"Sleight of hand," indeed

"Sleight of hand" appears twice in this AP story regarding the budget. Curiously, no mention of the "sleight of hand" used when the tax break on wealthiest Americans in Bush's budget was set to expire in 2010 as well.

But this is rich.

Democrats point out that Obama inherited an unprecedented fiscal mess caused by the recession and the taxpayer-financed bailout of Wall Street. Rather than retrenching, however, they still promise to award big budget increases to education and clean energy programs, while assuming Obama's plans to overhaul the U.S. health care system advance.

The "unprecedented fiscal mess" was caused by the recession? As if the recession were a hurricane that could not have been predicted to drown a major American city...oh, wait.