We are wondering how Sen. Evan Bayh’s latest proposal will be received by the Congress and White House, both controlled by his own Democratic Party.

Bayh is now promoting the expansion of a federal tax break for homeowners paying property taxes who do not itemize. His proposal would extend the Housing and Economic Recovery Act deductions and remove the $500 limitation on the deduction for those filing single returns and the $1,000 limitation on those filing joint returns.

This would mean more money in the hands of people, rather than the government, so homebuyers could make spending decisions regarding their own money, rather than the government. That’s not a popular concept in Washington of late.

We now have a vice president who declared during the campaign that it is patriotic to pay more taxes. We disagree. Taxes are a legal duty. Patriotism includes self-sacrifice to help your neighbor and country. Handing over money to the government at its demand is far from the same thing.

Also, we now have a federal government driven to develop an expensive solution to perhaps every problem it receives a complaint about, except the problem of government spending too much money and getting in everyone’s way.

Given all this, Bayh’s effort is refreshing.

Under his proposal, the senator projects that a non-itemizing family with $75,000 of taxable income and a property tax bill of $3,000 would receive a $750 federal income tax cut this year n $500 more than under current law.

“Whether you itemize your federal deductions or not, you shouldn’t have to pay taxes on what you’re already paying for in your county,” Bayh said last week.

We agree. And we wish him luck in finding more co-sponsors for the proposal. We hope a trend of letting people keep more of what they have earned can develop, even in the face of growing deficits. That might actually provide a powerful stimulus for the economy.

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