She who laffs last...

We suppose that Harvard's Martin Feldstein deserved this from the insufferable Brad DeLong;

MARTIN FELDSTEIN ACCIDENTLY PROVES EITHER (I) 152 > 186 OR (II) IT IS MATHEMATICALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR ROMNEY TO KEEP HIS TAX-POLICY PROMISES

for unnecessarily complicating the issue of Mitt Romney's income tax proposal.  Sample;

The IRS data show that taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes over $100,000 (the top 21% of all taxpayers) made itemized deductions totaling $636 billion in 2009. Those high-income taxpayers paid marginal tax rates of 25% to 35%, with most $200,000-plus earners paying marginal rates of 33% or 35%. 

And what do we get when we apply a 30% marginal tax rate to the $636 billion in itemized deductions? Extra revenue of $191 billion—more than enough to offset the revenue losses from the individual income tax cuts proposed by Gov. Romney.

As the Nabokov-phile 'Vivian Darkbloom' points out to the Tax Policy Center (originators of the claim that Romney's proposal is mathematically impossible), you can put all the fancy assumptions in your pipe and ....

'Cause the math is quite simple.  If one has a gross income of $1,000 and the government allows $200 of deductions against that, for an AGI of $800 and taxes that at the current top marginal rate of 35%, it takes in $280 in revenue.

Which is exactly the same revenue it would get by allowing zero deductions on the same income of $1,000 and taxing it at a rate of 28%.  Which is Romney's proposal, lower rates by 20% and eliminate deductions.  So simple even a Phd in economics should be able to understand it.