“The OC”

BUT WHO’S COUNTING?

And just to keep you up to date, here was the National Debt as of last Thursday: $6,810,434,342,743.91. Don’t be distracted by the 91 cents – it’s the $6.8 trillion that we need to focus on. And the $582 billion by which it was grown so far this fiscal year. (To a government accountant, New Year’s Eve falls on September 30. October 1 is the start of 2004 – Happy New Year!) Note that, just as the Orange County government is completely controlled by Republicans, so is the United States government. Are we sure it was wise to make such massive tax cuts for the top 1% (those who earn, last I saw, $373,000 a year or more)? In this extraordinary time of war, reservists have been asked to leave their families for a year, risk – and in all too many cases lose – their lives and limbs . . . jobs have been lost, health care has gone unattended, veterans’ benefits scaled back, after-school programs pinched . . . and the top 1% have been asked to sacrifice nothing. Quite the opposite. They have been asked to accept hundreds of billions of dollars in tax relief that many of them did not ask for and none of them need. It is so staggeringly wrong-headed, people can’t imagine it can be this simple. But it is this simple.

WE PAY YOU?

Geoffrey Falk: ‘Maybe I missed something – but we are ‘paying you?’ I feel kind of bad since I just dial up your web page and get to read it for free!’

☞ I’m not certain, but I think Mr. Hoffer was joking.

Tomorrow: 9/11