Romney's tax plan cannot be implemented without eviscerating the social safety net:
Wiping out deductions wouldn’t allow for much lower tax rates, analysis saysBy Lori Montgomery, Published: October 12Wiping out itemized deductions and raising taxes on investment income would generate only enough cash to pay for a minuscule reduction in federal tax rates, according to an official analysis, raising new questions about the workability of Republican-style tax reform.
In a report released Friday, the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, the official scorekeeper for tax policy, concluded that such changes would pay for a 4 percent reduction in tax rates next year — far short of the 20 percent reduction sought by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Even with the total elimination of some of the biggest breaks in the tax code — including popular deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions and state and local taxes — the JCT found that the top rate could be pushed down from the scheduled 39.6 percent next year only to 38 percent, while the rate for the lowest tax bracket would fall from 15 percent to 14.4 percent.
