consistently showing that consumers are afraid. in my home state of arkansas, i was looking at employment figures and more tellingly, the revenue figures. they are down dramatically for the second month in a row. notably at the sales tax level if you survey states across the country, what you are seeing is a dramatic decline in sales. that shows consumer confidence is falling, not rising. we should have an uptick in sales with the back-to-school purchases people are making. when you see a down turn at the state level in august and september that is a very bad sign that s one of the months you normally would see a big uptick as people are preparing to get back in school, buying school supplies and school clothes. the that s not a good sign. it is all over the country at the state level. big barometer to look at for a coming recession. neil: the criticism, as you know republicans are very good at whining about how little