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GOP fails to deliver tax cut

Tax Freedom Day finally has passed, but not without generating what has become an annual ritual of empty Republican promises to cut taxes.

On May 11, the average American finally reached the theoretical day that he begins to work for himself instead of just paying the year's income, sales and other taxes. The non-partisan Tax Foundation, which keeps track of Tax Freedom Day, says this year's date of tax emancipation -- May 11 -- was one day later than in 1998.

To mark the occasion, assorted GOP leaders grabbed microphones to promise to pass tax cuts this year. They've made such promises each year since taking control of Congress in 1995, but Republicans have yet to deliver a tax cut bill of any significance -- not even one that President Clinton would veto.

The congressional GOP remains fixated on budget formulas that leave most government programs and tax levies untouched, lest the phony-baloney balance sheets kept by the feds be upset. Under current budget rules -- written by the then-Democratic majority in an attempt to thwart Ronald Reagan's tax reform ideas -- no tax can be reduced without another being raised or a program being cut. So good tax reform ideas have to be legislatively paired with tax increases or arbitrary choices of programs to cut. Spending really ought to be considered separately, and priorities set within the amount of funds available.

In any event, the attention GOP leaders help bring to Tax Freedom Day certainly is welcome because it at least provokes discussion. But talk without action is just talk, and after five years of GOP control on Capitol Hill, the hour grows late for all talk and no action.

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