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‘Temporary’ measures take on longer life
...These increases are supposed to be only for a limited period, generally this year and next. In budget-speak, however, they raise the "baseline" amounts allocated for these programs. Any attempt to bring the new baselines back down to pre-stimulus levels will undoubtedly be greeted with howls about "cuts" that would hurt the poor, the infirm, students, researchers and police. (Already, some House Democrats are complaining about "cuts" made in the pie-in-the-sky levels of spending contained in their original version of the stimulus bill.)

The program also contains an array of tax breaks that are supposed to be temporary but will be similarly difficult to rescind. Any effort to do so will be denounced as a harmful tax increase in the middle of a recession or recovery, depending on the state of the economy at the time.

If 30 tax breaks and spending increases in the House stimulus bill were extended — and each one has its own constituency and lobbyists — the Congressional Budget Office estimates that would add $1.7 trillion to federal deficits over 10 years....