Bloomberg reporter Josh Barro recently explained why Mitt Romney’s tax plan couldn’t work. The tax rate cuts would provide $86 billion more in tax relief to people making over $200,000 than Romney could recoup by eliminating tax expenditures for that group. That means his plan is necessarily a tax cut for the rich, so if Romney keeps his promise not to grow the deficit, he’ll have to raise taxes on the middle class.
Mark Trumbull, a staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor, cites Mitt Romney’s tax plan as mathematically impossible, and Jonathan Chait of New York magazine quipped Romney’s tax plan repeals the laws of arithmetic.
Mark Zandi, Moody’s chief economist agrees, which is surprising since he is a former McCain campaign manager. Zandi explained that Romney’s tax plan doesn’t add up because it’s not possible to lower taxes by 20 percent across the board while making up those losses in government revenue by closing loopholes on the wealthy.
Apparently, Romney believes those 47 percent of voters who are victims are also not smart enough to figure out his tax plan just doesn’t add up, or more colorfully stated, “It’s malarkey!”
Judi Gray
Boca Raton
Barro isn’t the first person to analyze Governor Romney’s tax plan using IRS data from 2009. In fact, Harvey Rosen, the John L. Weinberg Professor of economics and business policy at Princeton University and a public finance expert, also based his analysis on the same data but came to the opposite conclusion. Governor Romney’s tax plan works and the math adds up.
In fact, no fewer than six independent studies have confirmed the soundness of the Governor’s tax plan. Rather than wasting time trying to discredit the proposals of the Republican nominee, perhaps Mr. Barro and other journalists should investigate President Obama’s tax reform package. Or, more accurately, his lack of one.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-10/mitt-romney-s-campaign-responds-to-josh-barro.html
Not everyone agrees with your examples as shown in the Washington Times article below.
What is Obama’s Plan?! Four more years of the same…spending and borrowing and more spending? Totally disastrous for our country! Romney and Ryan KNOW what they are doing…Obama is clueless!
www: Princeton economist: Romney’s tax plan will work | Times 247
“Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama, and liberal think tanks have claimed Mitt Romney’s plan to cut tax rates across the board by 20 percent is bad arithmetic, but a Princeton economics professor, Harvey Rosen, examined Romney’s proposals in a paper and concluded Romney’s plan would work. The economy would have to grow by 3 percentage points more over the term of his plan than it would have without his plan.
Liberals, who often do not understand how the economy works let alone how to expand the economic pie, failed to work in their assumptions that the purpose of Romney’s tax cuts is to actually grow the economy, which would make people more prosperous. And as the economy grows and more people get jobs, the government would get more tax dollars.
The Tax Policy Center, which is affiliated with the center-left Brookings Institution and Urban Institute, analyzed Romney’s tax plan assuming there would be zero economic growth. The lead analyst in the Tax Policy Center’s study was a former Obama administration official”