After learning Shane Black would be directing and co-writing Iron Man 3, I was keenly interested in how the movie would turn out. Shane Black is one of the most popular screenwriters in Hollywood, having penned a few of the most enjoyable action buddy movies of our time, like Lethal Weapon, The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Last Boyscout – and holy shit he’s been announced as the director of Death Note (Source: IMDB). I’m actually more excited about Death Note than I am Black’s Iron Man 3 (we’ll get to that later).  Death Note is based on the popular anime/manga series about a teen who finds a  lost, but magical notebook that just so happens to belong to a mysterious demon.  When a person’s name is written in the notebook along with their manner of death, they die. The notebook is corrupting, and all powerful. After a string of mysterious deaths, an overwhelmed and outmatched police department assigns a mysterious young detective, “L” to the case, who must keep his name a secret at all costs. There is also a live action Japanese Death Note movie that is definitely worth watching. If Black is subtle enough (which would be a challenge for him), he might be able to pull it off… which is exactly what was needed in Iron Man 3.

Despite being so utterly lacking in energy in some places, it’s hard not to like Iron Man 3, particularly, because the actors sold it. My problem with the movie is that it felt more like an action flick than a comic book adaptation. Being the humongous sci-fi, comic book, dork that I am, I recognized the missing “comic book” elements as Iron Man 3 played out. Audiences will probably enjoy the movie (because it is a good movie and I’m about to nitpick), but fans of the genre will not, simply because they won’t be able to pinpoint what they disliked most, when so many parts of it felt right.

Absolutely essential to the plot of any comic book movie is a catastrophe that puts the entire population of a city or the world in peril. The Mandarin places the protagonist, the POTUS,  the hero’s love interest and best friends in danger, but a threat to the world he was not. Any danger the Mandarin posed to the public didn’t feel as “immediate” as it should. One could argue that the terrorist plot and the bombings could pose as a threat, but he only did it to get Iron Man’s attention. Mandarin either lacked the grandiose aspirations of a true villian or his objective wasn’t clearly articulated. He was just a nerd who came back when he was “cool” enough to go after the “jock” who slighted him thirteen prior.  The performances of Kingsley and Pearce were terrific, but a bit of a let down later, when The Mandarin’s (Kingsley) true identity is revealed. Killian (Pearce) was menacing enough, and was definitely a  formbidable  threat against the protaganist, Tony Stark; a version of Stark I’m not entirely familiar with.

Part of what made Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, as Iron Man fun to watch was the punchy dialogue, his wit, ingenuity, resourcefulness, and massive ego (“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist” that he is). But Stark’s the kind of guy who actually lives up to his boasts, so we kinda like him. In Iron Man 3 we get a dumbed down version of Tony Stark. A guy who gives his address to the bad guy on national TV, so he can blow the house up with his girlfriend in it. The kind of guy who uses the unfinished prototype of a new suit, even when his artificially intelligent robot warns him not to (and the fact that there are other suits downstairs). A guy who doesn’t call on his army of robots to help when his house, and the woman he loves is under siege.  No, this version of Tony Stark goes for the prototype, simply because it’s a good plot device for Shane Black and an ongoing joke for the rest of the movie.

Thank the gods (you out there Thor and Loki?) the role is in Robert Downey Jr.’s deft and able hands, and the rest of this superb cast as I doubt the movie would have worked without any of them. There is an inexplicable shift in Iron Man 3, from its predecessors in that, the other movies take place in the hip upscale oceanside somewhere in California, complete with pop music and a “phat beat” for Tony to “beat his friend’s ass to”, to the down home rural part of Tennessee and a few scenes with Mark42 and a little boy… which were my favorite parts of the movie (and likely its salvation). Here, Stark’s resourcefulness should have kicked in as opposed to the audience having their intelligence insulted. 

Tony is supposedly able to get Jarvis back up and running again for some inexplicable reason (bear in mind, Jarvis’ mainframe had been utterly destroyed). Yet, instead of completing his prototype so he can go out and fight the bad guys without having it fall apart, he turns into Mcgyver  after a trip to the hardware store, turning Stark into an “action star” the likes of John McClane (Bruce Willis, Die Hard) who goes after the villians with a gun, and some other inventions that are supposed to remind us that he’s the brilliant Tony Stark.

Could he simply have used money to buy what was needed to fix Mark42? The suits were useless piles of junk and completely dispensible. 

