Sound and fury signifying very close to nothing

I get a kick from Cafe Hayek (and EconTalk) every time I look at it. Today's (well, yesterday's) gem points out just how trivial are the allegedly drastic spending cuts the major parties have cooked up.

As one of the comments points out: "While I’m making silly back-of-the-envelope calculations: the US median income was $44,389 in 2010…so the federal government cutting spending by $352 million is the equivalent to the median income earner cutting his annual spending by $4.09. While he has a credit card balance of $159,149, to which he plans to add $18,597 this year."

Kevin gets out his combat boots

Happy to see that a) R. Paul the younger is brave enough to call for getting rid of the mortgage interest deduction and b) NRO's Kevin Williamson stomps one misinformed (or lying) complainer: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/263998/another-brilliant-insight-americans-tax-reform-kevin-d-williamson

p.s. Sorry for the ugly link -- in a rush right now or I'd try to figure out why Blogger doesn't seem to like  conventional hyperlinks.

Can I get the Happy Meal version of civilization, please?

I love paying taxes. With them I buy civilization. As long as by "civilization" you mean mandatory retirement plans, petty micromanagement, wars around the world, trade barriers that would be considered acts of war if imposed by an outside force, and an ever-growing welfare state usurping choice in small domains like education and medicine. Good day, sir.