Economy: If hog-wild spending is so important to recovery, why is "the deficit" all of a sudden such a big deal to Democrats? Tax cuts may not help, but tax hikes will surely hurt. I think the fact that we slipped into recession in the midst of an unprecedented state-by-state spending spree shows that spending isn't the cure. Besides, federal spending is still booming, particularly military spending, which is traditionally a job-creation machine. And, as I've argued before, the economy is recovering steadily. The Dow is up 20% from March, the NASDAQ nearly 25%. The real question is, do we believe that the kind of growth we had in the mid-late 90s is sustainable? What if 3.5% growth and 5% unemployment is, as it used to be considered, ducky? A tick or two down in the jobless rate, and a tick or two up in GDP -- all of a sudden we're in a decent economic situation. Sure, it's not 2% unemployment and 6% GDP growth, but look at the hangover we have from that anyway. The doom-mongers won't declare a recovery until corporations are knocking down doors looking for manpower, like 1997 all over again. But I'll take steady, healthy growth any day, thanks.