So Says Mitt: I Won’t Detail Plans, Because Then I’d Lose

[CeeKay]

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/03/mitt-i-wont-detail-plans-because-then-id-lose.html

Mitt Romney has embraced a budget plan that would entail cutting federal programs other than defense and Social Security by more than half. It does raise the question of how he plans to carry out such a sweeping goal. In an interview with the Weekly Standard, Romney says he'd eliminate a bunch of departments. But he won’t say which ones:

    One of the things I found in a short campaign against Ted Kennedy was that when I said, for instance, that I wanted to eliminate the Department of Education, that was used to suggest I don’t care about education,” Romney recalled. “So I think it’s important for me to point out that I anticipate that there will be departments and agencies that will either be eliminated or combined with other agencies. So for instance, I anticipate that housing vouchers will be turned over to the states rather than be administered at the federal level, and so at this point I think of the programs to be eliminated or to be returned to the states, and we’ll see what consolidation opportunities exist as a result of those program eliminations. So will there be some that get eliminated or combined? The answer is yes, but I’m not going to give you a list right now.

One of the things I have found in previous elections is that announcing my plans makes people want to vote against me!

so... not telling us makes us want to vote for you?

[Caine]

"I know what I'm doing, trust me." 

[Ironrod]

The main thing that unifies his supporters is that he's not Obama, so his best bet is to simply stick to that. Tax cuts for billionaires + austerity for everybody else is not going to play well beyond the people who are bankrolling him.

[CeeKay]

looks like Ryan has picked up his line:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/14/paul-ryan-taxes_n_1777353.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

The Romney campaign is willing to discuss its proposals on taxes "in the light of day," vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said Tuesday evening -- just not until after the election.

Multiple tax policy analysts have concluded that Mitt Romney's tax plan -- to close loopholes and reduce taxes for the wealthy -- means higher taxes for most people in order for the math to work. Brit Hume of Fox News asked Ryan to counter that charge. "What we're saying is get rid of special interest loopholes and deductions that are uniquely enjoyed by the wealthy to lower the tax rates for everybody," Ryan said.

But lowering middle-class tax rates, if coupled with eliminating key deductions, could lead to an effective tax increase, the cornerstone of the analyses of Romney's tax plan. Hume pressed for specifics.

"That is something that we think we should do in the light of day, through Congress," Ryan told Hume, promising to "have a process for tax reform so that we do this in the front of the public. So no, the point I'm trying to say is, we want feedback from Americans about what priorities in the tax code should be kept, and what special interest loopholes we want to get rid of."