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Great quote, thank you. I love Reagan quotes even if they are being used against me in a discussion :)

If Pres. Bush was getting seventy-five or eighty percent of what Reagan asked for, I would be ecstatic. It's just that what he is asking for is not enough to encourage long term economic growth. I'll take any tax cut, but those vouchers were lame.

I do believe that, unfortunately, when it comes to economics Pres. Bush is similar to his father. He seems mainly interested in "governing", not reforming. Sadly, even if O'Neil goes, I predict he will be replaced by another corporate country club Republican, not anyone like the supply siders Reagan surrouned himself with.

One thing to keep in mind ...... we are looking back on 8 years of a Reagan presidency. Bush has been in office less than 2 years, has had a hostile Senate with which to contend, has had the terrorist attacks and the war to deal with, inherited a mild recession, has had these corporate scandals come to light (more legacy of x42?) ...... and he's still accomplished a lot. Not all that we want ..... and I'm sure not all that he had hoped for. But it is not realistic to expect him to have as much to show for after 19 months as Reagan had after 8 years.

As for the tax cut, the rebates were just the beginning. If you'll look back at your pay stubs from last year, there was a tax cut effective in June of 2001. I'm an employer and I could tell the difference in our employees' pay checks as well as my own .... and many of our employees work part-time for us as a second job so they're not exactly in "the wealthiest 1%." It wasn't huge ..... but that was just the first increment.

And, btw, thanks for the civil debate ...... it's a rare thing on FR these days unfortunately ..... and quite worthwhile.