After 10 Glorious Years, Sunshine State News and I Are Passing the Baton

Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich slapped down questions about student-loan debt. Paul said he would kill the federal student loan program, saying, "Any time government gets involved in delivering a service, it brings higher prices, lower quality and creates bubbles." When asked how students would pay for their college education, Paul responded: "Like they do for cell phones and computers." Newt Gingrich said government's role in student loans "merely expands the ability of students to stay in college longer because they don't see the cost."

Gov. Rick Scott will be going back to school. Scott will teach elementary, middle and high school students in Immokalee Thursday for his sixth Lets Get to Work day. School is scheduled be at Immokalee High School appearing before students in honors American government, honors economics and an American government class starting at 7:10 a.m. He will head over to Immokalee Middle School to have lunch with teachers after visits to an eighth-grade U.S. history class and a seventh-grade geography class.

Republican presidential candidates called for lower, flatter tax rates during a CNBC debate Wednesday night. But Michele Bachmann took a slightly different tack by stating "Everyone should pay something ... even if it's the price of two Happy Meals." Noting that 47 percent of Americans pay no federal taxes, the Minnesota congresswoman declared, "Freedom isn't free." Ron Paul turned the tax question on its head, and went after government spending. He vowed to cut $1 trillion in federal spending in the first year of his administration.

CNBC questioners were booed and Herman Cain was lustily cheered Wednesday as he answered questions about sexual-harassment allegations against him. Speaking at a GOP debate at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., Cain reiterated that he did nothing inappropriate with female workers while serving as chairman of the National Restaurant Association. Mitt Romney sidestepped the subject, saying it was a matter for the public to decide, and CNBC moderators quickly returned to the economic questions that were billed as the topic of the evening.