TM,

Give me a break. There is no "government" and no "us" when it comes to money spent on public-use items. We ARE the government. Any money spent by IT, comes from US. And it doesn't matter if that money is spent on things like fire and police departments, paid for by local governments with local tax dollars, or by the Federal gov't when it comes to Federal taxes paid by US. These "expenditures" can be actual cash outlays, i.e. paying a contractor to perform a highway project, OR they can be "deals", subsidies, or tax breaks given to say, Boeing when they build a manufacturing plant, or to farmers whose prices are artificially held up by the "government".

"Big government" isn't bad when you're a wheat farmer whose government "protects" you from foregn grain suppliers, or if you're a sugar farmer who is given a direct subsidy to produce sugar. "Big government" isn't bad if you're an employee at Harley-Davidson and the "government" puts a tariff on foreign motorcycles so you can drag yourself out of bankruptcy, against free-market forces (you're a capitalist, aren't you TM?). "Big government" isn't bad when you build your house in the Mississippi floodplain and have no insurance, and the Mighty Mo floods. Then FEMA, a "big government" program steps in so you can get a low or no-interest loan to rebuild the house you should have had insured. These are all expenditures that "big government" makes to "Promote the general welfare". You remember that line, don't you.

The question is, would you rather see your tax dollars spent on rebuilding some poor woking stiff's house, or would you rather it was given in the form of selling BLM land to a mining company for $2.23/acre? Then they can mine it, sell the extracted goods, pay the officers of the company enough to retire, declare bankruptcy, and the the "big government" will pay to clean it up as a "Superfund" site.

Go ahead, vote for your GOP boys. Get your 50 bucks a month in tax cuts. Then, think about all the money GW's friends got when the surplus is gone. You can call me chicken little if you want, but we've seen the results of increased spending and decreased tax revenues before. If you don't mind leaving MORE than 5 trillion dollars of debt to your kids, then fine. You say you want less taxes, I say show me the money. Tell me specifically where the decresed spending should come from. The military, DOT, DOAg, Interior Dept, Social Security, Medicare? And then where? Military pensions cut? No drug coverage under Medicare?

It's not the size of the government that bothers me as much as the incompetence of the government. Less federal employees to Ron Reagan meant firing 60% of all inspectors of Medicare fraud, which only cost us $40 MILLION PER DAY. Now that's "Big governemt" spending from a smaller government. Ask your candidate where they stand on that issue.

"Big Government" is a GOP catch-phrase that actually means nothing. A small government can waste your tax dollars just as well as a big one. And don't try to claim the big government hasn't done anything for you lately. Until you want to pay the actual costs for your roads, utilities, your first mortgage (No FHA programs here), and everything else, don't be so quick to condemn the government as a whole.

I'm sorry this rant went on so long, but I'll tell you this; I'm finished with political discussions now. Really. Do what you will with your vote, but at least get educated about your candidates and where they stand on the issues that relate to you. Spare me the party catch phrases, and discuss the issues. Until I make upper 6 figures, the GOP has nothing to offer me, personally. I'd trade 100 bucks a month to lift the burden of debt from my kids, keep SS and MediCare solvent, and work to keep our environment from being significantly degraded. Funny that neither candidate has proposed to offer NO tax cuts, but rather increase accountability for how Fedral money is spent. I wonder why? Didn't we just start at this point.................?

I'm done now. If I see you on the river TM, we'll share a brew and talk about things we love about being on the water. Vote smart.........

Fish on........