HEADING TOWARD LONG-TERM FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

House Speaker Newt Gingrich last week unveiled an ambitious agenda for dealing with the nation's fiscal affairs, so long mired in endless deficits but now -- just possibly -- headed for years of surpluses. Gingrich is calling for recession-proof surpluses each year, annual tax cuts and extra spending for science, transportation and defense. "Our first goal every year ought to be to run a surplus," Gingrich told the House Budget Committee. "It ought to be a surplus large enough that a reasonable recession won't stop it."

Gingrich's call for sustained surpluses tracks recommendations by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and many economists, who agree that lower interest rates would result. He said extra spending for the military, public works and technology were needed because the United States has "the inevitable responsibility to lead the planet." Interestingly, the committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. John Spratt of South Carolina, said he generally agreed with the speaker's stated priorities.

Gingrich is right to stress the need for further tax cuts. American families are laboring under historically high taxes today, even after this year's tax cut. That was small potatoes, indeed, as Gingrich implicitly admits with his pledge of annual tax cuts over the next three years.

If Gingrich and his Republican majority can deliver on this admittedly broad-brush plan, it will be a welcome turn away from the decades-long fiscal irresponsibility of the federal government.