Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is out with two new ads in Virginia and other key states using footage from last week’s debate to make the argument for his economic approach, and against President Barack Obama’s.
The two ads, “Putting Jobs First” and “Helping the Middle Class,” both feature clips of Romney bemoaning the state of the economy.
They also both notably include footage of Obama looking downward at the podium as Romney speaks.
“Under the President’s policies, middle-income Americans have been buried. They’re just being crushed,” Romney says in “Helping the Middle Class,” adding that “middle-income Americans have seen their income come down by $4,300. This is a tax in and of itself. I’ll call it the economy tax.”
Romney goes on to pledge that he will not raise taxes on anyone, but bring down rates to get people working.
In “Putting Jobs First,” Romney continues his argument, saying that “the President would prefer raising taxes,” adding that “the problem with raising taxes is that it slows down the rate of growth.”
The ads are the first from the campaign to take advantage of Romney’s strong performance at last week’s debate.
“There is nothing Mitt Romney won’t say to win votes. In the last few weeks, Romney has said there would be no major tax cuts as part of his $5 trillion tax plan because he’d cut deductions to pay for it,” responded Obama campaign spokesman Danny Kanner. “But today, his ads suggest the middle class will see a 20 percent tax cut if he were elected. That’s despite the fact that independent, non-partisan analysis confirms paying for Romney’s massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans would require him to raise middle class taxes by cutting important deductions like the mortgage interest deduction.”
