By approving Mayor Jerry Sanders&rsquo; proposal to trim spending by $179 million over the next 18 months, the San Diego City Council has eased the budget crisis. But we&rsquo;re troubled by the increasingly common view that the sharp economic downturn is now the main reason for the city&rsquo;s fiscal woes &ndash; not a long history of bad decisions, starting with the 1996 and 2002 votes to intentionally underfund the pension system. Unfortunately, the mayor &ndash; whose budget leadership we have often praised &ndash; also has taken to suggesting the recession is problem No. 1.