Having long ago abandoned any claim to be the party of spending restraint, the Republicans are now abandoning tax cuts. Bush’s budget advocates increased “user fees” and his tax commission is looking at ways to make tax collection efficient, not ways to lower taxes.

Meanwhile, some Republicans are proposing raising payroll taxes to pay for Social Security reform, while others favor creating more debt to finance the “transition costs” of reforming Social Security thus raising taxes on future generations. Some Republicans are even suggesting the GOP forgo making Bush’s 2001 tax cuts permanent, thus setting up a tax increase in 2011.

Robert Novak has said that God put Republicans on this earth to cut taxes, so if the Republicans are no longer the party of tax cuts what good are they?