Doug wrote:

At the rate the govt is going now, might as well just eliminate ALL
taxes and run the Federal govt on the deficit. Pretty much what we are
doing now anyway.

Not really. But the numbers are pretty sobering nonetheless.
http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=1944&sequence=0 says:

2004 US government spending: $2.3 trillion
2004 US government income: $1.9 trillion
------------
2004 US government deficit: $412 billion

Even just the discretionary portion of the budget was almost $900
billion. We are nowhere near "running the Federal govt on the deficit",
not even the discretionary part of it. But surprise, surprise: the 2005
projections are worse.

Jim Rosinski