Romney Tax Cuts Work Only When Mortgage Break Mostly Reduced

Source: Bloomberg

Mitt Romney says he can lower income-tax rates by 20 percent without costing the U.S. government revenue and without making the middle class carry a bigger share of the tax load.

He’s right -- assuming that Congress eliminates the most widely used deductions by taxpayers earning more than $100,000 a year, says Harvey Rosen, an economics professor at Princeton University whose study Romney cites as evidence that his plan is viable.

The Republican presidential candidate has refused to say which tax breaks he would eliminate. Rosen’s illustration abolishes those for home mortgage interest payments, employer- provided health insurance, state and local taxes, charitable donations and the unrealized increase in the value of life- insurance policies for households with six-figure incomes.

“Even if you could maybe make it work in an abstract world, you can’t assume that all of these deductions will be eliminated, especially by a candidate who so far hasn’t identified one he’d do away with,” says Alan Viard, a former Treasury Department tax expert in President George W. Bush’s administration.


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-14/romney-tax-cuts-work-only-when-mortgage-deduction-mostly-reduced.html

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Even Republican analysis can't make Romney's proposed economic plan work without raising taxes on folks making less than $250,000 a year. The bottom line once again is that Romney is lying and stonewalling regarding who is going to get slammed by his plans.