[Rondinone]

Originally posted by Nathans_Dad
The bottom line is that the Republican party has unfortunately shown their true colors since they have been in control of the Congress. It seems that whatever party is in power spends like crazy to try and buy up more votes and keep themselves in power while the minority side suddenly turns "fiscally conservative". I remember somewhere where there is a book that talks about the fall of any great civilization and it begins when the populace depends on the government for their livelihood. I fear we are heading down that path. I would do a dance the day we finally have a REAL balanced budget (with no funny math or leaving out this or that spending catagory) and a reasonable tax code. I personally like the idea of a flat tax, even with a luxury tax for high dollar items to augment it, but that's just me.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage. " -- authors unknown.

Hey, I buy it. Seems like were somewhere around 'selfishness to complacency'

http://www.geocities.com/nerolsnilloc/library/tytler.html