President Bush told America tonight that he would follow through with an ambitious agenda to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina rebuild their homes and lives. But can he really deliver all that he has promised? Carl Hulse sheds some light on this question in tomorrow's issue of The New York Times.

The drive to pour tens of billions of federal dollars into rebuilding the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast is widening a fissure among Republicans over fiscal policy, with more of them expressing worry about unbridled spending.

On Thursday, even before President Bush promised that "federal funds will cover the great majority of the costs of repairing public infrastructure in the disaster zone," fiscal conservatives from the House and Senate joined budget watchdog groups in demanding that the administration be judicious in asking for taxpayer dollars.

One fiscal conservative, Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, said Thursday, "I don't believe that everything that should happen in Louisiana should be paid for by the rest of the country. I believe there are certain responsibilities that are due the people of Louisiana."

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Despite those comments, many Republicans are increasingly edgy about the White House's push for a potentially open-ended recovery budget, worried that the president - in trying to regroup politically - was making expensive promises they would have to keep.

"We are not sure he knows what he is getting into," said one senior House Republican official who requested anonymity because of the potential consequences of publicly criticizing the administration.

It sounds like President Bush needs to spend a little more time trying to convince members of his own party of the importance of a strong federal response to Katrina before he continues to make such large budgetary promises -- especially given the fact that the Congressional GOP is loath to raise taxes to balance a budget (let alone lower a deficit).

Intra-party squabbles aside, it's time for America to make some serious choices. Obviously, the President has some ambitious goals for rebuilding the Gulf Coast, whether you agree with them or not. But these items will cost tens or hundreds of billions of dollars that will be paid for by borrowing from Chinese and Japanese creditors.

While it is imperative that every necessary cent is spent on allaying the problems caused by Katrina, perhaps its time for President Bush to allow all Americans to make a collective sacrifice by instituting a short-term tax increase. It need not be massive. But Americans appear ready to make the sacrifice and should be allowed to do so.