If There Are Any Health and Budget Experts Still Supporting Mitt Romney, They Are All Running Screaming into the Night Right Now….

Mitt Romney wants to bust open the federal deficit by creating yet another huge tax expenditure:

Mitt Romney: Well, right now, most people get their insurance through their employer and the reason they do that is because their employer gets a tax deduction when they buy insurance for you. But if you're a very small-business person--let's say a one-person business--you don't get a tax deduction for buying insurance. And if you're an individual that's not employed, you don't get a tax deduction for buying your own insurance. What I would do is level the playing field and say individuals can buy insurance on the same tax advantage basis that businesses can buy insurance.

And Austin Frakt writes:

Most economists… many policy wonks… deficit hawks, advocate eliminating or phasing-out the tax deductibility of employer-sponsored health insurance…. Seems like a good idea to dump this tax subsidy…. Can anyone tell me why Romney wants to expand the tax preferred status of health insurance? Doesn't he believe we overspend on health care? Doesn't he believe in the incentive effects of taxation? Isn't he interested in reducing the deficit and/or cutting marginal tax rates? Why, then, would he want to create an even bigger tax expenditure? If Romney means something else (e.g., removing the tax deduction and offering tax a tax credit for group- and non-group health insurance products alike), then I'd like to know where he said or printed that, because his website doesn't say it. Frankly, I'm puzzled.

The answer is simple: Romney is a dangerous clown. And any health and budget experts still supporting him are dangerous clowns as well.