Rove During the last week, President Obama doubled down on a losing political bet, further cementing the Democratic Party’s reputation as the champion of bigger deficits, higher spending and more government.

He did so just as the public is crying out for lower defi- cits, less spending and less govern- ment.

In a Saturday radio add ress, Obama attacked Republican opposition to additional stimulus spending, saying they “just don’t get it.” Maybe they do get it. The first, $862 billion stimulus bill of 17 months ago has, after all, failed to work the president’s promised magic.

Last Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined the president in his bad bet by offering up the economic gem that extension of unemployment benefits “creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name.” Really? Faster than, say, eliminating personal income-tax cuts or slashing the corporate tax rate?

Rank-and-file congressional Democrats do not seem eager to follow Obama and Pelosi down this road. For example, the House barely passed its $127 billion “Stimulus II” spending bill in late May by a vote of 215 to 204, with 34 Democrats joining all but one Republican in voting no.

At least 20 of those Democrats come from districts at risk this fall. Democrats who represent swing districts are increasingly wary of supporting higher spending, taxes and deficits, or ceding greater power to the federal government. These issues are driving independents and other swing voters into the GOP column.

To maximize their gains, Republicans must go beyond promising to slash Democratic spending and reverse the Obama agenda. They also need to offer a competing agenda for increasing jobs and prosperity, and outline the concrete steps they will take to get back on the track for economic growth.

A GOP growth agenda would keep intact the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. Tax reform and simplification — including the flat tax and cutting the corporate tax rate — can also be winning issues if advocated by Republican candidates with authenticity and passion.

Laying out a positive agenda also requires GOP candidates to connect the dots between public policies and real-world consequences.

So Republicans must make a compelling case that allowing the tax cuts to expire will result in history’s largest tax increase — killing jobs, punishing hard work and enterprise, damaging growth, wounding small business, and postponing the moment government finally restrains spending.

They need to explain that raising taxes on dividends and on capital gains would lower economic growth for years to come. Retirements would be less secure, capital more expensive for every enterprise, and investment in American jobs and companies less attractive.

Karl Rove is former senior advisor to President George W. Bush.