Starving the beast

Mr. Bush and his followers are doing their best to deplete America's wealth and resources with ever-increasing tax cuts and hidden budget items -- and now they have the nerve to say, with regard to Social Security, that we're in a pickle because it will be necessary to raise taxes in the future to pay our obligations.

Republicans love to claim that the Democrats are conspiring to "obstruct" their agenda by, for example, opposing privatization of Social Security -- as though it were somehow wrong to disagree with the President and insist on preserving the system we have. Yet it's clear to any thinking American (now almost 70% of us!) that there are a variety of adjustments to choose from, any one or even combination of which would be relatively painless and would shore up the trust fund for just about ever.

If there's a conspiracy at work, it's between this administration and people like Mr. Bush's friend and adviser Grover Norquist (Americans for Tax Reform), who has said for years that the way to get rid of government was to "starve the beast."