What is really at issue here, and this will be the key issue in the 2012 election in addition to jobs, is whether we want to cut the government safety net. There seems to be a growing view that every American can and should fend for him/herself. Just look at Bill Gates and Meg Whitman! (billg, no news here, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth). And so should their kids. That's the part that gets my goat. Are we really at the point in our history that young children and children yet unborn are cast into Dickensian circumstances? That is not a cloak any of us should wear lightly, regardless of the selfish motives we all understandably share.

You may find this surprising, but I agree with you that we should help take care of people less fortunate than we are. However, it is not the givernment's job to decide how much the well-off ahould contribute and who their money should be given to. This is a job that used to be handled by charities, It should still be the job of charities and not the job of the government. I can tell you that I used to be a lot more charitable before the government decided that it knew better than I did what causes to spend my charitable contributions on.