It may be that it is sound to have a tax rebate in a year when we could be looking at a recession, to prime the pump a bit. Doesn't seem to be working yet, but maybe we should be patient. Bear in mind, though, that the rebates this year are only a tiny part of W's tax cut plan, which lasts more than ten years and is going to to leave huge problems for whoever comes after W. And that this tax cut is linked to new programs, like SDI, requiring enormous new expenditures.

Finally, I suppose it's a free country, so anybody is free to maintain that they are self-reliant, don't count on the government, and that everyone else should be self-reliant like them. However, they should be aware that that's just empty propaganda. We aren't living in 1770 any more. Everyone is dependent, either on the government or on a private employer, and people who brag of their "self reliance" basically mean,

"I am in a position of power in the private sector, and I want more power. The government should be so weak, that I have power of life and death over you. And then maybe I'll wring your scrawny neck, if I happen not to like your accent, or the color of your skin, or your uppity attitude."

Note also, that "self reliance," as these folks define it, means not being able to count on your neighbor, so that it is the "libertarian" States, like Nevada and Arizona, where the suicide rate is highest, and you see the most garbage, rusted-out cars, etc., piled up in people's front yards. And the world's richest nation now has crowds of homeless people begging on the streets - a problem which did not exist before Ronald Reagan (as governor of Cal.) decided that "self reliance" would be good for all the people in menatal institutions.

Oh boy!