Bachmann, Palin, anybody but...

Paul Ryan wants to cut tax rates while keeping revenue essentially neutral by eliminating deductions and loopholes. He claims this will benefit individuals but doesn’t specify exactly how; since it is revenue neutral, they will presumably be paying the same amount of taxes. Perhaps he is referring to it becoming easier to file tax returns, but I’m not sure I’m sufficiently thrilled by that to vote for him.

He also claims it will “make businesses more competitive,” which is really difficult to comprehend. Since all businesses will be affected by it in the same manner, how will they be more able to compete? If you give each of two football teams an additional kicker, which one will score more field goals? If he’s talking about competition in the world market he’s up against that “revenue neutral” concept again. How are they going to be more competitive unless they are paying lower taxes?

Obama has signed on to part of Ryan’s plan, lowering corporate taxes and eliminating deductions. Like Ryan, he says it will not be a tax cut for business because the lost deductions, which are not specified, will offset the reduced rate. That rather makes me wonder what is the point of doing it, and it really makes me wonder why Obama makes the glowing claims of how much it will help businesses and spur them to hire more people.

I’m pretty sure that the lack of hiring is not due to high income taxes paid by corporations. I’m pretty sure it is caused by lack of income upon which to pay those taxes. I don’t really see how changing the structure, but not the amount, of income tax is going to generate more income. But then I’m not trying to get you to vote for me.

Tim Pawlenty makes these guys look like Nobel laureates. He wants to cut the corporate rate too, but not merely to 25% as Obama and Ryan do, he wants to cut it to 15%. Not only that, but he wants to cut personal income tax to 10% on the first $100,000 of income and 25% on everything over that. Unlike Obama and Ryan, he doesn’t want to eliminate any of the deductions, exclusions or loopholes.

There’s no point in even discussing the numbers which result from this plan. There is no possible amount of spending cuts which could even approach offsetting this kind of revenue cut, and even the most delusional economist in the universe cannot believe that growth is going to come within an order of magnitude of compensating for it.

This is the guy who Lawrence O’Donnell says is the only reasonable Republican candidate, which makes both Pawlenty and O’Donnell absolutely, batshit insane.