"In Romney-Obama ‘Redistribution’ Debate, a Gray Area"

[applegrove]

In Romney-Obama ‘Redistribution’ Debate, a Gray Area

By EDUARDO PORTER at the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/business/obama-and-romneys-redistribution-debate-has-a-gray-area.html

"SNIP..........................................

As Mr. Romney outlines on the campaign trail, his administration would veer sharply from this strategy. He would repeal health care reform and not only make permanent the tax cuts on high earners passed by President George W. Bush, but also reduce tax rates further.

This would require deep cuts in government spending. And the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has predicted that for Mr. Romney to fulfill his promises, he would have to raise taxes on the middle class and the poor.

“Redistribution” has recently taken center stage in the presidential campaign, presented as a choice between Mr. Obama’s demand that millionaires pay a higher tax rate than their secretaries do and Mr. Romney’s impatience with moochers waiting for a government handout. Yet the discourse overstates the difference between what an Obama administration and a Romney administration would do to reduce the income gap.

A Republican administration would most likely choose fewer taxes and less spending than a Democratic one. Still, demographics alone suggest that regardless of who is the next president, and the one after that, the government is going to wind up distributing more of the nation’s wealth than it does today.


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