In a wide-ranging interview with Fortune magazine, Mitt Romney says that a group of analysts made “garbage assumptions” about his tax plan in a report that concluded it would raise taxes on the middle class.
“There's an old expression in the computer world: garbage in, garbage out," Romney said of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, which issued the report. "They made garbage assumptions and they reached a garbage conclusion.”
Romney explained that he would not reduce the home mortgage-interest deduction for the middle class, as the group assumed. He said the center “chose to ignore” his principles that “high-income people would continue to pay the same share of the tax burden they do today,” and that there would be a reduction in taxes for the middle class.
He also reiterated his calls for subsidy cuts to Amtrak and PBS, and to spin off Medicaid, food stamps and housing vouchers to the states.
Romney also said in the interview that he can lead a comeback in American manufacturing. “I believe you're going to see manufacturing return to this country over the coming decade, particularly as we take advantage of our low-cost natural gas,” he said.
He also held firm in his stance on gun control. “I don't think that this is a time for us to be passing new gun legislation," he told Fortune.
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