As far as I can tell taxation, in the United States, is lower than any other industrialized nation, as expressed as a percentage of the GNP, and we actually rate something like 132nd in taxation (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/tax_tax_rev_of_gdp-taxation-tax-revenue-of-gdp) At the same time we pay almost twice as much to poorly educate our children, our medical costs are the highest in the world, and we spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined (yet have been unable to take out Al Quida - 200 members at most, we are told). These are all gifts of our congress, over many years. Congress has been responsive to demands for programs, but unwilling to actually pay for such (does anybody believe that a 1.45% payroll tax would really pay for medicare?). Our taxes were low before Bush Jr but even lower afterwards. So, why in the world would we not have a budget out of balance? Why would we not have debt?

So, the Right, terribly concerned with our national debt, decided to fix that debt by reducing our taxes so that they are the some of the lowest in the world. At the same time they reduced regulation, crashed the economy, and then passed it all on to the Left to take care of. Ok, so then the left said we gotta raise income because if we do not then we cannot fix the debt without cutting all social programs, the military, etc. The Right responded with their plan to privatize both Medicare and Social Security (the SS 'trust' fund is now 17% of the entire national debt!), ie. get rid of them.

Nobody has ever claimed that gov does not make mistakes. Nobody has ever claimed that gov cannot do a better job spending our tax dollars. Anybody, however, that believes this is what its all about have to be out of their collective minds. Anybody who believes the rants of the Right, about what its about have got to be kidding! The Right, and our congress, have now cut taxes so that nothing seems to be getting paid for. The Right then says that more cuts in gov must be made as we are taxed too much and there will be no new taxes. It seems pretty clear to me that the agenda of the Right is NOT the debt. I, for one, firmly believe that the Right wants this nation to stop spending money, nothing more, nothing less. Not raising the debt accomplishes this. I, therefore, believe this is their goal - nothing less, nothing more.

We have another 5 days and then we will be forced to live on our existing income. The Right has been very clear about this - nothing will happen, except that gov will no longer be spending money it does not have. We will be returned to a time of full employment, little or no taxes, and freedom. I have also found it interesting that the Right, in its wisdom and understanding of economics, have dismissed any thought that bad things are to happen. Well, in 5 days we see. We are going to have the opportunity to see who is right. This is not all bad! Finally! Either the Right is dead wrong and things are going to get a lot worse, or they are right. In any case it will be interesting? Unfortunately, if the Right is wrong we will ALL get to deal with it and its not going to be real entertaining.

Remember, Bush got the ball moving with huge tax reductions and two unpaid wars and the medicare drug option. Then we spent trillions bailing out, and making richer, the very criminals that were responsible for the economic downturn whilst our president repeatably said that his administration would not deal with these same criminals because that was all in the past. Then we spent almost another trillion on a stimulus which was really just maintenance for the states. Then our electorate decided to elect those from the Right, who would carry on the same policies that brought us down in the first place (lower taxes no regulation)! We seem to be on a roll of ignorance, failure, mistakes, hot air and baloney. Why in the world would anybody think that we are going to change when, with a little more politics, and stupidity, we can get that unemployment rate up to 20%, or even 30%!