A Big Tax Cut

James K. Glassman | January 12, 1999

(Page 2 of 2)

The polls will change once a concerted campaign to cut taxes starts. Tax relief is exceptionally attractive, and now that Clinton has co-opted welfare reform, crime-fighting and (soon) defense, it is the one issue clearly identified with Republicans. Three-quarters of the nation's governors have cut taxes, and the result has been swelling popularity.

Look at Minnesota, where a wrestler named Jesse Ventura ran on a simple platform: "Cut taxes. Cut taxes. Cut taxes. The legislature is overtaxing us when it piles up $4 billion in surpluses. . . . I'd support a law that automatically triggers the return of all surplus funds to the people whose money produced the surplus." Good idea.

But before Republicans propose tax relief, they have to assuage the fears of older Americans and inoculate themselves against Democratic charges that the cuts will wreck Social Security. Economist Bruce Bartlett has a solution: Pass a bill that guarantees benefits for current recipients and other seniors.

Right now, Majority Leader Dick Armey is cleverly holding a bill titled H.R. 1 open for Clinton's own Social Security reform proposal. Democrats want Republicans to move first; then they'll unleash a wave of demagoguery. So, symbolically leaving H.R. 1 blank is a good move: After you, Mr. President. As for H.R. 2, that should become the Social Security Guarantee Act. And H.R. 3 would be the across-the-board tax cut. Comprehensive Social Security reform can come later.

In the 2000 election, 19 Senate GOP seats are up, 13 of them in states carried by Clinton in 1996. If Republicans think they can retain control of Congress on the strength of impeachment or on the coattails of George W. Bush, they are taking a ridiculous gamble. Better to go back to what got them here in the first place: spending restraint and a tax cut that overcharged Americans truly deserve.