Romney shows off shiny new object to distract from his bad tax plan math

"Look at me, I'm flying! Also, please ignore my tax plan." Mitt Romney can't explain how his tax plan adds up'because it doesn't'so on the eve of the first presidential debate, he's trotting out what he calls a new "option" for his tax plan:

"As an option you could say everybody's going to get up to a $17,000 deduction; and you could use your charitable deduction, your home mortgage deduction, or others ' your healthcare deduction. And you can fill that bucket, if you will, that $17,000 bucket that way," he said during a visit with Denver's FOX31. "And higher income people might have a lower number."

This is nothing more than an attempt to distract attention from the core problem in his tax plan: Even if he eliminates every possible tax break on high income tax payers, his proposed tax cuts are so enormous that they'd end up getting a big tax cut. He'd have to pay for that tax cut by borrowing or by raising taxes on the middle class.

Romney has had months to explain how his plan adds up, but he's refused to do so'because it doesn't. This new idea changes nothing'it's just one more option that wouldn't add up.

Remember that to make the numbers work, Romney would have to fully eliminate all itemized deductions ' and a few deductions beyond that ' for wealthy taxpayers. This doesn't go anywhere near that far. William Gale, of the Tax Policy Center, says the net revenue would likely be in the $1-$2 trillion range, while Romney's rate cuts are in the $5 trillion range, though he cautions that that's just a guess based on Romney's description of the idea.

If Romney had any confidence that this idea would work, he'd have trotted it out long ago so that independent analysts could assess it. But he didn't do that'he's floating it on the eve of the debate just to give him a talking point that he hopes will let him muddy the water on his tax plan.

But it doesn't change anything. His numbers still don't compute.