Romney-Ryan plan is Robin Hood in reverse

Here’s what you should know about the Romney-Ryan budget plan: It doesn’t do what it claims to do, which is reduce the deficit.

In fact, it won’t even balance the budget in the next 25 years. But it will devastate services the poor and the elderly depend on, such as Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps. And increase taxes on the middle class while cutting taxes on the wealthy.

You think Mitt Romney’s 13.9-percent tax payment is too low? Under the Romney-Ryan plan, it would be less than 1 percent. That’s because the plan eliminates taxes on capital gains, including the so-called “carried interest” on investment profits, the source of most of Romney’s vast wealth.

In other words, the plan is Robin Hood in reverse, a con game that, in the name of prosperity, takes from the poor and gives to the rich, who already have the greatest share of wealth.

The Romney-Ryan plan is, of course, indefensible—so instead, the candidates are attacking President Barack Obama, charging he’s “cutting Medicare” and taking money from seniors’ pockets. This is false, and they know it. Just as they know their charges about the president’s welfare-to-work proposals are false.

Mitt Romney has no ideas of his own. And our guess is that President Obama is looking forward to his debates with Romney: It’s harder to lie about your opponent when he’s standing on the same stage.