Romney critic challenges Obama
By Tom Quiner
Mitt Romney proposes tax simplification.
This is an idea that has received bi-partisan support as recently as last year. The premise: lower tax rates and eliminate deductions. This approach sweeps away tax complexity so businesses and individuals can spend less time and money on compliance, freeing up human capital for more productive pursuits.
Barack Obama’s recent campaigning insists all of this amounts to a tax cut for the rich and a tax hike on the middle class. Mitt Romney adamantly insists otherwise.
Washington Post opinion writer, Robert Samuelson, who is surely no Romney supporter, takes Barack Obama to task for being blatantly dishonest in his claims:
Robert Samuelson challenges Obama claims
” … if politics is to retain any integrity, a line must be drawn at statements and innuendoes that are demonstrably false. That’s happened here. The Obama campaign has distorted the results of a study by the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan research group, and created a fictitious $5 trillion tax cut. Some news organizations have embraced the distortion. The TPC should issue a statement saying its results have been twisted, leaving no doubt. News organizations that bought into the fabrication should retract their previous reporting. Topping the list is NBC News, which is in the awkward position of having one of its broadcasts inserted in an Obama TV spot.”
Mr. Samuelson does not support all of Romney’s plan, especially his call to reduce capital gains tax rates and eliminate the estate tax. He simply calls for an honest interpretation of Romney’s plan. I certainly don’t agree with Samuelson much of the time. However, I have immense respect for his integrity in calling the Obama campaign and certain news outlets to task for their brazen disregard for honesty and accuracy:
“The TPC never claimed to find a $5 trillion giveaway to the rich. News organizations peddling this line have unwittingly enlisted in the Obama campaign.”
Samuelson calls this “the $5 trillion tax cut that isn’t.”