ACTUALLY, your data reinforces my argument. The tax cuts took effect in 2003. As you so eloquently point out, that is the point at which Federal revenues began increasing.

Now that's a Laffer, who by the way is both sane and rational.

-Federal tax revenues increased every year the "Bush" tax cuts were in place. It has been pretty well proven that tax RATE cuts increase revenues. It worked when Kennedy was President and it worked when Bush was in office.

-The Clinton "surplus" was a myth. The government ran deficits those years and then "balanced" the budget by borrowing money from Social Security...a debt which will never be repaid.

Couldn't read all the article as I find it self-serving and irrelevant...much like Salon in general.

Many informed and rather apolitical writers at more erudite sites are talking about these things:

-We have committed to more debt in the years 2008-2016 than was experienced in the previous 220 years of the country's existence. Many believe that this debt combined with the unfunded entitlement liabilities, perhaps 60 trillion dollars, constitutes bankruptcy of the US government and may result in failure of the dollar.

-We have essentially no southern border meaning that anyone and anything can fairly easily enter or leave this country. This would include people, weapons, drugs, nuclear devices.

-We continue to maintain US troops in over 100 countries and to engage in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, all at great monetary and human cost.

All this while Salon prattles on about what Dick said about Obama or who gets to marry whom. One can only conclude that you and your readers are not really a serious forum for serious ideas, but rather a collection of kookie socialistas limited to re-hashing the lefty talking points.

We should have no military presence in either country. But here we go once again into a distant war with no stated objective, no definition for victory, no "exit strategy", and frankly no hope of success.

Here is what we will get though: Thousands wounded and killed, billions of borrowed dollars wasted, and even more disrespect and loss of credibility world-wide.

And this is different from Bush...how???

I have been looking diligently on Salon today for an article about Mr. O`s decision to send up to 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. Where are the peace lovers? Where is the outrage? Where is the call for an "exit strategy"?

Am I to believe it is ok for American troops to kill and die in Asia if they are commanded by a lib/soc/dem president, but it is a crime if their commander is a white Republican?

Consistency is apparently an unmanageable concept for Salon.

One of the most intelligent, relevant, and accurate articles in your history. Really, most of your stuff is superficial and uninformed...the literary equivalent of urban sprawl. But compared to the garbage you publish on things like energy, immigration, or climate, this was fact-filled and well done.

Prolonged reading of Salon and the related comments have convinced me that American socialists are young and affluent (with someone else`s money), well (perhaps over)-educated, naive, arrogant, Godless, condescending, superficial, close-minded, obscene, amoral, infanticidal, fawning, and deceived.

They have acquired facts and knowledge but haven`t parlayed any of that into wisdom. They substitute feelings for thought and emotion for competence. They take their philosophy from Hollywood starlets, open racists, and psuedo-scientists while ignoring the ancient wisdom of the Bible, the Constitution, and other treasures of mankind.

America reached its zenith and is in decline because the shiftless and the volpine now outnumber the productive and the thrifty. You folks will be in power soon and can begun to plunder and distribute America`s wealth...until it is gone.

The noble American experiment is coming to swift end. I`ve often asked in this space for some explanation of your philosophy. What is it you want to accomplish and how will you do it? Never got an answer because you don`t have one. Never mind. You have won and now instead of criticizing, you have to produce. You can`t do it and you know you can`t. You never have and you can`t start now.

I continue to be astounded by two things:

-The continued pounding on Sarah Palin. She obviously represents some sort of threat that has you folks worried.

-The total absence of anything substantive that actually promotes Obama for President. This is true, not only on Salon, but even in his own speeches. Can anyone provide information that qualifies Obama to be President? Can anyone layout a description of his proposals to deal with the financial insolvency of the US government or the invasion of the country by illegal aliens? What are the specifics of his energy program? Please no generalities about solar and wind. They simply don`t generate the BTU`s to do the job.

Salon is read by people of obvious intelligence and education. How about employing some of that to go beyond condescension to Ms Palin and unquestioning fealty to BO?