OK, what's so hard about figuring out who to vote for? In the last 40 years, there has only been about 10 years when this country has been out of the red and in the black, and eight of those 10 years there was a Democrat as president.

Reagan first started to move the country out of the hole that it was in, until deregulation showed how big of a failure it was. The trickle-down never showed up and with the regulations gone, the big corporations were able to get rid of things like unions and price controls and the way in which banks make loans. So the last four years he was in, wages were down and banks were closing up all over.

Now the first George Bush gets in and promises not to raise taxes and finds that's not working, so he raises taxes but things don't get any better.

People get tired of the mess we're in and vote in the Democrats . Well, the economy grows, new businesses start up all over and the country works its way back into the black for the next six years.

Then, for some reason, the Republicans get voted in again. So what happens? Gas goes up, taxes on oil companies go down, terrorists in Afghanistan do Sept. 11.

So we get in a war with Iraq, then banks give loans to everyone and go broke and need to be bailed out. And did your taxes go down?

So what's so hard about knowing who'll be better to vote for? Republicans who have made state taxes go up, prices go up and unemployment get higher? Or the Democrats who have shown they can get the country out of debt and back to being the world's economic leader once again?

Don Mead