This amazing Diary promted me to share with the community my arguementmade in the last few weeks to a dozen or so Republicans I came across while Canvassing afluent West Houston for Obama's Campaign... this is an arguement honed in driveways with voters... one that works, one that's losely based upon the great work by Bonddad, Jerome and other titans on our website, an arguement the DNC should "Thinktank" and turn into talking points and soundbites... it's simple, clear, and its a winner.

Read it and weep, fellow Democrats:
Rasmussen Generic Congressional Ballot Poll. Only 44% to 40% these days.

Of course, the overall impression of Congress has been dismally low for months, hovering below George W Bush in the mid-teens. The reasons for that are fairly obvious: Congress won't stop a war that 65% of the nation wants ended; it's wasting a lot of time on steroid use in baseball; it won't vigorously launch investigations into the administration's culture of corruption; it seems ineffective on anything else that matters. But most of this wouldn't account for the narrowing of the Democratic lead, so let's investigate possible reasons for that, below the fold.

Forget timelines and drawdowns and defunding the troops. The answer to getting the troops out of Iraq and remaining in the political sunshine is PAYGO = Pay As You Go.

We are paying in lives on a daily basis, but that doesn't seem to deter war lovers. I think MONEYis how you get the attention of fencesitters on the republican side. Voices will be raised if IRAQ is equated with TAXES.

We've got to speak their language.

Everybody likes to talk about programs and policies, the government talks about budgets. That is one reason why I enjoy reading Jerome A Paris on 'Energizing America'

No money, no effective policies and programs.

NO money, NO effective policies and programs.

Now somebody already attached to the government teat will resist being detached. That 'detachment resistance' is the source of gridlock in Washington as the potential detachees hire lobbyists and start waving money around in suitcasefulls to politicians with plum committee assignments.

Anybody besides me noticed that all the headlines are pretty much on prune resolutions and very little on actual changes to anything beyond the trivial periphery of our nation's biggest problems?

So we have to think of ways to give some 'new teat' offering to those who are going to have their bout of 'teat security' threatened.

People are dying in war, murder by spreadsheet, and of just plain neglect, our money is being debased, our savings are being taken.

We have to change and we have to 'PayGo' so let's put our thinking caps on after the jump...

How can Congress stop the unwarranted escalation of troops in Iraq other than the by the straight-forward cutting of funds for our troops?

And perhaps more importantly, how do we put the skids on the impending threat of yet another unnecessary pre-emptive war in Iran?

Make Bush put his money where his mouth is.  An Iraq War Tax.  The house has passed pay as you go, or PayGo.  But it hasn't been approved by the Senate.  When it is approved and put into law, then INCREASES in spending MUST be accompanied by EITHER cutting spending in other programs OR INCREASING taxes.  No other way.  A 10 % surcharge on your federal income tax would probably to this.  If you paid 4,000 federal income tax, then add a 10 % tax surcharge, or 400, to find the Iraq War.

One of the exciting things about the prospect of having a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, is their pledge to swiftly restore the fiscally responsible PAYGO budget rules. Regardless of the opposition's rhetoric, there are few mechanisms that worked so well to promote fiscal responsibility in our legislation.