EDITORIAL: Couple tax cuts with spending restraint

Late last month, House Republicans unveiled another tax cut plan. The proposal would make permanent the business and individual reductions passed last December. Under current law, those tax cuts would expire after 2025.

The GOP measure, meant as an election-year statement of principles, includes additional reforms intended to help families build savings and to reduce the tax burden for business startups.

The concepts here are good — with one major caveat. If Republicans and President Donald Trump hope to sell the American people on their devotion to fiscal responsibility, they should couple the tax legislation with a specific plan to get spending under control and attack the national deficit and debt.

Leaving more money in the hands of those who earn it is the just and proper approach. It might also help generate increased economic growth. But until Congress tackles the spending side of the equation — and that includes entitlement reform — the nation will continue to slide toward the fiscal abyss.