I\’m just saying that neither party is blameless in this. I can slap around both parties far too easily.

The Dems and the Reps are so distracted blaming each other they never take a moment to examine their own part in this fiasco. Personal responsibility? What’s that? Pointing the finger is much easier.

People are so focused on Rep / Dem jingoistic rhetoric they never look at what is actually happening and that is by design rather than chance. The Reps cater to the 5% on the far Right and the Dems cater to the 5% on the far Left then they present this disparity to the rest of us so we never find equilibrium.

Look at the tickets for the past 50 years and especially the past 25. Kennedy / Nixon is a choice. McCain / Obama is a punch line, though admittedly not quite so humorous as Baby Bush / Robo Gore or the sequel with Robo Kerry.

I am not suggesting some New World Order conspiracy mostly because nothing quite so covert or dramatic is necessary. It does not matter if the candidate is red or blue, his real allegiance is to green so all you have to do is follow the money.

As much as Big Business talks about the “free market” they have absolutely no desire to compete. They want to dominate the market and make as much money as possible. If they cannot do it via an actual monopoly due to anti-trust they will do it via a virtual monopoly that skirts the laws. In many cases corporations will donate large sums of money to both sides of the isle so it does not matter which candidate wins, both will be in their debt.

Both sides of the isle are prostitutes serving the same Johns, the only difference is what color dress they wear.

Reagan is the patron saint of conservatism; it’s rare to find any Republican brave enough to criticize him. Reagan was perhaps the best president libertarians/ small government conservatives could ever hope for. As Nathaniel Branden said “I did not expect [Reagan] to be John Galt. I did not expect him to be Ayn Rand. I expected him to be a hell of a lot better than everyone else, and he was.”

Indeed, President Reagan did do some wonderful things; the largest tax cuts in American history, the end of the Cold War, and under his leadership the country enjoyed its longest period of peaceful economic growth.

Reagan was, however, no free trader, he raised tariffs and import quotas, and, as you mentioned, sign Simpson-Mazzoli into law.

As for Mr. Reagan’s predecessor, the only reason deficits remained virtually unchanged during his four long years in the oval office was because he and his administration were, up until January 20, 2009, the most incompetent bunch of economic illiterates to ever occupy Washington. Carter imposed Soviet style price controls on gasoline, thus contributing significantly to the 1979 oil crisis. He had the audacity to tell Americans to turn off their Christmas lights to conserve energy. His policies produced double digit inflation while simultaneously causing soaring unemployment rates. One can make an argument that President Carter is the father of stagflation.

Bush I was the first of the fleas on the Reagan dog. Retiring Justice David Souter is testament to his political ideology.

Bush the Lesser was a social conservative but a fiscal socialist as the last few months of his presidency bluntly demonstrated.

As for gay marriage, I could care less what individuals choose to do. The Left and the media, often one in the same, continue to make it a paramount issue for political purposes and many people seem to care more about gay marriage than they do about economic freedom. That is the sad point I was trying to make. Gay marriage is an issue where the Constitution is silent, so as per the Constitution it should be “reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

I am too tired right now to even address Slick Willy.

I am no fan of the Dems but the deficit under Carter was essentially the same from the time he took office until Reagan took over and Uncle Ronny doubled it. Daddy Bush tanked the economy by violating his – Read my lips, no new taxes – pledge. In the eight years Bill the Cat was in office the Deficit was once again brought under control until Baby Bush showed up and harvested the worst parts of the two previous Republican administrations by spending like Reagan and tanking the economy like Dear Old Dad.

It was under Reagan that Simpson-Mazzoli was passed in no small part due to his support and Baby Bush did his utter best to arm twist the Republicans into passing McCain-Kennedy. If it were not for Congressional Republicans standing up to pressure from the Baby Bush / Vicenete Fox Blanca Casa then Amnesty Part II would have passed. You may remember W saying, “I’ll see you at the bill signing.” Fortunately he was as wrong about that forecast as he was about WMD’s in Iraq.

Reagan and the two King Georges were social conservatives but when it came to their fiscal beliefs they spent far more liberally than the Democrats so let us not get distracted by the political rhetoric. Both parties suck.

Lastly, I don’t understand what gays getting married has to do with economics? Personally I really don’t care if someone wants to marry a particularly well endowed garden gnome much less someone of the same sex and I have yet to hear anyone offer an argument as to why I should. It seems to be a canard both parties have latched onto in an effort to distract us from real issues.