I don't think there is much confusion in America about this. And by and large I think we are all on the same page as citizens. The teaparty folks I talk to, the arch-conservatives ... pretty much everyone. Even the old-school Paultards appreciate getting O2 for grandma when she's sick and aren't under any illusions what makes that happen. There sure aren't many third world nations who are able to hand a billion dollars a year over to Egypt and Israel. Obviously our taxation provides quite a lot of revenue. If we'd stop handing national wealth gratis to bankers, military contractors and mega-millionaires things actually look like they pencil pretty well.

I don't think people are really pissed with paying taxes. We're pissed about how they are squandering the billions and billions that they collect. *Nobody* supported extending tax cuts for the wealthy but the wealthy. Less that 10% of the nation were able to hold the other 90% of us "hostage" (i.e. make life politically difficult for Obama so he caves rather than take a political risk). They make the rules don't pay taxes and then raid the national coffers. It isn't a great big mystery why most people don't feel inclined to keep on paying for this bullshit.

Its difficult for me to blame people when the articulation of frustrations follows one of the lines provided for them by the media establishment. Someone is PAYING big money to advertise these easy conclusions that distract focus from the real sources of anger. When actually talking to people (if you don't take the easy bait that always gets floated first), we are all a lot closer on core stuff than this "Who's more like Hitler ... conservatives or liberals?" bullshit would lead us to believe.

Yeah, it's madness all right. But there is an old Chinese proverb: Don't play chicken with a madman.

You also have a lot of folks down here smuggling stuff back up North to avoid the taxes. It really got noticeable when the exchange rate flipped.

While we may all be idiots. Buffoons. We aren't so stupid that we can't recall the math that floated around just two months ago when the high-end tax cuts should have expired. The nation's rich could have balanced the budget by simply paying their fair share like the rest of us. But because they refuse - WE'RE the assholes for not wanting to shoulder their burdens? That's a pretty cute turnaround.

No wonder the rich don't pay taxes ... when they refuse, the liberals are apparently all hyped to make up the difference by extracting revenue from the "buffoonish" middle class. Yes, let's raise our middle-class and state taxes on families while exempting the bulk of the nation's generated wealth from collections - because it's "rich people money" that can't be touched. Real social justice, there.

I think you hit on the problem: Obama doesn't actually have any solutions of his own. But there is still no evidence that rank-and-file Americans wanted to extend the high-end tax cuts. So, let's be clear here Obama is an idiot and a buffoon. Don't blame the rest of us for that - or at lest blame the right people: Democrats worshiping at the alter of high Clintonian triangulation. They are the *only* ones supporting these crap policies beyond the traditional GOP elite who have always advanced them.

Riddle me this. You are asserting as given that Social Security needs some sort of decision "right now". Why?

If the economy never comes back, we're solvent at 100% benefit to 2037. That's American money that we invested - it's not an "entitlement" beyond the fact that we're entitled to our own damn money. There isn't really anything that needs to be discussed at this point in regards to Social Security. In fact, it is the only thing in America that actually works right now. It also has absolutely nothing to do with the deficit. Nothing. Even the catfood commission's report states this unequivocally.

What, besides Obama creating a false imperative, makes Social Security reform crucial just 24 months after an election where such a policy wasn't even discussed - let alone a course of action presented to the voters and approved?

So, after not being honest about his four year agenda during a campaign undertaken a few months ago, you support making the decision over something that impacts every single American and has been a birthright for generations in secret - never giving the voters an opportunity to participate in a single election between the time the imperative was pulled out of thin air and a solution promulgated as law?

2037 gives us two decades to make a solid plan, get public buy-in and actually vote - like we live in a democracy or something. Why do you say we are running out of time and why do decisions on social security need to be "right now?" There is no emergency.