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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTax Policy Center in Spotlight for Its Romney Study
WASHINGTON A small nonpartisan research center operated by professed geeks has found itself at the center of a rancorous $5 trillion debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney.
No white paper or policy manifesto put out during the presidential campaign has proved more controversial than an August study by the Washington-based Tax Policy Center, a respected nonprofit that issues studiously detailed tax analyses.
That study found, in short, that Mr. Romney could not keep all of the promises he had made on individual tax reform: including cutting marginal tax rates by 20 percent, keeping protections for investment income, not widening the deficit and not increasing the tax burden on the poor or middle class. It concluded that Mr. Romneys plan, on its face, would cut taxes for rich families and raise them for everyone else.
The detailed paper proved kindling for a political firestorm. Mr. Romney criticized the center as performing a garbage-in, garbage-out analysis and his campaign accused it of partisan bias. The Obama campaign used the centers numbers to argue that Mr. Romney had proposed a $5 trillion tax cut. Economists jumped on the bandwagon too, flinging analyses back and forth and picking apart the projections and assumptions in the report.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/tax-policy-center-spotlight-romney-173604062.html
russspeakeasy
(6,539 posts)hfojvt
(37,573 posts)Here's Somerby's take on that piece which seems to have originated in the NY Times.
http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-times-pretends-to-discuss-that-plan.html
"The Tax Policy Center is not in the spotlight. For months, the New York Times has worked quite hard to keep it out of the light.
And that August 1 study has not proved controversial. Very few New York Times readers even know that the study exists.
Nor would those readers learn a great deal from Lowreys new pseudo-report. As she continues, the scribe politely says this
LOWREY (continuing directly): "That study .... It concluded that Mr. Romney's plan, on its face, would cut taxes for rich families and raise them for everyone else."
Interesting! But how about this:
By how much would Romneys plan raise taxes for everyone else? The study provided an unpleasant number. Lowrey and/or her editor has hidden that number away."
I can not tell you what that number is either.