Romney: My Magic Tax Plan Will Repeal Laws of Arithmetic
Republicans have been frantically denying the math, which Obama has turned into the potent (and accurate) accusation that Romneys plan would cut taxes on the rich in order to raise them on the middle class. Republican economist Martin Feldstein tried to defend Romney by doing his own study showing that Romneys math could work, but in an epic blunder, inadvertently confirmed the charges. Despite cutting all kinds of methodological corners, Feldsteins study found that the threshold above which Romney would have to raise taxes was not the $250,000 he promised but $100,000 a year. That means Romney would have to raise taxes on a huge chunk of income below $250,000 a year, just as the TPC study found. Feldstein dealt with this problem by writing his column about his study as if it disproved rather than confirmed the TPC, and other conservatives have gone on pretending the same thing.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You cite your own studies. But one of the studies you cite by Martin Feldstein at Harvard shows that to make your math work, it could work, if you eliminate the home mortgage, charity, and state and local tax deductions for everyone earning over $100,000. Is that what you propose?
MITT ROMNEY: No, thats not what I propose. And, of course, part of my plan is to stimulate economic growth. The biggest source of getting the country to a balanced budget is not by raising taxes or by cutting spending. Its by encouraging the growth of the economy. So my tax plan is to encourage investment in growth in America, more jobs, that means more people paying taxes. So thats a big component of what allows us to get to a balanced budget.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But his study, which youve cited, says it can only work if you take away those deductions for everyone earning more than $100,000.
MITT ROMNEY: Well, it doesnt necessarily show the same growth that were anticipating. And I havent seen his precise study. But I can tell you that we can lower our rates
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, you cited the study, though.
What Romneys doing here is retreating into incoherence.
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/09/romney-my-magic-tax-plan-will-repeal-math.html