CRAIG HINES ON WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC POLICY
Houston Chronicle's Washington Columnist
Analyzes Political Ramifications of Bush Tax Cut

The scene could not have been more different on Wednesday when, with chandeliers in the pol-packed East Room atwinkle, Bush signed into law the $350 billion tax cut that had ground its sausage-making way through the House and Senate. No matter that not long ago the president had derided such an anemic fiscal whack as "little bitty" -- as opposed to his own "robust" opening goal of $726 billion or even the intermediate $550 billion he was chasing about in the Midwest just weeks past.

In that brazenly mindless way that politicians plow forward without regard to even the most recent history and confident of the public's ever-short memory, Bush declared the fractionated final measure to be "essential action to strengthen the American economy." That would be, by the way, action essentially calibrated to kick in between now and Nov. 2, 2004. After that, funny thing, much of the prospective stimulus effect would peter out as various lowered taxes kick back in or back up.

Some economists believe that any momentary employment growth prompted by the Bush tax cuts would dry up and blow away as higher and higher budget deficits send interest rates (and, ergo, jobless rates) higher. Looking ahead to the Election Year, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, sees the tax cut generating only 500,000 new jobs.

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I'm really starting to like this Craig Hines guy. I've noticed his name over the years, and have probably already read some of his stuff, but it's hard to forget his latest few salvos against the madmen in the Oval Office. The Chronicle is a fairly conservative paper for a fairly conservative town--Houston is Bush country. That's why it's interesting to note that the Chronicle opinion pages are becoming increasingly anti-Bush. Even the main editorial cartoonist, C.P. Houston, not a liberal by any fair standard, has taken to roughing up our Doofus-in-Chief. These are good signs. Bush's Texas stronghold may be weakening.

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