Romney’s $5 Trillion Tax Dodge
If you watched Wednesday night’s presidential debate you witnessed an amazing role reversal for a modern Republican. President Obama accused Mitt Romney of wanting to cut taxes — specifically by $5 trillion — and Mitt Romney claimed he’d be strongly opposed to such a terrible idea.
A Republican, opposed to a giant tax cut? Here he is in his own words.
“I don’t have a $5 trillion tax cut. … I’m not looking for a $5 trillion tax cut. … Let me repeat what I said. I’m not in favor of a $5 trillion tax cut. That’s not my plan.”
Romney’s objection is that the $5 trillion tax cut is only one half of his plan. But crucially, it’s the only part of his plan that he’s detailed with any specificity.
The $5 trillion from the nonpartisan, independent, Tax Policy Center. It’s an estimate of how much cutting everyone’s tax rates 20 percent below where they are right now would add to deficits over 10 years. That gross tax cut figure is not in dispute. Romney’s complaint is that it only accounts for one big piece of his tax plan. But what’s still unclear, perhaps more unclear after the debate, is the other big piece: how Romney plans to pay for it.
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