Rep. Yarmuth: Romney tax pledge ‘bizarre’

>>> on a romney administration, we will have credibility on this issue.

>> vice president biden.

>> it's incredible.

>> thank heavens we had these sanctions in place. it's been discredited by six studies. over 100 clim investigations that have been --

>> martha.

>> go ahead.

>> mar that, look --

>> vice president biden had every reason in the world to roll his eyes at paul ryan last night. mr. ryan and mr. romney have served up one big crap burger an another in this race. the most farfetched is the fiction that they're trying to help the middle class . we're joined now by representative john yarmouth, democrat of kentucky, and a member of the house budget committee that mr. ryan chairs. thank you, sir, for joining us. we heard last night from mr. ryan about helping out the middle class . of course, we've also heard mr. romney say that, too. take a listen to this, sir.

>> and i will get them lower. let me tell you how we can. i have a plan to cut taxes for middle incomes taxpayers. my plan does this, there will be no tax on interest, dividends, or capital gains for middle income families in america.

>> i must draw your attention to that, sir. according to the tack policy center, 70% of the federal tax on capital gains is paid for by the wealthiest 1% of the people, the top 1%. yet mr. romney is telling us his capital gains tax cut, like it's some kind of gift for the middle class . i'm interested in your response to that.

>> well, of course, we know that governor romney considers middle class $200,000 to $250,000 so maybe he's talking about helping those people some more. there's some merit in helping those people but for the vast majority of the american people , the 98% who don't make up to $250,000, i think that's going to be another hollow promise.

>> but again, i have to put that to you, he claims, this as his great specific, capital gains , and yet 70% of that benefits the top 1%.

>> well, we've heard this argument before on the budget committee . what they will say is if we cut capital gains taxes, then the people who benefit from that will invest it and create more jobs that help the middle class . but you know what? we tried that. we tried that for the bush administration . we tried it for ten years, and it really didn't -- that playbook didn't really score a lot of points. so, you know, even if you could make in theory that argument, again, we've had pretty recent evidence to support the fact that that doesn't work.

>> okay. we always hear from messrs. ryan and romney about closing loopholes and deductions so they can cut taxes across the board, as you know, by 20%, but a new study from the nonpartisan joint committee on taxation says that you can take out all the itemized deductions in the tax code , including the allowance for mortgage interest, and it would only allow you to cut taxes by 4%. what do you say to that?

>> right. well, you know, it's bizarre that governor romney still talks about cutting taxes by 20 -- the tax rate by 20% on the very wealthiest americans because those people don't have a lot of mortgage deductions. i mean, usually they own their own home for they have a relatively small mortgage. they don't worry about the employerbenefits deduction, so they really don't have a lot of deductions. so the idea that if you cut their rate by 20% you wouldn't be cutting their taxes is absolutely outrageous, and, again, you're talking about mortgage deductions, helps the middle class . you're talking about charitable deductions help obviously a lot of nonprofit organizations in the country. you're talking about ira contributions, things that help the middle class build a nest egg. you're really hurting the middle class and you're not at all penalizing the rich. i have to say one thing, when romney said that, he said i'm really not going to cut taxes on the rich, then what happens to his job creation program because i thought the whole thing was we're going to cut taxes on the job creators so they will hire more people. he kind of undermines his own program.

>> i wish you'd stop paying attention to what he actually says. thank you so much indeed. congressman john yarmuth . next,