Are we looking at the same numbers? Unemployment went up every year under GHW Bush, then down every year under Clinton, and then up again for the first 3 years of the GW Bush administration. Are you saying that's coincidence? If you really believe this, than I'm not sure there's much we can talk about. You don't believe that it's good to have more money coming in than going out? You don't think that having money available to pay down the MASSIVE national debt is a good thing? Taxes are a fact of life. I don't like paying them any more than the next guy. But what I hate more, is paying them and the government ending up ADDING to the national debt while I'm paying them. If the choice is between wasteful spending, and having a surplus to pay down the national debt, it's a simple choice. These are averages. The number of years doesn't matter. And the header of the chart that I showed you clearly says that it's under Republican Presidents/Adminstrations. It's regardless of the congressional majority. We're going to have to agree to disagree. The definition of a surplus is that you aren't spending more money than you're bringing in, which is what happened during the last Democratic Presidential administration. So you're complaining about them spending too much money, but then you say a surplus is a bad thing. You can't have it both ways.