Kaus has an epiphany: Bush lies

You know your presidency may not be running even keel when one of your most gullible apologists suddenly realizes he's, well, a gullible apologist. Mickey Kaus has had such an epiphany:

Did Bush budget director Mitch Daniels really say that "[d]eficits may continue into the next decade," as the Washington Times paraphrase has it? [Emphasis added.] If so, isn't that -- and not the deficit projections for this year and next -- the lede? ... What Daniels is saying is not that Bush won't be able to balance the budget during this term. He's not saying Bush won't be able to balance the budget during his second term (if he's reelected). He's saying that even if Bush serves two full terms the next President won't be able to balance the budget until at a minimum of halfway through his term.

Maybe I am a gullible Bush apologist. I'd thought the idea behind Bush's budget was that the tax cuts would spur economic growth (through either the Keynesian magic trick or the supply-side magic trick) Growth would bring tax revenues, which would bring the budget back into balance.

I thought Kaus was smart enough to recognize Bush's spin for what it was -- a disingenuous way to sell a costly boondoggle to a skeptical audience. As part of the Bush media cabal, I fully assumed Kaus was just taking Bush's talking points and disseminating them to his audience. That might make him a whore, but at least an intelligent one.

But now we see that he actually believed Bush's spin! Ha ha!

Still, he's holding out hope that Mitch Daniels was misquoted by the Washington Times (the official mouthpiece of the Bush Administration). It's hard to admit propping up a dishonest regime.

Posted January 16, 2003 08:31 PM | Comments (23)