Fortunately, two major policy proposals last week show that conservatives are beginning to move the Republican Party back to its populist Reaganite roots.

First on Tuesday, speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, unveiled a new tax plan that vastly simplifies the tax code into two rates (15 percent for the first $87,850 of income and 35 percent for everything above that).

Virtually every tax deduction would be eliminated, except for the current child credit, the charitable tax deduction, and the mortgage interest deduction (which would be capped at $300,000).

On top of this, Lee would create a new $2,500-per-child tax credit that could be applied to both income and payroll taxes. That means Lee’s plan would greatly increase the number of Americans who pay no taxes to the federal government.

“Some might worry that increasing the child credit would take more people off the income tax rolls altogether. And it would,” Lee said Tuesday. “But then again, people who pay no income tax do pay federal taxes – payroll taxes, gas taxes and various others. Working families are not free riders.”