Contrary to what has become a boilerplate part of
President Obama's campaign speeches, high-income taxpayers will not see their
tax bills fall under Republican Mitt Romney's tax-reform plans, Mr. Romney
told The Toledo (Ohio) Blade in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
"A fundamental principle of my tax reform plan is that high-income people
do not receive a tax cut, Point One. Point Two, middle-income people get some
tax relief with no tax on interest, dividends, and capital gains," Mr. Romney
said. "Under no circumstances whatsoever will there be a tax increase for
middle-income Americans."
The Romney tax reform plan calls for a 20 percent across-the-board cut in
income taxes, but Mr. Romney believes that higher-income earners' total tax
bill would remain about the same because they would lose valuable deductions
and exemptions.
"Our plan is we're reducing the tax rate, and we're also reducing
deductions and exemptions so that revenues to the government remain the same,
and so high-income people don't pay lower taxes. Middle-income people will pay
lower taxes because I'm eliminating the tax on interest, dividends and capital
gains," Mr. Romney said.
Mr. Romney said he's been consistent with that message throughout his
campaign, but if so, it's one that has been drowned out by the constant
attacks of President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on the Romney tax
reform plan.
According to the Obama campaign, Mr. Romney's tax reform plans will mean
a $250,000 saving for millionaires and billionaires and an extra $2,000 from
middle-class taxpayers.
"He makes it up. He and his campaign simply make up what they think will
hurt my campaign, and it's been relatively effective, because they run those
ads in a state like Ohio. If they were true he would have a better prospect,
but they're not true," Mr. Romney said.
The former governor of Massachusetts and native of Michigan sat down with
The Toledo (Ohio) Blade for seven minutes after a town-hall-style campaign event in the American
Spring Wire Corp. factory in Bedford Heights, a suburb of Cleveland.
Mr. Romney has been largely silent on the impact of his tax reform plan
on the kind of lower-income taxpayers who do not own stocks and do not report
business or stock profits, known as capital gains.
Fact-check organizations have differed on whether it's possible for Mr.
Romney's plan to maintain total tax revenues while implementing a 20-percent
across-the-board tax reduction without slashing the deductions that benefit
lower-income taxpayers, such as mortgage interest, state and local taxes, and
charitable gifts.
Asked whether those kinds of deductions and exemptions would be
eliminated as part of his plan, Mr. Romney was evasive.
"These are the kinds of things that get worked out in Congress, as you go
back and forth between Democrats and Republicans, very much like you go back
to the Reagan plan, he talked about bringing taxes down," Mr. Romney said.
He said his plan will simplify the rates, make it easier for people and
companies to file taxes, and eliminate some of the deductions and loopholes in
the corporate tax code. A Romney campaign staffer clarified later that the
Romney plan assumes that no one who is now exempt from paying federal income
taxes will start paying taxes, and that no one would pay higher taxes.
The Obama campaign continued to assert that Mr. Romney's tax plan calls
for more tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.
"He says he'll limit tax deductions, but once again didn't specify which
ones," said Jessica Kershaw, a spokesman for the Obama Ohio campaign. "That's
probably because independent analysts have said he'd have to eliminate those
that are critical to the middle class like the mortgage interest deduction and
charitable contributions while raising taxes on middle-class families to pay
for tax cuts for millionaires."
She said this happens as Mr. Romney continues to "park millions of his
personal fortune in tax havens all around the world."
Mr. Romney said he's counting on the upcoming debates to help him get out
his message of "change," and he waved off recent polls that show him losing
ground in battleground Ohio to President Obama.
"Polls go up and down and this is a pretty clear choice between two
different directions. One is the status quo, which I don't think is working
too well for the people of Ohio. The other is the direction that creates
jobs," Mr. Romney said. "We'll have a chance in the debates and in the weeks
ahead to describe our vision for the country, and I think the American people
want real change."
The newest poll on the presidential race, released Wednesday by
Quinnipiac University, CBS News, and the New York Times, said President Obama
would win by 53-43 percent in Ohio if the election were held now.
Asked why he thinks Mr. Obama seems to be connecting with Ohio voters and
he is not, Mr. Romney said, "I think sometimes people get caught up in the
atmosphere of politics and don't stop and think about the significance of the
course America will take over the next four years and the next decades.
"It's important for people in Ohio to understand that the President and I
would take the country in very different directions, and the direction I
represent includes a lot more jobs and higher take-home pay."
