We all have heard much throughout our life-
times, and seen little happen, on the subject of
high taxes. Where is the politician who has not
promised his constituents a fight to the death for
lower taxes -- and who has not proceeded to vote
for the very spending projects that make tax cuts
impossible? There are some the shoe does not fit,
but I am afraid not many. Talk of tax reduction
has thus come to have a hollow ring. The people
listen, but do not believe. And worse: as the public
grows more and more cynical, the politician feels
less and less compelled to take his promises ser-
iously.

I suspect that this vicious circle of cynicism and
failure to perform is primarily the result of the
Liberals' success in reading out of the discussion
the moral principles with which the subject of
taxation is so intimately connected. We have been
led to look upon taxation as merely a problem
of public financing: How much money does the
government need? We have been led to discount,
and often to forget altogether, the bearing of taxa-

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