Victory?: The latest issue of National Review calls the tax cut the "most pro-growth tax cut since 1981." They may be right, but that's not exactly the kind of thing to get me to put the lampshade on my head. As NR points out, it's less than half Bush's original proposal, so conservatives lost the negotiating game. More troubling is the bailout to the states that had to be included. Any more money sent to the states is only going to encourage this type of economic mismangement, and a GOP governor in Alabama ought to know better. And, on NRO Financial, Brian Riedl shows that the economic pickle the states are in isn't the fault of federal mandates. It ought to be belt tightening time, but the election cycle looms ever nearer. Guess it wasn't the right time for W. to tell the governors to try a salad.

Sorry. Here's the link to Riedl's column.