If you follow various stock and fund indexes you can see that they are responding to higher energy costs. That equals a slowing economy. If there is another slowdown in the economy, or a recession, again, guess what, there isn't going to be any extra money out there (not that there is right now) for government to collect in the form of taxes.

Government entities need to react with economic pressures just as private industry does. When the economy contracts, governments contract. However on the upswing, there is no need for government to expand. My observation of our recent recession is that the government entities did not contract as they needed and as such they are still too large, bloated and inefficient to exist in the economy even as it stands right now.

It has been said:
Hybrid drivers come in 3 flavors, greenie, techie and cheapie. Pick any 2.
2005 Prius, Melinium Silver over gray, package 5 (AI)