"But your rate comes down and the burden also comes down on you for one more reason, and that is every middle-income taxpayer no longer will pay any tax on interest, dividends or capital gains. No tax on your savings. That makes life a lot easier. If you're getting interest from a bank, if you're getting a statement from a mutual fund or any other kind of investment you have, you don't have to worry about filing taxes on that, because there'll be no taxes for anybody making $200,000.00 per year and less, on your interest, dividends and capital gains. Why am I lowering taxes on the middle-class? Because under the last four years, they've been buried. And I want to help people in the middle-class." -- Mitt Romney

Mr. Romney's quote is from Presidential debate transcript, questions, Oct. 16, 2012 (text, video).

Mr. Romney, it's really too bad you're going to lose the election because I really like your idea to not tax income from investments.

You said this will be only for taxpayers earning less than $200,000 a year but that's something I don't think I have to worry about.

It's fair to say not taxing dividends and capital gains won't help balance the federal budget, but it's not completely fair to say that. If retired people have more money to spend because their retirement income is not taxed, they are likely to spend that money, and spending helps create jobs. More jobs equals more tax revenue for the government.

Middle class Americans work hard for their income and wouldn't it be nice if they had something to look forward to when they retire, which is being able to keep all their retirement income instead of having to share it with a federal government which has a long history of wasting money.