One might wonder why we have the deficit & debt... I seem to recall a date: 9/11/2001

I suppose we could have ignored that and not declared War on Terrorists... then we would still have a surplus... we might not have a White House, or a Manhattan or a Los Angeles...or.... a government at all by now.

Then again, with oil at $51+ a barrel, the oil companies can hire on more geologists to do more explorations..

I always have a problem with this 'tax break for the rich' thing... Federal taxes are on a sliding scale - the more you make, the higher the tax bracket.. The top 1% of income earners in the United States already pay 34% of the federal taxes. The top 5% pay over half the taxes. Because they are disproportionally taxed, of course they apparently get the biggest breaks.. for instance.. let's say you're a married couple, household income of $50,000. You're going to be paying up to $6,900 in taxes. Of course, that assumes you have no deductions. Throw in some kids and other deductions and that $6,900 largely disappears.

If you make $350,000. That's 7 times as much in income. You don't pay 7 times as much in taxes for making 7 times as much in income. You pay 14 times as much in taxes! That's right, on $350,000 of income you'd pay $96,000 in federal taxes.

And of all those tax dollars, Social Security + Medicaid + Welfare + Medicare = more than 50% of the federal spending. Interest on the debt is 15% ... 15% on defense, 2% on veterans benefits, 3% on natural resources, 3% on education and 8% on Misc.

3% on natural Resources and Technology... that's where your funds are Chris... Maybe if there wasn't so much given away on entitlement/social programs there'd be more available for those grants...

Canie