A FREEDOM ISSUE

Don’t miss a wonderful, terse polemic on National Review Online by one Lance Izumi on the consequences of president Bush’s spending binge and big government philosophy. Invoking Hayek and Friedman, he rightly insists that classical liberalism requires not just that taxes be lowered but that government spending be reduced as well. The whole point of cutting taxes was to put pressure on spending. Here’s what I fear Bush might accomplish: a huge jump in the role and size of government, and a spiraling debt. When the crunch comes, a future Democratic president will simply raise taxes back up to finance the spending Bush has unleashed. In fact, he may have no option. The result will be a big gain for statism and a big net loss for individual freedom. I grew up inhaling Hayek, Friedman and Thatcher. It breaks my heart to see a Republican president trash much of their legacy.