Fiscal Child Abuse

This piece looks at America's future economic straits through the views of various Twin Cities economists. They all essentially agree that there's no way the government can pay for everything it's trying to do.

Especially since economists tend to be fairly conservative, that conclusion alone makes the piece worth reading in and of itself. But the last paragraph is really the payoff. In it, one economist advocates describing the Republicans' borrow-and-spend policies as "fiscal child abuse," because it's today's kids who are going to have to work off our trillions in national debt.

This is exactly the kind of front-loaded term that Democrats and liberals need to use incessantly over the next two and four years, a sharp rhetorical weapon for sticking it to the Right. I know I'll be dropping this one into conversation from now till 2008.