Insanity

The House and Senate are busy right now fighting over exactly how to cut taxes by $60 to $70 billion over the next 5 years. It's hard to overstate how wildly irresponsible this is given the fiscal gap. Here's hoping that they will deadlock themselves and do nothing. This isn't impossible, given differing preferences as to where the money should go, along with the Senate Finance Committee's apparent move to raise taxes on oil companies (anathema to several influential Senators whose votes would likely be needed).

Some of the tax cuts being considered make sense as structural features of the Code. For example, the 15 percent rate for corporate dividends reduces double taxation of equity-financed corporate profits, and the alternative minimum tax is getting out of hand. But to address these things without paying for them is just one more instance of the drunken spree that we have been on in Washington for the last 5 years, which will at some point start to spook the bond markets (prompting a fiscal meltdown) if the premise that Congress will at some point act responsibly continues to be rebutted.