Our budget summit....

YOU HAVE to say this for Saddam Hussein: he was there when George Bush needed him most. The President had been sinking fast, ever since he had announced his second thoughts on taxes. But Saddam's little outing has changed all the budget calculations as well as diverted the public's attention from Mr. Bush's lips. As NATIONAL REVIEW was going to press the budget negotiations were held hostage at Andrews Air Force Base.

In principle the goal is to come up with an arrangement that would reduce the federal deficit by $50 billion next year and $500 billion over the next five years. In practice that is only a Republican goal. The Democrats' goal-which they achieved brilliantly-was to get George Bush to discredit himself on taxes. So it's no surprise that negotiations haven't gone all that far: the two sides are aiming in different directions.

President Bush, unfortunately, is aiming in two different directions too. Right after Congress had adjourned for its summer recess, he took to the airwaves to denounce the Democrats for partisanship and a lack of seriousness, something he ought to have said a long time before. Recently, however, he has been sounding "presidential," which in Beltwayspeak means putting aside Republican principles such as tax cuts and abstaining from attacks on the Democrats for their failure to offer any alternative. The fate of the economy depends on which George Bush will be directing the budget mess over the critical weeks ahead.

The President ought to have no hesitation in choosing the path of genuine principle. In the months since the budget negotiations started, a number of responsible organizations-including the Heritage Foundation, the National Center for Policy Analysis, and the Center for the Study of American Business-have put forward proposals showing how to slash the deficit without raising taxes. It can be done. But it means cutting spending-and that will not come without first forcing Tom Foley and George Mitchell to cry uncle. Don't expect anything like that from a budget "summit."