Scrutiny from the media and Democrats is one thing, but now even Republicans are calling on him to provide details
Democrats have long been making an issue of the lack of specificity in Mitt Romney’s policy pronouncements. This has caused the GOP nominee his share of headaches, most notably with Democrats happily filling in the blanks on what would be required to prevent Romney’s tax plan from blowing a hole in the budget, but his campaign has always expected to be attacked by the other side. Much more troubling for Romney is that the complaints are increasingly coming from Republican voices, too.
In a new editorial, the Wall Street Journal takes aim at Romney for confusing the press and the public on healthcare over the weekend, when he seemed to indicate that he’d maintain certain provisions of the Affordable Care Act (only for his campaign to insist that this isn’t the case):
Mr. Romney’s pre-existing political calculation seems to be that he can win the election without having to explain the economic moment or even his own policies. As this flap shows, such vagueness carries its own political risks.
This comes a few days after George Will took after Romney for refusing to spell out which deductions he would eliminate to make his tax cut math work. So far, all Romney will say is that he plans to slash income tax rates but that it will be revenue neutral.
“There is uncertainty surrounding the Romney-Ryan tax cut plan, because they have not specified the deductions that will be closed,” Will said on ABC’S “This Week.” ”And we know where the big money is: mortgage interest deductions, charitable deductions, taxing that’s compensation, which it is, employee-provided health insurance, and state and local taxes. All of those, you either hit only the rich, in which case you don’t get much money, or you hit the middle class.”
And now former Senate GOP Leader Trent Lott is telling the New York Times that Romney “needs to say clearly, ‘You elect me, this is what you’re going to get.’”
