Economy. Bottom line. Look how many taxes are being taken out of our paychecks now. Gas prices. Do you have any idea what it will mean to a single mom or dad if the dems take office?

Hope: People will vote their needs and the safety of our country over their seeing what they want to see in a candidate and not the truth.

While, the president can certainly influence tax rates through proposals to congress and political deals, he doesn’t have the power to set tax rates.

Yep. Even if Bush wanted to cut taxes and spending by 50% (and he doesn’t) congress wouldn’t allow it. Reform occurs glacially slow in Washington.

The bad part is that in less than 10 years the Social Security surplus will be gone forever. Our reaction time is so slow that no reform can occur until it’s much too late. To be fair, entitlement reform probably needed to occur 20 years ago. Even if we fix the system tomorrow it’s too late.

I agree that spending is out of control – in some part due to the war, but it doesn’t follow that the private sector will solve our ills.

Again – we’ve had 8 years of tax reductions and a growing private sector – yet our economy is suffering.

Although we did have some modest tax cuts during the Bush administration government spending rose to record levels. The government has never been bigger. Just because Republicans are in charge doesn’t mean the government is shrinking. In fact we are lucky when the rate of government GROWTH shrinks. Spending is completely out of control.

Husband: “I don’t care about anything else, I’m going to vote for the candidate that promises to lower my taxes the most!”

Wife: “The president doesn’t set the tax rate dear. Congress does that.”

Husband: “What?!? Well, then why do they all promise to lower taxes?”

Wife: “Because they hope the rest of the voters are just as knowledgeable as you are dear.”

While, the president can certainly influence tax rates through proposals to congress and political deals, he doesn’t have the power to set tax rates.

I’m not saying that the privatization doesn’t have its place – but the private sector cannot solve all our ills, and in fact, in many instances, has contributed to them.

Again – we’ve had 8 years of tax reductions and a growing private sector – yet our economy is suffering.

You seem to suffer under the delusion that privatization will solve our ills, when in fact the private sector often suffers from the same problems that plague governmental institutions – as well as many of the same inefficiencies.

The private sectors has repeatedly been the source of greed, scandal, self-indulgence and all manner of things that do not benefit people or the economy.

the concept of trickle-down is what is dead.

I’m not a fan of trickle down (Republican ideology) or percolate up (Democrat ideology). Both are equally ineffective. If you raise taxes on the rich to cut taxes on the middle class you are still essentially in the same place. The point is to get more of the economy in private hands so the money can be spent efficiently. If the federal government controls 35% of the economy that is the number that needs to be reduced.

People often forget that the Soviet Union had tremendous resources and in many cases good technology. The problem they had was misinvestment. A central government can never manage those resources and technologies. Modern countries need to be managed by their people, not their governments. Look at the booms in China and India as they move to private enterprise.

LOL! I don’t understand those shortcuts either. Anyone?