Time for a tax hike?

An interesting thing about being too good at something: it can come back to bite you.

For over seven years now President George W. Bush has led Republicans on a tax cutting spree. Using the same kind of "If it moves shoot it" thinking that landed Vice President Dick Cheney in a bit of a roil, they have handed down a significant series of tax cuts that have left Democrats with little choice but to stand aside and smile. But has their success come back to haunt them?

We are far removed from the days when the mere mention of President Bill Clinton sent a shudder through the wallets of fiscally oriented conservatives everywhere or the "there is no problem that money can't solve" liberalism of a few decades ago made lower taxes and smaller government key planks in the Republican party platform. Today the wide-open prairie of lower tax options seems to have been replaced by a brick wall that sits firmly behind the backs of Republican leaders. The phrase "we must lower taxes" just doesn't carry the same punch anymore.

This is the world that Governor Jim Gibbons finds himself in. With the mere mention of budget cuts eliciting outcries from nearly every corner of state government Gibbons has backpedaled as best he can to convince the growing mob that the suggested cuts are, at this stage, merely an exercise meant to stimulate the problem-solving juices in the brain and conjure the real solution.

In the meantime a growing number of discontents are positing the unthinkable: How about you raise some taxes Jim?