President Obama is continuing to contrast his middle-class supporting polices with Romney's destroy-the-middle-class plan. In this new ad to run in battleground states, President Obama hits Romney hard on Romney's tax policies.
The Choice on Taxes.
Mitt Romney's Plan: A 25% tax cut for Millionaires. Tax breaks for oil companies and corporations that ship jobs overseas. But a tax hike for 18 Million Working Familes.
Barack Obama's Plan: Ask the Wealthy to Pay a Little More so the Middle Class Pays Less. Eliminate Oil Subsidies and Tax Breaks for Companies that Outsource.
Two Plans. Your Choice.
I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message.
Simple and hits a lot of points.
Romney favors the rich.
Romney favors Big Oil.
Romney cuts taxes on millionaires so he can raise taxes on you.
Romney favors companies that send jobs overseas.
Obama asks the wealthy to pay a little more to keep your taxes low.
Obama opposes outsourcing.
Obama is against tax breaks for Big Oil.
A lot to put in 30 seconds.
And the overall message. President Obama is on your side. Mitt Romney is not.
Romney is vulnerable on taxes and national defense (OBL). That's got to drive Republicans crazy.
Update I: I was asked what the basis for the claim of tax raises on the 18 million was. Here's what I found:
Romney’s tax plan also allows the expiration of tax cuts enacted in the economic stimulus package, including:
The American Opportunity Tax Credit raises the maximum education tax credit from $1,800 to $2,500 and it makes the credit partially refundable so low-income people who don’t pay any taxes would still benefit.
The stimulus bill also increased the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income working families from 40 percent to 45 percent. An extension enacted in 2010 increased the maximum credit for families with three or more children from $5,236 to $5,891 in 2011.
The child credit, a tax benefit to offset the cost of raising a child, is a partially refundable credit of up to $1,000 per child. Recent legislation lowered the threshold for qualifying, so that working families with earnings above $3,000 qualify for at least a partial credit.
These tax cuts provide substantial cuts for low-income taxpayers. And since Romney’s plan would allow them to expire, that’s who would see a tax increase under his proposal. (We are defining "working families" as tax filers or non-filers who receive a benefit from those tax cuts.)
The Tax Policy Center said Romney’s plan would raise taxes on about 11 percent of tax filers (or those too poor to file and pay taxes) by an average of about $900 in 2015. With 165 million filers in the U.S., that’s about 18 million people, as Obama said.
Said Williams: "Because he would not extend the Obama tax cuts, the people at the bottom who were benefiting from those cuts would see their taxes go up."
politifact