The last thing I would ever do
"just for fun" is to go look at our Federal budget.

Tom, I'm basically happy with the way things are going, I see potential problems and possible disasters, but usually there's someone very unhappy like you in the background pulling the strings to help bring them along. In either case, there's not much I can do it about it, either to make it happen or stop it from happening.

I know these things you continuously bring up are really important to you, but they are not to me. I am a Zen Existentialist, remember? I deal in a personal universe that is dominated by weighty issues like "I hope my kidney stones don't come back" or "I hope this hurricane season spares us." In a way, that's a very Republican attitude, you should understand it quite well. In a nutshell, I sympathize with your problems, but I had nothing to do with them, they are not my fault. And the only thing I am willing to do to help solve them is to pay a bit more in taxes, because I feel that is my patriotic duty. Which, by the way, seems to be the one thing you absolutely refuse to do.

I just work here, just like you.
There is nothing I can do or say that will make you feel any better, even if I agreed with you completely.