Mark Zandi on Mitt's Romney's Tax Plan

Via Steve Hynd: Economist Mark Zandi appeared on CNN. Zandi backed the Tax Polcy Center's findings on the Mitt Romney tax plan.

Zandi: Yeah, I think the Tax Policy Center study is definitive study. They're non-partisan, they're very good. They say given the numbers that they've been provided by the Romney campaign, no, it will not add up. Now, the Romney campaign could adjust their plan. They could say okay I'm not going to lower tax rates as much as I'm saying right now and they could make the arithmetic work. But under the current plan, with the current numbers, no it doesn't.

Zandi is the chief econimst for Moody and respected by both parties. Zandi was an economic advisor to John McCain's presidential campaign. Zandi can hardly be accused of being a liberal partisan.

Paul Ryan Still Can't Name One Tax Loophole Romney Will Close

Debate moderator Martha Raddath asked Paul Ryan how Mitt Romney will pay for his tax cuts. Ryan proceeds to provide a meandering response.

RADDATZ: Well, let's talk about this 20 percent. You have refused -- and, again -- to offer specifics on how you pay for that 20 percent across-the-board tax cut. Do you actually have the specifics? Or are you still working on it, and that's why you won't tell voters?

(Crosstalk) RADDATZ: Do you know exactly what you're doing?

RYAN: Look -- look at what Mitt Romney -- look at what Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill did. They worked together out of a framework to lower tax rates and broaden the base, and they worked together to fix that.

What we're saying is, here's our framework. Lower tax rates 20 percent. We raised about $1.2 trillion through income taxes. We forego about $1.1 trillion in loopholes and deductions. And so what we're saying is, deny those loophole and deductions to high-income taxpayers so that more of their income is taxed, which has a broader base of taxation...

Also in the absence of such base broading, TPC estimates that on a status basis, the Romney plan would lower federal tax liability about $900 billion in calendar year 2015 compared with current law, roughly a 24 percent cut in total projected revenue. Relative to a current policy baseline, the reduction in liability would be about $480 billion in calendar year 2015.

Romney would reduce the top tax bracket from 35 percent to 28 percent. The corporate tax rate would go down from 35 percent to 35 percent. The Tax Policy Center eliminated every possible tax loophole. The Tax Policy Center found that Romney's plan would increase the deficit. So much for the Romney plan being deficit neutral. Mind you, Romney and Ryan refuse to say what loopholes they would eliminate.

The Tax Policy Center found that the bottom 99 percent would not benefit from the Romney tax plan.

The result shown in the distribution tables would be little changed for the bottom 99 percent of tax units and the overall pattern of tax changes would be qualitively the same - the largest tax cuts as a share of after-tax income would go to the highest income earners.

The Romney plan has nothing to do with creating jobs or lowering the deficit. It is a giveaway to the richest Americans and corporations. This plan is so bad that Ryan has to cite American Enterprise Institute blog posts as studies that back his plans. Blog posts from a hack think tank are not studies.

Governor-elect Rick Scott went on his "Let's Get to Work" tour of Florida. St. Petersburg Times business columnist Robert Trigaux noted a question Scott is getting asked by business executives.

Certainly one strategy emerging in Scott's arsenal appears to be incentives. Most states wave incentive packages at businesses to persuade them to relocate, to expand or to stay where they are when other states come calling.

The challenge during hard economic times? Incentives typically require tax dollars or, at least, the promise to businesses of lower taxes in the future.

Trigaux's question about tax incentives is easy to answer. Florida is facing a state budget shortfall. The money isn't there for state assistance. Instead, Scott will create more corporate tax loopholes. This will only add to future budget problems. Is hard to explain how many of these corporate tax cuts will create jobs.

The City of Tampa took the St. Petersburg Times Forum off of the tax rolls. Former owner Bill Davidson said he couldn't afford to keep the team in Tampa if he actually had to pay taxes. The city happily obliged and saved Vincent Lecavalier's job.

In truth, Lecavalier would just be playing hockey for the Lightning in another city. Most of the workers at the St. Petersburg Times Forum are only employed part-time. I should know since I used to work there. The City of Tampa spent millions to build a venue for the Lightning and then is collected little if nothing in return on tax. Ask yourself if you would build a a retail store for a rich person and then not ask for rent payments. That is exactly the kind of incentives Rick Scott will implement.

Another fun fact: taxes aren't levied at people who rent luxury suites at sports venues in Florida.

The St. Petersburg Times did a special report in 2003 on Florida's tax loopholes. Many corporations end up paying no taxes to the state.

Carnival Corp., Florida's 10th-largest public company with 4,220 South Florida employees and a $136-million state payroll, posted more than $1-billion in profits last year.

It also paid nothing in Florida corporate income tax.

Neither did Verizon Communications Inc., the phone giant that employs 12,500 people in Florida, or Saddlebrook Resorts Inc., the elite retreat in Wesley Chapel that is home to a famous tennis training center.

In fact, 98 percent of the estimated 1.5-million businesses in Florida paid nothing. And many of those that did pay found ways to reduce their tax bills.

Trigaux notes Florida has one of the most corporate-friendly tax systems in the country. In Scott's mind, big government is keeping corporations down. Scott is still stinging from Columbia/HCA $1.7 billion fine and being forced off the companies board.

The truth is pay is low k-12 schools are among the worst in the country. Companies look at these things when they move branches to Florida. Transportation and urban sprawl are horrible. Students graduate from FSU, UF and USF only to seek work out of state. These are the things that need to be changed, in order to create jobs. Scott's solution is hire Ayn Rand fanboys to deal with transportation.

Let's Hear it For Tax Free Yachts

"And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

John F. Kennedy

Than goodness the California Republican Party voted for tax free yachts. Schools really don't need those 20,000 laid off teachers.