I know this is getting off topic, but I have to respond to Chris' statement that "Congress needs to undo the tax cuts."

My response is: Are you crazy? That's the typical stick-it-to-the-rich mentality. I'm not rich and those tax cuts have certainly helped me as I am trying to save for retirement. You're married -- do you want the marriage penalty tax back? Personally, I don't -- I like having a 10% deduction for two-earner couples. Also, my husband and I are middle class, not rich, but doing away with the tax cuts will increase our tax liability from 25% to 31%. (With Bush's tax cut system, a married couple filing jointly is in the 25% bracket if they make between $45K to $166K. With the old system, you were in the 31% tax bracket if you made between $109K to $166K. A lot of two-earner couples easily make at least $109K nowadays. To me, that's not rich.)

Also, the tax cuts were put into place after 9/11 to jump-start the economy which took a hit after the attack. Unemployment was rising, bankruptcies were rising, manufacturing had slowed down, as had economic growth altogether. By putting the tax cuts in place and making the tax code more fair, it enabled people to invest and spend more. The economy has recovered from post 9/11 days, unemployment is down, interest rates are at low levels, tax revenues are up (in spite of tax cuts), the stock market is doing well. Why on earth would you want to reverse this positive trend?

IMO, the problem lies in runaway spending. When you have a Congress that approves an UNFUNDED, mandated bill for prescription drugs for seniors (and Bush couldn't find his veto pen for this one as he hasn't for so many other spending bills), then you have a federally mandated program in place that will cost the taxpayers billions and billions of dollars and with no plan for how to pay for it. Add to that the way Social Security recipients get what amounts to 1%+ increase in their benefit checks each year, over and above the CPI index, because their pay is tied to the average wage index, not to the rate of inflation. (I am a senior citizen who will be on Social Security within a year or two, but it is a pyramid scheme that cannot continue like it is forever. And, to Bush's credit, he gave an all-out effort to fix Social Security, but Congress is too cowardly to do anything about it because the "gray"-lobby and AARP are just too influential.) When you have pork that is added onto spending bills so that senators and representatives can make their constituents happy so that they will vote for them again, then you've got wasted spending.

So, Chris, I propose that we attack runaway spending in Congress, but leave the tax cuts in place. And that's my rant for the day.

Barbara