Romney Gets Progressive?

The Ryan/Romney campaign has noticed that their tax plan defies basic arithmetic.  Today Romney came up with an idea that on the surface is progressive and might work.  

Mitt Romney Floats $17,000 Limit On Tax Deductions

Under pressure to provide more details about his tax reform proposal, Mitt Romney floated an idea Tuesday to help fill a revenue hole in his plan.
“As an option you could say everybody’s going to get up to a $17,000 deduction; and you could use your charitable deduction, your home mortgage deduction, or others — your healthcare deduction. And you can fill that bucket, if you will, that $17,000 bucket that way,” Romney told a Fox affiliate in Denver. “And higher income people might have a lower number.”
In other words, cap the total amount individuals can benefit from tax loopholes.
But while some tax policy experts like the idea in principle it suffers from at least one big political problem: though it would hit high net-worth people hardest, it would still require raising taxes on some middle class Americans to cover the cost of his proposal to cut everyone’s tax rates by 20 percent.

My guess is it would only impact the very top of the middle class.  As an engineer I was upper middle class and I don't remember having anything close  to $17,000 deductions.  As with all plans from Romney/Ryan with have to check the arithmetic but it's something that should be looked at.
Matt Yeglesias points out another advantage:

That has most of the virtues of normal proposals to raise revenue by eliminating deductions, but ducks some of the political problems. The big advantage is that since no particular deduction is eliminated, you don't reap the fury of the impacted interest groups in the same way.

Voodoo Economics 2012 Edition

Paul Ryan doesn't have time to explain the math behind his 20% tax cut.

WALLACE: So how much would it cost?
RYAN: It’s revenue neutral…
WALLACE: No no, I’m just talking about cuts. We’ll get to the deductions, but the cut in tax rates.
RYAN: The cut in tax rates is lowering all Americans’ tax rates by 20 percent.
WALLACE: Right, how much does that cost?
RYAN: It’s revenue neutral.
[...]
WALLACE: But I have to point out, you haven’t given me the math.
Ryan: No, but you…well, I don’t have the time. It would take me too long to go through all of the math. But let me say it this way: you can lower tax rates by 20 percent across the board by closing loopholes and still have preferences for the middle class. For things like charitable deductions, for home purchases, for health care. So what we’re saying is, people are going to get lower tax rates.

 He not only doesn't have the time he doesn't have the math. They can't explain it until after the election because it can't be revenue neutral without raising taxes on the middle class.

Warren Buffett - Socialist

Warren Buffett doesn't think Paris Hilton should inherit millions of dollars she didn't do anything to earn.
Buffett Tells Congress to Keep Estate Tax

For years, Warren Buffett has been urging Congress to keep the federal estate tax. Now, he’s suggesting how the government should use the money: a $1,000 annual tax credit for the 23 million U.S. households with incomes under $20,000.

The billionaire investing guru told the Senate Finance Committee that many of those families face a marginal payroll tax rate of 15.3%, higher than the current top rate on capital gains, dividends and carried interest for assets held long term. In contrast, repealing the estate tax would help families of the richest Americans who have seen their wealth take off like a “rocket ship” in the last two decades.

Buffett noted that of 2.4 million Americans who died last year, only about 12,000 paid estate tax, assessed on an individual’s net worth at death. “You’d have to attend 200 funerals to be at one” where an estate tax was owed, Buffett said.

According to the feudalists at the Club For Growth this makes one of the worlds richest men a socialist, an unadulterated socialist at that.

This is nothing but pure socialism. It's unadulterated and absolute socialism. If you went up to a billionaire, took his money and gave it to someone else, you would be arrested. But in Buffett's mind, if the government does it, then it's perfectly all right. Most Democrats are crafty when they disguise their socialist plans. They take money from Paul and then filter the money through government programs that end up benefiting Peter. But with Buffett, it's straightfoward socialism.

Countdown to the Blame Game II

As Jazz reported this morning the I35 Bridge collapse blame game has begun. ABC's blog, Political Radar, has some examples. The infrastructure of the United States is collapsing and that is much more likely to bring the country down than an attack from al-Qaeda. There is some blame but it's not where anyone is looking. The infrastructure has been deteriorating for 30 years or more. The reason is not the invasion and occupation of Iraq or even George W. Bush. It really started in 1978 - remember proposition 13 in California? It was the grand daddy of the many "no more taxes" initiatives that have made it next to impossible for states and municipalities to even keep up with inflation. In many if not most states the gas tax collected is the same dollar amount it was when gasoline was 35 cents a gallon. As much as 25% of the money allocated by congress for roads goes unspent because the states can't come up with the matching funds. As population has grown the states have been forced to spend what money they have to build new roads with little left over to fix existing roads or bridges. Digby gets it as she usually does.

Governments all over the country have been robbing Peter to pay Paul, shifting money to immediate needs like health care and child welfare and hoping against hope that the roads and bridges and buildings built during the new deal era held up. "No New Taxes" has been the rallying cry for decades now, but nobody ever said how we were supposed to pay for the things we all take for granted. And, of course,when things like this happen, the wingers blame the government and everyone decries taxes even more.

I have to wonder if any Republicans were on that bridge last night. If there were, they must have realized that sometimes we really are all in it together.

The assorted spawn of prop 13 have made it next to impossible to increase taxes even when a majority wants to by requiring super majorities to raise taxes. In my own state of Oregon it's easier for the legislature to amend the constitution than raise taxes. The goal of Grover Norquist and his band of crusaders was to strangle the government. They have been successful on the state and local level. The result - bridges that fall down and people dying.

Buffett speaks blaspheme

I have always thought it must really bother the wealthy Republican aristocrats that the world's third richest man was a Democrat and a populist. To make matters worse he made his billions using the method the aristocratic wealthy prefer - he rubbed money together to make more money. What really must upset them though is when Mr Buffett blasphemously speaks truth to power in public at a fund raiser for the dreaded Hillary at that.
Buffett Slams Tax System Disparities

NEW YORK, June 26 -- Warren E. Buffett was his usual folksy self Tuesday night at a fundraiser for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as he slammed a system that allows the very rich to pay taxes at a lower rate than the middle class.

Buffett cited himself, the third-richest person in the world, as an example. Last year, Buffett said, he was taxed at 17.7 percent on his taxable income of more than $46 million. His receptionist was taxed at about 30 percent.

Buffett said that was despite the fact that he was not trying to avoid paying higher taxes. "I don't have a tax shelter," he said. And he challenged Congress and his audience to see what the people who "clean our offices" are taxed, to loud applause.

A populist tone permeated the 70-minute talk with the billionaire investor and philanthropist in Manhattan on Tuesday night. The talk, given to about 600 Wall Street bankers and money managers, raised at least $1 million for Clinton's presidential campaign, the Associated Press reported.

The Republicans have to hope that Buffett's comments won't get widespread exposure in the MSM because a majority of the American people know they have not benefited from the Bush tax cuts. A majority of the American people know that those tax cuts may have produced jobs but not good jobs in the US. The jobs were created in countries where economic and political conditions make it possible to run sweat shops and increase the bottom line.