Validation by Bloomberg

Posted by Bob Lord

I get to say I'm a step ahead of Josh Baro at Bloomberg. Last week, I published this post, in which I had this to say about Mitt's new tax contrivance, the deduction bucket:

The desparation is obvious. By all appearances, this is something the Romney camp just contrived in response to pressure to provide specifics regarding his tax plan. Well, doesn't that mean that their previous refusal to discuss specifics was due not to secrecy but to the utter lack of actual specifics when Mitt proposed his "tax plan" last Spring?

I went on to disagree with Josh on a number of other fronts, although I actually think he's a pretty good writer and has a very solid grasp of tax economics. That grasp is amply demonstrated in his post today, which the Huffington Post headline has been linking to and which is a great analysis of the hacks who are providing cover for Romney. It's a very worthwhile read.

I loved the end, where Josh concludes:

Finally, I would note one item that the Romney campaign does not cite in support of its tax plan: Any analysis actually prepared for the campaign in preparation for announcing the plan in February. You would expect that, in advance of announcing a tax plan, the campaign would commission an analysis to make sure that all of its planks can coexist. Releasing that analysis now would be to the campaign's advantage, helping them put down claims like mine that their math doesn't add up.

Why don't they release that analysis? My guess is because the analysis doesn't exist, and the 20 percent rate cut figure was plucked out of thin air for political reasons without regard to whether it was feasible.

(emphasis mine). I couldn't agree more, but that was obvious months ago, when Mitt and Paul refused to give specifics, and was implicitly admitted when Mitt introduced his buckeet concept last week.