I see the conservative fiscal "heyday," at least in Congress, as the period between 1994 and Gingrich's retirement. Spending was held in check at least for a while (you saw the chart). It's called the Clinton Surplus, but I wonder if Gingrich and the Class of 94 are the ones who should be getting more of the credit. Would there have been a surplus if early Clinton programs, like the health care thing, had gone through instead of being squashed by opposition pressure?

The only superpower in the world has to INCREASE its defense spending while leaving 43 million citizens without preventative health care. Needs to increase it to something like 10-fold over the next 5 spenders, they not superpowers.

My local police department spends a hell of a lot more on guns and body armor than I do. Think about it.

Of course that 43 million number is a bit misleading (it's actually 47 million). Of those 47 million, about 10 million are non-citizens, many probably illegal. 18 million of the uninsured have incomes higher than $50,000, 9 million over $75,000.

8.3 million of this group are 18 to 24, and over half (19 million) are between 18 and 34. How many of those just don't want to pay for insurance right now?

We'd have a better idea of the profiles if we could cross-reference these numbers. It would be interesting to see how many of them were young and high-income.

The number also counts people who are eligible for Medicare or Medicaid, but haven't applied. I don't know how high this is for the general population, but I've seen estimates that 1 in 5 children eligible for this aid are not under the program.

So figure out how to insure that portion who really need and want it--Hillary wants to insure them by force whether they want the insurance or not--and leave the rest of us alone.