Only a day after Issue 2.15 was published, NCPA Chairman Pete Du Pont, J.D. ran yet another editorial in The Wall Street Journal’s online editorial page, www.opinionjournal.com. It followed the same raison d’être as my article about tax cuts.

Mr. Du Pont aptly denounces the left’s dogma that tax rate cuts cannot work, and even in the face of increasing revenues hold dear to the cry of tax cuts for the rich.

Opposing tax cuts has become the mantra of the liberal left. Sen. John Kerry wants to roll back Bush’s “unaffordable tax cuts.” Senator Mark Dayton (D., Minn.) called the cuts “dangerous and destructive and dishonorable.” Bill Clinton in 2003 said the cuts were “way too big to avoid serious harm.” And various New York Times editorials called them “economically unsound,” claimed that “they will increase the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars” and said they were unlikely “to stimulate the wallowing economy.” Earlier this month House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi promised that the election of a Democratic House in November would result in a “rollback of the tax cuts.”

He goes on to point out that incomes for families are up, and the portion of income held by the top 10% of Americans is going down.

As I said before, let’s take all the celebration with a grain of salt. GOP Leaders on Capital Hill and in the White House need some spine when it comes to reiging in spending. Suggestions left over from the Contract with America and maintained by the Republican Study Committee in the House, such as earmark reform and balanced budget amendment, still need to be instated. And we need to continue to work toward replacing income tax altogether with the Fair Tax, or even a Flat Tax. However, since government is, as Ronald Reagan said, “an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other,” progress is welcomed when it comes.