These three gents are in the office right now, asking for the Stranger Election Control Board's endorsement to represent Washington State's 9th Congressional District:

• From left to right: Dem challenger Jim Cramer, Incumbent Dem Adam Smith, and Republican challenger Jim Postma

They disagree on lots of stuff. On the one hand, Representative Smith says that if Congressional Republicans want to continue upholding Bush-era tax cuts, the Democrats have leverage to fight them. "If they insist on extending all the tax cuts, we should let them expire," Smith insists.

On the other hand, Jim Postma wants to make those cuts permanent, saying, "I have never seen a tax cut that I didn't like." If all tax cuts were eliminated? "A system like that might work," Postma posits. He adds, as a former air force officer, "I have worked on the government dole almost my whole life."

Got a question for them? Put it in comments and we'll try to ask.

A COMMENTER ASKS: "Why pay taxes at all?" writes Slogger DavidG. "If all tax cuts are always good, and lower taxes always mean more economic growth and higher government revenue (as per the Laffer curve), why bother collecting any at all? Or is there some floor to tax rates we just haven't reached? If there is such a floor, would cutting them beneath that floor help or hurt the economy/government revenue? Please show your math."

We didn't ask Postma to show his math, but we did ask him the question. Oddly, the man who loves every tax cut he's ever seen says that the ideal tax rate "probably falls about where we are right now." So Postma would hate all future tax cuts? We doubt it. He adds that when taxation levels were higher under the Eisenhower Administration, that was too high. So uh... back when America's middle class was thriving and industries were booming. Those were the dark days, apparently.