Thursday, November 01, 2012

Interactive: Make Mitt Romney’s tax plan add up!

INTERACTIVE: Make Mitt Romney’s tax plan add up!. I only found about $50 billion of deductions to eliminate and I didn't choose any tax raises because he's said he won't.

"But the minute one moves from that vague goal of making the tax code simpler into the knotty questions of what provisions of the tax code ought to be eliminated, the broad consensus breaks down. Should the next president limit the mortgage-interest deduction, and if so, by how much? Should he end the charitable deduction? What about the tax-free status of employer-provided health benefits?

These are the real questions of tax reform, and they’re often hidden by politicians who prefer to talk vaguely of ‘tax breaks and loopholes.’ But if either President Obama or Mitt Romney attempts to ‘broaden the base and lower the rates,’ those questions will be the only ones that matter.

To help make them clearer, we’ve worked with the analysts at Citizens for Tax Justice, and its sister organization the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, to create the Wonkblog Tax Reform Calculator. We in particular thank Matt Gardner at ITEP for running the numbers necessary for the simulation to work. Today’s version allows you to try and pay for Romney’s tax cuts by choosing which deductions and exemptions to eliminate. Tomorrow we’ll release a simulation based on Obama’s specifications and goals."

UPDATE: Today he added one for Obama's policies. Make President Obama’s tax plan add up!. I made it well past the Simpson-Bowles target by adding taxes for carbon, financial institutions, and Clinton era estate taxes. I also raised the Social Security payroll tax cap which to me just makes common sense.

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