Ezra Klein makes a fuss over some comments from Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) over the weekend.

Here’s what Kyl said:

“Surely Congress has the authority, and it would be right to — if we decide we want to cut taxes to spur the economy, not to have to raise taxes in order to offset those costs. You do need to offset the cost of increased spending, and that’s what Republicans object to. But you should never have to offset cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans.”

And here’s what Klein said:

What’s remarkable about Kyl’s position here is that it appears to be philosophical. “You should never have to offset cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans,” he said. Never! This is much crazier than anything you hear from Democrats. Imagine if some Democrat — and a member of the Senate Democratic leadership, no less — said that as a matter of principle, spending should never be offset. He’d be laughed out of the room. Back in the real world, tax cuts and spending increases have the exact same affect on the budget deficit. This sort of comment is how you tell people who care about the deficit apart from people who are interested in exploiting fears of the deficit to shrink the size of government.

First of all, I’m not sure where the “gotcha” moment is. The most natural way to interpret Kyl’s statement is that a tax cut paid for by a tax increase is no tax cut at all. It’s a tax redistribution. Second of all, I’m sure if you asked Senator Kyl, he’d tell you that tax cuts should be offset — by spending cuts. That also seems a fairly natural inference to draw here.

On the point I’ve bolded, that Kyl’s position is “philosophical.” You’re damned right it is. So is Klein’s.

Klein says, “Back in the real world, tax cuts and spending increases have the exact same affect on the budget deficit.” Of course, and to a big-government technocrat, they have the same moral status.

Not so for conservatives. To put it plainly, conservatives tend to think you need a better reason to raise taxes, to grow government, and to infringe liberty than you do to cut taxes, shrink government, and increase liberty. Klein may disagree with that, but it is not an incoherent position — or for that matter, a position without a rich and noble tradition.

UPDATE: Actually, these comments suggest Kyl is openly advocating some “starve the beast” unfunded tax cuts. The point about the contradictory nature of a tax cut “offset” by tax increases elsewhere holds. And I still bet Kyl’s preferred route would be to offset tax cuts with spending cuts. But it seems, failing that, he’s okay adding to the deficit. Maybe Senator Kyl should read some Kevin Williamson.