Mitt Romney on Wednesday released two new television commercials featuring his widely-heralded debate performance to argue for his jobs and tax plan and attacking President Obama over his handling of the economy.
The commercials are further evidence that the Romney campaign is looking to build off his consensus debate victory, and primarily feature split-screen images of Romney describing his economic plan with the president looking on.
The two ads, called "Putting Jobs First" and "Helping the Middle Class," feature Romney touting his own economic proposals while describing economic struggles during the president's first term.
As is customary, the Romney campaign did not disclose where the ads would air, or the amount of money spent behind the buy. But with a Pew poll released Wednesday showing that two-thirds of voters saw Romney as the winner of the debate — and 72 percent of independents giving the Republican nominee the win — suggests the commercials could prove effective in boosting the Republican nominee's prospects.
In the ads, Romney is shown first critiquing the economy under President Obama.
“Look at the evidence of the last four years. It's absolutely extraordinary. We've got 23 million people out of work or stopped looking for work in this country," Romney says in the first ad. "They're suffering in this country."
In the second, Romney describes middle-income Americans as being "crushed" and notes that household income is down since the president took office.
The ads then pivot to Romney advocating for his plan, arguing he would bring down tax rates "to get more people working."
“The president would prefer raising taxes. ... The problem with raising taxes is that it slows down the rate of growth," Romney says. “I'm not going to raise taxes on anyone, because when the economy is growing slow like this, when we're in recession, you shouldn't raise taxes on anyone.”
The Obama campaign has repeatedly questioned Romney's assertions on the economy, arguing that the country has seen steady growth after the president's policies were implemented and that Romney would not be able to keep his tax plan deficit-neutral.
"If you add up lowering the tax rate by 20%, eliminating the alternative minimum tax, repealing the high income payroll, repealing the estate tax, and lowering taxes for corporations, that totals $5 trillion…. There aren't enough loopholes and deductions to equal $5 trillion. So there's still going to be a gap there. So how do you pay for that gap? You can either just add it to the deficit or you can close deductions and loopholes for middle class families," said deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter on CNN Tuesday.
