Sometimes, politicians have a funny idea of what is and is not affordable. Take the recent debates over President Bush’s tax cut, the expansion of the child tax credit, and adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. Mr. Bush’s tax cut was pared down to $350 billion over 10 years from about $800 billion, yet most Democrats — including Senators Schumer and Clinton — refused to vote for it. Rep. Richard Gephardt called the tax cut, “unfair, unaffordable, and ineffective” in May. Earlier in the debate, Mrs. Clinton said, “We should not assume that the solution to our deficits is to make them bigger.”

However, now Democrats, and a pliable Republican administration, seem set to conspire on a spending binge ahead of next year’s election. House Republicans are getting ready to pass an expansion of the child tax credit — a welfare provision disguised as a tax cut — that will cost $82 billion over the coming decade. Democrats and liberal Republicans are likely to go along with the bill; their only complaint is that the money isn’t going to be given away quickly enough. It’s the same story with prescription drugs. Mr. Bush is endorsing a bill that would add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare at a cost of $400 billion over 10 years. The Democrats’ only complaint is that the benefit won’t be “generous” enough.