I am aware of that. I am also aware of James Madison's notion that federal spending is only permitted when it advances one of Congress' other powers enumerated by the Constitution. I am also aware that Madison's viewpoint did not reflect the consensus of our country's founding generation, and that most advancements of last century would not have been possible had we followed Madison's interpretation of the taxing and spending clause.

Spending will be out of control and taxes will be too high until we shape the systems that take the bulk of our tax dollars into systems that provide us better returns on our investments of those tax dollars.

Health care: We could choose not to govern the incentives of that system and allow the current corporate structure beholden to shareholders to take an increasing percentage of our tax dollars, or we could come to a consensus about how to make the governance of our health system responsible for healthy citizens.

Energy: We could continue to subsidize the fossil fuels industry, or we could subsidize energy sources that 21st century humans find more sensible.

Education: Is it even worth starting a conversation about in Tennessee?

It is fashionable in Tennessee to be a Republican, to quote James Madison and to cheer the bandwagon of states in which legislation has been or is planned to be introduced to fight federal health care reforms as unconstitutional, but who is that really helping? How is all of this fashionable populist rage going to work out for you, the voter after next year? Will Stacey Campfield create jobs? Will Steve Cohen lower premiums? Will Lamar Alexander or Jim Haslam diversify our energy sources? Will John Duncan, Jr. or Marsha Blackburn provide your children with a more globally competitive education? Instead of talking to your friends and family over the holidays about productive means by which to get our country out of the red, would you like to run away with Robin Smith this Christmas to a place with no government, everyone is armed to the teeth, there's a beach - Somalia, anyone?

No, seriously. Anything that happened in our world before 2010 was just practice. Welcome to The Great Reboot, and happy holidays. Harvest some food, share some, sell some, preserve some for winter, burn the chaff for warmth and celebrate. Then do it better next year.