Not Your Sweetie

Paul Krugman as Rod Serling in "Off the Wagon":

Picture a recovering alcoholic falling off the wagon. First he says he can
handle a few drinks. Then, when his inebriation can't be denied, he insists
it's only a temporary lapse. But eventually he turns mean. "What's so great
about being sober?" he growls, reaching for another bottle.

As a drunk is to alcohol, the Bush administration is to budget deficits.

As the administration
reaches for another bottle — another long-term tax cut for the affluent —
its officials sullenly denounce the "fixation" on budget deficits,
dismissing it as nonsensical "Rubinomics." (So much, by the way, for the war
on terror as an excuse for deficits. "What did you do in the war, daddy?"
asks Ronald Brownstein in The Los Angeles Times. "I got a big tax cut, and
passed the bill on to you.")

Economics aside, the administration's ever-changing rationale for tax cuts
says a lot about its character. If the Bush team never cared about deficits,
Mr. Bush's promises of fiscal responsibility were dishonest. On the other
hand, if administration officials didn't decide that deficits are O.K. until
that belief became convenient, that suggests that they're tough talkers who
make excuses when confronted with real problems.

Trust me: we're going to miss Rubinomics. Maybe not today, and maybe not
tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of our lives.