Someone's worried:

Until Thursday, administration officials and many Republican lawmakers had made it clear that making Mr. Bush’s tax cuts permanent would be a priority for his last year in office. Those cuts include rate reductions for people at every income level and sharply lower tax rates on investment income.

Democratic leaders have been adamantly opposed to any such move, and most of the Democratic presidential candidates have called for rolling back the tax cuts at least for families that earn more than about $200,000 a year. But Democrats had worried that Republicans might try to hold a stimulus bill hostage to their demands on the Bush tax cuts.

Mr. Fratto, the president’s deputy press secretary, said Mr. Bush was as determined as ever to make his tax cuts permanent before he leaves office. But he said the issue of a short-term stimulus is a separate matter.

“The president supports a permanent extension of his tax cuts, and he supports a short-term growth package, but they are separate,” Mr. Fratto said.

Untethering tax cuts from a potential stimulus package is a big move for the evil people in the White House, which means that they're seriously, seriously worried.

And if they're that worried, that probably means that we have a hell of a recession coming.

MORE: DeLong tries to assess if we're in a recession now. Answer? He doesn't know.