Srandl - I commend you for a thoughtful reply without your normal rhetoric. I truly do.

I wish we could have more discussions like this here although I doubt any minds would ever be changed one way or another. It's just nice to have a civil discourse without invoking "enemies within" or "idiots within." I promise not to ever say the latter if you promise not to say the former.

History will be the final judge of Ronald Reagan, and even then historians will have their own opinions. A leader yes, but not universally liked that's for sure. He raised the debt of this country tremendously, and then raised taxes to cut the deficits. He never really cut government spending, just lowered taxes and then raised them later. We had a very severe S&L crisis under his watch, and bailed out many of the bankers and their cronies. I believe his administration was the most corrupt in history based on felony convictions, etc.

During the discussions of current budget woes, there will be some honest differences in opinions on how to solve them. Raising taxes on the richest of us is certainly an option.

I happen to give credit to the Tea Party for some of their ideas especially cutting corporate welfare and agricultural subsidies. I don't agree on their views on privatization of Social Security or some of the other government run programs.

And don't forget the big elephant in the room - defense spending. Surely there is room to cut there given that we spend more than almost all countries combined. Time to bring our troops home. How about a 15% cut in defense spending?