The GOP Plan - Step-by-Step Tax Reform Until Flat Rate Nirvana

Grover Norquist - President Ronald Reagan enacted one significant tax cut in 1981 -- and then allowed a series of smaller tax increases almost every year of his presidency. Another tax cut did not follow until 1997.

President Bush has proposed and now signed tax cuts in 2001, 2002 and 2003. The old Republican promise was that a new president would fight for one tax cut and then oppose tax hikes. The new Republican policy is an annual tax cut.

There are five steps to a single-rate tax, which taxes income one time: Abolish the death tax, abolish the capital gains tax, expand IRAs so that all savings are tax-free, move to full expensing of business investment rather than long depreciation schedules and abolish the alternative minimum tax. Put a single rate on the new tax base and you have Steve Forbes and Dick Armey's flat tax. Each of the Bush tax cuts, past and proposed, moves us toward fundamental tax reform. The step-by-step annual tax cut avoids the problem that faced Bill and Hillary Clinton's too ambitious effort to nationalize health care in one gulp: It is easy to stop oversized reforms.

In crafting its agenda for economic reform, the Bush administration has the luxury of being able to think and plan over a full eight years. This is because the 2002 redistricting gave Republicans a lock on the House of Representatives until 2012 and the Founding Fathers gerrymandered the Senate for Republican control. In the 50-50 election that was 2000, Bush carried 30 states and Al Gore 20. Over time, a reasonably competent Republican Party will tend to 60 Republicans in the Senate. This guarantee of united Republican government has allowed the Bush administration to work and think long-term.

The GOP Agenda out in the open.