In the video above – Paul Ryan spoke to Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday where he makes the claim that “you can lower tax rates by 20% across the board and still have preferences for the middle class for things like charitable deductions, for home purchases, for healthcare.”  That’s false.  It is mathematically IMPOSSIBLE.  Even conservative columnist George Will has challenged the math of the Romney tax plan (source).

Here is a list of deductions and how much it costs to eliminate them.  Paul Ryan is saying that we can cut income taxes by 5 trillion dollars or 20% for every American (except for the 47% of Americans who don’t pay income taxes remember) …. and he claims that we’ll still be able to maintain the #1 and #2 most expensive deductions.  When Chris Wallace asks him to show him the math … Paul Ryan’s response was “it would take me too long”.  But they won’t disclose what they’re willing to cut.  Look at all the deductions below and see which ones you think the middle class enjoy.

When Romney was asked about his plan in March and whether or not he would eliminate the loophole called carried interest that benefits the rich … the loophole that Romney made hundreds of millions in avoiding taxes with – he would not say that he would eliminate it (source).  Historically – he was against removing this loophole for the rich and has only ever voiced opposition to eliminating it.  Romney was even asked in an interview on 60 Minutes whether it was fair that he received a lower tax rate than someone in the middle class and he said he felt that made sense to give capital gains a preferential tax rate (source).

On Fox News Sunday – Chris Wallace asks Paul Ryan what the most important part of Romney’s tax plan HERE; his answer:

“Keeping tax rates down.  By lowering tax rates, people keep more of the next dollar that they earn. That matters. That is incentives. That’s pro-growth policy. That creates 7 million jobs… That’s more important than anything.”

Got that – he’s going to lower tax rates because people will be able to KEEP MORE of the next dollar that they earned.  And it is the most important part of his tax plan.  The bottom line is – he’s saying that people are going to get tax cuts not just reducing the marginal rates and making up for it by reducing deductions.  That’s #1 priority.

But just four days ago on 9/26 – Romney said this:

“I’m going to champion small business. Small business, where jobs come from. And let me tell you how to do that. One, as Senator Portman said, we’ve got to reform our tax system. Look, small businesses typically pay tax at the individual tax rate. And so, our individual income taxes are ones I want to reform, make them simpler. I want to bring the rates down. By the way, don’t be expecting a huge cut in taxes, because I’m also going to lower deductions and exemptions. But by bringing rates down, we’ll be able to let small businesses keep more of their money, so they can hire more people.”

He says in effect – DO NOT expect to keep more of the next dollar that you earn because he is going to eliminate deductions so the net-net of this is that he is going to lower marginal rates and deductions so you will still pay the same amount of money to the government when it is all said and done.

So … either Romney is going to cut taxes for Americans so they have more money in their pocket …. or he is going go cut marginal rates and reduce deductions so they won’t “expect a huge cut in taxes”.  It is A or B but he can’t have both.

If it is option A.  That would mean cutting taxes by $5 trillion so people can have more money in their pockets, but how is he going to pay for it?  Either they propose HUGE spending cuts or the deficit will blow up bigger than under George W. Bush.  We know that he wants to increase military spending by 25% – so it isn’t that.  Romney has said that his plan is in line with the Ryan plan and we know that the Ryan plan would cut services for the disabled, elderly and children by significant amounts via cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, etc. (source)  And these services don’t just affect the poorest among us – it affects the middle class too.

If it is Option B and Romney is simply cutting marginal rates and then eliminating deductions.  He has an even bigger problem.  An independent study says Romney’s budget is mathematically impossible and that the only result of having a plan be revenue neutral is that the rich would see huge tax cuts while the middle class would see their taxes go up (source).  And when Romney says that 5 independent fact checkers have concluded his math works … Politifact rated that “mostly false” (source).

Whether it is option A or option B … what you will see is a targeted attack on the middle class and poor while he gives handouts to the rich.  Mitt Romney’s entire plan is to cut taxes for the wealthiest among us … himself and his friends.