Name:   MAJ USA RET - Subject:   Anybody else notice Date:   2/19/2011 9:53:09 AM

Well, Archy, I DID ANSWER YOUR QUESTION!  But, since your superiority gets in the way of your acuity, let me be clearer:

YES, I will agree to cuts in ALL spending to 2008 levels... even if it comes to my pay and benefits, including Social Security (which I don’t get yet).  I just want the excesses of government under the Democrats reversed.

NO, I do not agree to give the government any more money (go back to the pre-Bush tax rates).  Because:

a)    The government has a history of poor stewardship of the citizens’ money.

b)   Money given to the government is taken from productive use, and used to increase the size of government.

c)    History has shown that more money in the private sector results in higher revenue for the government, even at a lower tax rate,

d)   I neither trust the government to keep promises nor the empty babbling of the lawyers and accountants who dominate Congress, and

e)    I will not increase the allowance of an insolent teenager.

Unlike you, Archy, my taxes did not seem to go down under the Bush tax cuts.  It may be that I don’t have all of those offsetting deductions to creatively apply to my simple income.  I served my country before I served myself.