Payroll Tax Cut Vote; Modern Warfare 3 Fastest To $1 Billion
ROMANS: Welcome back. We've been telling you the financial plan, the economic plans of all of the major candidates. Today, we're looking at Mitt Romney. He's a former governor, a very successful, and very rich businessman. His credentials as co-founder of Bain Capital are what attracts Wall Street money. Plus, he's worth $202 million, and his economic policy plan is, by far, the most detailed of all the candidates. A 160 pages long, 50 proposals, and he has 10 actions for day one of his presidency should he get there. Now, Romney would cut the corporate income tax to 25 percent. He will slash government spending regulation federal programs. He's a lot like the other candidates in that regard. He would repeal President Obama's healthcare reform and also the Dodd-Frank banking rules. He would expand international trade policies and drill for more oil here at home. On to taxes. No mention of a flat tax in Romney's plan. Instead, he wants to keep individual taxes as they are now, but eliminate taxes on interest, dividends, and capital gains for low and middle income families. He also wants to scrap the estate tax. He wants to end that. Romney also wants to make it easier for foreigners with advanced degrees in math, science, and engineering to come to work in the U.S. that includes raising the visa caps for people who are highly skilled workers and giving many of them permanent residency. Also on the list, he wants to increase retraining programs for people already here who are jobless, jobless Americans with the help of the states and the private sector. Now, special to his plan, something we haven't seen, no new regulations that will cost money to businesses. He wants a net balance here. He wants the cost of any new government rules or standards from day one to have to be offset by savings elsewhere. So, no business, no small business, no big business, Ali and Carol, would have to have new costs from regulation. He would say treat every regulation basically like a balanced budget. So, there you go. Mitt Romney has the biggest sort of the most detailed plan out there, and that's where it stands.</s>VELSHI: And it covers a lot of area, like this visa business. This is something we talked about a lot. We know we've got a shortage of trained workers in certain areas, but this business about capital gains and earned -- interest earned, tax credit for low and middle income Americans, I think it's fair to say, capital gain taxes are not a problem that many low and middle income Americans faced.</s>ROMANS: And not something that critics may immediately point out. And I'll tell you something else also, you know, all of this sort of tax experts just trying to score all of these different plans, but we're very -- there isn't even a general election here yet. So, a lot of this stuff is flat form sort of white paper kind of stuff, but I will tell you that Mitt Romney is the most detailed.</s>VELSHI: Yes.</s>ROMANS: The "Wall Street Journal" has endorsed Jon Huntsman's plan, quite frankly, and Newt Gingrich, the tax policy centered just yesterday or today came out and said Newt Gingrich's plan where he's offering huge tax cuts --</s>VELSHI: Yes.</s>ROMANS: -- would actually cause the federal deficit to go up by a trillion dollars. Just trying to get a handle on what they all propose.</s>VELSHI: Thanks, Christine.</s>COSTELLO: Along those lines, the Republican frontrunner, Newt Gingrich's tax plan is coming under increased scrutiny. The non-partisan tax policy center ran the numbers and the verdict, it would lead to huge deficits to give the wealthiest Americans a gigantic tax break. According to the analysis, Gingrich's plan would reduce government revenue by a staggering $1.3 trillion or 35 percent by 2015. That's the first year the plan could be fully implemented. Also, the tax rate for Americans with more than $1 million in net income would fall to 11.9 percent saving those individuals $613,000.</s>VELSHI: It's interesting that for a lot of libertarians and some conservatives, the idea that it will, you know, bring government revenues down by so much is music to their ears, but we still actually have a government that has to pay for things. So, it's a -- a complicated --</s>ROMANS: We still have -- Congress has to approve things, too.</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>ROMANS: And so, while some tax experts have been alarmed by the idea of 2015, trying to balance the budget and do all this, other just saying --</s>VELSHI: Do you think Congress will get down to it?</s>COSTELLO: You talk about those huge gigantic cuts and also that what was it, the tax analysis said that you can't implement that many cuts.</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>COSTELLO: You just can't or the government just would not work.</s>VELSHI: Right. That doesn't necessarily move everybody, though, as we've seen, right?</s>ROMANS: That's exactly what they --</s>ROMANS: That's a point. And the point is not letting bloated government work the way it always has.</s>VELSHI: We'll have lots of time to discuss this for many, many more months. We're taking a quick break here on AMERICAN MORNING. It's 57 minutes after the hour. We'll be right back.