MARINA DEL REY, CA -- With the tax cut agreement by Congress, Republicans have once again shown that they are too afraid of being called selfish to make major inroads into easing Americans' tax burden, said a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute.
     "Neither party recognizes the moral right of the individual to keep the fruits of his labor and be left free to pursue his values," said Robert W. Tracinski. "If the GOP wanted to take the moral high ground, it would be demanding deep tax cuts across the board."
     As evidence that both the GOP and the Democrats do not recognize the moral right of the individual to his life, his liberty and the pursuit of his happiness, Tracinski observed that:

• Conservatives, afraid of being called "selfish" or "mean-spirited," pay lip service to easing the tax burden while voting along with Democratic colleagues to increase funding of altruistic social programs such as Medicare and Social Security.
• Democrats want to dictate what values Americans should hold by increasing spending on such social programs as Americorps.

     "The so-called tax cuts show that both parties believe in altruism, the moral code which mandates that the productive be sacrificed to the non-productive," said Tracinski. "Americans work hard for their money and have a moral right to keep it and use it to pursue their values; not Congress-imposed ones."