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What do Republican politicians do when they need to pick it up a step? You’ve got it: they propose more tax cuts.
So it’s no great surprise that Mitt Romney is signaling that he’s coming out with a new, “bold” tax proposal to coincide with his stretch drive towards primaries next week in Michigan and Arizona, not to mention the upcoming Super Tuesday (March 6).
The chosen herald for this news appears to be that intrepid supply-sider, Larry Kudlow of National Review, who reports, with barely restrained excitement, that Mitt’s new tax cuts will be “across-the-board with supply-side incentives from rate reduction, and that it will help small-business owners as well as everyone else.”
You may wonder why Romney didn’t find space for this stuff in his previously released 159-page economic plan. Looking at that beast for the first time in a while, it already includes making the Bush tax cuts permanent; abolishing estate taxes; a partial abolition of taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains; and lower corporate tax rates. Ah, but there it is, the placeholder for new goodies: “a conservative overhaul of the tax system over the long term that includes lower, flatter rates on a broader base.”
Now lots of folks in both parties think it might be possible to have lower income tax rates if the lost revenues are offset by aggressive elimination of tax expenditures, from fossil fuel subsidies to the mortgage interest deduction, all of them zealously defended by some powerful lobby. It will be interesting to see if Romney moves in that direction, or instead (as one might guess from Kudlow’s enthusiasm) relies on the old voodoo magic of supply-side economics, and pretends lower rates will pay for themselves. Since he’s in full primary pander mode, it’s unlikely he’ll propose anything a signfiicant number of GOP primary voters will find objectionable.
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stormskies on February 21, 2012 3:21 PM:
Slut Romney is nothing more than a cheap prostitute hawking himself to all cumers ........
kindness on February 21, 2012 3:23 PM:
All the current Republicans seem to have to sell is pandering and lies, not always in that order.
smartalek on February 21, 2012 3:25 PM:
Among the most fundamental & important of the ever-increasing repertoire of Publican lies -- especially lately (thank you, OWS!) -- are these two:
"Liberals / Democrats / everyone-who-isn't-us want 'equality of results;' they won't be happy til everyone -- from the most productive job-creators to the most useless, handout-dependent leaches -- has been brought down to the same lowest-possible-level."
And:
"We're for equality of opportunity -- which is what America is now, and has always been about. That's not only the most efficient way to run the economy, it's the most fair and just."
(Yes, I know that's actually about a dozen lies, not two. Much as they do with "terrorists," they create them faster than we can deal with them.)
But anyone who thinks that there should be no inheritance tax whatsoever is clearly, obviously, undeniably, and totally against "equality of opportunity."
And that's before we even get to the other Publican lies about how taxing an inheritance constitutes a "death tax" and "double-taxation."
How can you tell when a Publican is lying?
Easy -- just see if their lips are moving, or if they're typing on a keyboard.
Captcha = "fegoven mathemat"
WTF?
Josef K on February 21, 2012 3:27 PM:
Can't we have a sane opposition party? Or at least sane Presidential contestants?
estamm on February 21, 2012 3:29 PM:
Elimination of estate taxes. Gee, I wonder why he would want THAT??
gifgrrl on February 21, 2012 3:46 PM:
Betcha $10,000 his plan includes more tax increases for all us "lucky duckies" who are too poor to currently pay taxes. That is, after all, the *only* way to make taxes more fair.
Peter C on February 21, 2012 4:07 PM:
'Mr. 1%' proposes more tax cuts for the 1%. They say the National Debt is our biggest problem but they solve it by giving themselves lots of money.
Tom on February 21, 2012 4:30 PM:
All Republican proposals are based on two simple propositions. One is that poor people have too much money. The other is that Rich people don't have enough.
It can be expressed with the following acronym
"PPHTMMRPDHE." which is pronounced Fit Murmur Die.
Quaker in a Basement on February 21, 2012 4:38 PM:
Why not just cut to the chase and propose eliminating all taxes? Then the government would have infinite revenue!