Romney’s tax plan: Robin Hood in reverse
Posted with permission. "Reporters" need to call him out on this, but since they're benefiting, why would they?
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2012_01/romneys_tax_plan_robin_hood_in034557.php
Romney’s tax plan: Robin Hood in reverse
By Steve Benen
Back in August, Mitt Romney made a deliberate effort to appear moderate on taxes. “I don’t want to waste time trying to get tax cuts for wealthy people because frankly, wealthy people are doing just fine,” the Republican presidential candidate said.
In November, he pushed the same line in a television interview, arguing. “I’m proposing no tax cuts for the rich.”
It’s perfectly understandable why Romney would make the claim. More tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires isn’t exactly a winning issue when the vast majority of American voters want the exact opposite.
The problem, of course, is that Romney is either shamelessly lying or he’s not familiar with his own policy agenda.
The reduced government revenue could widen the country’s budget deficit by at least $180 billion, according to the analysis of Romney’s 59-point, 160-page economic plan.
Derek Thompson put it this way: “The simplest way to conceive of Mitt Romney’s tax proposal is the Bush Tax Cuts on steroids.”
The Tax Policy Center’s analysis is online and well worth checking out. To briefly summarize, Romney would give the wealthy yet another significant boost by making the Bush-era cuts permanent, reducing the corporate tax rate, and repealing the estate tax. Those with the least, meanwhile, would take it on the chin: Romney would scrap all Obama-era tax breaks, including the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, the American Opportunity tax credit for higher education, and the more generous child credit. The changes for those in the bottom 20% would see an annual increase of about $157 a year.
The bottom line: if you’re very wealthy, Romney intends to stuff more money in your pockets. If you’re already struggling, Romney intends to increase your tax burden.
Or put another way, the multi-millionaire who’s hiding his tax returns, owns a few mansions (one of which he’s quadrupling in size), and who got rich orchestrating leveraged buyouts and laying off thousands of American workers, has quite a policy agenda in mind for 2013: free rein for Wall Street, taking health coverage away from millions, slashing public investments that benefit working families, more foreclosures, tax increases on those already struggling, and tax cuts for the rich.
Oh, and a much higher deficit, too.
Here’s a question for reporters covering Romney: “Governor, when you said, ‘I’m proposing no tax cuts for the rich,’ why would you tell voters something that isn’t true?”
