Glenn Hubbard – Romney’s main economic adviser – says Americans need to get ready for the Romney BOOM HERE:

In contrast to the sclerosis and joblessness of the past three years, the Romney plan offers an economic U-turn in ideas and choices. When bolstered by sound trade, education, energy and monetary policy, the Romney reform program is expected by the governor’s economic advisers to increase GDP growth by between 0.5% and 1% per year over the next decade. It should also speed up the current recovery, enabling the private sector to create 200,000 to 300,000 jobs per month, or about 12 million new jobs in a Romney first term, and millions more after that due to the plan’s long-run growth effects.

And he explains how … he says:

The Romney plan would reduce individual marginal income tax rates across the board by 20%, while keeping current low tax rates on dividends and capital gains. The governor would also reduce the corporate income tax rate—the highest in the world—to 25%. In addition, he would broaden the tax base to ensure that tax reform is revenue-neutral.

But … a recent independent study by the Brookings Institute found that Romney’s math is impossible; they say – it’s literally mathematically impossible.  Either one of two options will result from Romney’s plan …

#1 – It’s a 20% tax cut across the board in which case it explodes the deficit even more.

or

#2 – It is revenue neutral as Romney says in which case the removal of tax deductions would result in an average tax increase of $2,000 for the average American and large tax cuts for the wealthy.

Quite simply – that’s what “broadening the base” is.  The Romney plan’s answer has two answers to this report.  They say that Brookings is liberal even though Romney himself has claimed that Brookings did good work.  Or they say a former member of the Obama administration was involved in the writing of this report and they forget to mention it was coauthored by a former Bush administration official.  All serious economists are calling Romney’s plan what it is – a tax increase on the middle class.

You can read that report and more on Romney’s plan HERE; the Washington Post summarizes Romney’s plan:

What would that mean for the average tax bill? Millionaires would get an $87,000 tax cut, the study says. But for 95 percent of the population, taxes would go up by about 1.2 percent, an average of $500 a year.

The Obama campaign has seized on this new report and goes after Romney hard in this new ad:

The fact checker – Glenn Kessler – from the Washington Post rates this ad True and gives it a “rare Gepetto checkmark” for honesty.  He writes HERE:

This ad is tough, but we cannot fault the accuracy of its key points. To some extent, the Romney campaign has been hoist with its own petard by refusing to provide sufficient detail that shows how the numbers add up in Romney’s tax and budget plans. So we are left with the judgment of a respected and independent third party.

We hold campaign ads to a high standard, particularly attack ads. If Romney releases the missing details, and a new analysis finds that Romney can meet the stated goals of his tax plan, then we can certainly revisit this analysis. But, until then, for the first time in this frequently nasty campaign, we award a rare Geppetto Checkmark for a campaign ad.

Lastly – the Romney economic adviser who writes this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal … his name is Glenn Hubbard.  To call him a shill would be polite …. I’ve written an entire piece showcasing who this man actually is HERE.  This is the guy that looked like a total dick in Inside Job for failing to report any potential conflict of interest from receiving payments from the financial services industry while at the same time writing about how much safer credit derivatives made the banking system.  In short – he gets paid money and coincidentally promoted the elements of the banking system that forced our system into an implosion.  But he’s totally honest.  Honest. </sarcasm>

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