'Rithmetic

Bill Clinton said it best, but he's not the first one to say it, and it is worth repeating, Mitt Romney's tax plan simply does not add up. Of course, Romney has already made it clear that his campaign will not be dictated by fact checkers, presumably because that would derail the whole presidential bid given the Republican party's severe allergy to facts and data. Put simply Romney's plan is arithmetically impossible. No surprise there.

Perhaps this is the case because Republicans still adhere stringently to the gospel of trickle down even though this plan - while it sounds good in theory - has failed in practice. No matter what Republicans preach, tax cuts and economic growth are not synonymous. In fact it is very possible that any growth prospects from tax cuts would be more than off set by the damage of some of the spending cuts Ryan and Romney propose. Of course that is merely conjecture since - despite Ryan's claims not to "duck tough issues" - the campaign hasn't offered any real ideas and is now reevaluating it's position a month and a half before the election because it has been "short on specifics." Maybe Romney and Ryan are short on specifics because they know their plan isn't credible.

Here is the real issue though. Supply-sided economics does not work. It looks good on paper, but in practice it fails. As I have pointed out before, the failure of far left economic policies - centrally planned economies for example - does not mean that far right economic planning is the solution to our economic woes. Supply-sided economics is a failure as well. There is no evidence to show that lower taxes leads to economic growth. In fact in the past three decades, economic growth has come despite taxes. Romney and Ryan's plans to cut taxes is just that, a plan to cut taxes. It is not a plan to reduce the deficit. That has already been proven mathematically impossible, and it is surely not a plan to spur economic growth given that A) it isn't even possible to implement, and B) even if it were, it has been tried and proven ineffective.

Romney and Ryan have no economic plan, and worse, no credibility. Their plan does not reduce the deficit, it adds to the deficit by giving the super rich money they don't need. Their plan doesn't spur economic growth, it gives the super rich money they don't need. Oh, and they spend a lot more on defense, because nothing is cooler than having enough nukes to end life as we know it ten times over. The Romney/Ryan vision of America is a millionaire's sandbox with a military.

So if you are willing to buy into economic fantasy that is presented as purposefully vague in order to mask it's glaring deficiencies, then Romney and Ryan are your men. If you are willing to accept that mathematics, like global warming and evolution, is pure fiction then vote for Romney and Ryan. If you want more of what led to our current crisis and less of what will fix it, then vote Romney/Ryan in November.

If however, you think 'rithmetic is important, you have faith in data and science, and you want a  prosperous America for everyone, I'd consider that Obama guy.