IT HAS BECOME accepted economic wisdom that the only way to get control over America’s looming budget deficits is to “reform entitlements.”

The accepted wisdom is wrong.

Republicans trot out federal budget data showing a 32% increase in direct payments to individuals since the start of 2009, including food stamps, unemployment insurance, worker’s compensation and subsidized housing.

But these expenditures are temporary. They’ve resulted from the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression, which forced many families to turn