WASHINGTON (AP) _ ``Trust'' is the title of a 30 seconds ad by the Obama campaign. It is airing in the closely
contested states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio
and Virginia.
SCRIPT: Republican nominee Mitt Romney said in the first
presidential debate that he's ``not in favor of a $5 trillion tax cut.
That's not my plan.'' This ad takes issue with that statement, citing a
report from the Tax Policy Center.
The narrator asks: ``Why won't Romney
level with us about his tax plan, which gives the wealthy huge new tax
breaks?'' The ad's answer is ``because, according to experts, he'd have
to raise taxes on the middle class or increase the deficit to pay for
it.''
KEY IMAGES: The ad starts with the clip from the Denver debate in
which Romney disputes Obama's characterization of his tax plan. It cuts
to an image of NBC News reporter Andrea Mitchell citing the Tax Policy
Center report.
As the narrator questions Romney's assertion, it shows
images of the GOP nominee talking during the debate as Obama looks down.
The ad concludes by shifting from the debate to the Oval Office: ``If
we can't trust him here, how can we ever trust him here?'' the narrator
asks.
ANALYSIS: Romney's debate performance won high marks from across
the political spectrum. In it, he forcefully rejected one of the
president's major lines of attack _ that Romney's tax cuts largely
benefit the wealthy and would end up increasing the tax burden for
middle-income Americans.
To support his charge, Obama relies on a study from the Tax
Policy Center, a nonpartisan research group, that found Romney's
proposed 20 percent across-the-board rate cut and repeal of the estate
tax and the Alternative Minimum Tax would disproportionately benefit
high-income households.
The report concluded that it would be impossible
for Romney to cut rates as he has promised without increasing the
deficit _ which he vows not to do _ or raising taxes on middle-income
households.
The report projected that the tax cuts would decrease revenue by
about $480 billion in 2015, which the Obama campaign extrapolates to
about $5 trillion over 10 years. Some conservative economists take issue
with the Tax Policy Center's report, arguing that tax cuts allow people
to make more income, which in turn creates more revenue for the
government.
In effect, Romney is emphasizing the benefits of his tax plan
without spelling out any of the trade-offs. Obama may not have gotten
that point across as well as he wanted to on debate night, so he's
taking a second crack at it in the ad.