THIS WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS . . . . It opened with the world angry at America because of its willingness to use the strength of its military, and closes with the world angry at America for its willingness to tolerate the weakness of its currency. Thar’s just no pleasin’ these folks, as they say in Crawford.

This has been a year of reality checks. The Bush administration has been brought face-to-face with the reality of its massive deficits by financial markets that are scrambling to unload dollars, and by a Congress reluctant to tackle Social Security and tax reform until the federal deficit is brought under control. Bush has promised to do just that, but he is also intent on spending what it takes to win the war on terror, and on adding $2 trillion to $5 trillion to the deficit over the next several years in order to cover the transition to his proposed scheme for partial privatization of Social Security.