The super-PAC supporting President Obama's reelection effort debuted a new attack ad on Monday targeting Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney over his education plan, in a campaign set to air in six crucial swing states.
The ad uses running mate Paul Ryan's budget proposal to argue that Republicans would cut early childhood education, K-12 funding, and college aid to help offset the cost of a new tax cut. While Romney himself has not called for cuts to the education budget, Ryan proposed a 20 percent across-the-board reduction in discretionary spending, and the removal of $1.1 billion from the Head Start program.
“Mitt Romney believes that tax breaks for the wealthy are a bigger priority than investing in our children’s future,” said Bill Burton, the head of the Priorities USA super-PAC, in a statement. “But Americans reject Mitt Romney's vision that says the middle class should bear more of the tax burden so multimillionaires can enjoy another tax cut.”
In the ad, children are shown walking through suburbia, but without some of the hallmarks of youth.
"Take away his toys and he’ll play with a stick," says the narrator. "Take away their bikes and they’ll still find a way to get where they’re going. But if you take away early childhood education, slash K-12 funding, and cut college aid for middle class families, they won’t go far."
In a statement Monday, the Romeny campaign called the commercial "a false ad by a discredited ally of President Obama."
"President Obama talks a lot about education reform, but he has put politics and his allegiance to the teachers’ unions above all else," said Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg. "When Mitt Romney was governor, Massachusetts’ schools had the best test scores in the country and his leadership expanded opportunities for high-achieving students."
The ad will air in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin, although the group did not announce specifically who much it would spend, saying simply the ad buy was part of a larger $30-million expenditure.
This story was updated at 9:01 a.m.
