Sen. Schumer's 50 Percent Solution

Schumer said his book includes what he has called the "50 Percent Solution" -- the idea that the Democratic Party should aim to make the good things in people's lives at least 50 percent better and reduce the bad things by at the same amount.

For example, he said, property taxes should be reduced by 50 percent because they are a "killer" for the middle class, the country's reliance on fossil fuels should be cut by 50 percent and reading and math scores should improve by 50 percent.

On Saturday, armed with a can of diet Pepsi and multiple pens, Schumer signed several hundred copies of his book. The line of people waiting to see him at times stretched across the book store and into the adjacent children's section (The Little Book House). The senator planned to hold similar signings in Syracuse and Utica Saturday.

This sums up the Democrats agenda - big government and increased reliance on the government for solutions big and small, regardless of the history of failures to solve problems.

More than 30 years ago, a war on poverty was declared. That turned out to be a quagmire of epic proportions. We're still fighting it and there's no end in sight.

War on drugs? Another quagmire.

These domestic policies sound great for those who think that government can solve these problems, but the reality is far more complex.

The simplistic 50% reduction in property taxes sounds great (and far better than New Jersey's supposed plan to reduce property taxes by 20%) but there's no way to achieve that without replacing one set of revenue with another. Put simply, property taxes will be replaced by other taxes, and there's no way to guarantee that property taxes wont increase anyways - especially since property taxes are imposed by localities, not the federal government.

Reducing reliance on fossil fuels by 50% is another great sounding policy, but how exactly would that be accomplished? Will the left allow the construction of new nuclear power facilities, wind power facilities, or hydroelectric facilities or will they stand in the way via NIMBY and trotting out the usual excuses for opposing such programs. Conservation can only get you so far.

Improving reading and math skills is another great idea, but how exactly can you achieve this when teachers' unions stand in the way of tying their benefits and salaries to student performance? That would mean the Democrats taking on one of their largest backers - the teachers' unions.

I will say that the idea of permitting those who have consolidated student loans to be able to reconsolidate their loans to take advantage of lower rates is a great idea - homeowners are able to refinance their mortgages, so why can't student loan owners do the same? I would benefit from this, as would many others who took out loans when the interest rates were above 8%, and they're now several percentage points below that.