Mitt Romney Won’t Lower Americans’ Taxes
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has one potential response to working Americans angered by the 14.1 percent federal income tax rate he paid in 2011: If elected, he would lower taxes for everybody.
Or would he?
As Romney tries to project a kinder, gentler image to voters, we’re going to hear a lot about how regular families will benefit from his policies. A central part of his charm offensive will be his proposal to cut tax rates by a fifth.
Problem is, Romney has also promised that his tax reforms will be revenue neutral. This means the government will take the same number of dollar bills out of our collective wallets. Although tax rates might fall by a fifth, the tax burden won’t change. It will simply be rearranged.
Romney’s proposal is a standard prescription among budget wonks: “Lower the rates, broaden the base.” In other words, he plans to take a smaller share of each dollar of income, but make more of that income taxable. He could achieve that, for example, by limiting deductions such as those for mortgage interest, retirement savings or charitable contributions. (Romney used the charitable-contribution deduction to reduce his taxable income by $2.25 million in 2011.)
Read More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-23/mitt-romney-won-t-lower-americans-taxes.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
