MATT DUFFY NOTES THAT WE WERE HEARING A LOT ABOUT THE DEFICIT until the bipartisan “stimulus” package came up. Then, suddenly, it was no big deal.

Meanwhile, Tigerhawk notes that oil prices are doing the job on their own:

The price of oil may be the best automatic stabilizer that we have. The economy soars and the price of oil increases, imposing an automatic synthetic “tax” that dampens growth. The opposite is also true; the price of oil now falls because the economy is softening, and that will put a lot of money in the hands of American consumers. Oil is already down almost 12% from its peak. If a typical suburban family buys, say, 2000 gallons of gasoline a year, the price savings embedded in a 12% reduction will exceed the silly one-time payment from the stimulus package that passed the Senate today. If oil were to retreat to $60 with concommitant declines in the price of gasoline and heating fuel, the savings for a typical family would dwarf the artificial stimulus in the rebate bill.

But Congress couldn’t take credit.

UPDATE: Though it doesn’t seem to be helping them much: Bush, Congress hit bottom in AP poll.