congress spends the money and approves the deficit spending so both sides can get us into trouble. I actually had some real hope when it looked like the debt was being paid off and when all those dot.com companies were giving me lots of business and spending like drunken sailors...then it turned out that they were spending all that venture capital on fluff and not on substance so in the blink of an eye most of them are out of business. We suffered a big downturn and then 9/11....not hard to see why the hard times.

And Stlhead ...I spent less last year on day to day things but invested a bunch for the long term. This year is turning out to be a good one financially