President Obama spoke to a crowd at the Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio, yesterday. He continued a week of painting the GOP as naysayers and describing his plan to address the ailing economy: tax cuts on those making less than $250,000 a year paid for by closing business tax loopholes, and tax write-offs for businesses' research and development efforts as well as investments in new equipment and jobs.  Obama also described the U.S. as having done better under Clinton-era tax rates than those under President Bush's tax cuts. 

There’s quite the political brawl going on over the economy at the moment, and the role tax cuts will play in it.  But here at The Takeaway, we’ve been thinking.  If we want to really understand more of the "dismal science" of economics, it would behoove us to tiptoe past the mudslinging rhetoric and pull out our pocket protectors.  Louise Story is here with a calculator.  She’s been digging into the math.