While his spending has been out of control, up until the last month, the economy was great, e.g. 14,000+ DOW.

The economy is doing well.Bush's tax cuts sure helped.He does not get 5 stars because of his poor record on spending.More discipline there and we would really have a fine situation.

In spite of two consecutive years of interest rate hikes, the "Bush economy" (I hate that term but use it for the benefit of the Klintonistas) is booming and showing surprisingly little negative influence from the ultra-inflationary price of gas, which affects nearly all products manufactured and delivered in the US.

UPDATE: Taxes go up, particularly when inflation heats up. To decide today that the "next" tax increase will be necessary, and to attribute that necessity to Bush, seems very foolish to me. The next increase in taxes will be championed by the next democrat president. Period. To imagine that I will acquiesce to it out of some imagined fiscal resignation is not accurate. We do not have a tax receipts problem in the US. Tax collections always go up. Look it up.

We have a SPENDING problem. We had it when Clinton was president, we had it when Bush ('41) was president, we had it when Reagan was president, and all others before. To accord Clinton an iota of credit for "cutting" or "reducing" spending is wrong. Didn't happen. Couldn't happen.

I don't know what the solution is (maybe elect a fiscal conservative or two) but knee-jerking into raising taxes sounds just as wrong today as it did when Bill Clinton assured the American people it was necessary in early 1993. He was wrong then and it would be wrong today. It's the spending.

Just as I was hesitant to give Clinton credit for the wonderful economy for most of his Presidency, I will not give Bush credit for the surprisingly strong economy that we enjoy today.

There's one big difference in this area between the Clinton and Bush administrations. The combination of Clinton as President and a Republican congress did an exceptional job at contributing to the strong economic climate by controlling that which they could control - federal spending.

Bush has utterly botched the economic factors that he controls (again, federal spending), choosing to ignore his responsibilities as the Executive Branch to provide checks and balances to a corrupt and free spending Republican congress.

Even my friend EO would admit that we are due for a crippling tax increase to pay for Bush's fiscal failures. The next President, whether it be Republican or Democract, will have no choice but to hike taxes to pay for our current President's irresponsibility.

The economy is humming along nicely now, but eventually we will have to pay the piper. Most conservatives understand this, and are as angry about it as I am.