By Margaret Hoover
Republican Strategist

Republicans have been running on cutting taxes since Ronald Reagan — and for good reason. Federal taxes were exorbitant when Reagan took office — the highest marginal tax rate was 70 percent compared to today’s less than 40 percent. But three decades later, Americans pay much less to Uncle Sam. Four out of five taxpayers owe more in payroll taxes than federal income taxes. While they must not increase, has running on lower taxes lost its steam?

The answer is no. For evidence that Republicans have won the popular debate on cutting taxes, see Exhibit A: Democrat, President-elect Obama, who ran on cutting taxes (even if it was only for 95 percent of Americans). By the third week in October, polling showed Obama consistently beating McCain on taxes, with one poll revealing a 14 percent gap (Wall Street Journal/NBC News, Obama 48 percent to McCain’s 34 percent to the question which candidate would be better for you on taxes). Despite “Joe the Plumber” — illustration incarnate of left v. right tax philosophy — Americans across the board favored President elect Obama’s tax policies to Senator McCain’s.

If you haven’t read David Frum’s “Conservatism That Can Win Again,” pick up a copy. Frum writes, “By margins of more than 5 to 4, Americans condemn the Bush tax cuts as ‘not worth it’. When offered a clear choice between cutting taxes or balancing the budget during election year 2004, Americans opted for budget balancing by a margin of 2 to 1. When the choice was changed to cutting taxes or increasing spending, they opted for higher spending by a margin of 5 to 4.”

Frum goes onto suggest that the lower tax message failed to resonate with voters partly because individuals didn’t feel the relief of the Bush tax cuts. Thanks to spiking energy prices and health care costs, whatever earnings Americans saved in federal taxes, they spent on increasing living expenditures (health insurance, gasoline, etc).

Republicans must keep taxes low. But it’s imperative that our economic argument consist of more than just “lower taxes.” Our challenge is to address American’s concerns with solutions routed in conservative principles that make sense. In the wilderness we must turn to our brain trusts — Paul Ryan in the House of Representatives, the American Enterprise Institute, Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Hoover Institution — to generate answers to rising health care expenses, energy costs and entitlement reform.

While even The New York Times agrees that raising taxes in a down economy constitutes terrible policy, we must stand for more than lower taxes. Now is our opportunity to become the constructive, not just the loyal, opposition.