As everybody knows, reducing taxes is one of the core issues in the GOP platform. Recently President Bush proposed an estimated $550 billion tax cut that was passed by the House of Representatives, virtually in its entirety. The Senate, on the other hand, passed the president’s budget with a tax reduction of about half of that requested by the president. Our own Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican and head of the Senate Finance Committee, along with Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, agreed that no tax cut package would be sent to the White House that exceeded $350 billion. This is the probable final amount, which still has to be worked out in a joint committee of the House and Senate.

Some Americans — mostly Democrats — are opposed to tax cuts. Most criticism regarding this particular tax cut package is directed at the tax rate reductions of upper income people. So why do Republicans, while disagreeing on the amount, generally support tax cuts?

The most nauseating economic thought to most conservatives is the policy of taking money away from people and giving it back in the form of programs and services they may or may not need. A few hundred overpaid Congressmen, mostly lawyers, sit around a table in Washington, D.C., and decide what the people of Ames need, take away their money, and spend it on services that are almost always inefficient and often unnecessary. Reducing taxes is part of the GOP’s quest to restore efficiency, accountability and most importantly, reality to the federal government.

Despite criticism from both sides on the issue, our current tax policy rightly takes into account the individual’s ability to pay. Some conservatives like Rush Limbaugh shun this concept, but the very function of a progressive system is to collect more from those who can afford it. We need to take into account a person’s ability to pay in order to excise a fair tax on their income. I would contend, however, that the present rates do not represent a fair system.

It is important to remember that the “wealthier” personal income tax filers pay the greatest share of the taxes. According to the Internal Revenue Service, the wealthiest five percent of Americans pay a majority of the income tax in this country. The wealthiest 25 percent of Americans pay 80 percent of the income tax in this country.

Yes, these figures are the result of a progressive tax structure, but how progressive do we want our tax rates to be? Bush has proposed lowering the top rate from over 40 percent to about 33 percent. His rationale described in public statements is that no American should have to pay more than a third of their income to the federal government.

Anyone is free to disagree with this statement, but I think most people would recognize this is a reasonable concept and exists to make the tax code more fair. I would agree with a 33 percent rate for the highest tax bracket. It is also reasonable to lower the rate for middle and lower income earners, even though the bottom half pay only four percent of the total income taxes.

If all Americans deserve tax relief — and they do — this loss of revenue must be made up by increasing revenue from other sources or reduced general expenditures.

Liberals often support higher corporate income tax, but these organizations already pay about 50 percent of their profit to the federal and state governments. It is important to remember that re-investment of corporate profits is necessary to keep the economy growing.

The more realistic option is to reduce government expenditures. With the massive size of the government today, it becomes more prudent than ever to reduce the scope of government programs.

The enemies of a small, efficient government are terrorists and Democrats. Now don’t get me wrong, the two are completely unrelated — this is actually meant to be a little funny. Anyway, it is difficult to shrink government while the Democratic Party is constantly looking to use government to solve every issue, seemingly ignorant to the extent of the inefficiency of “government solutions.” Liberals see a spectrum of problems and feel that the government is the solution to all of them and should intervene.

The second problem is the increased defense and intelligence spending following Sept. 11. It is indeed a challenge to reduce the size of government while increasing the security of Americans.

It’s easy to say that the American people deserve a tax cut, and it may be true, but it is more important to see this tax cut as part of a constant effort to make sure the government is just and reasonable, of the people, and for the people — even the wealthy ones.