Ronald Reagan won two national landslide elections by campaigning against taxes and spending. The post “Contract with America” Congress brought the national debt under control and encouraged a decade of economic growth by holding down taxes and spending.



Today’s Capitol Hill Republicans seem to have no concept that Reagan’s fiscal policy and what worked for House Republicans back in the 1990s was a two-part strategy: hold down taxes and hold down spending.



House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp and other establishment Republicans argued during the fiscal cliff sellout -- and since -- that they were “saving” Americans from a big tax increase and that spending would be addressed later. As one House Member, with an otherwise conservative voting record put it, “Stepping back and looking at the whole picture, it seems clear to me that preventing a tax increase for most Americans and making all tax rates permanent is an important step for families all across the country and for the economy as a whole.”



Baloney.



Republicans engaged in that kind of sophistry show that they are only saving themselves from making the tough decisions necessary to eliminate the deficit, balance the budget and pay-off the debt.



Some taxpayers, someday, sometime, are going to have to pay-off the $16.4 trillion Congress has allowed the government to borrow.



Today’s Capitol Hill establishment Republicans just don’t want to pay it off on their watch.



With today’s cast of characters, does anyone seriously think Obama and the Democrats are going to give way on spending or that the Capitol Hill Republican “leadership” is going to stand fast and obtain real reductions in federal spending?



We didn’t think so.



The Americans for Tax Reform “no new taxes” pledge, championed by Grover Norquist, is a great idea and a great tool for holding politicians’ feet to the fire. However, it only works if it is accompanied by the other half of Reaganism: no new spending.



Republicans who voted for the fiscal cliff sellout and think that they will have air cover from irate voters by claiming they “saved” Americans from a tax increase are making a big mistake.



Voters understand that the cost of government is what it spends, not what it taxes. Come next primary election season, there will be no air cover for those Republicans who allow the spending – and the cost of government – to keep rising at the pace it has since Obama became President.