>Those conditions no longer legally exist. As I said before, laws are not the problem. The lack of enforcement of existing laws is part of the problem. The rest, IMHO, lies in changing hearts of bigots and racists [which is not likely].

I agree.

>Government has no right to dictate who I can hire and fire in my private business. I have no problem with laws that say I can not discriminate on irrelevant qualities. However, business must have the right to discriminate based on qualification. My wife and I purposely keep our business small because of the burden of government laws and regulations would bankrupt in less than a year. We know this for a fact as we tried this by hiring administrative help. We ditched that experiment in less than 6 months. Almost a year later, we are just now back to where we were 18 months ago. IMO, the have not only leveled the playing field, that field has been tilted against the owners of small and mid-sized businesses.

What laws and regulations do you specifically object to, and how has the playing field been titlted against you?

>Are you saying Clinton did not raies taxes during his first term? He not only raised them, he did so retroactively to the previous tax year! I can't believe you do not remember that. He and that Congress were the first to ever do something that abominable.

I am not disputing what you are saying, so far as Clinton raising taxes his first term, but that was at least over 4 years ago. And when you consider the Republican victories in the 1994 mid-term elections, I would find it hard to believe that taxes increased after that point. So, I am not seeing a lot of support for your statement that their is a "current trend toward higher taxation". That was your statement, not mine.

>>How does our system penalize success? By taxing it?
>
>Absolutely. We tax the hard working and successful, and reward those who are needlessly unproductive [e.g., welfare scams].

We tax the hard working and successful, as well as the not so hard working and not terribly successful. And I don't think of welfare as a reward. I certainly don't like the idea of anyone not carrying their weight, but when I drive by the projects, I don't see what I call any rewards.