The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.

Bottom Stories of the Day

  • “Farmers’ Almanac Predicts Cold Winter in D.C. Area”–headline, WTOP-FM website (Washington), Aug. 30
  • “Europe Should Convert to Islam: Gaddafi”–headline, Agence France-Presse, Aug. 31

Reliable Sources
“A Massachusetts man was arrested after a kilogram of cocaine hidden inside a hollowed-out chunk of bologna was delivered to his home,” the Associated Press reports from Holyoke, Mass.:

A dog confirmed the presence of drugs and the bologna was cut open.

The dog must’ve requested anonymity because it wasn’t authorized to bark.

‘The Bush Tax Increase’
If you’re lucky enough to have a job in the Obama economy, the bad news is that your taxes are about to go up. Unless Congress acts, the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 will expire Jan. 1. The prospect of big tax increases has contributed to sluggish growth, and Democrats, facing increasingly dire forecasts for November, are beginning to think maybe it would be a good idea to extend the Bush cuts.

This creates a bit of a dilemma, because Democrats love taxes. The Hill quotes a Democratic operative who sums up the problem:

“It’s hard to say the Republican economic policies were bad, [and] then continue them,” Paul Begala, Democratic strategist and former adviser to President Clinton, told The Hill. “That is a bit of a mixed message.” . . .

Or, as conservative blogger Ed Morrissey puts it:

Democrats have a conundrum. If they agree to extend the Bush tax cuts–the heart of Bush’s economic policies, which only have an expiration date in the first place because Democrats threatened to filibuster them otherwise–they’re endorsing Bush’s economic policies. If they don’t extend them, Barack Obama and the Democrats still left in Congress will almost certainly create a double-dip recession that will threaten to make their party radioactive for the next few election cycles. Perhaps they should have thought their 2010 strategy of demonizing Bush through a little more.

But there’s an easy out. Don’t call it “extending the Bush tax cuts.” Call it “repealing the Bush tax increase.” This would be entirely accurate: Taxes are going up pursuant to legislation enacted by a Republican Congress and signed by Bush.

One could argue that it isn’t entirely fair. Morrissey is surely right to suggest that Bush would have preferred the cuts to be permanent in the first place. But so what? Obama will take all the blame for ObamaCare, including the provisions that he didn’t like but were necessary to win the requisite votes.

If President Obama and a critical mass of congressional Democrats announced tomorrow that they are determined to “repeal the Bush tax increase,” what would Republicans do? Vote “no” out of spite? Defend Bush’s legacy against this unfair attack? It seems to us the GOP’s best response would be to go along with the hypothetical Democratic argument, for it would allow them to distance themselves from the still-unpopular Bush while enacting a policy with which they agree.

Will the Dems do it? Don’t count on it. Remember this exchange, from a 2008 primary debate, between Obama and ABC News’s Charlie Gibson:

Gibson: You have . . . said you would favor an increase in the capital gains tax. As a matter of fact, you said on CNBC, and I quote, “I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton,” which was 28%. It’s now 15%. That’s almost a doubling, if you went to 28%. But actually, Bill Clinton, in 1997, signed legislation that dropped the capital gains tax to 20%.

Obama: Right.

Gibson: And George Bush has taken it down to 15%.

Obama: Right.

Gibson: And in each instance, when the rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased; the government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28%, the revenues went down. So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?

Obama: Well, Charlie, what I’ve said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.

We saw an article today which showed that the top 50 hedge fund managers made $29 billion last year–$29 billion for 50 individuals. And part of what has happened is that those who are able to work the stock market and amass huge fortunes on capital gains are paying a lower tax rate than their secretaries. That’s not fair.

Obama and his backers in Congress could help the economy by preventing a destructive tax increase and bash Bush while they’re at it. It’s a win-win! The only thing stopping them is their own stubborn adherence to an ideology based on a child’s plaintive wail: “That’s not fair!”

For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.