What Romney's Not Telling You About His Economic Plan

No politician wants to run a campaign on a message of "I want to cut programs that a lot of people depend on, and tough times are ahead for children and people who are poor, disabled, veterans, students, uninsured, etc." But as President Clinton said at the Democratic Convention, Governor Romney's numbers don't add up. "It's simple arithmetic," he said.

If you want to take a close look at what the reality of Romney's plan is -- what he's not telling you -- read this report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Romney says:
1. He wants to cap total federal spending at 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
2. He wants to increase defense spending to 4 percent of GDP.
3. He wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act and exempt Social Security from cuts.
4. He wants to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and all other entitlement and discretionary programs by the same percentage.

To do those four things, he would have to cut non-defense programs other than Social Security by 22 percent in 2016 and by 34 percent in 2022. "If they exempted Medicare from cuts for this period," the report says, "the cuts in other programs would have to be even more dramatic -- 32 percent in 2016 and 53 percent in 2022."

But wait, there's more. "If they applied these cuts proportionately, the cuts in programs such as veterans’ disability compensation, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for poor elderly and disabled individuals, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps), school lunches and other child nutrition programs, and unemployment compensation would cause the incomes of large numbers of households to fall below the poverty line.  Many who already are poor would become poorer." The cuts for non-defense discretionary programs would hit public services like elementary and secondary education, law enforcement, veterans' health care, environmental protection, and biomedical research."

Read the report and see the numbers for yourself.