OVERTAXED AMERICANS NEED REAL RELIEF

House Republicans last week rolled out their $846 billion tax cut program. It includes a gradual cut in tax rates of 10 percent across the board. As expected, President Clinton immediately threatened a veto before devoting his weekend radio message to a denunciation of it. The proposal is the brainchild of House Ways and Means Committee chairman Bill Archer, R-Texas.

About this package, and the Democratic reaction to it, several observations. First is the disappointing timidity of a mere 10 percent rate cut that is phased in over a decade. We had hoped for more. At a time when Americans are overtaxed at historically high levels, this is thin gruel indeed.

For their part, Democrats say they will consider a more modest tax cut of about $250 billion, provided its relief is targeted at taxpayers who pay less. They have of course resumed their patented class-warfare demagoguery. That this line of attack is so drearily familiar and so intellectually discredited deters them not at all.

In the long run, the voting public will reward a party that demonstrates it is serious about reducing the tax burden on hardworking, greatly overtaxed Americans. We repeat a fact often stated here: Americans are today living under tax burdens that are at the highest levels in peacetime for all American history.

Congressional Republicans must commit to the long haul in the cause of tax rate reduction, across the board, for all Americans. In truth, Republican tax cutters have less to fear from Democratic demagoguery than they do from the fact they haven't been bold enough in their initial proposal.