"We're doing a heck of a job."

Yes, Karl Rove really did say that yesterday during a speech and q&a at the American Enterprise Institute. Dana Milbank has all the valuable details of Karl Rove's defense of the president's fiscal restrain and progessive tax cutting.

What Rove had much to add to was the Bush economic record. As he described it, the administration has increased the tax burden on the wealthiest Americans and restrained the federal budget through frequent veto threats. These were difficult claims, but Rove was equal to the task.

For example, groups such as the Congressional Budget Office have reported that the Bush tax cuts have shifted the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle class. But Rove had another way to look at it: For the top 1 percent, "their share of income tax payments is up by 1.5 percent."

Likewise, federal spending has increased some 40 percent over the past five years, with discretionary spending jumping by more than 55 percent. But, again, Rove had a different view. "The president has reduced the growth of non-security discretionary spending every year in office," he said.

In a similar vein, Bush has not vetoed a single bill since he became president. But Rove said that it was "39 veto threats" that had the effect of "restraining spending to the levels proposed in the president's budget."

Apparently, Karl & Co. have not caught on to the fact that they're no longer being permitted to make outrageous claims without benefit of fact checking. Wish the moment had come sooner -- like in 2000 -- but come it has.