What we have here from Shane Black is yet another action movie. A plot dictated by  action and a hero who rarely uses his suit and fails to deliver the final blow to the bad guy. It’s as annoying as Tony using his suits via remote control . Is it too much to ask that the superhero actually shows up? They’re called super “heroes” for a reason. The audience is cheering a spectacular mid-air action sequence only to find out they’re applauding a god damned empty suit.

 As writers, you have to step outside of your comfort zone. You have to grow.  I can’t distinguish this movie from any other  dumbed down action movie save for the fact that it’s a comic book adaptation and already has a few fully fleshed out characters. Unfortunately, they are wasted on an incredibly ridiculous plot.

Shane Black and Drew Pearce also missed an opportunity to tell a story when they alluded to Killian competing with Tony for Pepper’s affections and failed to do anything with it. She seems fascinated by Killian so why not let him woo Pepper for a while, build trust, create  tension between Pepper and Tony, before letting her know he’s the bad guy? It’s not about piling on one action sequence after another, but telling a story.

For what it’s worth, I did enjoy myself and I liked the movie. It just wasn’t what I expected.

Actually, it was exactly what was expected for anyone familiar with the writer- director’s body of work.

- E. Hughes

From our sister site at Authors to Read:

Below are a list of new and exciting books,eBooks, e-stories, articles and essays on http://writetobreathe.com for following the announcement below!

Write to Breate has a new name: Authors to Read! Visitors can go to http://authorstoread.com or http://writetobreathe.com to find new books or eBooks on our fun-tastic, reader-rific sister web site. Be sure to join this web site, write reviews on books you like (whether they are listed with us or not). Readers and authors, sounds like fun to me!

Tainted Legacy. A Sid Langdon mystery.
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=318

Quick and Easy Tips for Acquiring Auto Loans in Pennsylvania
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=319

Millions will see this!
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=320

Business as Usual by E. Hughes now available!
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=321

Chicago Chase (Educated Injun 2)
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?pid=134

Bizarre Stories
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?pid=139

Trail of Vengeance
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?pid=144

Shadow of the Rope
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?pid=145

The Cottage by the Lake
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?pid=147

The Mystery of the Nourdon Blue
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?pid=148

CRUISE KILLER
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=7&pid=149

Bank of Crooks & Criminals
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=4&pid=150

How to Buy a Car in the Lone Star State?
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=322

Jesus Was a Time Traveler
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=323

KLAN: Killing America
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=7&pid=127

Crossed Paths
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=2&pid=154

I Can’t Keep Up!
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=5&

Crystal Fire (Book One)
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?pid=159

The Last Battle (Book Two)
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?pid=160

The Twelve Tablets (Book Three)
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?pid=161

Vampiris Sancti: The Immaculate Adventures of One Florian Ribeni
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?pid=158

Why Save a Dying Succubus? The Soul Series
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=324

Black Book
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=325

Vampiris Sancti: The Demon Prince
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?pid=157

Vampiris Sancti: The Vampire
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?pid=156

Jesus Was a Time Traveler
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?pid=153

How to Get an Easy and Fast Online Car Financing Program in Florida?
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=326

The Battle for the Ringed Planet (a military science fiction novel)
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=327

A Complete Guide for getting Guaranteed Approval on Bad Credit Car Loans in Ohio
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=328

Vampiris Sancti: The Elf
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=329

DESTINED TO TRIUMPH—enchantress faith of a mustard seed story
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=331

This is a nice accomplishment - a 17 year-old girl has won a three book publishing contract with a major publisher after her online teen romance, The Kissing Booth, gets 40 million hits on an online web site.

But man, it kind of stings, doesn’t it? You write your whole life and then some 17 year-old wins a contract, simply sharing her teenage fantasies. Apparently, the high school student just wanted to read a teen romance that didnt’ involve vampires, werewolves or fallen angels and it seems, Millions of readers agreed.

It’s crazy, but congrats to her nonetheless.

Beth Reekles isn’t the first teenager to land a book contract. Christopher Paolini, the author of Eragon completed his novel at the age of sixteen and self-published with the help of his parents. He spent a year promoting the book at over 135 libraries and schools, and landed a book contract at the age of nineteen when his book was discovered by American Novelist Carl Hiassen who recommended the book to his New York publisher, Alfred A. Knopf.

Source:

http://todaynews.today.com/_news/2013/03/19/17375313-teenager-lands-3-book-deal-with-record-breaking-romance?lite=&lite=obnetwork

Submissions and entry rules can be found at http://writebeijing.org/competition (click to learn more).

Source:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-china-screenwriters-20130303,0,5469238.story

You’ll find your efforts are all for naught.

