I see that Wolf Blitzer almost managed to get a straight answer out of Mitt Romney a couple of days ago about which deductions he’d eliminate to make up for the $5 trillion in across-the-board tax rate cuts that he’s promised. Or, rather, he almost managed to get Romney to take a couple of deductions off the table. “Let’s go through how you would do that,” Blitzer said. “Specifically, home mortgage deductions, charitable contributions. Are you ready to remove those?” Romney filibustered for a bit and then said:
With regards to the deductions you describe, home mortgage interest deduction and charitable contributions, there will of course continue to be preferences for those types of expenses.
Hmmm. “Preferences” is still a bit weasel wordy, but it sure sounds like he’s promising not to touch those items. In other words, he’s making his promise of revenue neutrality ever more ridiculous with every passing day. All that’s left is for someone to ask him whether he’s willing to start taxing healthcare benefits. If he says no, that would pretty much take off the table every single tax expenditure of any serious size. There’s just nothing left to balance out his rate cuts for millionaires.
