Great news from Washington this morning:

WASHINGTON -- The economy grew at a lively 4.3 percent pace in the third quarter, the best showing in more than a year. The performance offered fresh testimony that the country's overall economic health managed to improve despite the destructive force of Gulf Coast hurricanes.

The new snapshot of economic activity, released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday, showed the growth at an even faster pace than the 3.8 percent annual rate first reported for the July-to-September quarter a month ago.

And a great point from Larry Kudlow:

Under current policies the economic boom can last for many more years. Hence, the after-tax rewards for work, investment, and risk taking that are so essential to this prosperity should be renewed and extended without a second thought. The GOP should also launch a new round of pro-growth tax reform to flatten tax rates, broaden the income base, and vastly simplify the dreaded IRS tax code.

Republicans in Congress must strike while the iron is hot, adding to pro-growth policies and expanding their economic-growth coalition. There’s really only one question a GOP lawmaker can be asked these days: You gonna be smart, or stupid?

Why so many Republicans on the Hill are so afraid to defend the benefits of tax relief, I just don't know. When the most unabashed embrace of the free market in months comes from Alan Alda on the West Wing, you know something's wrong.