Paul Ryan's tax plan is so successful he can't explain it
Posted on Wednesday, October 03, 2012 at 10:15 AM
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Only the great masters of style ever succeeded in being obscure, wrote Oscar Wilde. He wasn't talking about Paul Ryan's tax plan but I'm certain he would have paid him that compliment.
Asked how he would pay for the plan he and Mitt Romney are proposing - a 20 percent across-the-board income tax cut - on Fox News Sunday, Ryan said it would take him 'too long to go through all the math.'
So let's skip that, eh? Math is hard.
I've watched some entertaining shell games in my time but I've never seen someone take $5 trillion in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, then decline to tell us how they'd be paid for without raising taxes on the middle class or exploding the deficit.
Perhaps he won't tell us his plan for the middle class because, strange to relate, he doesn't have one?
It seems a simple enough request. Isn't he referred to as the GOP's numbers guy? A brief summation would suffice. If he can't or won't explain himself to us then why should we vote for him?
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EphraimKibbey | Oct 04, 2012, 01:22 AM EDT
Ah, the old "I'll cut your taxes something for nothing" bribery ploy. Well it worked for W. didn't it? I wonder if Ryan knows that his ole pal Romney just said that he will not do the tax cut if it raises taxes on the middle class or if it increases the deficit in his debate with the President? Poor Paul, another victim of Mitt the mendacious. I guess its finally gotten around to etch-a-sketch time. Fairy tales can come true. It can happen to you, if you just TRUST me.
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seanomelb | Oct 03, 2012, 07:42 PM EDT
There's a third way Briano,increase taxes on the wealthy. Was Kennedy referring to a rise in the standard of living and not a rise in the overseas bank deposits of the idle rich??
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BrianO | Oct 03, 2012, 04:33 PM EDT
Ah my socialist friends, there are only two ways to escape the debt burden imposed by the Obama failed presidency, either grow the economy or artificially print money. I would choose growth, and to do that you need free market capitalism. In the words of Irish Democratic President John Kennedy, "A rising tide lifts all ships". But if you are haters of a free people and what was the democratic party, and the only Irish catholic president then go ahead and lay down your punitive socialist controlling mantra.
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Nicomax | Oct 03, 2012, 02:11 PM EDT
Big tax reforms should include the following: all income is taxed as earned income; subsidies for oil exploration, monster farms, mining and timber interests, etc. are eliminated; Social Security payroll deductions are not collected on the first $15,000 of income, but on every dollar earned after that, mortgage interest is not deductible on any portion of a loan over $750,000, institute a 3-strikes rule on any tax-exempt organization that becomes involved in politics- after the third swing and miss, you are taxed like everyone else.
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jamthecat | Oct 03, 2012, 12:27 PM EDT
It's not that he can't explain it; it's that he knows it's nonsense and if he tries to explain it, everyone will see that his numbers do not add up or are based in fantasy land. It's a flat out lie of a budget, and anyone who thinks this man is serious seriously needs to rejoin the real world.
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FastEddy | Oct 03, 2012, 12:00 PM EDT
"Its the economy, stupid." ANY permanent tax cut is worth while. Explaining it obviously has your panties bunched up, so make it simple: Without a tax cut and House cleaning, the US economy will not recover, ever. Without a plan, any plan, there will be no recovery. Oh Bummer.
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eiriamach | Oct 03, 2012, 11:19 AM EDT
Anyone remember the GW Bush tax cuts? They looked attractive because they were cuts for "everyone," "across the board." The middle-class was so eager for cuts that we ignored the fact that the top five percent of incomes received nearly half of those tax cuts, in a bonanza that worsened the gap between the rich and the rest, slowed wage growth to a complete standstill, and led to the high-risk investments and bubbles that brought on the economic crash. The wealthy already have a huge break in the tax rate on non-earned income (dividends and profits from investments), which is the lion's share of their income but has a much lower tax rate than the salaries that most of us live on. That's why Romney pays less than 14 percent in federal tax and the rest of us pay a much higher rate. That's why Warren Buffett's secretary pays a far higher percentage of income in taxes than the boss pays. Making the rich MUCH richer has lost $2.5 trillion in tax revenue over the past decade. Will we be smarter this time and calculate not only our own 20 percent but also the fairness of this "across the board" deal and the inevitable contraction of the economy it will cause -- i.e., fewer jobs, not more?
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tom/peggy | Oct 03, 2012, 11:06 AM EDT
The key to more revenue is not higher taxes but more people working and paying taxes.
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eiriamach | Oct 03, 2012, 10:35 AM EDT
Why can't Ryan say where he'll find the money to give huge tax reductions to the wealthy? The reality is that middle- and low-income people will pay more to make up the shortfall in federal revenue. If Ryan said that, a sense of reality would dawn on anyone bewitched by his fairy tale that making the rich richer will magically make the not-rich, who would actually pay more than their share, richer too. Fairy tales ain't "real." Reality, as Stephen Colbert once noted, "has a well known liberal bias."
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TreeDetective | Oct 03, 2012, 10:13 AM EDT
Paul Ryan certainly CAN explain it. Joe Biden is entertaining with his gaffes (most of which aren't reported in Liberal media), but it is a little frightening to think he is second to the President.
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olovely | Oct 03, 2012, 10:09 AM EDT
Ryan was given the opportunity to explain him tax plan on FOX NEWS. But even there he couldn't or wouldn't.
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hermitTalker | Oct 03, 2012, 10:01 AM EDT
He probably would not have been given even minimal time to explain it. The headline should day he DID NOT explain it, not that he COULD NOT. Instant coffee and tea work, instant trillion dollar budgets take longer. Thus fas as tom/peggy said truth also. OBAMA has come up with no budget and we know how he handled cash before this, thousands of pages Congress could not get to read for Stimulus and Health Care Plan, same rush through.
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tom/peggy | Oct 03, 2012, 09:46 AM EDT
Tax cuts have always increased revenue to the Federal Government. Obama would like more information from Romney/Ryan so he can distort it. It's been four years and we haven't seen any plan from the President. He's supposed to be our leader but is missing in action. Taxing the job creators (rich) will make virtually no difference to the debt we have. I know we'll all feel good. I want results and leadership.
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