Mike Nichols: It's time for a little honesty about who will pay the bill

Mike Nichols in Madison at the State House noting the protesters' use of kids as props,

...who's gonna pay?

The answers varied a little. Defense should be cut at the national level, said one, and our state prison system should be reformed.

Taxes should go up was a common answer. Of course, taxes could go up and up and up and still not cover the debt we've already accumulated and the spending levels we're used to.

There were a lot of lockstep chants at the protest and signs that said stuff like "Welcome to Cairo;" not a lot of real solutions. For years, we've preferred to pass our solutions 20 or 30 years down the road.

Who's gonna pay?

I wish that tall guy in the red jacket had put that on the sign he attached to his child - maybe the answer, too. I wish that instead of using their children as props, the parents would just fess up and be honest with their kids and say, "Who's gonna pay? You are."