This kind of attitude was driving me bonkers last night. I wanted Romney to call O out for stating a false premise, because O certainly made it sound like all the money in the US belongs to the gov't.
I wanted to hear this from Mitt:
"My fellow Americans, you don't have to trust that my plan is better for the economy. It's been tried before, in 1962 by JFK, in 1982 by Reagan, and in 2001 by GWB. It's worked every single time. Everytime the tax rates are lowered, tax revenues to the gov't go up. The opposite also is true, everytime tax rates go up, tax revenues go down. How can that work, you may ask? Because when tax rates are lowered, people engage in more economic activity, which creates demand for workers to produce goods and services, which leads to jobs being created, which leads to more people paying taxes, but at a lower overall rate. My plan grows the tax base. The President's plan shrinks it, and has shrunk it for the past 4 years, leading us to have fewer Americans working than when he entered office, an unprecedented since the Great Depression 44 months over 8% unemployment. I'm not promising to give you everything the President is. I'm promising to make it easier to find a job if you're looking for one."
