President Obama, campaigning in Mansfield, Ohio a short time ago, pounced on a new study showing Mitt Romney's plan to cut taxes on the wealthy would raises middle-class taxes by an average of $2,000 per family and unveiled a killer new line, asking middle-class voters whether they think it's a good idea to raise their taxes in order to pay for tax cuts for people like Romney.

Here's the video:



"Now, despite the evidence [that the Bush tax cuts didn't work], the entire centerpiece of my opponent's economic plan is a new $5 trillion tax cut on top of the Bush tax cuts," Obama said. "The bulk of the tax cut would go to the very top. A lot of it would go to the wealthiest one precent of all households.

"Folks making more than $3 million a year, the top one-tenth of one percent, would get a tax cut worth almost a quarter-million dollars. Now think about that. Folks making $3 million a year or more would get a quarter-million dollar tax cut!"

But, Obama said, Romney's plan doesn't just give a huge tax cut to those who don't need it—it would force everyone else to pay the cost of that cut. "It gets worse," he said. "Under my opponent's plan, who do you think gets the bill for these $250,000 tax cuts? You do! And you do not have to take my word for it. Just today, an independent, non-partisan organization ran all the numbers on Governor Romney's plan. This wasn't my staff, this wasn't something we did. Independent group, ran the numbers. They found that if Governor Romney wants to keep his word and pay for this plan, then he'd have to cut tax breaks that middle-class families depend on."

Obama, citing the study, conducted by the Tax Policy Center of the Brookings Institution and Urban Institute, said Romney's plan would require eliminating tax breaks on mortgage deductions, health care deductions, and education expenses. In all, he said, the average family would pay $2,000 more in taxes to pay for Romney's plan.

"And here's the thing," Obama said. "He's not asking you to contribute more to pay down the deficit. He's not asking you to pay more to invest in our children's education or rebuild our roads or put more folks back to work. He's asking you to pay more so that people like him can get a big tax cut. In order to afford just one $250,000 tax cut for somebody like Mr. Romney, 125 families like yours would have to pay another $2,000 in taxes each and every year. Does that sound like a good plan for economic growth? Does that sound like a plan you can afford?"