The truth is, readers won’t visit your page unless you have something they want (We’ll get to my promised list of book-selling strategies later). You may think readers want to buy books, and they do. But not for the reasons you think.  A reader looking for adventure, will buy fantasy or sci-fi novels. A reader looking for love will buy romance, a reader who likes being scared will look for a thriller, suspense, or horror novel. A reader in the mood for a laugh will look for comedy.

You are an unknown. Readers don’t want your title. They wan’t Stephanie Meyers, Stephen King, Susan Collins, E.L. James, Anne Rice and other established authors because they are familiar with the body of the work and know what to expect. 

So don’t sell readers your name and title, sell them what they want: Romance, love, horror, comedy, or fantasy.

Instead of selling a Fantasy Novel by John Doe, sell them a medieval adventure about a magical sword lost at the depths of Middle Earth.  Make that your caption and readers will look for the title and the author of this stellar story! Once interested, readers won’t shy away from the book because don’t know the author. You’ve already sold them on the story.

So, how do you get your novel in front of readers? How do you establish the ever elusive “internet presence” I mentioned earlier? You’ll first need to understand what “internet presence means”.  I really hate to use a spammy term like SEO, but that’s what it comes down to. Search Engine Optimization.

Advertisers and search engines use various algorithms to determine where and how your web site or content appears in search engines.

1.) Direct search. Someone is looking for your book by name and title. This will likely bring your novel to page 1 of any search engine results.

2.) By typing your web address. This one is stating the obvious, right?

3.) Typing your name and “author”. I’m sure you’ve already “googled” or “bing’d” yourself. How many pages did you sift through before finding your name in the search engine, if at all?

Type my name, for example… “E. Hughes” should appear at the very top of any google search results.

This is called your “page rank”. You can visit web sites like http://alexa.com or google “page ranks” to find a web site that will tell you your page rank. If your web site appears on page three of search engine results on google, for example, then you have a page rank of “3″. Readers will have to comb through three pages of search engine results before they stumble across you.

In order to sell books you will need to have a page rank of “1″.  It’s an extremely difficult task because there are not only billions of web sites on the internet, but probably millions utilizing themes similar to the ones in your book.  There are many screenwriting related web sites. There was a time when Screenwritersdaily had a page rank of “3″ when searching for “screenwriting web sites” or “screenwriters”, but when I changed servers and changed the SEO details, I somehow managed to lose our page rank in the process.  So now we’re back to square one after ten years online. We are fortunate that if you search for Screenwritersdaily we will at least, appear first, along with many other web sites that references our articles.  So we haven’t lost our place entirely.

Page rank is determined by how many visitors are looking for your web site, how many web sites are linked to yours, and of course, paid advertisements that land your web site or content to the first page of search engine results. If there are hundreds of searches by unique users or IP addresses on a daily basis, this increases your page rank.  If you are linked to hundreds of web sites or more, then your page rank increases in search engines.

Last, and most importantly, write more books. If you are publishing your titles through Amazon Kindle, you will receive roughly 90 days of direct email marketing to customers who have purchased books similar to your title. If you can release a new book on a regular basis, this will result in direct to customer emails “customer also purchased” or “you may also be interested in” on a regular basis. So write more books!

RECAP:

 1.)  Pitch “something readers want” instead of just a book title and your name when you market your books on web sites and sales page. You also want to drive interest in your work by offering a service or blog, or something readers are really interested in, whether politics, entertainment driven news stories, or events.  Create interest in your views, and things that are important to you.

2.) Buy ads via google or other search engines, even if you budget just a hundred dollars a month. Readers will need to find you. This will allow you to create search terms that will make your book or web site easier to find.

3.) Work on increasing your page rank by linking your web site, blog, etc to hundreds of web sites without resorting to “spam”.  You want to link numerous related or unrelated web sites to your work.

4. Publish more books.

Easier said than done. I never promised it would be easy, but this formula will drive interest in your work and give you the notoriety you need to sell books. 

From my screenwriting, novels, and animation related endeavors, I have developed, over the years, a following of readers and other parties who eagerly anticipate my next release. To sell books you will need a range of products and or services in the market across platforms, and of course, have a very good book if you want to sell it.

- E. Hughes

Hello,

Below are a list of new and exciting books,ebooks, e-stories, articles and essays on our sister site, http://writetobreathe.com following our weekly
announcements!

This week’s announcement:

Be sure to stop by to review your favorite books and authors in our Review section: http://writetobreathe.com/index.php?name=Reviews Authors, be sure to refer your fans to the review section on WritetoBreathe.com!

