Wrapping a Failed Tax Cut in the Flag

Cragg Hines is annoyed with the Bush Administration's efforts to justify its horrendous tax cut package by tying it to the war with Iraq.

This is not the first time this White House has used overzealous rhetoric to try to win a political fight. As Hines reminds us:

The repeated efforts of spokesman Ari Fleischer to tie the tax cuts to jobs for returning military personnel is no less a joke. His approach is part of the variegated sales pitch for the president's budget proposal. It's reminiscent of the ever-shifting reasons that the administration offered for war against Iraq. Almost all of the points had merit, but the oscillating rationales made it seem that the White House didn't quite believe firmly in any of them and was trying to see if yet another new one would fly with doubters at home and abroad.

Fleischer's scam also recalled President Bush's own sordid attempt last fall to declare that senators who were not buying his approach to anti-terrorism hook, line and sinker were "not interested in the security of the American people."

Halving a bad tax cut proposal, after all, still leaves a bad tax cut plan on the table.