Says Pat Toomey, the former Pennsylvania congressman who’s busy deciding his political future, on stimulating the economy:

“Calling a spending program a ‘stimulus package’ doesn’t mean it will actually stimulate the economy. If you want to encourage economic growth, you need legislation that will change incentives and give people a reason to invest, produce and hire more workers. Taking money out of one part of the private sector, funnelling it through the government with bureaucracy chewing off a piece and dumping it into another part doesn’t achieve that goal.”

Mr. Toomey, now president of The Club For Growth, might want to consider saving those few lines for his first budget address as Pennsylvania governor. (Hint, hint.)

While the folks at the Allegheny Conference likely are getting all schoolgirl giddy over U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data that appear to suggest record employment levels for Greater Pittsburgh in September and October of 2008 — a 2.3 percent rise from year-ago levels — the folks at the Allegheny Institute are properly cautious.

After all, think tank president Jake Haulk notes, it could be a “signal that a faltering economy is causing families problems in sustaining the income needed to meet living costs (and) debt obligations.”

That is, a family’s primary bread-winner might have lost his or her job and other members of the family seek and/or secure one or more lower-paying jobs to offset the loss. It’s not necessarily the kind of job “growth” for which the region has been so long pining.

A presidential pardon for Bob Asher• It’s unlikely but there is speculation (albeit loosey-goosey) to that end.

The issue was first broached by The Morning Call of Allentown’s Paul Carpenter last week, noting a Philadelphia Inquirer column Sunday last in which Jeff Lord, “a top GOP functionary,” advocated for a presidential pardon for, of all people, the late Budd Dwyer.

It was 22 years ago that Mr. Dwyer, then the Pennsylvania treasurer and one day away from sentencing for his conviction in the CTA bribery scandal, made what Mr. Carpenter calls a “good career move” — he committed suicide.

Carpenter wonders if Mr. Asher, also convicted in the scandal and who spent some time in the pokey, might also be considered presidential pardon material. Asher, of course, remains a member of the Republican National Committee and is a powerful (though waning) moneybags influence on Pennsylvania GOP politics.

Carpenter offers that a pardon would be a way “to keep journalists from bringing up (Asher’s) criminal record every time he finances a candidate’s election.”

Given that an Asher pardon is unlikely, here’s a better idea — Republicans should stop cavorting with a convicted felon.

The Commonwealth Foundation has up and running a wonderful public service — PennsylvaniaVotes.org.

It provides “concise, nonpartisan, plain-English descriptions of every bill and vote in the Pennsylvania House and Senate.” Not only is the think tank’s new Web site searchable by legislator, category and keyword, it also has a section in which citizens can post comments and debate state policy issues.

The Internet indeed can be a wonderful thing.

From a wag with whom moi regularly converses, on Pittsburgh’s vow to challenge U.S. Census data showing Toledo, Ohio’s, population has surpassed the erstwhile Steel City’s, thus threatening to lessen the federal dollars that flow here:

“The way Pittsburgh ‘fights’ to reclaim its ranking is to challenge the data rather than create the conditions that attract business and population.”

How to cure this Chronic Denial Syndrome• A March of the Electorate would be a great place to start.

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