McMahon and Romney: "We Have Plans Which We Will Tell You About After the Election"

Linda McMahon announced she has a plan to deal with Social Security but she won't share the details until after the election. Caught on tape at a Tea Party Rally in April stating that Social Security is a program she would consider "sunsetting" McMahon explained that she had plans to reform Social Security but will not release them because she will be "demagogued" in the press as the details of her plans would be picked apart and criticized.

In this McMahon shares the same strategy as her running mate Mitt Romney who has steadfastly refused to reveal the details of his plan to pay for a 20% reduction of tax rates. Romney claims that the rate cuts will be fully paid for by eliminating deductions and closing loopholes on the wealthy. Faced with non-partisan studies that question his mathematics and doubt that Romney could cut rates as promised without exploding the deficit, Romney boldly says the math works but will not disclose the details until after the election. 

As Bloomberg News points out Romney is not the first presidential candidate to refuse to release details of his tax plan: George Bush did so during the 2000 election campaign when Bush's central promise was an across-the-board tax cut. "Running in 2000, George W. Bush insisted that his proposed tax cut would be a boon to the middle class. Experts demurred, arguing that the top 1 percent of income earners would reap a windfall. Like Romney, Bush declined to show his math. In the end, his 2001 tax cut delivered almost half of its benefits to the top 1 percent and initiated Bush’s march toward a trillion-dollar deficit."

There are two possibilities at work here. Either McMahon and Romney are lying and do not have any such plans or they believe their plans would be so unpopular with voters that disclosure would hurt their election chances.

Either way by campaigning on "secret" plans McMahon and Romney deploy a cynical and arrogant strategy displaying deep distrust and disdain for the electorate that subverts the very essence of democracy, which is to let the voters decide who will lead them based on the best and most complete information available.