SOTU Roundup: The Washington Post

The editors of WP still aren’t completely sold on the necessity of war against Iraq’s Ba’athist regime, but save their big guns for what was really missing. They say that Bush

reprised the administration’s case against Saddam Hussein but did not expand on it, instead saying that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell would brief the United Nations Security Council next week on Iraq’s weapons programs and connections with terrorist groups. Along the way, he blithely ignored a connection that ought to be obvious: that there is, or should be, a tradeoff between the huge continuing costs of the war on terrorism and the ability of the government to offer both expensive new social programs and tax cuts for the wealthy.

I can’t quibble with the social spending — especially since any new budget items almost always become both permanent and growing. But accelerated tax relief is needed and just.