The Window Opens

ALL ADMINISTRATIONS play games to try to obscure the impact of their budgetary decisions. The Bush administration plays at an Olympian level. In its latest budget, the administration once again minimizes the size of the deficit hole it is digging by excluding sure costs -- fighting the war in Iraq, fixing the alternative minimum tax -- from its budget estimates for future years. It once again asks Congress to change the budget rules in a way that would magically erase from the books the costs of extending the president's tax cuts. There you have it: If it doesn't cost anything, why not do it? ...