Samenvatting

At first glance the notion that lower taxes will decrease the government deficit sounds like a nonsensical idea. Nevertheless this is one of the main arguments brought forward in Mitt Romney's bid to oust Barack Obama from the White House. In this essay, the author compares the arguments brought forward by the Romney campaign and other fiscal conservatives with those of their critics. He discusses the paradigms underlying Romney's fiscal conservatism from a mixed European/Asian perspective. The author argues that while lowering taxes may sound alluring during a political campaign, without them it will prove hard to maintain our standard of living.