The question is not just if the president tells the truth but if the truth—finally—will be told about him.

A Newsweek Blast -- The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that Bush’s tax cuts have cost the Treasury nearly three times as much as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, reconstruction after September 11 and homeland-security measures combined. Tax cuts= 9/11 + war x 3. And the numbers get much worse in the years ahead as baby boomers retire. In other words, even if the tax cuts help stimulate a modest recovery, we have dug ourselves a deep hole.

It’s a hole that the states—required by law to balance their budgets—are now being forced to fill. The tobacco-settlement money is gone; the “rainy day” funds exhausted. Under intense pressure from the governors, Washington ponied up $20 billion in emergency aid, but added tax breaks for corporations that will cost the states billions. The House just passed a plan for health savings accounts that will set the states back another $33 billion if enacted. And that’s not even counting the monster haunting every governor, every night—”unfunded mandates.” To take just one example that is relevant in school districts across the country: special education. Congress pledged it would pay for 40 percent of the cost; it actually covers 17 percent.