"Or why Ronald Regan - a minor actor as I recall - is revered as a great president, but who in fact dismantled the regulatory system in the US in favour of of letting the fox guard the chicken coop, leading ultimately to the Wall Street meltdown which has hurt us all."

Actually it was President Clinton who set us up for this mess. Did you hear about California's 3.3B (billion) IOU plan? jeeze ...

3 trillion dollars, is that what Iraq has cost us so far? The money went somewhere though, into gasoline, weaponry, lining of pockets, etc. Healthcare is definitely a mess, along with other programs such as home & auto insurance which many can't afford. Illegal immigration needs to be dealt with as there are so many driving uninsured and using free healthcare, while citizens can't afford (sometimes mandatory) coverage, but that's another -- way off topic -- subject.