The Socialist and the Income Tax - Some outrageously accuse Gov. Don Sundquist of being some sort of proto-socialist with unquenchable desire to tax incomes and enlarge government. Not me. In fact, I believe Tennessee would be well-served if Sundquist was in some ways more like that leading European socialist Lionel Jospin, prime minister of France, especially when it comes to taxes.

Jospin wants to be President of France, again. He was president before losing the job to Jacques Chirac in 1995. Chirac is a "Gaullist" while Jospin is the leader of France's Socialist Party. Socialists tend to like income taxes – especially big-fat "progressive" taxes that slap higher tax rates on people if they get a bit too economically uppity for the ruling elite's tastes. Under such a tax code - similar to the one favored by Gov. Sundquist - the more you make, the more socialists take and give to someone else.

Which makes it all the more strange and sublimely ironic that at a time Tennessee is saddled with an allegedly conservative governor who wishes to drill a $1.2 billion hole in the collective wallet of every Tennessean, big-time socialist Jospin is promising the people of France a tax cut. An income tax cut.

That's right. In his 40-page campaign manifesto, entitled "I commit myself," Jospin promised a number of things to help accelerate France's moribund economy and reduce its chronically high unemployment. A biggie: cutting the income tax by 10 percent and slashing France's housing tax in half. Jospin says his plan will help the French economy and lead to a balanced national budget. Jospin's plan is meant to counter Chirac's own promise that he'll cut income taxes by a third over the next five years.

Of course, Jospin is a politician so perhaps he is being Sundquistian. Tennesseans know too well that some candidates' "commitments" on taxes are subject to post-election review. But let's not be cynical – perhaps Jospin really means it when he endorses tax cuts. If so, then over there across the Atlantic a big-government socialist is endorsing lower taxes to grow the economy, while over here our "Republican" governor is endorsing higher taxes to grow the government at the expense of people still suffering the after-effects of a recession. Maybe over there Jospin has realized that "It's the economy, stupid," while over here, our leader offers merely a surplus of stupid economics.