Mitt Romney vowed at Wednesday's presidential debate in Denver that his tax cuts won't balloon the deficit.

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arly in the first presidential debate, Mitt Romney said his across-the-board tax cuts will not add to the deficit. He also said he would not reduce the "share" of taxes paid by higher-income Americans. Romney's tax plan has been widely criticized for pledging to close the deficit while steeply lowering tax rates, which many economists say is mathematically impossible without raising the tax burden on the middle class by closing popular loopholes and deductions. Obama rejected Romney's claim, saying, "It's math. It's arithmetic." Here, some reactions from the Twitterverse:

Romney is killing it. I don't think I've ever seen him this strong in a debate. His tax math doesn't add up, but that doesn't matter tonight

— Josh Barro (@jbarro) October 4, 2012

Problem with Romney's "no tax cuts that add to the deficit" principle: He seems to count on economic growth the make up the gap. Fuzzy math.

— Noam Scheiber (@noamscheiber) October 4, 2012

Romney is claiming his tax plan will not increase deficit AND will not raise middle clas tax burden. Mathematically impossible. #debates

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) October 4, 2012

Romney is not going to reduce the SHARE of taxes paid by high-income Americans,he says. the SHARE.

— Marc Ambinder (@marcambinder) October 4, 2012

Mitt comes right out saying he's not going to cut taxes on the rich. This could get interesting... bloom.bg/Politics #debates

— Bloomberg View (@BloombergView) October 4, 2012