Democrats and Fiscal Responsibility

According to this article in the Washington Post, ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/25/AR2006122500549.html ), Democrats want to drive down the deficit, preserve middle-class tax cuts, and pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. One way they want to do this is force Bush to raise taxes to pay for his Iraq War. Budget Director Robert Portman claims that there is no need for a tax increase because the reduction in the expected size of the deficit shows that the Republican tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 are stimulating the economy. Democrats respond by claiming that the deficit is artificially low because of increased borrowing from Social Security revenues. They point out that the fastest growing part of the budget is for interest payments on the national debt.

Here's a suggestion: bring back Al Gore's "lockbox" concept. Pass a law that prohibits the use of Social Security revenues for anything other than funding Social Security and Medicare. Force this administration to show the American people how they are plundering Social Security revenues to pay for tax cuts for the rich. Such a move would seize the financial initiative.