Tax-as-you-Go

That should be the real name of what Obama was proposing this morning:

WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Tuesday challenged Congress to pay for new increases in federal benefit programs as it goes rather than sink the nation deeper into a debt, calling it a matter of public responsibility.

Republicans lashed back that Obama is no voice of fiscal restraint as the deficit soars.

The president's plan would require Congress to pay for new entitlement spending, such as health care, by raising taxes or coming up with budget cuts -- a "pay-as-you-go" system that would have the force of law. Under the proposal, if new spending or tax reductions are not offset, there would be automatic cuts in so-called mandatory programs -- although Social Security payments and some other programs would be exempt.

Not noted by the president: Tuesday's plan is a watered-down version of the so-called "PAYGO" rules proposed just last month in his own budget plan.

That version would have required, on average, all affected legislation to be paid for in the very first year. The new plan only requires such legislation to be financed over the coming decade.

That mirrors congressional rules and reflects the likelihood that health care reform will add to the deficit in the early years.

This is the set-up for the new taxes to come. Here's how it will progress:

1. Hold a press conference telling everyone you're a reformed big spender and telling Congress they must pay for entitlement spending as it's enacted. (Ignore the trillions in deficits to which you've already committed the future generations.)
2. Tell us that everything you want to do is an emergency that requires us to spend more money. It's just too important not to do.
3. Point back to item 1 and instruct Congress to find new revenue to pay for the emergency. Don't cut spending - after all, it's an emergency.
4. Sign the new tax bill before the 2010 elections, because after than you may not have a Democrat majority in either house.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, federal programs are the closest thing on this earth to eternal life. Once enacted, it will be impossible to get rid of them.