Clinton said it wasn’t possible to eliminate deductions for the rich without hurting the middle class. | REUTERS Bill Clinton: 'Red flag' on Mitt's plan

Mitt Romney’s refusal to get into the specifics of his tax overhaul should raise a “red flag,” former President Bill Clinton said Tuesday, adding he doesn’t think Romney can avoid a middle-class tax hike.

“We know what Governor Romney says, which is that his proposal for dealing with the debt is first, to make it bigger by adopting another round of tax cuts that, with the interest associated, would be about $5 trillion more over a decade,” Clinton said in an interview taped for CBS’s “This Morning.” “And we know how he says he wants to eliminate them, not by raising taxes, but by eliminating preferences in the Tax Code.”


“He says he can do that without raising taxes in the middle class,” Clinton added. “I’m not sure that’s possible. But he wants to defer till after the election saying what the specifics are. I think that ought to be a little bit of a red flag.”

Romney has promised an across-the-board 20 percent tax cuts but has also promised the cuts would be revenue neutral. Democrats and independent analysts have argued Romney would have to eliminate many deductions that help the middle class in order to fulfill that promise. During an interview with “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, Romney said the rich wouldn’t pay less under his tax plan.

Clinton said it wasn’t possible to eliminate deductions for the rich without hurting the middle class.

“Under Governor Romney’s plan, I pay well over 20 percent now,” Clinton said. “So if you eliminate the mortgage tax deduction and the charitable tax deduction, I’ll still be ahead. So to do it, you have to go down and raise and cut the deductions enough that you end up raising taxes on people in the middle-income group. That’s the problem.”

Clinton also dismissed Romney’s critiques of Obama’s foreign policy, including the suggestion of a top GOP campaign adviser that Obama was making the United States “look impotent.”

“The suggestion that somehow America could, or even should, be in the driver’s seat in the Arab Spring is inherently ridiculous,” Clinton said.

Host Charlie Rose pressed Clinton, asking if the United States could be doing more in Syria, where more than 20,000 people have died in a rebellion against President Bashar Assad.

“I think that if we have some nonlethal options that we could use to support the Syrian opposition, I presume we would be doing it and I wouldn’t be surprised if we are,” Clinton said, adding he doesn’t “have any information I shouldn’t have” and avoids discussing sensitive issues with his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Rose asked Clinton what those options might be.

“Well, they’re getting guns,” Clinton said, referring to the Syrian opposition. “Who’s giving them to them?”

In June, The New York Times reported the CIA was helping to steer guns to the Syrian rebels.

Clinton has become a prominent surrogate for President Barack Obama’s reelection, including giving a well-received speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.