At the outset of his campaign, Romney tried to avoid committing himself, but by February, with GOP rivals outflanking him and facing steady pressure from Republican elites, he declared himself in favor of a 20 percent tax cut, a move greeted with joy from anti-tax activists. But he still attempted to hide the ball. Romney promised that his rate cut would be matched by closing tax deductions and some unspecified allowance for economic growth, and thus would not decrease the level or the share of taxes paid by the rich. Romney\u2019s boast that his plan could not be scored revealed the essential calculation. But the campaign miscalculated. Yesterday\u2019s study by the Brookings Institution and the Tax Policy Center showed that, even allowing for the faster growth predicted by Romney\u2019s own economist, there aren\u2019t enough tax deductions to account for the cost of the lower rates for the rich \u2014 raising taxes for the middle class would be the only way to make Romney\u2019s promises add up. Romney didn\u2019t hide the ball well enough.<\/p>\n