Source: CNN:
Sometimes the conventional wisdom is right. Minutes after the Denver presidential debate, the pundits declared Mitt Romney the clear winner. And he was. He seemed engaged, forceful and punchy. President Obama seemed passive, detached and glum.
But what’s more significant than how Romney said things was what he said.
Romney repeatedly insisted that he was not advocating a big tax cut. In fact, he declared unequivocally that he would not cut taxes at all if they added to the deficit at all. Now, as the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler points out in his fact checking column, for two years Romney has been campaigning on a tax cut that that would cost around $5 trillion over 10 years. Romney does claim that he would eliminate deductions and cut spending to pay for it but he hasn’t given any details. Well, he offered one at the debate. He would cut funding for public broadcasting, which was 0.01% of federal spending in 2012. Medicare was 13%.
But, anyway that appears to be off the table. Romney is also in favor of regulations, including parts of the Dodd-Frank bill, and repeatedly held up as a model his health care plan in Massachusetts, which has at its center the individual mandate, and on which Obamacare is based.
Categories: Americas, United States