A Plan for Bush

IT’S a good rule in politics to look at what voters do rather than what they say to pollsters—let alone what reporters say they’re thinking. The reporters, and some of the polls, say that tax cuts are no longer a winning issue. The election results say otherwise.

In Washington State, 58 percent of voters defied the governor, the teachers’ unions, and the corporate establishment to abolish the car tax and to make any future tax increase contingent on voter approval. Taxes to fund stadiums went down to defeat in Minnesota and Houston. In Virginia, Republicans took control of the legislature for the first time ever, partly because they had delivered on the tax-cut promise that swept Gov. Jim Gilmore into office two years before. There’s a reason Bill Clinton and Al Gore denounce Republicans’ “tax schemes” and not their “tax cuts” or “tax relief”: Reducing taxes is still popular.

About the Author

Ramesh Ponnuru

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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Presidential Election

IT’S a good rule in politics to look at what voters do rather than what they say to pollsters—let alone what reporters say they’re thinking. The reporters, and some of the polls, say that tax cuts are no longer a winning issue. The election results say otherwise.

In Washington State, 58 percent of voters defied the governor, the teachers’ unions, and the corporate establishment to abolish the car tax and to make any future tax increase contingent on voter approval. Taxes to fund stadiums went down to defeat in Minnesota and Houston. In Virginia, Republicans took control of the legislature for the first time ever, partly because they had delivered on the tax-cut promise that swept Gov. Jim Gilmore into office two years before. There’s a reason Bill Clinton and Al Gore denounce Republicans’ “tax schemes” and not their “tax cuts” or “tax relief”: Reducing taxes is still popular.