In an apparent deathbed conversion to fiscal responsibility, President Bush has finally met spending bills he doesn't like. After six cycles in which Bush never vetoed a single spending increase sent to him by a spend-and-spend-and-spend GOP-dominated Congress, he's making one thing clear this go-around. It's Democratic fiscal responsibility that he simply cannot abide -- the worst form of it emobodied in the party's pledge to pay for tax cuts, aka, the pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) rules that Congress adopted earlier this year. But in so doing, the President is stepping on his own fiscal responsibility message. Even before the House passed a revenue-neutral, PAYGO-compliant bill last week to prevent 21 million additional Americans from having to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) next year -- up from the current 4.2 million -- Bush issued a veto threat against the AMT "patch" bill, saying: the Administration does not believe the appropriate way to protect 21 million additional taxpayers from 2007 AMT liability is to impose a tax increase on other taxpayers [via PAYGO provisions such as closing the carried interest loophole that] would increase the tax burden of American businesses and workers relative to their foreign competitors by raising taxes on certain partners in partnerships A Washington Post editoral today, The Tax Fairy Debunked points out that Bush wants a free fiscal lunch from the tax fairy and asks him point blank: "Who is going to foot the bill, those enjoying the benefits of the patch or their grandchildren?" The ball is in your court, Mr. President. Make good on your proclaimed fealty to fiscal responsibility and explain how you would pay for the patch, or explain why adding the cost to the $9 trillion federal debt is the responsible thing to do.