Six months ago, states were predicting balanced budgets and surpluses. Virtually all had surpluses at the end of fiscal year 2007 and more than half had ending balances equaling at least 10 percent of their general funds. Governors and legislatures were happily talking about property tax relief and expanding medical coverage to the uninsured.

I wrote a somewhat provocative op ed in yesterday's New York Times that sparked a lot of feedback. My modest proposal was to accelerate the expiration of the Bush tax cuts by two years—to 2009. I said that doing so would generate a burst of economic activity in 2008 while reducing the budget deficit, a rare feature for a stimulus.