I don’t mind pro-tax propaganda in the New York Times Magazine. It’s what the readers want, after all. I’m sure the letters section of the magazine will in two weeks’ time carry plenty of letters from readers appalled at President Bush’s scary right-wing agenda. (No publication’s letter-writers are quite so Pavlovian as the Times Magazine’s.)

But must the Times carry more pro-tax propaganda on its front page the same day? Here’s how David Firestone’s “news story” opens: “When President Bush informed the nation last Sunday night that remaining in Iraq next year will cost another $87 billion, many of those who will actually pay that bill were unable to watch. They had already been put to bed by their parents.”