As John Steele Gordon noted during the weekend, Democrats have been pummeling Mitt Romney about his tax plan, after a new study by the Tax Policy Center claimed it would raise taxes on the middle class. The latest dig came from President Obama, who called the plan “Robin Hood in reverse”:
“The entire centerpiece” of Romney’s economic plan is a $5 trillion tax cut, he said.
The president spoke of the Tax Policy Center’s analysis of Romney’s plan again. “It’s like Robin Hood in reverse — it’s Romney-hood.”
The crowd laughed and roared and whistled its approval.
“That’s the choice in this election. That’s why I’m running for a second term as president.”
Maggie Haberman notes some complaints about the study from the Romney campaign:
Romney’s campaign has argued the author of the report used to work in the Obama Treasury Department. Obama’s camp has noted it’s a nonpartisan think tank behind the study, and one Romney cited to discredit his primary rivals. Either way, ‘Romneyhood’ is going to be standard stump.
Obama needed to find a new class warfare attack on Romney after “you didn’t build that” flopped, and this Tax Policy Center study gives him the perfect prop for it. The Romneyhood message is simple and vivid: Obama wants to help the middle class, while Romney wants to raise taxes on the middle class to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Yes, this is a very premature and possibly inaccurate reading of Romney’s tax plan (the campaign still hasn’t released many of the details). But from a political perspective, Obama’s attack is pretty powerful.
The vast majority of Americans self-identify as middle class, even if their household income is substantially higher or lower than the median income. The vast majority of Americans also dislike when their own taxes increase, no matter what political party they belong to. Obama’s message doesn’t just speak to liberals or low-income voters; it speaks to the vast majority of voters.
The TPC may have a liberal bias, but that’s not a strong rebuttal from the Romney campaign (particularly as the director is a former member of Bush’s Economic Advisory Council). The best way to clear this up would be to see some more specifics on Romney’s tax plan.
I don't know that this attack is as strong as this article suggests — because Obama's message is the same thing the Democrats always say and it's more class warfare. It might be powerful for Romney to ask who would offer an overhaul of the tax code that raises taxes on the middle class, that when have you heard Republicans wanting to raise taxes, and it shows how desperate Obama is to turn to a supposedly nonpartisan report written by former members of his staff, and that the people might want to ask why Obama is so willing to raise everyone's taxes in January, including those of the middle class — all because he thinks his only chance to be re-elected is to double down on class warfare, saying that all Americans are not equal, that we are not in this recession together, and that his solution for fixing it is tax and spend and, oh yeah, jack up the price of energy, of healthcare, of food, and even gasoline when he takes pride in bailing out the auto unions and falsely claiming that was bailing out the auto industry? How does jacking up the price of gasoline now by refusing to explore America's vast oil reserves or build the Keystone Pipeline that had already been approved by the State Department help the auto industry?
Good points Keith.
If Romney gets in and lowers taxes on the rich, that will cause another recession. Then maybe the american people will see the Republicans for what they are and put them out of power for good.