Actually, I would venture RINO Herbert Hoover was the worst president of the last 100 years. But Democrat Franklin Roosevelt runs a very close second. A couple items against the Democrats you missed are the Tweed Ring in New York City in the 1870s who were Democrats and the 1876 Tilden v. Hayes presidential election where the Democrats screamed about election fraud by Republicans in Rutherford B. Hayes' victory and demanded a Congressional Committee to investigate. They finally got their committee which found it was Democrat Samuel J.Tilden's supporters who were guilty of election fraud attempting to bribe Presidential Electors into changing their votes. See Albert Bigelow Paine, "Thomas Nast, His Period and His Pictures," (1904), Chapter XLIV, The Tribune's Cipher Disclosures. Then there are the disastrous Democratic administrations that destroyed Detroit.

Plantation?! It’s more like a harem.

Rick: “Why are you shutting me down?” Captain Renault: “Why there is gambling going on here. I’m shocked! Shocked!” Croupier: “Captain Renault, here are your winnings.” (Croupier hands money to Captain Renault who quickly puts it in his pocket.) ---Movie “Casablanca,” 1943, Screenplay by Julius J. and Phillip G. Epstein and Howard Koch This is beyond hilarious. Congressmen showing shock that the IRS may have been used politically. The president saying such actions are intolerable and that the administration will get to the bottom of the matter. The media shows shock and outrage. Excuse me while I dry my eyes I am laughing so hard.

I only disagree with Mr.Stossel’s argument in one respect. He said, “President Obama didn’t kill American free-market health car. It began dying during World War II, when the government imposed wage and price controls.” I couldn’t agree more that was bad. But the problem really goes back farther to the Progressive Era when The Pure Food and Drug Act, physician licensing laws, and the barring of the advertising of health services were implemented with the purpose of cartelizing health care. The chief lobbyist for these things was The American Medical Association. The goal was for allopaths (M.D.s) to be left the only doctors standing by putting osteopaths, homeopaths, naturopaths, and other practitioners of alternative medicine out...

While the increasing realism regarding the Federal government is a positive sign, it is obvious people aren't paying sufficient attention to state and local governments or their favorable views of them would also be below 20%. Government at every level is bloated, arrogant, micromanaging, and bullying and recognizes few Constitutional restraints--in either Federal or State Constitutions.

Barack Obama is a socialist. Look over the history of socialism over the last 500 years. Socialists promise everything and steal everything. Mr. Ransom is simply reporting an inevitable reality.

So Philadelphia is bankrupt. So are many other cities large and small. So is the United States. So is most of Europe. The unsustainable welfare state paradigm is getting ready to collapse with a thud. Many governments will finally get pushed to the point they have no choice but to default. Some of the largest banks which are way too heavily into government debt are going to crash and burn. I will shed a crocodile tear for them. Long ago Adam Smith warned something like "Whenever government having contracted a debt it is scarce known in history for it to be paid honourably and in full:" Further back the Psalms warned "Put not your faith in princes." Everyplace is turning into Detroit.

The historic tendency if for governments to consume the nations they are supposed to be protecting. Federal, state, and local governments are consuming the United States and, more importantly, its subjects...er....citizens in the productive sector.

A person is no longer in the job market due to a quirk in the way the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates things. After a certain length of time--it used to be one year; I think it is now three years, a job searcher is simply dropped from consideration as part of the labor force. He may be looking as hard as ever, but to the BLS he has disappeared. If he gets a job in spite of the depression, he suddenly reappears as part of the workforce..

As I say over and over, the "Fair Tax" proposal would be both outrageously regressive (hitting the poor much harder than the middle class and the middle class much harder than the rich) plus it is a red herring distracting from the real problem. Granted, that statement is made in the context that ALL taxes are regressive. I don't care whether you use an income tax, a sales tax, fees, import duties, whatever, there is NO humane or just way to collect 30% to 80% or more of a person's income in taxes. One year my direct taxes alone came to 300% of my income. ALL means of collecting those kinds of taxes are economically and socially destructive. The Fair Tax proposals are all "revenue neutral" when what is really needed is downsizing