The Romney campaign has been pushing back against a recent report by Innovation Ohio and the Center for American Progress showing that “millionaires in [Ohio] would receive an additional $87,000 in tax breaks under the tax plans of Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan while middle-class families would pay $1,900 more in health care taxes and $1,066 more in taxes on their mortgages.” That report used data from a Tax Policy Center study showing that, if Romney were to keep his promise to reduce tax rates while maintaining government revenue, he would have to raise taxes on middle class families by more than $2,000.
In an attempt to refute the IO/CAP report, the Romney campaign approvingly pointed to a Tax Policy Center blog post saying that the math in Romney’s tax plan can’t possibly add up:
As part of his pushback, [Romney campaign spokesman Christopher] Maloney cited a blog by Tax Policy Center director Donald Marron saying, “I don’t interpret this (study by his group) as evidence that Governor Romney wants to increase taxes on the middle class in order to cut taxes for the rich, as an Obama campaign ad claimed. Instead, I view it as showing that his plan can’t accomplish all his stated objectives.”
Unless Romney is admitting that he will be breaking one of his tax plan’s key tenets if he gets into office, there is no way to make it add up without a middle class tax increase.
The Romney campaign has assiduously avoided laying out which tax deductions and loopholes it would close in order to cover the cost of its huge proposed reduction in tax rates. But the Tax Policy Center showed that even if Romney eliminated all tax preferences for the wealthy, he couldn’t pay for his plan without eliminating deductions for the middle class in such a way that middle class taxes would ultimately increase. And either the Romney campaign agrees, or it doesn’t understand the various analyses that have been released, if it is approvingly citing a statement saying that the plan’s math is suspect.
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