New York Times
July 26, 2004

As the tax-cut extension bill suddenly fell apart in Congress last week, President Bush was caught with his hand in the re-election cookie jar. Billed as timely help for the middle class, the proposed extension of the more worthy tax cuts enacted in recent years was intended by the White House to be a timely boost for the president on the eve of the Democratic convention.

Senate Democrats and a few Republicans had been responsibly holding out, insisting that any tax cuts, no matter how meritorious, be paid for by raising other revenues or by spending cuts. At issue were child credits, relief for married people who file jointly and an extension of the lower 10 percent marginal rate. When moderates began ignoring the budget-offset issue and shifting behind a compromise package of tax cuts, the White House showed its political hand, scuttling the bill to stop Democrats from strutting forth as tax-cut champions.

Sometimes you watch a game and don't know for whom to root. We didn't like seeing moderates cave on their principled stand for fiscal discipline. But the president's gambit - ostensibly holding out for the whole tax-cut enchilada -betrayed a determination to treat the budget as a political cudgel.

The tax-cut issue will revive when Congress returns in September, with the White House again demanding an irresponsible five-year extension costing more than $100 billion, not the more limited two-year measure that failed last week. Closer to Election Day, it will be even harder for lawmakers to resist the president's simplistic pitch. But we urge members of the Republican-led Congress to discover some spine and stop kidding themselves, and their voters. Congress must start budgeting responsibly since the president obviously won't.

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