Ezra Klein Is Too Pretty To Argue With

I noticed a tiff brewing between The Corner's Daniel Foster and WaPo's Ezra Klein. Normally I'm inclined to disagree with Ezra just cause he's so pretty. But in this case, both Foster and Klein are wrong.

The spat is about something to do with Sen. Jon Kyl's statement that tax cuts should never be offset.  Foster accuses Klein of being philosophical and Klein says he's rubber and you're glue and Foster is philosophical too.  That part is right.  Both are philosophical arguments.  But here's why Foster's is way more philosophical.

Foster, bless his heart, sums up the Republican rationale that tax cuts are a great way to add to the deficit and should never be offset:

To put it plainly, conservatives tend to think you need a better reason to raise taxes, to grow government, and to infringe liberty than you do to cut taxes, shrink government, and increase liberty. Klein may disagree with that, but it is not an incoherent position — or for that matter, a position without a rich and noble tradition.

Rich and noble tradition. Did you catch that part? Tax cuts, small government and the protection of liberty are not only "conservative" principles they are rich and noble in tradition. Except for the fact that "conservatives" have never shrunk government, or had the slightest bit of concern to not infringe liberty. In reality, there is no tradition at all, which would make it entirely philosophical to espouse such talk.  No conservative government has done any of that except for maybe Bush's tax cuts but in the end those tax cuts led to huge fiscal deficits and ginormous debt. So how that equates to small government requires some real fantasy thinking.

Just like all Republicans, Foster merely likes to talk about small government, chopping taxes and shrinking the fed.  They love to talk it.  In practice, they do nothing of the sort.  It's not just a George Bush thing either.  Reagan never once shrunk government, cut taxes (without an offset),  or did anything to increase liberty.  And by there not being a single historical instance for Republicans to prove they have done any such thing, it means they have a rich and noble tradition.  It's like saying the Seattle Mariners have a rich and noble tradition winning the World Series even though they've never done any such thing.