Under the Black Clouds by Suren Hakobyan
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=276

Cry of the Raven
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?pid=113#top_display_media

Disappear, Love (MYSTERY, Super romance)
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=4&pid=16#top_display_media

CHAD, INC. – the corporate personhood novella
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=277

Pirate Trials – Dastard Deeds and Last Words
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=7&pid=122#top_display_media

Call of the Raven
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=45&pid=116#top_display_media

Short list of Catalogues made available by authors for Kindle ebooks! http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=278

Deadly Descent
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=8&pid=121#top_display_media

Second Chance Auto Loans – How can Sub-prime Credit Borrowers get Guaranteed App (ESSAY/ARTICLE)
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=279

A Flynn City Christmas
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=280

Lily and the Tarantula
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=281

The Billion-Dollar Girl
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=282

NEW RELEASE: Deadly Descent
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=283

Destiny’s Light
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=45&pid=120#top_display_media

Innok’s Curse
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=45&pid=114#top_display_media

How to Get Lowest Auto Loan Rates in Texas? (Article/Essay)
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=284

The Scrolls of Xavier, by John Ashley
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=285

The Silk Code “author’s cut” ebook
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=286

New Thriller-Horror book Saltar’s Point
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=287

Keepers of the Water
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=45&pid=117#top_display_media

The Month of Zephram Mondays
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=288

Kiss the Wolf
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=45&pid=111#top_display_media

Demented Mind: an ebook of poetry
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=289

The Flowers of Reminiscence
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=290

Servant to the Emerald
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=291

LEARN TO MEDITATE AND RELIEVE STRESS – In only 20 minutes!!
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=292

Shades of Night
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=45&pid=119#top_display_media

Absolutely Done – free extracts from ebook release
http://writetobreathe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=293

Shadow of the Wolf
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=45&pid=118#top_display_media

When Darkness Falls
http://writetobreathe.com/books/displayimage.php?album=45&pid=115#top_display_media

That’s it for this week in books. Till next time!

Admin,

Screenwritersdaily.com

I will be teaching a publishing course at Madison College (MATC) in Madison, WI in Spring 2013, from March 13 – April 10th, 2013. If you’re in the area, be sure to register. The course is $120 dollars, class is twice a week. I will be available to teach a two  hour course at the Brava Magazine Women’s Expo in Madison, WI on November 17th, from 2-4pm. If you’re in the area, stop by!  

http://interactivepdf.uniflip.com/2/60800/277956/pub/ – Madison College (MATC) Course Schedule for Spring 2013

http://www.bravamagazine.com/BRAVAMagazine.aspx – Brava Magazine Women’s Expo

See you there!

E. Hughes

Lucas, who once said the franchise was finished, is now turning the franchise over to the next generation. Walt Disney Co. will also take over Lucas’ brilliant and innovative visual effects company, Industrial Light & Magic (“ILM”) and Skywalker Sound, in addition to the Indiana Jones movie franchise. For now, Lucas maintains that he gets to become a fan, enjoying the series with everyone else. The plot for ”Episode 7 will continue where Return of the Jedi left off. I have a feeling that Disney will turn the oft-ridiculed yet beloved space western into a franchise like Pirates of the Caribbean, and if the amusement rides  and if Johnny Depp will follow, finding a place in a galaxy far far away.

Source:

 http://starwars.com/news/new-star-wars-movies-announced-as-disney-enters-agreement-to-acquire-lucasfilm-ltd/index.html

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DISNEY_LUCASFILM?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-10-30-20-57-01 

- E. Hughes

In last week’s presidential debate, Governor Mitt Romney pitched himself to Americans as the ”Great Republican Job Creator”, citing his record as an astute businessman and his ability to make a buttload of money. Fiscally, republicans believe in lowering taxes, buffing up funds for national defense, and cutting funds to the poor. Of debate, between President Obama and his republican opponent Mitt Romney is whether business owners earning over 250,000 annually deserve a bigger tax cut than the middle class.

Republicans assert that cutting taxes for businesses will boost the economy and create jobs while President Barack Obama believes closing loopholes allowing corporations to pay fewer taxes and raising income taxes on the wealthy will solve the budget crisis and create jobs. The presidential election will come down to who Americans choose to believe.

 What will Mitt Romney do to create jobs and will he fare better than President Obama? Further, since when is the President of the United States of America expected to become a job creator?

 Do tax cuts create jobs?

