Broder : Tax Cuts Obscure The Real Debate

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Political rhetoric and political reality are two quite different things. As a rule, candidates for high office do not confront the hard facts of governmental life until after they have been elected.

Thus it is only now, after the recall election is over, that Arnold Schwarzenegger and his team of advisers are being pressed on how they would close the looming deficits in the California budget while rolling back the car tax increases at a cost of $4 billion and still protecting school programs from cuts -- and selling all this to a Democratic legislature.

A similarly striking vacuum exists among the rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination. All nine of those worthies agree on one thing: President Bush's tax breaks for wealthy Americans must be rolled back, either to reduce budget deficits or to finance new health care benefits or both.

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Yet none of the candidates -- or their policy advisers -- is asked the obvious question: What if the House of Representatives, which must originate revenue bills, remains under Republican control in 2005?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26859-2003Oct14.html