KaBlogAlah

President to submit plan to balance federal budget by 2012, calls on new Congress to curb spending. -- headline, Jan. 3, 2207, Washingotn Post -- buried in the story:

Later, in a White House news briefing, presidential spokesman Tony Snow was pressed to explain how Bush's budget-cutting pledge could be reconciled with the burgeoning costs of the war in Iraq, which is funded largely through emergency supplemental bills rather than the regular annual budget process. Those costs thus are currently not subject to overall spending limits and are excluded from deficit calculations.

file under: The Dept. of Smoke & Mirrors Dept.