Obama beware: Romney's tax plan is a moving target

The president is a busy man, and James Fallows warns us that presidents often don't have time to prepare adequately for debates. If I could, I would warn the president that Romney in recent days may have nominally eased himself out of the tax reform trap he set himself, as exposed by the Tax Policy Center. If Obama claims that Romney proposes to raise taxes on the middle class, Romney will protest that he's proposed no such thing, and may be able to offer enough 'specifics' to at least seem to rebut the charge.

Could ending the AMT square the circle?

A clue here, I think, to why the sudden revival of the Senate Gang of Six's deficit reduction plan, modeled on Bowles-Simpson, won a "surprise jolt of bipartisan support" when presented to 50-odd Senators:

A key question remains whether the plan might receive any support in the House, where Republicans have strongly resisted any new proposal that could bring in new taxes. The gang's plan would bring in $1 trillion in new tax revenue over 10 years by narrowing several tax breaks. But Mr. Conrad said it would also lower tax rates and end the alternative minimum tax. He said the combination of tax changes would be viewed by budget experts as a $1.5 trillion tax cut (my emphasis).

Ending the AMT allows Republicans to wriggle out of Grover Norquist's no-new-taxes-ever straitjacket, as Jonathan Chait explained with regard to a somewhat smaller package that also proposed to offset modest tax and fee hikes by ending the AMT: