New York Times Editorial:
Let the tax cuts expire as scheduled in 2008 and 2010 unless the budget improves significantly before then. Republicans want voters to believe that the deficit is the result of spending increases alone — not tax cuts. That's false. The swing from a $236 billion budget surplus in 2000 to a $371 billion deficit today is a huge deterioration in the nation's fiscal balance, equal to 5.3 percent of the economy. Of that, fully 62 percent is due to lower tax revenues.
Reimpose bulletproof budget rules... A real deficit-reduction plan would call for a return to the budget rules in effect from 1990 to 2001. These "pay as you go" rules helped create the budget surpluses of the 1990's by forcing Congress to pay for both tax cuts and entitlement spending increases.
An effort to reimpose the rules was defeated in the Senate as recently as last week, with 50 Republicans, including Mr. Frist and Mr. Allen, refusing to reinstate the rules. All 44 Democratic senators, 5 Republicans and one independent voted for the rules, but a majority of 51 votes is needed to win.
Texas Republican Senators Cornyn and Hutchison voted against restoring the pay-as-you-go guidelines.
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