Aide: Romney's economic plan evolving

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WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- The economic plan issued last year by presumptive Republican U.S. presidential nominee Mitt Romney isn't chiseled in stone and is meant to evolve, an aide says.

Elements of the 59-point plan have changed since its release in September, such as proposed tax rates, USA Today reported Monday.

A Romney economic adviser said the document, "Believe in America: Mitt Romney's Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth," was never meant to be set in stone and specifically acknowledged several areas where "more work needed to be done."

"It's absolutely intended to be a starting point," the adviser said.

For example, Romney said in his document that "low marginal tax rates" should be maintained and corporate tax rates should be lowered from 35 percent to 25 percent. In February, the former Massachusetts governor announced a new tax plan that would reduce the marginal tax rates for all brackets by 20 percent and would abolish the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Also not addressed in his original plan is Romney's recent support for keeping a 3.4 percent interest rate on federal student loans rather than let the rate double as scheduled.

Another change is the Romney campaign's new emphasis on women, USA Today reported.

Romney recently has been stressing that women suffered the bulk of the job losses since President Obama took office, something the September document doesn't mention.

In fact, USA Today said, the word "women" appears just twice in the 160-page document -- in an essay by Meg Whitman, the former eBay chief executive officer who now leads Hewlett-Packard.