Questions linger on Romney’s tax plan

>>> these are critical days for mitt romney as he tries to build on his strong debate performance and answer, now as he gets a second look lingering questions about the tax plan that will get debated and how he will handle medicare. with me republican senator from texas kay bailey hutchinson . good morning. always good to see you.

>> thank you, chuck.

>> i want to start with first though mitt romney and the 47% remark. here's what he said to sean hannity last night.

>> clearly in a campaign with hundreds if not thousands of speeches and question and answer sessions now and then you say something that doesn't come out right. in this case i said something that is just completely wrong. i absolutely believe, however, my life has shown that i care about a hundred percent.

>> senator hutchinson, took three weeks for him to say he was completely wrong. do you think that was two weeks too long, three weeks too long?

>> well, i think that it was misinterpreted. people do say things in campaigns. you know he's been out there for two years and, you know, i would just say he is trying to get that behind him and i think he showed in the debate, chuck, that he does care about making sure that people are taken care of who can't take care of themselves. but his focus too is on creating jobs for those who want to work, who are out there unemployed, 23 million unemployed or under employed and he wants to jump-start the economy to get it going again. and i think -- i hope that's the focus.

>> let me ask you about his tax plans. se pledging to cut taxes or not? what is your understanding? he pledging that if he's elected president he is going to cut taxes, the amount of taxes that come into the federal government ?

>> number one, i think he is saying he is not going to increase taxes. i think that's where he and the president differ. the president wants to increase taxes. mitt romney wants tax reform that does not increase tax on anyone but yet gives incentives to people to hire, like making sure that the middle class does not get hit with the taxes and the regulatory burdens. he wants small business to hire people and that's why he doesn't want to talk about raising taxes on anyone.

>> but do you understand how he gets there?

>> he is not going to cut taxes.

>> he has a very detailed plan on tax reform as far as who would -- which taxes go away and what's been -- what's not there and obviously the romney campaign is upset when other people fill in the blanks but do you feel as if he needs to provide more detail explaining how he offsets the half a trillion dollars a year in tax revenue that goes away in his version of tax reform ?

>> well, i think he -- i believe he does that. he says he is going to make sure that more people are working so more people pay taxes. that is a dynamic scoring which is very important.

>> but that's a hope. that's not a policy -- that's not anything you can sign into -- trust me. i think if a president could sign a law that said we will create more jobs that law would have been signed a long time ago.

>> well i think he is looking at the fundamentals that are keeping people from hiring like the costs and taxes in obama care. like the over regulation that is stifling small business . like the constant talk of new taxes on small business . i think he is saying we're going to stop that. we're going to stop the over regulation. we're going to stop the taxes. we're going to get this economy jump-started. we're going to open markets in trade in central and south america where we have real opportunities. but on the tax reform , i think it is important that he is pretty bold in his specifics in saying he is going to limit upper income people's ability to get all the deductions. but he is not going to do it on the middle class . i think he has been specific and i think that's just been kind of glossed over.

>> let me fill in some blanks here. he has said he is going to get rid of the estate tax though and he has said that he is not going to raise the rate on nonincome from -- on income from dividend and capital gains which is of course the offset that -- the chief feature of simpson/bowles, right? that is how they offset their lowering tax rate . they raise the rate on which people pay taxes on their income from nonemployment from things like dividends and stuff like that. so that's where -- that is where all the analysts come up and say they can't find the pot of money.

>> well, i believe that what he is saying is the people who are getting really hurt right now besides the middle class small business person are retirees who are getting nothing in their ability to earn money on capital gains or dividends and they -- a lot of these retirees are really not able to make ends meet. we want to encourage savings in this country. we have the lowest savings rate of any country in the world just about. and i think keeping those taxes low and encouraging savings is part of an economic plan that's important. but i think what he is saying is he's not going to raise the rates, meaning he is not going to raise taxes on anyone. but he is going to lower the deduction capability at the upper levels, not the middle class , and he is saying he is -- by putting people to work with dynamic scoring , which i think is very important, and that brings in the revenue, the old fashioned way with people working.

>> dynamic scoring . that's always the bane of the congressional budget office existence. senator kay bailey hutchinson republican from texas always a pleasure to talk to you in the morning. thanks for coming on.

>> thank you, chuck.