Romney's latest tax plan
-Headline of the day-
"'It can't be scored.'"
Mitt Romney has a tax plan problem; he keeps coming out with new ones that nobody likes. According to Steve Benen, "For the second time in as many months, Mitt Romney unveiled another tax plan recently, and this one was intended to make his party's far-right base even happier. There's a lot for a conservative to like: major new tax breaks for the wealthy, slashing the corporate tax rate, and eliminating estate taxes altogether."
And the reason that the far-right will like it? It's completely insane and not at all based in anything resembling reality -- which is
exactly what the wingnuts like. According to Benen, "The non-partisan Tax Policy Center published a fairly detailed analysis of Romney's new proposal and found that it's not only heavily tilted to benefit the rich, it also would make the deficit much worse -- by nearly a half-trillion dollars in 2015 alone -- because the former governor has made no effort to explain how he'd pay for these unnecessary tax breaks." It's typical Republican mumbo-jumbo; you pass huge tax breaks for bazillionaires and money flies out of your butt to cover the lost revenues. Worked for Bush, right?
Anyway, Romney made the mistake of going on CNBC, where people are serious about money and know things about it. The host of the network's
Squawk Box asked Mittens what was up with this crazy, deficit exploding tax idea and Romney laughed it off. You can't score this thing, he answered, because how I pay for it all is, by design, a complete mystery.
No, really.
"I haven't laid out all the details of how we're going to deal with each one of the deductions and exemptions," Mittens said, "so I think it's kind of interesting for the groups who try and score it because, frankly, it can't be scored because those kinds of details are going to have be worked out with Congress."
"A tax plan that can't be scored because it doesn't include sufficient details is not a plan,"
Ezra Klein's WonkBlog notes. "[Romney] has a statement about what he would like a reformed tax system to include: lower rates for everyone. But that's cake-and-ice-cream stuff. All the hard questions -- which tax breaks to close, for instance -- remain unanswered, and it doesn't appear that he plans to answer them anytime soon."
So all pie-in-the-sky promises and no specifics? The nuts will just eat it up. And if this doesn't work, the next plan can include free unicorn rides. (
Maddow Blog)
-The eyes follow you everywhere-
It'd totally work, though... (
Truthdig)
-Bonus HotD-
"Joe The Plumber May Become Congressman The Plumber."
But more likely he'll remain Loser the Plumber. (
Wonkette)
