be claiming that one would never vote to raise taxes. What if every candidate made that pledge? Is the state to go into default or bankruptcy because our lawmakers are too afraid to make unpopular decisions? That same kind of pledge came back to bite the first President Bush on the backside. When you live by the no-tax-increase pledge, sometimes you die by it.