It’s Arithmetic

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Team Romney will swear until they are blue in the face that Romney's tax plan is revenue neutral and will not raise taxes on the middle class — while studiously avoiding providng you with any details on how they will achieve this magical result. Team Romney will reject all scientific data and math to perpetuate this lie.

As President Obama said during the debate, "It's arithmetic." Steve Benen writes today about the op-ed by Brookings Institution's William G. Gale defending the study which scored Romney's $5 trillion tax plan. In defense of 'the basic power of arithmetic':

It's been about two months since researchers at the Brookings Institution and the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center published
their devastating report on Mitt Romney's tax plan. After going out of
their way to give Romney every possible benefit of the doubt, the
scholars found the Republican's plan would either explode the deficit or
lead to a middle-class tax hike.

Brookings and the TPC backed up
their analysis, but even common sense suggests they're right —
Romney/Ryan intends to slash taxes, increase defense and entitlement
spending, and balance the budget, all at the same time. There's simply
no way this can be done without asking more from the middle class.

Romney,
predictably, has condemned the Brookings and the TPC report,
questioning the scholars' integrity and accusing the researchers of
using shoddy math. Brookings' William G. Gale today sticks up for "the basic power of arithmetic"
against Republican criticism, explaining that Romney's
proposal really would "necessarily have to raise taxes on taxpayers
below $200,000."

This was true even when we bent over backwards to make the plan as
favorable to Romney as possible. We considered an unrealistically
progressive way of financing the specified tax reductions. We accounted
for revenue feedback coming from potential economic growth estimates as
estimated by Romney advisor Greg Mankiw. We even ignored the need to
finance about a trillion dollars in Romney's proposed corporate cuts.

Our conclusion was not a prediction about Governor Romney would do as
President, it was an arithmetic calculation: all of the promises
couldn't be met simultaneously without resorting to tax increases on
households with income below $200,000.

Gale presents a terrific metaphor: suppose Romney claims
he can drive a car from Boston to Los Angeles in 15 hours. Brookings
and the TPC would say that would require Romney to exceed the speed
limit, Obama would use this in campaign ads, and Republicans would decry
the analysis as "partisan," but, "You still can't drive cross country
in 15 hours without speeding."

Josh Marshall at Talkingpointsmemo adds,
"If you care about these things you should take a moment and read
Gale's short piece. If you're a reporter who doesn't like being lied to
you should definitely read it."

Unfortunately, there are a lot of reporters who are simply stenographers for the lies of mendacious Mitt.