Princeton Economist: Obama Distorted My Romney Plan Study

A Princeton professor said the Obama campaign is misrepresenting his work in a campaign email it sent out, the Weekly Standard reported, and that Mitt Romney’s tax plan does not require raising taxes on the lower and middle class.

The Obama campaign email said Romney’s tax plan would force him to raise taxes on the middle class and increase the deficit.

"Even the studies that Romney has cited to claim his plan adds up still show he would need to raise middle-class taxes," the Obama campaign press release said. "In fact, Harvard economist Martin Feldstein and Princeton economist Harvey Rosen both concede that paying for Romney’s tax cuts would require large tax increases on families making between $100,000 and $200,000."

Princeton professor Harvey Rosen told the Standard that the Obama campaign misrepresented his work.

“I can’t tell exactly how the Obama campaign reached that characterization of my work,” Rosen said in an email to the Standard. “It might be that they assume that Governor Romney wants to keep the taxes from the Affordable Care Act in place, despite the fact that the Governor has called for its complete repeal. The main conclusion of my study is that under plausible assumptions, a proposal along the lines suggested by Governor Romney can both be revenue neutral and keep the net tax burden on taxpayers with incomes above $200,000 about the same. That is, an increase in the tax burden on lower and middle income individuals is not required in order to make the overall plan revenue neutral.”

Speaking in Chicago, GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said Obama is trying to "throw the kitchen sink" at Romney and "muddle and confuse" voters.

Professor Rosen's objection follows a similar statement released by the AARP immediately after the Oct. 3rd debate. During the debate, President Obama claimed that the AARP had stated the Romney plan would "weaken Medicare substantially" and that they supported Obamacare. In response, AARP Senior Vice President John Hishta said, in part, "America's voters deserve more than talking points" and “AARP has never consented to the use of its name by any candidate or political campaign."