Our philosophy of good government is simple and old. The best government is no government. The best government until that is possible is the least amount of government to preserve order and accomplish the common good.

By extension, we also believe the more money government spends, the more it can interfere with your life. Therefore, we salute any effort that attempts to give you back a few bucks that government would otherwise happily consume.

We have two acts of rare governmental good sense this morning. First, the federal government will send this spring’s checks of up to $600 to individuals and $1,200 to married couples as part of an economic stimulus package. Households with children will get an additional $300 per child.

Congress, with Democrats and Republicans working together, crafted this rebate package in hopes of giving our struggling economy a kick start. For the plan to work, of course, you need to spend a good chunk of that rebate plan.

The Missouri House appears ready to offer an assist on this score. A House committee endorsed legislation that would exempt all items priced at $600 or less from state and local sales taxes on the weekend of June 27 through June 29, according to The Associated Press.

Critics are always worried about giving up control of even three-days’ worth of sales tax revenue, even with restrictions. They worry in this case that consumers could make thousands of dollars worth of purchases as long as the individual bills came in under the $600 ceiling.

We are willing to take that risk. But then our basic philosophy is that you know better how to spend your money than the government does. History also teaches that tax cuts can do more to generate new tax dollars than an aggressive tax philosophy.