Supply-Siders Rejoice..Part II

All Right here is the op-ed in its entirety...
Now supply siders can rejoice

..and by the way the penguin is hands down the best dressed of all the animal kingdom, they're always wearing tuxes.

Tax-Cut Deadline Last chance for the 15% rate on cap gains and dividends.
Thursday, December 8, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

The House is scheduled to vote today on legislation that would extend a tax cut that has been crucial to the economic rebound of the past two years. The bill provides for a two-year extension of the current 15% tax rate on capital gains and dividends, due to expire in 2008. Pay attention, for this may be the most important vote on the economy the House has taken all year.
What's surprising is that the vote is expected to be a cliff hanger. The Senate passed its tax bill without any capital gains and dividend provisions, so passage in the House is necessary if there is any hope of keeping the issue alive.

The very fact that it is proving so difficult to secure a mere two-year extension of President Bush's most notable first-term domestic-policy achievement underscores how far Republicans in Congress have stumbled of late. The 2003 tax cut is about as clear a policy success as has come out of Washington in many years:
• The stock market has risen by about $4 trillion in value, and an estimated 40% of that gain is directly attributable to increases in the after-tax return on equities, thanks to the tax cut. (If the tax cut expires, the market will instantly give back those gains.) Housing values have soared so rapidly that the fear is we now face a bubble. Household net wealth has climbed by $10 trillion.
• Business investment--which had sunk into the abyss during the recession, falling by 21% between 2000 and 2002--has roared back to life. Spending is up nearly 25% over the past 30 months.
• Dividend payments to shareholders have doubled in two years, according to data gathered by the American Shareholders Association. The cumulative impact of the tax cut and the higher dividend payments has put $100 billion into the pockets of America's burgeoning investor class.
• The macro-economic signs all point to a solid, sustainable expansion. Employment is up 4.4 million and real GDP growth has averaged 4%--or twice the OECD average--since 2003. Today's unemployment rate of 5% means there are now roughly one million more Americans working than were projected before the tax cut.
• Oh, and yes, there was a $120 billion reduction in the budget deficit in 2005. That's because tax receipts rose by more than in any previous year in U.S. history, even adjusting for inflation. Receipts were up by $55 billion above projections in 2004; $122 billion above projections in 2005; and are already running well ahead of projections so far in fiscal 2006 (which began in October).
• Finally, we wonder if any of the faux debt-hawks in Congress noticed that thanks to the sizzling economy, states and localities are now running hefty budget surpluses, reversing years of red ink and painful service cutbacks. Even New York City--which for years looked like the U.S. version of debt-plagued Argentina--is back in the black.

House Republicans will scrape for every last vote today to get the 218 needed to prevent the reversal of this resounding tax-policy success. They need almost every Republican vote because the Democratic Party of Howard Dean is reflexively against pro-growth tax policies--even when they raise revenues. Republicans can take a big step toward reversing their slide in the polls--and advertise themselves as the party of prosperity--by enthusiastically distancing themselves from that bankrupt economic philosophy.