Robert,

I know you are a Repub, but we need to have a chat about your facts. I suppose everything is relative but lets put some of your claims into the proper perspective.

You said;

 I seem to recall a couple of years ago, the Republicans had done such a poor job that the country demanded change... do you think any of us want to go back to what he had then?

Here is the US GDP from 2000-2008

Year GDP-US - 
2000 9951.5 0.00 
2001 10286.2 0.00 
2002 10642.3 0.00 
2003 11142.1 0.00 
2004 11867.8 0.00 
2005 12638.4 0.00 
2006 13398.9 0.00 
2007 14077.6 0.00 
2008 14441.4 0.00

The poor job you speak of seems misplaced. Also, I as well as many on this forum never made so much money in our lives from 2001-2008. If memory serves the 2007 congressional session brought a change to the makeup, Democrats took control.

You said;

Just before Ronald Reagan took office, the national debt was just under $998 Billion.  When he left it was over $2.6 Trillion.

You are also discounting the fact he brought to end a 40 year old cold war. What is a good price tag to end hostilities between two nuclear super-powers?

You said;

When Bill Clinton's term was over the national debt had risen to about $5.7 Trillion, but he left us with a surplus and we could have begun paying it down.

I know you don't need a civics lesson Robert but I'll remind you congress sets the budget, not the President. Who was the majority in the ONLY 2 years Clinton had a balanced budget? Yep, Republicans. His prior six years (Democrat controled) were all deficits.

You said;

We had massive bank failures, some of the largest corporate bankruptcies in our history, and a housing market that lost $3.3 Trillion in 2008 under George Bush. 

Well, we can thank the Community Reinvestment Act for the housing debacle. You know, the one that forced banks to lend to clients they would not otherwise find credit-worthy. Who was President when the CRA was passed? Oh, yeah... slick Willy and his Cigar box. Yes, the same people that brought you the only impeached President gave you the sub-prime lending market, and made it MANDITORY!

As far as Howard Gleckman goes Robert, he's a great tax guy, probably one of the foremost scholars, but the problem remains he has an agenda for the elderly. His books prove it. It's a scare tactic at best. I find myself giving less credence to scholars and more to the practical application, theory is nice, but like a-holes, everyone's got one. According to Gleckman these are the only things in our budget he could think of? How about the defense budget? How about foreign aid? How about discretionary spending? His view is biased and extreme.

Numbers are great Robert, but taken in the wrong perspective they can be used to prove any point. Poverty rose.... so what's the population growth in the US? 1.1% poverty growth compared to what increase in population and what was the base and how were those figures obtained? 1.1% in any scientific study falls within any respectable margin or error. Considering how much job loss and foreclosures and whatnot, a 1.1% poverty "explosion" isn't quite shocking me. We are talking about an extra 3 million people. I know it's a high number, but given the epic catastrophie everyone claims there was, I don't see the problem.

As far as trickle down, you can voice your opinion as much as you want, but you cannot deny imperical data and the facts as provided by the internal Revenue Service. So let me ask you this hypothetical, If I own a company that employs 50 people and health care just passed and now you are going to increase my taxes a good 15-20 %, what is the likeliness of me closing my business or moving it offshore?

Answer: probably 80% that I would simply move it off-shore. The rich already pay the lion's share of taxes, now you think it's a good idea to tax them more? I can't possibly think of any better way to piss off a person than that. I would simply move to my villa in St. Barts and renouce my citizenship.

Lastly, as far as Obama's plan seems to be working..... what part is working exactly? Seen the price of gold lately? Gold is an indicator of our dollar's health, notice anything odd?