Romney’s preposterous arguments for not telling you which tax breaks he’d abolish.

[DonViejo]

In Wednesday’s presidential debate, Mitt Romney said he would cut tax rates by 20 percent. He promised to do this without costing the government any revenue or forcing middle-class taxpayers to make up the difference. How would he make the math work? By eliminating tax loopholes and deductions.

No way, said President Obama: “If you are lowering the rates the way you described, Governor, then it is not possible to come up with enough deductions and loopholes that only affect high-income individuals to avoid either raising the deficit or burdening the middle class.”

Romney insisted he could make the numbers add up, but he wouldn’t say how. “I’m going to work together with Congress” to figure out “what are the various ways we could bring down deductions,” he asserted.

This preposterous dodge has been going on for weeks. Romney, Paul Ryan, and their surrogates have refused to say which deductions they’d eliminate. But their magic accounting, whatever it is, can’t be half as creative as the arguments they’ve concocted for hiding it. Here’s a catalogue of their excuses so far:

Continue reading:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/10/romney_s_tax_deduction_plan_why_won_t_he_tell_you_which_loopholes_he_d_close_.html

[The Magistrate]

1. Hell, Sir, Congress Never Closes Loop-Holes Or Deductions; It Just is Not Done....

They happily vote to reduce tax rates, especially for the wealthy, and happily lard new loop-holes, deductions and subsidies for corporations into the tax code, but they do not vote to end deductions and close loop-holes and cease subsidies....

[Cosmocat]

2. He is a buffoon, a raging, dipshit, dunderheaded buffoon

For YEARS now, he has towed the republican bullshit line of "WE NEED TO CUT TAXES FOR THE JOB CREATORS!"

A couple of weeks ago, he went off the reservation with this thing where because of deductions, he was actually going to cut middle class taxes.

But, the deductions are a like a widget to this clown that makes whoever he is talking to at any given time end up with a cut while magically keeping the cuts revenue neutral.

Bottom line, if someone gets a cut and it is revenue neutral SOMEONE is paying MORE.

[gkhouston]

3. Yes, the dodge has been going on for weeks. We need an ad about this.

Perhaps the camera could follow some business traveler changing planes in an airport. He/she could walk past a series of boarding area TVs playing some clips of the recent dodging and the directional/flight info signs could be replaced by factoids about the deficit and Mitt's claims. In the background, we'd hear Romney being paged repeatedly, almost indistinctly at first, but more clearly as the ad continues. Most of the pages are simply, "Paging Mitt Romney," but the last one would be, "Governor Romney, please report to the blackboard," and the ad would end with a picture of a blackboard, chalk at the ready, and the message, "America's waiting to see your math."

on edit: Better yet, the President is standing there, holding out the chalk and saying, "Governor Romney, America's waiting to see your math."

[subterranean]

4. Even if they did manage to abolish some tax breaks,

an army of well-financed lobbyists would immediately descend on Capitol Hill to have them quietly reinstated. At least the ones that benefit corporations and the wealthy.