Every quarter, "experts" are shocked, puzzled, surprised, etc. because the actual numbers are so much better than their gleeful doom and gloom predictions. Whatever Bush is doing, it's working. I just hope he has the strength to stay the course.

What if some writers at the MSM told their readers the truth...? What an obvious, sophomoric smokescreen. This could have been written by Scrapleface.

the article is very even handed; the democrat "truths" come in the second half.

imagine if the u.s. had a program whereby any of our allies could pay us 1% of their gdp in exchange for out guranteeing their protection from nasty neighbors. a kind of foreign legion...

Also, the Clinton years included the dot-com bubble, which produced inflated growth and so skews the numbers - plus, he had an opposition house and didn't get the spending programs he wanted, like health care. If we are going to recreate him as a pro-business conservative, what economic policy of his was directly responsible for reducing government spending and increasing american output? I really do think he benefited from events outside of his control.

2nd also; I've always thought of immigration as our tax on the world. Most of their best and brightest come through our graduate programs, and many stay put - silicon valley is full of IIT graduates (India Institute of Technology; think Harvard or MIT, but 10x more competitive) and it doesn't get much better than that. More would stay if work visas were easier to get. Why tax their output in their homelands when they can integrate here and add to our own directly?

Mike B is right about immigration being a tax on the rest of the world. It amounts to an expropriation of human capital on a grand scale. So it has in the 1870's and 1900's when Italy and Poland were raided for my forebears and so it is today. We are getting people in their peak productive years, educated and eager to work. Now if only we could figure out some way to con the rest of the world to take back our real wretched refuse.

Yes, OJ, we have done it on the cheap. But it is past time to start spending some money, which we will have to raise taxes to do. Fortunately, we can raise the gas tax by $4/gal to cover the needed expansion of our armed forces and increased spending on highways and similar infra-structure.

Lou: I'd offer Castro five of our moonbats for every one of his jailed dissidents, on condition that he can't send them back.

A little off-topic, but...what is up with all these liberals who share my initials? Matthew Miller, Michael Moore, Mary McGrory, Marianne Means -- the only rightist in the bunch is Michelle Malkin. And I'm probably omitting someone.

Furthermore, my family name is Murphy and every one of the remaining four members of my family has a first name beginning with "M". And I went to a high school with the initials "MM", which is prominently displayed on school hats and football helmets. Also, M&M's are some of my favorite candy.

Mike Morley, your thoughts?

unbelievable. visiting this blog is truly an exercise in interstellar, cross-dimensional travel:

oj:
"We've managed to wage a global war and change a series of regimes without even increasing our federal spending." huh? this administration has taken federal spending to levels never seen. just because the president doesn't put it in the budget doesn't mean the money's not being spent, or have you ever heard of a corporation named enron? our federal government is currently spending money that might be earned two generations down the line, assuming we're not actually living in the rev. lahaye's end times.

cjm:
"imagine if the u.s. had a program whereby any of our allies could pay us 1% of their gdp in exchange for out [sic] guranteeing their protection from nasty neighbors." last i checked, uncle sam and kilroy haven't been able to guarantee the protection of too many people in either iraq or afghanistan. perhaps you are referring to the last great american military victory, wherein we secured the protection of the island of granada for multinational resort developers against the evil designs of soviet-trained communists.

lonbud:

Take it up with Matt Miller and the times, those damned Bush apologists...

yeah, well, you're sniffing at some of the stink, there, oj. if we had anything resembling an independent 3rd estate in this country, we'd have managed to save ourselves a couple hundred billion dollars, and over 1600 of our sons' & daughters'lives by putting GWB and Uncle Dick behind bars (where they belong) about 3 years ago.

we are protecting the people of iraq from saddam, and the people of afghanistan from the taliban.

sorry your side is losing so badly, but that is what losers do.

2008 is going to be a real bitch for you puds, after condi and ??? win a 3rd consecutive term for the only american politcal party -- the GOP.

i am touched by your concern for our troops, how has this good will translated into good acts ?

Matt:

You forgot Marla Mapes, Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Manson, Mary Martin and Mighty Mouse.

I went to H.S. w/a Mark Morgan and to college w/a Mike Miller.

lonbud:

Ha! Are you serious? What makes you think anything was going to stop George Bush from taking out Saddam?

earth to cjm: protecting the iraqi people from saddam by obliterating their country's infrastructure and co-opting the revenue from their only natural resource, in addition to exposing them to daily suicide bombings and an endless insurgency is akin to protecting oneself from frostbite by leaping into a pool of hot lava.

as to the job we've done protecting the afghanis from the taliban, see the above.

what do i do in the way of "good acts" to atone for the ruthlessness of my country's "elected" leaders? well, for one, i do a lot of praying, but i also work with pre-school age children and support them in their need for play and exploration and unfettered, non-judgmental experience of themselves and the world they live in. that, in the hope they may grow into adults with the capacity to reason for themselves and a willingness to create peace in their world -as opposed to the adults who presently react to the bullhorning messages of fear that leave you under the mistaken impression that your side is winning anything.

Just to head this one off at the pass, as God is my witness, "lonbud" is not a creation of Brothers Judd Enterprises and is not a parody we cooked up to make fun of the Left.

he's really entertaining, however he was delivered here. i would love it if he would just drop all the rhetoric and posturing and just tell me what led him to this tortured state.

i don't want to convert him or anything, and he certainly isn't going to affect my worldview, but there is still a lot i could learn from him if he would just start being honest and open. his cowardice is palpable.

cowardice seems unfair. Rather he's limited to his talking points.

That horse has left the barn, oj. We know he's really The Wife.

yeah, well, as my momma used to say, "it's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye!"

enjoy your merry mirth in the comfortable embrace of the 'gator's arms and we'll see who's laughing when the first suicide bombers hit a bus stop or a starbucks near you.

That's a Blue America problem.

that remains to be seen.

I'm just happy we're finally "co-opting the revenue" from Iraq's oil sales.

Last I heard we were paying for everything ourselves. 'Bout time those Iraqis started paying their own way.

I say we cut out the middle man, and build a trans-Syrian/Mediterranean/Atlantic pipeline for our booty. Course we'll have to take-over Syria first, bummer.

...said the drunken-hearted boy.

Dave W:

I knew I left some people out.

And Mary Matalin! My only defense for not mentioning her is that her name conjures up images of James Carville, which conjures up images of this.

Carville? You mean Nosferatu? Do mirrors even reflect his image?

Mikey:

Yes, those that don't shatter on sight.