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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWashington Post: Mitt Romney Tax Plan 'Garbage'
"Mitt Romney, the presumed Republican nominee for president, promises to lower everyones income tax rate without reducing revenue. This sounds terrific. Why didnt we think of it sooner?"
The editorial, titled 'Mitt Romney's garbage', argued that Romney's plan to cut taxes and lower the deficit is unfeasible.
"Its reasonable to assume that his cuts would, as did President Bushs, worsen the nations deficit. Until hes willing to explain how he would avoid such a result, he has little standing to criticize Mr. Obamas fiscal shortcomings."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/19/washington-post-mitt-romney-tax-plan_n_1806388.html
Mr. Romneys garbage
Mr. Romney says that he can achieve this seemingly magical result by broadening the base for income tax collection. This, too, sounds great. In principle, everyone favors broadening the base, also known as closing loopholes. But everyone favors closing someone elses loopholes: those of oil companies, say, or of plutocrats who park their money in the Cayman Islands.
...
Recently the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, showed that Mr. Romneys plan would by necessity help the rich and hurt the middle class. In an interview with Fortune magazine last week, Mr. Romney took strong issue with this conclusion. They made garbage assumptions and they reached a garbage conclusion, he said. Contrary to the centers assumption, he said, he would not take away middle-class tax breaks for homeownership, charitable giving and health care.
Trimming those breaks for the wealthy, as Mr. Romney implies he would do, is a good idea. President Obama has been proposing to do so, by capping total deductions allowed in top brackets, through most of his term, and the idea has gone nowhere in Congress. But heres the catch demonstrated by the center (and confirmed in an update last week, responding to criticisms from some conservative economists): Even if you take away every dollar of tax breaks the wealthy enjoy, you wont get as much back as Mr. Romney proposes to give in tax cuts. So you would either have to go after the middle class or abandon the promise of revenue neutrality.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mr-romneys-garbage/2012/08/18/d109ac74-e883-11e1-8487-64e4b2a79ba8_story.html
kentuck
(111,078 posts)"Washington Post calls Romney tax plan "garbage"...
"Its reasonable to assume that his cuts would, as did President Bushs, worsen the nations deficit. Until hes willing to explain how he would avoid such a result, he has little standing to criticize Mr. Obamas fiscal shortcomings."
SunsetDreams
(8,571 posts)it's even gift wrapped. I hope they do put that in an ad.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)BumRushDaShow
(128,797 posts)hedgehog
(36,286 posts)""Mitt Romney, the presumed Republican nominee for president, promises to lower everyones income tax rate without reducing revenue. This sounds terrific. Why didnt we think of it sooner?"
TomCADem
(17,387 posts)Many of WaPo's articles describe Ryan's Medicare plans as "bold" and "substantive" and are just smitten with the guy, so it is nice that they can call out Romney's tax plan for what it is.
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)I sorta wonder why that is the holy grail anyway. Why aren't we trying to INCREASE revenue instead of striving for neutrality?
Of course, it is hard to increase revenue when all you wanna do is cut, cut, cut.