FURMAN: Candidates get down to numbers

Nothing new from Dumbo, tax the rich, tax the rich , tax the rich. Let the other 95% have a free ride. Barack Marx hasn't had a single new idea yet.

Zero sum is right. The answer is NOT taxes, there is another variable, spending. The answer is STOP SPENDING. Don't give us this crap about new programs when you can't even control the old ones. Congress can't even analyze which ones are effective or are going to be (biofuels debacle), all they know is that they get them reelected. Taxes stifle investment. How many smart companies move into high tax areas? Lack of investment stifles growth. Lack of growth stifles revenues, including tax revenues that exist right now. The problem is the government is spending those tax revenues quicker than we can make them. Why should the government grow when the private economy is almost flat. Why should the goverment redistribution of wealth be a basis for government growth? Once 51% of the GNP goes to social programs, the majority of the people will be working for the government. The government will eventually have to tax itself to survive. It's like socio-economic cannibalism. Unless you are selling bureaucracy, it is definitely not conducive to economic growth. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution has those mandated revenues, all others are on the table. Before we invest revenues in new programs, Congress should review existing programs. The same questions need to be asked for both; do we need non mandated revenues, why and are they effective in achieving an agreed upon objective? Getting a President, Senator or Congressman reelected is not an objective.

I have worked a full-time job for 35 years. In addition, I invested in and manage rental property. When I say I manage, I mean I personally make repairs, plunge toilets, renovate kitchens and bathrooms, fix roofs, repoint chimneys and scrub floors on my knees. After 35 years hard work and few vacations, I find myself in that group of people who make over $250,000 a year (just barely). It's not a windfall! I work hard for every penny! I am now 60 years old and my hands, knees, back and neck hurt from years of physical labor. Why does Obama think he has the right to take more of what I have spent so much time, money and hard hard work on? In fact, it is mostly seniors like me that are making this kind of money after years of hard work, effort and sacrifices. Obama is basically proposing raising taxes on older Americans who so justly deserve what they have worked so hard for. People at and above my income level already pay 90% of all income taxes collected in the U.S. How much more does Obama think is fair?

Obama's proposals to save money don't add up. He proposes cutting federal subsidies to banks for offering federal student loans. Doesn't Furman read the papers? Recent cuts have forced over a hundred lenders out of the program. That lemon has been sucked dry ... unless of course Obama's aim is to make federal student loans so unprofitable that no responsible lender will be willing to offer them and the federal government will have to take over all student loans. Now I get it.