Bruce Bartlett, a columnist and senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis, said that looking realistically at unfunded costs of both Medicare and Social Security, including the new Medicare drug benefit recently approved by Congress, leads to the "chilling conclusion" that virtually 100 percent of all federal taxes, at some not-to-distant future point, will have to be used to pay for Social Security and Medicare. "Unless there are plans to abolish the rest of the federal government, large tax increases are inevitable," he said.

Congress can't even get current budgets passed, let alone protect the economic interests of future generations. Why can't Congress come to grips with these things? We would simply not stand for Utah lawmakers running the state the way Congress runs the country. We would be up in arms. We would chase them out of office if they were so irresponsible.

But Washington is far away and easy to ignore. We get complacent and assume that somehow we'll muddle along.

Washington is all about blame and political advantage, not about finding solutions. The Democrats have certainly been

obstructionist, but if Republicans had overwhelming majorities would they take tough action and deal forthrightly with these problems? Would they vote for big budget cuts, against their own political interests? Would they vote against the political largesse that interest groups have become accustomed to? I'd like to see them get the chance, but I have my doubts.

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Republican LaVarr Webb was policy deputy to Gov. Mike Leavitt and Deseret News managing editor. He now is a political consultant and lobbyist. E-mail: lwebb@exoro.com. Democrat Frank Pignanelli is Salt Lake attorney, lobbyist and political adviser. A former candidate for Salt Lake mayor, Pignanelli served 10 years in the Utah House of Representatives, six years as House minority leader. E-mail: frankp@xmission.com.