Ryan’s “6 studies that prove Romney’s tax plan works” don’t

10/13/2012 1:15pm by 586

For a numbers guy, Paul Ryan sure has a lot of problems with numbers and the truth.

He appears to “borrow” a story about his daughter’s name from Kurt Cobain, he was called out as a “liar” over his marathon time, he claims to be a mountaineering superstar despite nothing to back up his story, and he tells a drooling media about his body fat content that is remarkably on par with the dopers of the Tour de France.

Nothing Paul Ryan says should be taken seriously because he’s been tangled in so many distortions.

During his debate with Vice President Biden, besides being caught red-handed requesting pork from the stimulus and Obamacare, he asserted that there were six studies that proved the Romney-Ryan tax plan was feasible. The only problem is, they don’t.  In fact, most of the “studies” are actually only blog posts.

Once again, Paul Ryan found it impossible to tell the truth.

Romney’s tax plan is a three-legged stool that doesn’t stand. Here’s how it works — or doesn’t. Romney wants to 1) cut tax rates across the board by 20 percent, 2) cut tax expenditures to pay for these tax cuts, and 3) maintain progressivity. The problem, as the Tax Policy Center pointed out, is there aren’t enough tax expenditures for the rich to pay for all the tax cuts for the rich. Romney’s plan only works if he cuts out the tax cuts for the rich, raises taxes on the middle class, or explodes the deficit. In other words, Romney can pick two, and only two, of his tax goals — what Matt Yglesias of Slate calls the “Romney Trilemma”.

That sound you hear is the three-legged stool falling down.

All this hasn’t stopped a fight against the tyranny of arithmetic. The defenses of the Romney tax plan generally fall into three broad categories. The first assumes the plan will set off magic growth of the monster variety; the second assumes Romney defines “middle-class” differently than he does; and the third assumes Romney would eliminate tax expenditures he has indicated he would not eliminate. Let’s briefly consider the six such “studies” that Ryan cited — most are actually blog posts — in turn.

Click through to The Atlantic for the details, but really, this pattern of lying has to stop.

Instead of breathlessly reporting on the gym workout program of the adult frat boy, how about the media focus on important issues such as facts, and Romney/Ryan’s penchant for lying? Oh, and that little issue of Mitt Romney’s full tax release and whether or not Mitt Romney sought IRS amnesty when he closed his secretive Swiss bank account (in other words, he broke the law).

What else can you say about a political party that believes it makes sense to have an anti-science crazy like Todd Akin on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology committee?

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An American in Paris, France. BA in History & Political Science from Ohio State. Provided consulting services to US software startups, launching new business overseas that have both IPO’d and sold to well-known global software companies. Currently launching a new cloud-based startup for the Microsoft market. Full bio here.

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