13,000

All I know is, if Al Gore or John Kerry were president right now and the Dow Jones industrial average had just smashed through that barrier, the Enemy Media would be leading the charge to put either man's bust on Mt. Rushmore, right next to Bill Clinton's. But George W. Bush is president, so it's reported as "the rich getting outrageously richer." Gotta raise taxes immediately to close that "gap" between the "haves" and "have-nots," by turning more of the former into more of the latter. Mediocrity, as the late Bill Simon famously wrote, does not stretch.

Oh, yeah, that's right, the Dems don't have to do anything. Just let the Bush tax cuts expire, and we'll be right back in the recessionary, stagflationary, runaway unemployment and budget deficit times they love so much - which will be portrayed by the press as "the Bush hangover." Kinda like they don't have the balls to just defund the war, but are sending the President a poison pill supplemental war spending bill they know he'll never sign. Make it easier to blame every woe, every reversal, on the GOP.

Republicans CAN do something about this, of course. Heck, if an obscure hack like me can foresee it...well, I may not be as obscure for much longer, but you get the point. But at least I can listen to my 401(k) cash register ca-ching for a few more years before the Clintstapo seizes it, along with all of its contents (and probably yours truly as well).