Mitt Romney stands by anti-tax pledge

(CBS News) On "Face the Nation," presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney said he stands by his promise to not raise taxes, saying that lower tax rates create "more growth."

"The only solution to taming an out-of-control spending government is to cut spending. And my policies reduce the rate of spending, bring government expenses from 25 percent, federal expenses, from 25 percent of the economy down to 20 percent and ignite growth of our economy," Romney said.

Romney, who took a break from his "Every Town Counts" bus tour through six swing states, told host Bob Schieffer that he would not agree to one dollar in tax increases with ten dollars of federal spending cuts.

Romney has said he would limit tax deductions and exemptions, but Schieffer noted that Romney has been vague in describing what changes he would made. The former governor still gave no specifics, saying he would "go through that process with Congress."

However, he said that "the right way" to alter deductions and exemptions is "to limit them for high income individuals" in order to "keep the progressivity" of the tax code.

Although Romney's plan includes reducing the tax rates of all tax brackets, Romney said, "One of the absolute requirements of any tax reform that I have in mind is that people who are at the high end, whether you call them the one percent, or two percent, or half a percent, the people at the high end will still pay the same share of the tax burden they're paying now."

Romney added: "I'm not looking for a tax cut for the very wealthiest, I'm looking to bring tax rates down for everyone, and also to make sure that we stimulate growth by doing so and jobs. For me this is all about creating good jobs."

"I'm looking to keep the burden paid by the wealthiest as the same share that it is today," he said.

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has analyzed Romney's plan based on information available. "Because Gov. Romney has not specified how he would increase the tax base, it is impossible to determine how the plan would affect federal tax revenues or the distribution of the tax burden," the Tax Policy Center notes in their analysis.

In addition to reducing taxes as a means to grow the economy, Romney said one of the things he would do is "take advantage of our energy resources. We have an extraordinary gift which is massive natural gas reserves as well as coal and oil."

Romney has said the Keystone XL pipeline is one of his priorities. Last week, the former governor said, "If I have to build it myself to get it here, I'll get that oil into America."

On an upcoming meeting at the Federal Reserve about a possible monetary stimulus for the American economy called quantitative easing, Romney said the Fed's last installment of quantitative easing "did not have the desired effect."

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Romney added: "It was not extraordinarily harmful, but it does put in question the future value of the dollar and it will obviously encourage some inflation down the road."

"The last monetary stimulus, did not put Americans back to work, did not raise our home values, did not bring jobs back to this country or encourage small businesses to open their doors," Romney said.

Romney inferred that the current administration might be pressing the Fed to take action for political gain.

"Politicians in office want to do everything they can, just before an election to try and temporarily boost something," Romney said.

Finally, in response to questions by Schieffer about the European economic crisis, Romney said that, as president, he would not "bail out the European banks."