There was no small amount of pleasure among Democrats when a scathing news article ran in yesterday's Washington Post highlighting Republican hypocrisy on deficits:

Even as they hammer Democrats for running up record budget deficits, Senate Republicans are rolling out a plan to permanently extend an array of expiring tax breaks that would deprive the Treasury of more than $4 trillion over the next decade, nearly doubling projected deficits over that period unless dramatic spending cuts are made. 

You may have heard about this crazy story from Philadelphia, in which the city is sending letters to bloggers, demanding that they pay a $300 "business privilege tax" because of their income from blogging. This rang a chord with me, because a few years ago, long after I had moved to D.C., I got a letter from the city of Philadelphia informing me that I owed them money from my unpaid business privilege tax. This happened because I reported some modest royalty income from a book I had written while living in Philadelphia, and the city decided that by writing a book I was operating a business within the city, and therefore needed to pay a tax for the privilege.

So John Boehner thinks the announced resignation of Christina Romer, in combination with the latest jobs report, is evidence the Obama administration needs to seriously retool its economic policy:

Conservative tax orthodoxy as outlined by Grover Norquist and the Americans for Tax Reform -- and accepted by most Republicans -- requires not only opposition to tax increases but also opposition to closing tax loopholes: Any act that might raise revenue is forbidden. Unfortunately, this perpetuates a slew of subsidies and give-aways in the current tax code, often targeted at corporate interests, that distort its effects and are the equivalent of real spending.

Barry Eichengreen writes on fiscal consolidation -- budget cuts to reassure the bond markets -- observing that while austerity is necessary for Southern Euorpe's debt-burdened countries,* the U.S., Germany, and even the United Kingdom don't need such policies. While he's writing below about Britain's Liberal-Conservative government, the analysis could apply just as well to deficit hawks in the United States.

Last week, New York Gov. David Paterson dropped his proposal to tax sugary drinks by a penny per ounce, and The New York Times has an analysis on how the money behind the soda industry and the power of anti-tax advocates did it in. Pepsi Co., which has a headquarters in Westchester County, and Coca-Cola, which has a bottle-distributing plant on Staten Island, surely played a role, but it probably doesn't help that progressives weren't fully behind it either.

Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel this week proposed 80 billion euros in spending cuts and new fees in order to reduce her country's budget deficit. It's just one instance of a growing trend of fiscal tightening amongst countries around the world: