Sometimes a lesson can be learned too well. It took economists decades to persuade politicians and the public that the federal budget should not necessarily be balanced every year.

There are times when it makes sense to run a deficit, as for example during a recession. And there are times when it makes sense to run a surplus, as for example when huge Social Security and health care expenses loom in the future.

But the notion that government expenditures and revenues need not match year by year does not imply that there should be no relation whatsoever between the two.

According to Dick Cheney, Ronald Reagan taught us that deficits don’t matter. Did he? If so, why did he approve a huge tax increase just one year after the massive tax cuts of 1981?

It is President Bush, not President Reagan, who has adhered to the Cheney Doctrine. Unlike Reagan, Bush followed his mammoth 2001 tax cuts with another large tax cut in 2003 and several smaller ones, too.

He also added an expensive new drug benefit to Medicare without even suggesting a way to pay for it.

Likewise, the Iraq War has been financed by adding the bill to the deficit. And it now appears that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will be dealt with in the same way.

See a pattern here? Apparently, this administration needs to be reminded of a simple principle of sound finance: that you need to pay at least some of your bills.

I’m Alan Blinder