1) What the Republican's campaigned on does equal what they got a mandate on. A mandate is overwhelming support for an issue. They got one on the war on terror and moral leadership. That's it. They didn't dominate any other issue although I believe it's clear they got a marginal vote of confidence on Iraq. One I'd guess means fix it, but we aren't greatly impressed so far.

2) I said I support incentives for small business. Nowhere did I claim those making over 200,000 were not small businessmen. I stated you did not nead to give a tax cut the really wealthy to help small business.

3) Yes we have gone over the issue of the impact of tax cuts before and you still quote meaningless true facts. You don't have to make across the board tax cuts. Your fundamental assumption is flawed.

4) You keep ignoring the fact that Bush's tax cuts were effective primarily in helping business not people. Businesses remained profitable and got off the carpet quick, but jobs growth was extremely slow compared to typical recoveries. What is your bases for claiming Bush's cuts were great when the economy recovered jobs slower? I think the rich spent their tax cuts investintg over seas. Don't have any data to back it up, but it's the only reason I can think of for such a slow recovery after what should have been a big stimulous. The middle class would have spent more of the money in the US.

People vote in elections based on the constitution. Business has pushed itself into the playing field, but has no constitutional right to be there. The needs and desires of the people should count more than business in our democracy (yadayadayada Republic Larry). An educated and skeptical electorate is important so that people can accurately determine where their interest's and business' coincide and diverge.

5) The thing that irritates all American's is abuse of power. Wealth is power. The hollywood elite abuse their power regularly and have no credibility talking about moral issues. The "conservative" business elite often use their power to hide their vices and practice predatory business ethics that do not benefit the country as a whole. The greater the gap between the top economic class and the middle class the greater the potential for abuse of power like all the recent corporate scandals.

6) Capitalism works by rewarding people for hard work and creativity. When wealth is used to stop fair competition through buyouts and bribes rather than investing in new and better ideas/technology it does not contribute to a better America or solid sustainable economic growth. Any system based on greed must have checks and balances to make sure the greed of the many works out to the benefit of all rather than the benefit of those with the most power to appease their greed. Accelerating the wealth gap is not good for America and it never has been. 10 times the take home income of the average worker ought to be adequate reward for almost any job. 100 times the average should be reseverved for near miraculous performance. 1000 times is just plain ridiculous.

Regards,
Mark