Obama ad on Romney "$5 Trillion" tax cut doesn't cut it - 13abc.com Toledo (OH) News, Weather and Sports

Four weeks away from election day and 13abc is not letting up on the presidential candidates.  We continue digging into the charges they're leveling in their campaign ads.  

The latest is the Obama campaign's charge that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will raise taxes on the middle class to pay for his $5 trillion dollar tax cut.


"This was dishonest... I'm not in favor of a 5 trillion dollar tax cut..."   

And the issue of the $5 trillion dollar tax cut came up during the presidential debate, October 3rd.

Mitt Romney declared, "First of all, I don't have a $5 trillion dollar tax cut.  I don't have a tax cut of the scale you're talking about."  

Mitt Romney proposes cutting the federal tax rate 20-percent all taxpayers across the board while cutting loopholes that mostly benefit the rich.

Romney believes, with extra spending cash, you'll buy at stores and create jobs and economic growth.

He says that would add tax revenue to the treasury to help pay for the rate reduction.

But President Obama isn't buying it.

He said during the presidential debate, "For 18 months, (Romney's) been running on his tax plan and now, 5 weeks before the election, he says his big bold idea is 'never mind' "

The Tax Policy Center looked at the Romney plan and determined Romney's cuts would cost the treasury $480-billion dollars a year.

The president's $5-trillion dollar charge comes by multiplying 480-billion by 10-years.

The Center also claims, to pay for the plan, Romney will have to raise taxes on the middle class by $86-billion dollars.

But the Tax Policy Center only assumed some deductions Romney would eliminate and did not take into account any economic growth those tax cuts may generate.

Deductions and economic growth are two big factors in Romney's plan to cut the federal tax rate without raising taxes on the middle class.

To be fair, Romney hasn't outlined which deductions he would eliminate but he says *all* are on the table. 

So it's FALSE to say he has a $5-trillion dollar plan and that the middle class will necessarily pay more.

But he needs to offer more details; the president's right about that.