 Short answer, no. Governor Romney is genuine when he says he will do his best to create jobs by cutting taxes on the wealthy – which wouldn’t be an entirely bad concept, if it actually worked. Mitt Romney is not a bad guy, he’s just misinformed.  Tax cuts don’t create jobs, a balanced budget does.

 When the federal government is unable to pay its bills, it’s forced to borrow, creating a deficit. The larger the deficit, the more the government has to pay back at a higher interest rate.  The current deficit is over 1.1 trillion dollars and getting higher. We could blame the current president, but deficit has climbed every presidential term since the Civil War, with few exceptions.  The United States has had 70 annual deficits between 1900 and 1997 (source: Whitehouse.gov and GPO.GOV Budget 2000 – Citizens Guide). How does the federal deficit impact job creation? When the government overspends, it’s forced to borrow from private capital markets, competing with businesses in need of loans and families who need loans for homes, cars and other goods, driving up interest rates (Source:GPO.GOV  Budget-2000-Citizen’s Guide). Fewer loans to start or expand businesses, results in fewer opportunities to create jobs.  

 We are currently spending about 3.5 trillion dollars on the federal budget (Source: http://debtclock.org) with nearly 1.2 trillion dollars in deficit. The last surplus was a projected 4 trillion dollars during the Clinton Administration. Many will note that the federal deficit didn’t decrease during this period, which is a common misunderstanding.

 Deficits are not supposed to turn into surpluses. Nor are surpluses supposed to pay off the deficit. Surpluses allows the President to pay the federal budget. Deficits grow when we don’t have enough money or a surplus to spend with. So we “BORROW”.

When the federal government had a surplus, we were able to pay the federal budget which allowed the U.S.to pay off our deficit at a lower interest rate. It’s like a credit card, basically… your rate increasing or decreasing depending on the amount of risk.

 When we don’t have a surplus or enough money to pay for the items in our budget (Social Security, Medicare, Entitlements, National Defense/Military Spending, the Deficit), we BORROW again, increasing the debt.

 The key is balancing the budget, creating a surplus, so that we can pay our expenses, and slowly chip the deficit away. It’s like the surplus is the money in your bank account and the deficit that we borrow from is the credit card (with the high interest rate) that you never want to use. That’s how the government works. We don’t take the surplus and use it to pay off the federal deficit so the debt would remain the same regardless of a surplus. Also,Clinton did not achieve his first surplus until 1998, which was only 86 billion dollars, the first surplus since 1969.

 Democrats believe Americans should pay more taxes in order to create a surplus to pay our expenses . Republicans think they can have it all. They don’t want to collect income taxes, but still want money to fund wars and defense. So they cut spending on the poor, social security and other entitlements.

 Congress has a say so in the budget and when both parties get their way, the republicans get their defense budget and tax cuts, and the democrats get their entitlement programs for American citizens, we’re left without enough money to cover our expenses, which invariably, leads to borrowing and a bigger federal deficit.

 With a projected 4 trillion dollar surplus, we wouldn’t take that and erase the federal debt. We would use it to cover future expenses while paying the debt slowly at a lower rate.

 The United States hasn’t seen a surplus from a republican president in the past century.  In fact, the largest deficits were created during republican terms. President Obama is one of few democratic presidents not to see a reduction in the federal deficit because many of his policies are largely conservative. Also bear in mind that he inherited two wars, a trillion dollar deficit, and a sour economy from his republican predecessor George W. Bush.

 Is it possible to concede that a republican president can balance the budget, reduce the deficit, while lowering taxes, and sponsoring multiple wars? Entitlements for the poor use a small percentage of the federal budget, with social security using the greatest share of the budget, so even with a cut to entitlement programs, we won’t see a balanced budget.  You have few choices, like cutting defense spending or social security programs. Two programs we can’t do without so we’re left with raising taxes as the only option.

 The Clinton Administration provided the model for a fiscally responsible federal budget and a projected surplus for today’s economy.  The Bush Administration depleted the surplus to a 450 billion dollar deficit in under two years, the largest in history at the time. Bush Sr. left office with an 85 billion dollar deficit, Reagan a 55 billion dollar deficit also the highest in U.S history at the time. In conclusion, it is unlikely that the Republican Party, under its current policies, can reduce the federal deficit or create jobs. – E. Hughes

Source:

Whitehouse.gov and GPO.GOV Budget 2000 – Citizens Guide

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BUDGET-2000-CITIZENSGUIDE/pdf/BUDGET-2000-CITIZENSGUIDE-3.pdf

http://debtclock.org