When the White House and Congress reached agreement two years ago on the Balanced Budget Act, it was hailed by some as a historic stand for fiscal prudence and tough decision-making, derided by others as unrealistic, feel-good legislation, a veritable recipe for baloney.

Guess who was right.

To stay within the rigid, self-imposed spending caps, Washington is belching smoke and polishing mirrors. Census 2000 has been declared an emergency, as have ordinary expenditures for farms and defense. Money has been “borrowed” from some programs to fund others, such as veterans’ affairs, housing, labor, health and human services and education. There is a proposal to maintain income support for Big Oil — cut-rate royalties on what it pumps out of publicly owned land — by delaying income support for the working poor.

And now, a 13th month. Senate Republican leaders are embracing a proposal by Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania to spend some $12 billion to $16 billion now and pay for it after the fiscal year 2000 starts in October, thus sidestepping this year’s spending limits. The idea is to worry about fiscal year 2001 and all the fiscal years to follow when they get here.

In polite society, this is called advance funding, but its street name is accounting gimmick. It’s not a new concept in government — Mainers well remember that deferred state-employee payday during the recession, and it’s been done before at the federal level. But this is different. The country is not in a recession, revenues are not evaporating, essential services are not endangered. These are the good times. The economy is robust, the surplus surges, there’s plenty of money. All that is lacking is political leadership with the courage to make difficult decisions, to level with public and, most unlikely of all, to just say “no” once in a while to special interests.

If nothing else, this 13th month gambit has given birth to a new parlor game — what to name it. “Shamuary” has been suggested, as have “Deceive-emeber” and “Trent.” Though a bit wordy, “Shameless Pandering to Voters in Advance of the 2000 Elections” has a nice ring to it.