premise: The salient questions, outlined above, are more relative and  whether Democratic promises to refrain from spending the surplus are less trustworthy than Republican promises to match tax cuts with spending cuts, and which hypothetical error--excessive spending or excessive tax cuts--would be harder to reverse.
hypothesis: Republicans swearing to cut taxes and Democrats promising to show restraint with the surplus may be two sides of the same coin of excess in a time when moderation is what's needed.