Am I the only one who sees religious and political undertones in this thread? For example, veiled and not so veiled references to taxes and regulations. Anyone care to explain how a reduction in taxes is going to help pay down the National Debt? And where is all the innovation we talk about coming from? An educational system that requires a student to either come from a family that earns a whole bunch of money or go deeply into debt to get an undergraduate degree. Maybe those gifted few who could make a difference won't ever get that education. I'm not terribly concerned about climate change or the carbon footprint. Economically we have such huge problems in this country that a few degrees one way or the other shouldn't be our number one focus. We complain about our Interstate highways and major bridges that are crumbling. Our airports and public buildings need to be rebuilt. We can't fix them. We don't have the money. In Los Angeles for example, 20% of the city budget would be required to repair all of the city sidewalks. They're an embarrassment. My wife broke her shoulder 5 years ago tripping on one sidewalk that rises up about 8 inches because of tree roots. I tripped last week on another. Both were in front of my home. Mine could have been a serious injury. The city doesn't have the money to repair the sidewalks. The 20% of the city's budget that's needed to pay for all the repairs is necessary to pay the retirement benefits of the city's employees. A salary and benefits system so out of control that it boggles the imagination. The highest paid janitor in the State of California earned close to $200,000 in salary and benefits last year. His base salary, $54,000. More than $100,000 of the total was overtime. This is not an isolated example. We talk about change, but change has a price. We need to reduce the National Debt. More importantly, we need to stop pointing fingers. It's not a Liberal Democrat problem. It not a Conservative Republican problem. It's Our problem. Now we can either address it as Our problem, or we can go merrily on our way blaming the other guys. But we can't solve it, we can't even begin to solve it unless we're all willing to take some big hits. Hits to the pocket book. That's not going to come in the form of a tax reduction. And by the way, for those of you who have never looked at it beyond the impact to your own wallet, your tax reduction will not allow you to buy the diesel pusher you've been dreaming about. It will get you a few more tanks of gas. This is how it works. Based on my personal experience the last time we got a tax break. I believe it was around 2000. My wife, before we were married, got a bare bones tax reduction. Maybe $200. Of course she wasn't earning much money. My reduction was about $2,000 a year. But at the time, my income was in the top 5%. I calculated the tax savings of our companies CFO, a man I knew well. As I recall, he probably saved $15,000 a year. His income at the time, was around $500,000. Remember this was in 2000. I can't imagine the savings of a man that makes $10,000,000 a year or more. But the man who is going to get that tax break might just be able to pay cash for a new motorhome. Then again, when I think about it, maybe it won't be so great. Because I'm not sure they're paying their fair share in the first place. Based on a quote one of our Presidential candidates during a Nationally televised debate, an man that will go unnamed, "that makes me smart". That's right. The rich don't pay taxes because they're smart. They also have the best accountants to make sure they don't pay a penny too much. So I guess all of the money needed to pay down the National Debt is really going to come from the down and out, unskilled and under-employed Americans who will be paying taxes again after they get all those high paying jobs. Oh, and on the religious side. We shouldn't even be here now.