Majority of voters do want to see more Romney tax returns

>>> although the cnn poll found that no less than 63% of americans would like to see more of mitt romney 's tax returns , mr. romney has responded by calling that majority small minded. today in new hampshire, romney suggested he may have found yet another way to reduce that tax rate of his.

>> gosh, i feel like i'm almost a new hampshire resident. it would save me some tax dollar, i think.

>> a short time later, the president made it clear why romney 's tax returns are important.

>> well, we're going to be having a huge debate about how we perform our tax code and how we pay for the government that we need. i think people want to know that everybody's been playing by the same rules including people who are seeking the highest office in the land.

>> jared bernstein is an msnbc contributor and former chief economist and policy adviser to vice president biden. eric fern strum says taxes are not an issue, the american people are not interested so, i guess we should move on.

>> it's interesting. i was looking for a poll result much like the one you just said. that kind of supports my priors. in fact, people do want to know and let's not lose sight of the underlying policy issue here, which is really twofold. one, why is a guy who's income is in the multi-millions of dollars paying a tax rate that's well below that of so many other people and the answer is because we have extremely low tax rates on what's called owner of income. things like capital gains . groups like bain finance their work. dividends are half the rate from wage income, so it's indemic of a larger problem in our tax code and b, there's the fact we need new revenues.

>> well now, paul ryan who republicans revere as a deficit hawk has a plan to cut taxes by $4.3 trillion, which is he says will be off set by spending cuts. but in today's "new york times", paul krugman writes this and i'm quoting. which deductions would he eliminate? he refuses to say. he asserts that he would major huge cuts in spending. what would he cut? he refuses to say. if this sounds like a joke, that's because it is.

>> look, there is no person i can think of who less deserves the title of fiscal hawk than representative paul ryan . let's remember, this is a guy who supported putting both of the wars as well as the bush tax cuts and prescription drug bill on the nation's credit card and those factors, particularly the bush tax cuts , are behind today's budget deficits . outside of course the downturn. then this plan, the 4.3 trillion in new tax cuts is above making the new tax cuts permanent. the unspecified loopholes are particularly greenlgs because a group here in town said what if you took all the tax expenditures that these wealthy families enjoy. would that off set the revenues you lose from these tax cuts ? the answer is no.

>> some would define that as voodoo economic, jared. thank you so much. we'll be right