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If only Obama were
really saying this... |
Josh Marshall of TPM reports that senior Rmoney adviser Ed Gillespie is claiming that...
- Six recent studies confirm that Rmoney's (secret!) tax plan would pay for the announced savings,
- Rmoney's tax plan does, indeed, contain specifics on how he would achieve the astonishing savings he claims without battering and frying the middle class, and
- Mr. Rmoney will only reveal the details of his plan after he is elected, to a bipartisan congressional panel.
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The Lyin' King
Myth Rmoney |
How wonderful for us peons that
His Highness King Myth, er, King Mitt would condescend to tell us the particulars of his tax miracle once his coronation is behind him!
But Marshall also points out that the lack of revealed specifics in Rmoney's plan is scarcely half the problem:
even Fox News's Chris Wallace confronts head-on Gillespie's claim that "6 studies" show that the plan, as understood by Fox (where do they get
their particulars?), would work as advertised. The "6 studies" have been named, and include such bastions of bipartisanship as
- a blogger who was a top adviser to George W. Bush,
- the American Enterprise Institute, and
- a Harvard group.
How dare some of us question King Myth Rmoney's good faith in enumerating sources! His Majesty is not to be questioned on any matters whatsoever!
[/snark]
The Hill confirms Gillespie's position that Rmoney's tax plan will be revealed after the election.
Bloomberg Business Week reinforces that cutting the most popular middle class tax deductions would result in a
total savings of only 4%, far too little to pay for Rmoney's 20% across-the-board tax cut. And just to be clear, Business Week's source of its information is the congressional
Joint Committee on Taxation, which is, in its own words,
"... a nonpartisan committee of the United States Congress, originally established under the Revenue Act of 1926. The Joint Committee operates with an experienced professional staff of Ph.D economists, attorneys, and accountants, who assist Members of the majority and minority parties in both houses of Congress on tax legislation." In other words, while any source of such information is imperfect, there's probably not a better one out there than the JCT. If they say it won't cut 20% but rather only 4%, the chances are pretty good that it won't cut 20% but rather only 4%.
In short, just as regarding the information on his personal tax returns, Rmoney is trying to pull a fast one on the public. Repeat the words "six studies show it works" enough times between now and elections, and enough goddamned fools will believe it to give Rmoney an advantage. And those are the goddamned fools likely to pay most dearly under Rmoney's plan.
What a bastard! I hope someday he experiences a genuine free market!
UPDATE: David Dayen of FDL does the heavy lifting on the "six studies".
