By Jay Hansen

I apologize for the brevity of this article, but this week has been very busy. Today I have a wedding to attend and tomorrow is my two year anniversary with my wonderful, beautiful girlfriend, so I intend on spending the entire day with her. I still wanted to get some form of an article up, so I concocted this humorous picture-informative article hybrid.

The Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan, politically neutral organization, has come out with a report on Mitt Romney’s proposed tax plan should he be elected president. I’ll be honest; I’m often very, very skeptical about reports like these because numbers lie. Numbers are extremely easily manipulated to paint whatever picture the person controlling them wants. The Tax Policy Center, however, is on the record as nonpartisan and neutral. Plus, when I heard that Romney himself praised the organization as an “objective, third party group” when they appraised Rick Perry’s tax plan during the primary, I felt comfortable accepting their numbers on Romney’s own plan as fact.

The problem with his tax plan is that he claims he will cut taxes by 20% across the board for all Americans, but that it will be revenue neutral (i.e. it won’t cost the federal government money or worsen the deficit). The only way for that to be possible is if he eliminates a very large number of very large deductions that are used by many Americans. Romney refuses to name specifically which deductions he supports cutting (implying either that his plan is incomplete or he is hiding deductions that he knows people depend on). Nonetheless, the Tax Policy Center extended as much benefit of the doubt as possible to Mitt Romney in their analysis when it comes to cutting deductions. When combined with all of Romney’s massive cuts and some outright terminations of certain taxes like the estate tax and capital gains, both of which are overwhelmingly only paid by the ultra wealthy, the center’s findings were disgusting, but not shocking.

Mitt Romney’s tax plan, when all nuances such as deductions and types of taxes are taken into account, will ultimately cut taxes for those making $1 million annually by $87,000 a year. Those that earn below $200,000 a year, which is 95% of the American population, will experience a $500 tax increase. Mitt Romney himself makes minimum $21 million (which is what was reported on his 2010 tax returns), meaning his tax plan will cut his own taxes by a minimum of $1.8 million.

Some reports have calculated Romney may have as much as a quarter of a billion dollars ($250 million), which would translate to Romney giving himself a $21.7 million tax cut. The Koch Brothers, possibly the largest contributors to Mitt Romney’s campaign, are each worth $25 billion. Romney’s tax plan could give them each a $2.1 billion tax cut, or $4.2 billion for the both of them. Another major Romney supporter, Sheldon Adelson, is worth about the same at $24.9 billion, for another $2.1 billion tax cut.

That’s three people. The biggest three supporters of Mitt Romney, as well as Romney himself, combined will be getting a checks for as much as $6,321,700,000 from the federal government if Romney’s tax plan is implemented.

And who pays for it? To pay for cutting his own taxes, as well as the wealthiest 5% of the nation and his billionaire donors? He’ll raise your taxes by at least $500 a year. Now obviously, those calculations from Forbes on the billionaires likely include figures that wouldn’t fall under the same taxation categories as the calculations from the report, but nonetheless it’s entered the realm of possibility, and no matter how you cut it; anyone making above $1 million will still get a massive tax cut and anyone below $200,000 will get a tax increase. Like Cenk said in the video above, if this was a real democracy, there’s no way Romney could ever stand a chance at winning election. Thanks to all the money that’s been pumped into his campaign to manipulate the masses and cover up just how bad his plan is, however, this tragically wealthy man has a legitimate shot at being President.

There’s no other way to spin it now. It was largely speculative until this report came out, but now I spare no hesitation in saying if you are middle class or poor, and you vote for Mitt Romney, you are, without a doubt, a 100% sucker. Hence is why I had to make this: