The Weekly Standard: Princeton Economist: Obama Campaign Is Misrepresenting My Study on Romney's Tax Plan:
Last night, the Obama campaign blasted out another email claiming
that Mitt Romney's tax plan would either require raising taxes on the
middle class or blowing a hole in the deficit. "Even the studies that
Romney has cited to claim his plan adds up still show he would need to
raise middle-class taxes," said the Obama campaign press release. "In
fact, Harvard economist Martin Feldstein and Princeton economist Harvey
Rosen both concede that paying for Romney’s tax cuts would require large
tax increases on families making between $100,000 and $200,000."But that's not true. Princeton professor Harvey Rosen tells THE
WEEKLY STANDARD in an email that the Obama campaign is misrepresenting
his paper on Romney's tax plan:I can’t tell exactly how the Obama campaign reached that
characterization of my work. It might be that they assume that Governor
Romney wants to keep the taxes from the Affordable Care Act in place,
despite the fact that the Governor has called for its complete repeal.
The main conclusion of my study is that under plausible assumptions, a
proposal along the lines suggested by Governor Romney can both be
revenue neutral and keep the net tax burden on taxpayers with incomes
above $200,000 about the same. That is, an increase in the tax burden
on lower and middle income individuals is not required in order to make
the overall plan revenue neutral.
