The pro-Obama super-PAC Priorities USA Action unveiled a new television ad on Saturday attacking Mitt Romney over a
study that found the GOP candidate's tax plan would shift the nation's tax
burden from the highest earners onto the middle and lower classes.
The ad, which will air in the battleground states of Colorado,
Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin, accuses Romney’s plan of “tearing
down the middle class,” based on the study from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
“We the people. The middle class, who move our country forward, work hard, raise families, and keep America strong,” says the ad’s narrator over images of firefighters, farmers, and blue collar workers.
“But Mitt Romney’s budget plan will hurt the middle class: Raising taxes on the average family by up to $2000 dollars, while giving a tax break of $250,000 dollars to multi- millionaires,” the ad continues. “Doesn’t Mitt Romney understand, we can’t rebuild America… by tearing down the middle class."
The Romney campaign called the ad a "misleading attack from a discredited ally of the president."
“The only candidate running who wants to raise taxes is President Obama," Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said in a statement. "His plan to raise taxes on small businesses and job creators is further evidence that he has no real plan for the economy and his only solution is to raise taxes... Mitt Romney wants to lower rates across the board, spur growth and investment, and get our economy back on the right track.”
The Tax Policy Center study found that Romney’s tax plan could raise taxes for
those who make less than $200,000 because his plan shifts $86 billion away from
the wealthiest taxpayers, requiring others to pick up the slack for the plan to
be revenue neutral.
Romney called the study from the Tax Policy Center “garbage,”
and his campaign and other conservatives have pushed back hard against the report.
But the center says it
stands by its analysis, issuing a second report that came to the same
conclusions.
— This story was updated at 2:55 p.m.
