The story line on the Obama stimulus plan seems to have settled on the expectation that the $300 billion in tax cuts will get Republicans to sign on to the overall $775 billion package. Apparently, the theory is that if you wave $300 billion in tax cuts in front of Republicans, they’ll give you a green light to spend nearly $500 billion.

– Even if Joe the Plumber would recognize a significant portion of the $300 billion in purported tax cuts as something more akin to ”spreading the wealth.”

– Even if there doesn’t appear to be any guarantee that the spending will be coterminous with the tax cuts.

– Even if there’s a good probability the spending will be wholly unrelated to addressing the recession (See, e.g., Thomas Sowell’s column today).

– Even if there’s a good probability that a good chunk of the spending will become a permanent feature of the federal budget (See, e.g., recent U.S. history).

– Even if the $500 billion is probably just a down payment on even more spending liberals plan to do down the road.

– Even though we’ll be adding titanic sums to both the federal deficit and debt — promising more fun and games in the future.

Well, GOP, is the press correct?