This and that

Here are some odds and ends I think you'll find interesting:

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Age difference: A college student at a USC football game challenged a senior citizen sitting next to him, saying it was impossible for their generation to understand his.

"You grew up in a different world," the student said loud enough for everyone around him to hear. "Today we have television, satellite positioning, jet planes, space travel, man has walked on the moon, our spaceships have visited Mars, we even have nuclear energy, electric and hydrogen cars, cell phones and computers with high-speed processing."

Taking advantage of a pause in the student's litany, the old geezer said: "You're right. We didn't have those things when we were young, so we invented them, you little twit! What the heck are you doing for the next generation?"

I love senior citizens!

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Addicts are addicts: Last November, a presidential tax commission sounded the alarm regarding the need for a major tax overhaul. Unfortunately, the president has not moved ahead with the commission's proposals, and most leaders on Capitol Hill are all talk but no action on reform. Here are some reasons why we need action on tax reform soon:

* The number of pages of federal tax rules and regulations increased from 40,500 in 1995 to 66,498 in 2006.

* The number of pages in the IRS guide for Form 1040 increased from 84 in 1995 to 142 in 2005.

* The number of different IRS tax forms increased from 475 in 2000 to 582 in 2006.

* The cost of compliance for federal taxpayers -- filling out tax returns and related chores -- increased from $112 billion in 1995 to $265 billion in 2005.

* H&R Block's revenue from tax preparation soared from $740 million in 1996 to $$2.2 billion in 2005.

* The complex alternative minimum tax hits 4 million taxpayers today but will hit 30 million by 2010 if not repealed. -- Chris Edwards, Cato Institute, in the Salt Lake Tribune

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Where we went right: Perhaps the greatest tribute to the success of Reaganomics is that, over the course of the past 276 months [now 290], the U.S. economy has been in recession for only 15. That is to say, 94 percent of the time the U.S. economy has been creating jobs (43 million in all) and wealth ($30 trillion). More wealth has been created in the U.S. in the last quarter-century than in the previous 200 years. The policy lessons of this supply-side prosperity need to be constantly relearned, lest we return to the errors that produced the 1970s.

Where Republicans have most strayed from the Reagan vision has been on controlling federal spend