The Real Cost of the Romney-Ryan Plan to Virginians

It's no surprise that the Romney-Ryan ticket doesn't want to explain the details of its plan for deficit reduction, jobs creation and a host of other issues.  The excuse is that "it's too complicated" to address.  Truth be told, if the details are fully disclosed, I suspect that even more voters would be fleeing the GOP and its pro-wealthy agenda.  Think Progress has analyzed precisely what the Romney/Ryan plan would mean for Virginians.  The picture presented is not pretty, but it is something that Virginia voters and voters elsewhere need to grasp and understand.  Here are highlights from Think Progress' analysis (NOTE: watching the debates, Romney now suddenly seems to be disclaiming much of what he's been campaigning on for 18 months): 

Behind dramatically different economic visions and a deluge of attack ads, this election comes down to numbers. Many Virginians—and many families across the United States—are asking what this will mean at the kitchen table. What will be the cost of a second term of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden or a first term led by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)? The answer is that, in concrete and quantifiable ways, a Romney-Ryan presidency would mean higher taxes for the middle class, out-of-pocket health expenses for current seniors, fewer college loans and fewer health care options for young people, and the re-introduction of corporate outsourcing tax loopholes that have sent so many jobs overseas.

The nonprofit organizations ProgressVA and the Center for American Progress Action Fund examined the economic and tax agenda of Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan, taking a close look at how their policies would affect the way Virginians live and work. The price tag includes:

• Middle-class Virginians would pay more in taxes while millionaires pay less. Millionaires in the state would receive an additional $87,000 in tax breaks under the tax plans of Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan while middle-class families would pay up to $2,000 more in health care taxes and $1,066 more in taxes on their mortgages.
• Jobs would decline across Virginia. Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan plan to provide extra tax incentives for corporations to outsource jobs and are pushing policy proposals to cripple the clean energy industry, jeopardizing 90,000 jobs across the state.
• Drastic cuts to federal spending would shrink Virginia’s middle class. The state stands to lose more than $46 billion in federal funding from 2013 through 2022, an average of more than $4.6 billion a year, from cuts to schools, law enforcement, highway repairs, job-training programs and more. These cuts would fall predominantly on middle-class and low-income families, especially cuts to education programs that would result in nearly $156 million in reduced federal support for education and job training in the state in 2013 and $361 million in 2014 alone.
• Seniors in Virginia would lose health care benefits and pay more. Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan would force seniors in the state to pay at least $639 more for their prescription drugs each year. At the same time, the Romney-Ryan plan to turn Medicare into a voucher would cost current seniors at least $11,000 more out of pocket.
• Women in Virginia would pay more for health care but receive less bang for their buck. Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan would once again allow insurance companies to charge women more than men while taking away preventive care from at least 1,376,205 women in the state.
• Young adults in Virginia would lose access to their families’ health insurance. Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan promise to dismantle Obamacare, which would directly result in 66,000 young adults in Virginia losing the insurance they have today due to the Affordable Care Act.

The Romney-Ryan plan asks the vast majority of Americans to pay more, and then spends this revenue not on balancing the budget but rather on more tax breaks for the richest Americans. Gov. Romney’s top direct donor would receive over $2 billion in direct tax benefits from under the Romney-Ryan plan, while a typical police officer in Richmond making a little over $48,760 a year would see their taxes increase by $ 1,660. These lopsided priorities are not a coincidence or a cruel joke. They are the logical extension of a trickle-down economic policy that failed under President George W. Bush but would be revived by Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan.

The Republican contenders for the White House have tried to avoid details, but have nonetheless gone on the record with proposals that have enormous consequences for the economy, taxes, women’s health, health care, and energy security. ProgressVA and the Center for American Progress Action Fund believe facts should matter in elections because they will certainly matter to families trying to live the American Dream. This report outlines the real cost of Romney-Ryan policies to Virginians.
It is tempting for people across Virginia to start tuning out the election, defined too often by gaffes and thirty-second sound bites. But behind the politics are deep policy differences with profound consequences for the middle class.

Here is how this hidden part of the Romney-Ryan tax plan would affect low-income and middle-class families in Virginia:

• 4.3 million. The number of families in the state that rely on health insurance from their employer, which is currently not taxed.
• $1,200-2,000. The amount those middle-class families would pay in higher taxes if the exemption for employer health insurance is reduced by 58 percent.

• 1.1 million. The number of middle-class families in the state that file for the mortgage interest deduction on their federal taxes.
• $1,066. The average loss in mortgage interest deduction for middle-class families in the state if the deduction is cut by 58 percent.

• 1.4 million. The number of middle-class families in the state that deduct state and local taxes from their federal income taxes.
• $670. The amount on average that middle class families in the state will pay in higher taxes if the deduction for state and local taxes is cut by 58 percent.

• 610,000. The number of middle-class families in the state that benefit from the child tax credit.
• $580. The amount that families in the state will pay in higher taxes per child if the child tax credit is reduced by 58 percent.

• 171,000. The number of low-income and middle-class families in the state that claim the child care tax credit (in addition to the child tax credit detailed above).
• $318. The amount that families in the state will pay in higher taxes per child if the child care tax credit (in addition to the child tax credit detailed above) is reduced by 58 percent.

• 1.1 million. The number of low-income working families in the state that qualify for the earned income tax credit or the refundable portion of the child tax credit.
• $736. The tax increase for 275,000 of those families (with a total of almost 494,000 children) would pay on average if the improvements to those tax credits passed under President Obama are rolled back, as the Romney-Ryan plan proposes.

• 231,000. The number of middle-class Virginia families and students paying for college educations that use President Obama’s American Opportunity Tax Credit.
• $2,100. The average benefit these families and students receive from the American Opportunity Tax Credit. The Romney-Ryan tax plan would eliminate this credit, leaving families in the state with no credit or a less valuable tuition credit.

There's much more in the piece that details each of these areas and I recommend that readers check out the full article.