"Why won't Republicans accept their share of responsibility," the guest commentary published Feb. 27, raises valid points. The GOP shouldn't be so quick to forget them. However, the commentary neglected to say what happened before the last Republican takeover and what actually occurred.

And it erred on what caused the economic collapse. There's a difference between the absence of regulation and ignoring fraud. Imagine if your car insurance company sold you a card for $100, but you and the insurance company knew that its only purpose was for show, that no claims would be paid. That's what happened with derivatives. All the experts and the cops at the Securities and Exchange Commission were warned.

Democrats and Republicans subsidized loans that people otherwise couldn't afford, then allowed banks to sell the paper to the government. The too-big-to-fails knew that people couldn't afford these homes, and they knew that Uncle Sam would be holding the bag. Home prices and the value of mortgage-backed securities were wholly disconnected from market fundamentals. The push was bipartisan, and it created a bubble. It was fundamentally no different than tulips from Holland and tech stocks. Each time these types of things crashed, Republicans and Democrats demanded that the bubble be inflated.

If we include long-term liabilities, which we should, there was no budget surplus during the Clinton years. Even then and before, Democrats and Republicans were raiding the lock box. What other taxes and the lock box couldn't pay for to police the world and run a welfare state they borrowed and had the Federal Reserve print.

To create the illusion of sound budgets and economic growth, a bipartisan effort was made to change the data models for the desired result. These practices go back to Lyndon Johnson. That can only destroy wealth to a certain point, and in truth, we're paying for the last 40 years. It's intellectually dishonest to limit our discussion to Bush and Clinton.

I agree that tax cuts aren't a bad idea, but they need to come with spending cuts. Otherwise, we guarantee that taxes will be much higher in the future. In practice, we've seen bipartisan opposition to net spending cuts of any kind. Should we fail to recognize this and accept the type of Republican amnesia that the editorial correctly identifies, spending, taxes and inflation will grow out of control within the next four years.

I agree that there is no easy solution. However, we need to recognize our limits, something Democrats have failed to do. Everything government does requires that it take from us first. We can't sustain additional taxes or inflation. We can't borrow more money without the savings and productivity to do so. Any solution that goes to more taxes, spending and borrowing will fail. The same is true for any solution that doesn't remove the very mechanisms of endless government expansion.

For the above reasons and limitations, Medicare and Social Security taxes should no longer be deducted from paychecks, nor should Social Security benefits be taxed. Instead, this money should be collected through a sales tax, which will increase or decrease based on actuarial projections. This tax should immediately go into an actual lock box, an escrow account that Congress can't touch.

We need to repeal the 16th amendment and the income tax. We need to apportion taxes among the several states. This simple process would remove the special interests that lobby Congress to expand government or harm their competition. Under apportionment, Congress would send each state a bill based on its population, and that state would raise the money. By forcing Congress to renew this process every two years, we impose fiscal restraint, stop punishing productivity and rid ourselves of an annual $300 billion in compliance costs.

These changes aren't a panacea by any means, but they provide some progress on every front. They will prevent the moral hazard that brought our economy down while freeing the resources we need to recover. We may not agree on everything, but we can all agree on a fundamental reality. Financial games and the means to play them must stop.

Dan Reale is a Libertarian candidate for Congress in the 2nd District. Contact him at danreale@realedealforcongress.com.