Kendall, you are certainly a more talented writer than I am. I could never imagine shifting a discussion from health care to chinese clothing in the space of two consecutive sentences. I don't know what the use of cheap labor has to do with U.S. health care, so I'm not sure what to reply with. I'll see what I can do...

My first question regarding your last post is, what did you make cuts in when the money wasn't coming in? Did you go knocking on doors asking for more money, handing out your own personal W-2 forms, using deadly weapons to accomplish your mission? An absurd question, I know, but that's exactly what the government does when it needs cash. Don't you think government should be expected to make choices on where they spend the money we give them, just like we must make choices on where to spend the money we earn?

Here's where I'd make the cuts, since you asked:

1. I'd offer every person the right to invest 15% of their money into an account that would be theirs, not the governments. An account that could be inherited by their family if they die, not taken back by the government. That would be the same 15% that now goes into Social Security (basically a racist*, government mandated insurance scam that would be illegal if any private citizen tried to form a company that offered the same--The last generation that pays in always gets screwed, any money left in the plan at your time of death goes back to the government, and rates and retirement age must continually increase for the plan to remain solvent. It's called a Pyramid Scheme, and it's illegal.)

*Blacks don't live as long as whites, on average. They still pay the same amount into Social Security, but stay around fewer years to collect. This results in a basic transfer of funds from blacks to whites. This is the biggest proof that it's about money and power when it comes to big government proponents, not equality of the races.

2. I would eliminate useless subsidies. When Ted Turner gets over $100,000 in farm subsidies in the last 5 years, something is wrong. There is no need to pay a farmer not to grow a crop. There is no need to pay for useless research projects we all hear about (Why does hot pizza burn the roof of your mouth? The government spent some of MY money to pay a college to figure it out.)

3. Streamline military spending. This is a biggie. Eliminating the good ol' boy network in D.C. that has zero accountability and tosses money around at every new technology down the pike would save this country untold amounts of money. Eisenhower warned us of the dangers of a military-industrial complex back in the 50's, and while it's gotten a little better than the days of $1,000 hammers, there still needs to be more accountability. That's not to say I want to cut the size of our military, just the amount of money that military contractors are able to earn by naming their price on anything and everything.

4. Continue to lower taxes. Every time in the history of our country that taxes have been lowered during times of economic hardship, government revenues have increased! Reagan doubled revenues to the government within 6 years after his 1982 tax cut! Even Kennedy stood by this concept--Lowering taxes increases economic growth for both the government and private sector.

5. Term limits. The president has one, why not congress? Two terms and you're out. Less worries about maintaining power by promising everything to everyone, since each member would already know that they'll be returning to a real job within a decade. Less promises to keep = Less money to collect from the people to keep them.

There are plenty more, but I'll save them for another day. That should give everyone enough ideas to either slam or agree with, or both. Hope everybody has a great weekend!

LS