President Obama's reelection campaign hammered Republican opponent Mitt Romney over his tax plan in a new television ad released Wednesday. The president's team continued to accuse the GOP presidential nominee of evading questions on his proposal.
"Mitt Romney. He won’t reveal what’s in his taxes and he won't tell you what he'd do to yours," says the narrator in the ad. "To pay for huge new tax breaks for millionaires like him, Romney would have to raise taxes on the middle class ... two thousand dollars for a family with children, says a non-partisan report."
The 30-second spot, titled "Won't Say," will air in the battleground states of Nevada, Virginia and Ohio.
Romney drew criticism from the Obama campaign for not releasing more details of how he would pay for a 20 percent across-the-board tax cut after an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.
The Republican presidential hopeful declined to give specifics on what tax loopholes he would close or what spending he would cut, but vowed his tax reform would not be a net cut for the wealthy or net increase for the middle class.
“I've indicated as well that, contrary to what the Democrats are saying, I'm not going to increase the tax burden on middle-income families. It would absolutely be wrong to do that,” he said on NBC.
Romney's campaign said the latest Obama attack is "misleading," and blamed the president for planning tax increases on small businesses.
"This is another misleading attack in an attempt to cover up for the President's failure to fix our economy. The only candidate running who wants to raise taxes is President Obama," said Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg in a statement. "President Obama's plan to raise taxes on small businesses and job creators is more proof that he doesn't have a plan to turn around the economy. After last week's devastating jobs report, the last thing we need is more taxes. Mitt Romney has a plan to lower rates across the board, spur investment, and finally get the country back on the right track."
The analysis of Romney's tax plan cited by the Obama campaign came from an August report put out by the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution.
The Romney campaign and conservatives have objected to the center's reports, with the Republican nominee previously calling it "garbage."
The report's authors, though, have defended their analysis, claiming that Romney’s tax plan, as currently stated, could not be revenue-neutral without shifting more of the tax burden to middle-income families.
