Moody’s Chief Economist On Romney’s Tax Plan: ‘The Arithmetic Doesn’t Work’

[California Girl]

There are economists who agree with Obama's plan. There are economists who agree with Romney's plan.

Where it gets really interesting is when you review the political affiliation of those economists. It appears that those who identify as Democrat are more likely to support Obama's plan. Those who identify as Republican, support Romney's.... now for the really interesting bit.... when it comes to international economists who identify as neither, Romney's plan wins, hands down.

Curious.

 

[The Rabbi]

It is a fair question to ask what loopholes he's going to close. If he doesn't say, then he is going to be open to charges that he will close loopholes on the middle class, even if he says he won't.

HE's made it clear that this has to be a bipartisan effort, so no point laying it out now.

 

[toomuchtime_]

It is a fair question to ask what loopholes he's going to close. If he doesn't say, then he is going to be open to charges that he will close loopholes on the middle class, even if he says he won't.

It is not a serious question for several reasons. First, Romney never said he would entirely offset the tax cut by ending some deductions. He said he would cut spending, end some deductions on the wealthy and encourage new investment in order to make up the loss of revenue from the tax cuts. Romney has pledged that he will allow no tax cuts that will increase the deficit. The Democrats' argument that Romney intends to entirely offset the revenue loss from the tax cut by ending ending some deductions on the wealthy is just flat out dishonest.

Second, what deductions will be ended and what spending cuts will be made will be determined by negotiations between the Romney WH and Congress. Asking Romney what deductions he would like to end now is like asking you what you would do if you won a $100,000,000 lottery jackpot. Neither question addresses what is possible.

Democrats, of course, are mischaracterizing Romney's tax plan for political purposes and that's to be expected during election campaigns, but the fact that Romney's pledge to seek bipartisan solutions to the nations problems is met with incredulity by so many others, despite the fact that he did that successfully in Mass., illustrates the extent of the damage Obama's polarizing and divisive tactics have done to our political system and how much it has damaged the confidence of American voters in their government.

 

[Katzndogz]

The Tax Policy Center actually found that Romney's plan would work quite well as being fairer, flatter and simpler.

TPC Tax Topics | romney-plan