For those who didn't have time to watch Paul Ryan explain the Romney/Ryan tax plan to Chris Wallace yesterday, here is a summary in transcript form:
CW: The Obama campaign claims that if we were to cut taxes by 20% across the board as Governor Romney proposes, that would cost the government $5 trillion over the next ten years. True?
PR: Of course not, because we are also proposing some magic ways to make up that lost revenue.
CW: We'll get to that in a minute. But would you agree that the tax cut part of your plan would cost trillions?
PR: What's with the follow-up questions? Isn't this Fox News? Anyway, you're never going to get me to admit that.
CW: Well, would you agree that if we cut tax rates by 20%, that would mean that people's tax rates would be about 20% lower than they are now?
PR: I don't know where you're getting that fancy math from Chris, but I can assure you that the people who came up with those numbers don't know what they are talking about.
CW: Perhaps you could run through some of the math with me then.
PR: Math? Ha! I didn't come on TV to explain our tax plan with actual numbers!
CW: OK, then let's get to the offsetting part of your plan. Can you specify some of those deductions and loopholes that you're planning to eliminate?
PR: How dare you ask that question! You know very well that a magician never reveals his tricks. Look, here's what we're going to do. We want to lower everybody's tax rates, because everybody likes the sound of that. And then we also want to eliminate giveaways and loopholes and other nasty stuff that people also don't like the sound of.
CW: Are you going to eliminate deductions for mortgage interest, or charitable contributions or medical expenses?
PR: There's another one of those "gotcha" questions, Chris. Surely you don't expect me to fall for that! People are just going to have to trust us on this. We've got some great ideas up our sleeves, and we'll show them to you when the time comes.
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