In recent weeks, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have not only falsely claimed that their $5 trillion tax plan will lower taxes for the middle class, but that "six studies have guaranteed" the plan's math adds up.
Last night, Anderson Cooper took dead aim at the second of the Romney campaign's fibs concerning these so-called studies:
“The suggestion is that these are full-blown academic studies,” Cooper noted on Monday. “Actually, three are blog posts, one is a Wall Street Journal op-ed. In the Wall Street Journal piece, Martin Feldstein, who’s also a campaign advisor, makes the math work but only by using a different definition of middle class than Mr. Romney uses in his own plan.”
“In another study cited by Mr. Romney, Princeton economist Harvey Rosen assumes the tax cuts would generate enough economic growth to offset the cost but for many, that is — that’s a rather large assumption. One that’s also by the way questioned by many conservative economists as well.”
Cooper concluded: “Bottom line, though, that word assume. Every one of these authors in each of these studies or so-called studies is making assumptions. As some may be solid assumptions, others dubious, but they’re all just assumptions because neither Mitt Romney nor Paul Ryan nor any of their surrogates have yet come forward with specifics.”
The DNC is hammering Romney with a brutally-successful
website highlighting the fact that virtually no details are known regarding Romney's tax plan. (The website has been so successful that "
Mitt Romney's $5" has been a trending topic on Twitter the entire day.)
Now, Anderson (and others, including Fox News's own Chris Wallace) are hammering Romney for using bogus blog posts and op-eds to support a tax plan nobody knows anything about.
It's a one-two punch which should continue, unabated. For not only is the Romney-Ryan tax plan a complete fraud, so too are the studies that claim to validate it.