The Cato Institute has a thoughtful blog post challenging a National Review article that said a Democratic-majority Congress means we can say goodbye to the Bush tax cuts. I think the Cato blogger's probably right on the merits; the vast majority of the Bush tax cuts probably will be around at least until they expire in 2010. I would add that Rep. Pelosi has said repeatedly that the Democrats will review some of the most regressive Bush cuts, but certainly not all. And the Democrats do seem ready to pass a PAYGO rule or statute, which could make it more difficult to renew the tax cuts as a complete package. So the Dems may find some way to make an impact on the tax cuts. My main beef, though, is with the timing of the post. It was posted at 4 p.m. yesterday, long after it would could clarify things for voters. And it's not like the National Review is the first to make this argument; Republicans have been screaming about the threat of Democratic tax increases for the last month. Cato had plenty of chances to say something. Did they just figure out that this national talking point is totally off base? If Cato was interested in setting the record straight, they should have posted this piece a long time ago. Protesting so late in the game seems like a hollow attempt at demonstrating the intellectual freedom that Cato should -but doesn't- have.