Romney Camp's Tax Message In Disarray After Tax Study's Release
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney trying to push back after a devastating new study from the non-partisan Tax Policy Center said his plan would increase taxes for lower and middle class voters while benefitting the wealthiest Americans the most.
The Romney campaign has labeled the study "a joke" and repeatedly called the study biased.
"This is just another biased study from a former Obama staffer that ignores critical parts of Governor Romney's tax reform program, which will help the middle class and promote faster economic growth," said Romney Policy Director Lanhee Chen.
"The only answer he [Obama] has for his failed policies is to cite false and inaccurate studies and to raise taxes on millions of families, small businesses, and job creators," said Romney's Florida Communications Director Jeff Bechdel.
Chen went on to say that the study ignores dropping the corporate tax rate and proposed deficit reduction plans. Those plans target non-discretionary spending, but specifically exempts defense spending from any cuts.
The charge of the study being biased comes because one of the co-authors of the study is a former senior economist for President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, Adam Looney.
However, the Romney campaign specifically left out the history of another co-author and the head of the Tax Policy Center. One of Looney's co-authors, William Gale, was a staff economist on President George H.W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, according to the Washington Post.
The head of the Tax Policy Center is director Donald Marron, who was a principal on George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, according to the Post.
CBSMiami's Tim Kephart reached out to the Romney campaign to address the inconsistencies, but the campaign hasn't responded as of press time.
Further analysis of Romney's tax plan from Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman found that both Romney and Obama's plans are "unrealistic."
"Obama is proposing to raise revenue by around $80 billion a year compared with current policy, while Romney is proposing to cut revenue by around $450 billion a year compared with current policy," Krugman wrote. "Obama is inadequate; Romney is intensely, screamingly irresponsible."
Krugman went on to claim Romney is trying to scam voters by claiming that the lost revenue from the massive tax cuts could be made up for my closing tax loopholes and expenditures. The Tax Policy Center study found that mathematically, even given a massively growing economy, is impossible.
Some pundits have claimed that the study didn't adequately account for the anticipated growth that would result from massive tax cuts. But the TPS addressed that in their study citing the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office analysis of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts.
"Estimates indicate that the effects of tax rate reductions on the macroeconomy are likely to be small or even negative, at least, over the typical 10-year budget window," the study said.
The Romney campaign's response to the study hasn't been as crisp as responses to other crises, which is leading to the Obama to feel like there is blood in the water to attack. The Obama campaign already released an ad dealing with the study and published a calculator that simulated how much the Romney plan would cost taxpayers.
Romney's campaign is trying to move forward after the study's bomb landed in the campaign's lap Wednesday. Romney held a rally in Colorado, a key swing state, Thursday flanked by several GOP governors, some of whom have been rumored to be on the vice-presidential list.
