In response to Sen. Trent Lott’s column last week, “Democrats want to raise taxes” should that not have read, “Democrats MUST reluctantly raise taxes” in order to rectify the squandering of so many of America’s resources during the last six years?

Of course Republicans don’t need tax money. They are living high on the hog by means of their credit card — the national debt, which is exploding under their less than frugal management.

Who will have to repay this debt? Our children and grandchildren, that is who will be burdened for generations to come.

Under the present Republican regime, the unnecessary tax cuts, which were enacted in recent years have benefited the wealthiest of the wealthy, thereby greatly widening the gap between the rich and the poor. These policies are also driving many middle class people into the ranks of the working poor. One must also mention the vast amount of corporate welfare doled out to the largest corporations. These moneys not collected by the government force the government into more national debt spending.

As far as the spending on the Iraq war is concerned, a war we entered on the basis of lies and half-truths and information kept from us, are we being told the truth regarding its cost?

In January 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld surmised that the total cost of the war, as estimated by the budget office, would be under $50 billion. The most current estimates of the war’s cost start with $323 billion, while Scott Wallstein, a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, puts the “global cost” at $400 billion to date with “another $500 billion possible, with most of the total borne by the United States.”

At the present time the war is costing us approximately 200 million dollars a day.

Sen. Lott and President George (I love to help my rich friends get richer) Bush will not bite the bullet and ask the taxpayers to help pay the cost of this war on a pay as we go basis. His motto is akin to that of Louis XIV of France, who said “Apres moi le deluge” which roughly translated means, let the disaster come after my reign.

Heida E. Hicks

Natchez resident