Republicans Shouldn’t Be Democrats-Lite

Republicans seem to be toying with the notion that the best way to erase the taint left by the Jan. 6 Capitol riot would be to shift toward the political center and offer Democrat Lite. The Republican Party took a similar politics-driven approach to economics after an earlier scandal, Watergate. The shift to the center failed then and will fail again.

Senator Mitt Romney of Utah has offered up a new Family Security Act that would supply child allowances of $4,200 per child each year to families, going down to $3,000 when the child turns six. Some of the particulars are disconcertingly precise, bespeaking an obsession with social engineering — why not age four, or age seven? — and the plan is so expensive that it envisions eliminating other tax benefits, some of which may be important to families.