E.J. Dionne - WAPO

It was one of those moments when a public official gives away a larger truth by offering what seems to be a throwaway line.

Testifying this week on President Bush’s budget, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. suggested he would not mind a bit if the Democratic Congress added money to prevent cutbacks in coverage under the federal government’s children’s health insurance program.

“It just may be,” Paulson said mildly, “that the Congress believes that that’s something that should be funded at a higher level.”

In other words, Bush’s budget is a collection of artificial numbers — including cuts in domestic programs that Congress will inevitably reverse — that allow the president to claim fiscal responsibility while demanding that his tax cuts for the wealthy be made permanent.