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From GOP News and Views

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It's the Constitution, Stupid

"Since the New Deal, Americans have slowly forgotten that the Constitution puts great limits on what the federal government can do. As recently as the 1950s, people could still question whether the federal government ought to build a national highway system. In order to justify that program constitutionally, it was called the National Defense Highway Act. Today, of course, any notion that such a program would need that sort of constitutional veneer to gain passage is absurd. Bush can help himself and his tax and budgetary plans by trying to reinvigorate constitutionality as a rationale for his actions. Programs that do not rest on a clear grant of constitutional power should be abolished or transferred to the states. He can even argue that tax rates that are too high violate the Constitution's prohibition against unlawful seizure."

- Columnist Bruce Bartlett, Creators Syndicate, 2/28/01

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Little Red Riding Hood & The Congressional Wolves

"Eager to please, George W. Bush went over to Grandma (Virginia Senator
Robert) Byrd's house on Capitol Hill and offered Congress a basket of their favorite things (in his speech Tuesday night) -- a newly baked prescription drug benefit, billions to keep the national parks pretty, and even some sort of $1 trillion cookie-jar fund in case Grandma's roof leaks. It was kind of charming to see the first half of the speech filled with so many proposals that even Uncle Ted Kennedy had to hoist himself up for a little clapping. Now, we understand how the brutal reality of a 50-50 Senate and a close election forces a new President seeking a tax cut to lay some tribute on the table. But we're here to say that if the Bush White House keeps sending that young man over to visit the Congressional porch with many more such dainty blueberry muffins for this or that hungry Senator, 'Grandma' Byrd is gonna eat him."

- Wall Street Journal editorial, 3/1/01

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The Tax Man's Dirty Little Secret

"The dirty little secret, of course, is that (federal income tax) withholding -- implemented during World War II -- is the linchpin of the welfare state and big government. If Americans had to sit down every April 15 and write a check for their entire tax bill -- instead of having the
IRS surreptitiously remove installments from their paychecks each week as if the money never existed -- the beltway bureaucrats and politicians couldn't flee town fast enough to avoid being skinned by angry mobs demanding relief."

- Las Vegas Review Journal editorial, 3/1/01