Bush to outline principles of economy plan Friday – Reuters (1/17/08):

U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday will offer the principles of his proposal to give the fragile U.S. economy a boost and wants a measure that will be quick and temporary, a White House spokesman said on Thursday.

“He’ll talk about the kinds of policies that he thinks will provide temporary, effective measures to increase growth over the short term,” White House Spokesman Tony Fratto said.

Now this is all very interesting. I’ve been fully expecting that, after consulting all of his wise and sharp advisors (you know, the ones who were insisting that the economy was “robust” just a few months ago), Bush’s stimulus package would take the form of yet another round of tax cuts for wealthy Americans.

Of course I don’t know what Bush will announce tomorrow, but listening to Fratto emphasize the word ‘temporary’ reminded me of something the President has been droning on about since Congressional Republicans managed to hoodwink everyone into passing his last round of unaffordable tax cuts by calling them ‘temporary.’ The standard Bush line, repeated ad nauseum:

First of all, every one of these business leaders and owners will tell you that if there’s uncertainty in the tax code, it will make it difficult for them to plan for the future. Business owners like certainty. They want to know what the rules are. Much of the tax relief I described goes away soon. Congress passed the tax relief, but they didn’t make it permanent. Job creation is vital. Permanency in the tax code will mean more job creation. Congress must make every part of the tax package permanent.

Keep this in mind as Bush lays out his ‘temporary’ stimulus package. The smart money (defined as anyone smart enough not to be a member of this administration) is riding on some serious hypocrisy.