Thanks to British Petroleum, most of the country knows we've reached the limits of where we can drill for oil. And thanks to EOG Resources Inc. we know that natural gas is just as dangerous to get as deep-water oil drilling is.

New York is willing to harm substantial numbers of its citizens, and incidentally ruin any credit they may have, for what amounts to a tiny tax bill. How many would become homeless is a matter of speculation.

There's firewood stacked under the whole idea of America -- a place where you're judged by what you can do, not by who your grandparents were. And the worst part is, this has nothing to do with left/right politics.

Since it's almost impossible to believe the GOP leadership doesn't know the devastating economic history of its party's conservative economic policies, we're left to conclude that they just don't care.

Our economic train wreck was created by the Republican leadership, and they'll be blamed for it this November. By that time, the nation will have begun feeling the inevitable effects of cutting benefits.