Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have invented a new type of arithmetic. It is being called the Vague Arithmetic (or VT). The primary result of using this new arithmetic is that Romney as President will be able to cut taxes, increase defense spending, preserve social security and medicare, and not eliminate the major deductions. In spite of all this VT guarantees a balanced budget. Since VT is complex and difficult to follow for ordinary folks, Romney/Ryan will not provide any more details except saying that the numbers do add up.
It is not that Mitt Romney has not tried to explain the complexities of his arithmetic but most people still do not understand it. In an interview with George Stephanopolous, Mr Romney explained that he would not raise taxes on people earning below $200,000 a year. He also explained that he promises to extend the Bush tax cuts and then reform the tax code in such a way as to hold revenue constant, lower tax rates by 20 percent, and close loopholes. That should explain what Romney plans to do using VT. The new arithmetic does not require more details except the details about cutting tax rates. But people like the Tax Policy Center who do not understand VT are claiming that Romney would have to raise taxes on the middle class, by a lot.
Republicans have been frantically denying the ordinary maths that Democrats are using. Republican economist Martin Feldstein who does understand VT is defending Romney by doing his own VT study showing that Romney’s maths does work. Feldstein dealt with the maths by writing a paper about his study in a leading academic journal which is being cited worldwide and has thus disproved the Tax Policy Center maths.
