If I meant to include you in the "Sympathy trolls" statement I would have said "you" not "they."

The last "You" is a reference to general principles, not you personally.

The Republicans have been unerringly wrong for the last eight years, they should get ignored. The same goes for the "Reagan" Democrats who have consistently voted against their interests and striven for silencing the more angry element of the Democratic Party.

The illusion of "Balance" that has overtaken America, where lies are given equal weight to truth, owes a lot to "centrists" whose ideals are not so much a matter of what they think is the right course for the future but rather in their wish to avoid conflict on major issues.

There is no "centrist" take on torture. It is either wrong, which would make you a leftwinger, or acceptable, which would make you a rightwinger.

The budget knows no centre. That big bad debt needs paying, your infrastructure needs maintaining, your public servants need paying and that means higher taxes if you are leftwing, or plugging your ears and yelling "LALALALA" if you are rightwing.

One of the issues in past letters you have brought up was that you opposed the alternative minimum tax, now how do you think America should make up the loss of revenue by doing away with that tax?

In the end nobody likes taxes, but then nobody likes any kind of a bill - and it is no good doing away with taxes if it means you end up paying someone else more for the same service.

Taxes aren't about playing Robin Hood. They are about paying the bills. If you get a service from the government you will end up paying for it, and if you want to get a decent service from decent government officials, you will have to pay for them.

As the old saying goes: If you pay peanuts you end up with monkeys. This is true in business, I see no reason why it shouldn't be true in government.

With war the middle way is the worst path you can take, it is a stalemate of neither dedicating enough forces to win and get out, or cutting your losses and getting out.

One of my major problems with Obama, that he is in essence is preaching a line on the war which amounts to maintaining a stalemate. Hillary does the same, but then the Iraq war issue with her has a lot more to do with her having argued in favour of Iraq without having read the NIE, than with her actual vote. It is a matter of judgement, which needs to be answered.

When Reagan cut taxes - he sent America into the worst deficits it had seen since WWII. He also took America from being a net creditor to being one of the world's biggest net debtors.

Bush Snr followed Reagan's frugal philosophy with pretty much the same effect.

Bill Clinton raised taxes and America started going into surplus until Bush Jnr came along, cut taxes and produced the third worst inflation adjusted deficit in America's history in 2004.

Without even counting the Iraq war in that figure. I wonder if the same allowance of "Not counting the big expensive war" was included in the prior record years, 1943 and 1945.

And of course, rather than just making America one of the world's biggest debtors he took it the whole way and made America THE biggest net debtor.

All of this while cutting corners on your infrastructure, for example, refusing to improve the levies at New Orleans (A proposal was raised in 2001, only to have the funding already going to maintaining the levies that were there slashed) or maintaining America's roads and bridges.

Cutting spending can only go so far, and has a negative effect on the quality of government's service delivery. It is not a serious option right now.

Admittedly, I got a small refund.

One of the big things you must do if you are a salaried employee is get ahold of some tax tables and check the calculation of your taxes.

You would be surprised how often it turns out that you are paying more than you really owe, simply because the salaries clerk is a moron.

My first job involved a lot of checking that sort of thing and you would be surprised how often it happens.