"too many variables to be taken seriously?" Give me a freakin' break, Hank. The CBO is the non-partisan, de-facto standard. How in the world can we have a constructive conversation when numbers you don't like you just blow off with this statement? What do you recommend we use as a standard for discussion, numbers we pull out of a lotto machine?

It's not surprising that Biden and Reid voted for passage of medicare D, at least not to me. Why do you make this point?

What I said, and what I apparently have to repeat, is that *if* the GOP/Tea Party was really about reducing the deficit, they'd work on repealing Part D, not Obamacare. Because WITHOUT QUESTION it is vastly more expensive than HCR. When, oh when, will the REAL fiscal conservatives in the GOP emerge and smack down the jackassery that is running the party?

Stop the wars/troops home... No argument there!