The most remarkable and reassuring sound in Washington was the new, statesmanlike voice of the U.S. Congress.
Back in March, the Capitol rang with feverish cries for damn-the-deficits measures to end the recession. Texas' Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Baines Johnson, galloping into the leadership vacuum created by the White House's late-winter indecisions, loomed tall in the saddle at the head of the Democratic antirecession troops. The Capitol's leaderless Republicans milled about restively. Pundits predicted that a tax-cut epidemic would break out on Capitol Hill, and the Administration's foreign aid and reciprocal...