Tuesday Open Thread [12.13.11]

In a CNN interview, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani came very close to endorsing Newt Gingrich over Mitt Romney.

“My gut tells me right now as I look at it that Gingrich might actually be the stronger candidate, because I think he can make a broader connection than Mitt Romney to those Reagan Democrats…You won’t have this barrier of possible elitism that I think Obama could exploit pretty effectively.”

Dick Cheney said he admired Gingrich yesterday. So while some of the establishment is freaking out, others are following the 11th Commandment. Mitt Romney is just so disliked by so many Republicans there is just no way he wins the nomination.

Perhaps one of the reason Gingrich is skyrocketing to the nomination is his tax plan. It would make it the law of the land that taxes for the 1% are lower than those for the middle class.

The Tax Policy Center has run the numbers on Newt Gingrich’s tax plan. The verdict? Gingrich’s plan does more for wealthy American households than any plan released by the other 2012 candidates — and increases the deficit by trillions.

Gingrich would give the top 1 percent of U.S. households an average $430,000 tax cut, with their tax rate dropping 22 percentage points under the assumption that the Bush tax cuts expire in 2012. Households with an income of more than $1,000,000 would get a whopping $760,000 tax break on average, heavily weighted by the top 0.1 percent, who’d get a $2.3 million tax reduction. By contrast, the bottom 20 percent would save only an average of $649 under the Gingrich plan — with their tax rate dropping just 1.5 percentage points — and more than half of that group wouldn’t see any benefit at all. And those earning $40,000 to $50,000 would get a tax cut of about $1,900 on average.

Republicans are truly amazing in that they just cannot help themselves. If they found a candidate who was half way likeable, half way competent, and who sounded populist tones (kind of like Sarah Palin but with a brain), they might win this election going away. Instead, they have as their choice two unlikeable monsters who are filthy rich and are racing to see which one can make life on easy street more easy.