

  • Cut all tax rates by 20% in all brackets
  • Eliminate a number of deductions

Note this is not the same as his five point plan. I'm just talking about the general tax related portions. I don't see how this works and I'm not the only one.


Thing is, the US government is pretty hungry and wants that pie. You've made it smaller. We're not revenue neutral. So now we eliminate some deductions. This would add some pie back into the mix. But, and here's a problem that Romney has yet to address, he has not told us what deductions he would suggest eliminating. That's pretty important. At one point, he suggested possibly eliminating the mortgage interest deduction. While his campaign later backed off the idea, that would have been problematic as it would disproportionately affect the middle class he says he doesn't want to hurt. How? Simple... the mortgage interest deduction represents, in relative terms, a larger write off for middle class households than upper class. Take that away and that family is now paying a higher amount of their own money in taxes than they were before. But it gets better.


The final piece of the puzzle is stimulating the economy. This is where Romney pitches his various plans to help create jobs and increase trade. With more money earned, more taxes will be paid. Great! Except capital gains are now off the table, so the business owners who are now making more money aren't paying any more in taxes. So who is picking up the tab here? Oh, the middle and lower classes of income earners. The ones Romney says he doesn't want to make pay more.

Now, whether you think it is fair that 5% of Americans are responsible for providing 60% of the tax revenue is an entirely different question. The point here is that Romney's plan does not work as he says it does. And the biggest tell is that he refuses to provide any details. There's a lot of hand waving but when it comes down to it, his plan is less of a plan than a wishlist. If he starts laying out details and those details make sense, I'll be the first to agree that it is a workable solution. But until then all I've seen are smoke and mirrors.


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