经济学人下载:绝非易事(2)

Mr Romney can spare the bottom 40% any loss of income from reduced tax expenditures relatively easily. Whereas that group gets the lion’s share of refundable tax credits such as those for children, for earned income and for university expenditures, they collectively enjoy just 11% of all tax expenditures, according to the TPC. The reason is that exclusions and deductions are worth more to those who pay higher rates of tax; and those, of course, are the affluent.
罗姆尼可相对容易地使底层40%的人免受由于税收支出减少而收入减少之苦。然而正是这个群体享用了退税政策的精华部分，根据税收政策中心的数据，他们总计才占据了税收支出11%。原因在于税收减免对于赋重税人来说价值更大；而这些人，当然都是富人。

The bigger challenge is crafting a reform that does not hurt the middle class at the expense of the rich. Mr Romney has pledged not to raise the preferential rate on capital gains and dividends; 75% of those benefits go to the top 1% of households. That group also prospers most from Mr Romney’s proposed cut in the top income-tax rate, to 28% from 35%. So Mr Romney would probably have to target the rest of the upper quintile, the upper-middle class who gain from other big tax breaks for employer-provided health care, mortgage interest, retirement savings, state and local taxes and municipal bond interest.
更大的挑战是进行一场并不会伤害中产阶级利益，并损害富余阶层利益的改革。罗姆尼已保证不会提高资本收入和股息的税率；1%顶尖的家庭将享受这些福利中的75%。这一群体从罗姆尼提出的将高收入税率由35%降至28%政策中获益最多。所以罗姆尼可能将不得不瞄准其余的上层阶级分度，即那些从雇主提供的医疗保险，按揭利息，养老储蓄，国家，地方，市级的证券利息中获得大笔税收减免的中上层阶级。

Even if Mr Romney could devise a workable plan, overcoming political resistance is another matter. Optimists note that a 33-year-old tax credit for ethanol, after surviving numerous assassination attempts, finally died last year. But the $6 billion saved by that was trivial. By contrast, Congress has steadfastly ignored Mr Obama’s proposal in his first budget (repeated ever since) to limit the tax break for mortgage interest and charitable deductions for rich households. Both ideas were fiercely condemned by interest groups. “As much as I’m a card-carrying member of the broaden-the-base, lower-the-rates, go-after-tax-expenditures club,” says Mr Marron of the TPC, “the politics and underlying economics suggest it’s hard to raise the money you need for these grand plans.”
即便罗姆尼可以想出一个可行的计划，要抵御政治上的阻力又是另一回事了。乐观主义者注意到，实行长达33年之久的对乙醇的税收补贴，尽管扛住多次试图废除它的努力，最终还是在去年被废除。然而省下的60亿美金不过是沧海一粟。与此相反的是，国会坚持不懈的忽视奥巴马总统在他的首次预算中提出的（从此之后一直重申的）限制对于按揭利息和富裕家庭慈善性减税的税收减免。这两种想法都受到了相关利益群体的强烈谴责。来自税收政策中心的马兰先生说道“只要我还是扩大税基，降低税率，追逐税收支出的正式一员，政治局势和潜在的经济状况表明，难以收集那些伟大计划所需的钱。”