As good a debater as Gingrich is, he should have know that trying to replay the “beat up John King” card on another CNN debate moderator, Wolf Blitzer, wouldn’t look genuine. It didn’t, and fell flat. Romney defended his business career effectively, once again, but still understated his tax burden in a way that I find puzzling.
As for the tax policy exchange itself, Santorum does the cause of tax reform a disservice by misstating the tax treatment of capital gains and other returns to capital. If we’re going to levy the same marginal rate on income earned from investment as from wage income, then we should abolish the corporate tax and treat all investment as if they were unlimited IRAs — no tax on the principal and full tax on the income once it is received and consumed.