Don't Feel Like A Victim Yet?

CORE MESSAGE

Don't feel like a "victim" yet? Romney's tax hike might change that.

Connect: If you want to know how a politician will treat you once elected, listen to how he talks about people.

Illustrate: Mitt Romney told his millionaire donors that half of Americans "will never take personal responsibility" for their lives and see themselves as "victims."

Call out: Don't feel like a "victim" yet? Romney's tax hike might change that.

Explain: If his complaint is that working families, students, and retired seniors are deadbeats who aren't paying enough taxes, then his solution is make them pay more.

Expose: It's no surprise that's exactly what his tax plan would do -- it's as if Romney thinks that struggling people aren't struggling enough and the wealthiest few aren't wealthy enough.

Discredit: Romney should come clean on his own taxes before calling people who pay higher taxes than he does freeloaders.

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Bonus Tweet: Romney Sends Champion Of The Poor-Paul Ryan-For Damage Control. Like the Grim Reaper bringing vitamins & cookies. http://bit.ly/UlQFkJ  [Click to Tweet it]

ATTACKS AND RESPONSES 

PAUL RYAN: "We believe in a safety net."
RESPONSE:

• It's a headline fit for The Onion: "Romney Campaign Sends In Champion Of The Poor Paul Ryan For Damage Control."  That's like the Grim Reaper bringing vitamins and a plate of cookies.
• Just look at this video laying bare the stark contrast between Romney's off-script insult of America and what he said on-script to faith leaders just last week about protecting the safety net. Which do you believe?
• In fact, if we let the GOP go after the half of America they falsely accuse of not paying taxes, millions of Americans on the brink would be pushed into poverty. Not only that, the Romney-Ryan budget gets over 60% of its funding cuts from programs that serve struggling families.
• Romney even admitted he's "not concerned about the very poor" -- and he'd show it by making seniors, children, and vulnerable families bear more of the burden just so he can give the richest few even more tax giveaways.

ATTACK: "Obama is admitting that he can't change Washington from the inside."
RESPONSE:

• Here's what the President actually said: "you can't change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside." He's right -- getting "the American people to speak out" is how we get things done and hold our leaders in Washington accountable.
• That might be why Mitt Romney said the same thing as Obama back in 2007: "I don't think you change Washington from the inside. I think you change it from the outside."
• And Obama's comment is right about this, too: we need more Americans to speak out against politicians who keep voting against their own constituents' interests -- just so their constituents will vote against the President.

MITT ROMNEY: "There's a tape of the president saying that he likes redistribution. I disagree."
RESPONSE:

• Here are the shocking things President Obama said 14 years ago in that video: we should "make sure that everybody's got a shot," "foster competition," and make the "marketplace" work better.
• Let's be clear: Mitt Romney is the one who wants redistribution -- tax hikes on the entire middle class and a massive redistribution of wealth from working people to the already-rich.
• In fact, experts say his top-down class warfare agenda would be the largest redistribution of income from regular people to the richest few in modern U.S. history.
• So Romney thinks that if you're struggling, you're not struggling enough -- and you should pay more to make the rich even richer. He's running to be the country's first Class-Warrior-in-Chief.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Any way you look at their plans, independent study after study confirms that the Romney-Ryan agenda would raise taxes on the entire middle class  -- hitting working families especially hard --  so the richest few pays less.
• When it comes to paying federal income taxes, who is Mitt Romney accusing of being irresponsible deadbeats? Our military serving in war zones, retired seniors, working parents, and students. And like almost everybody, they pay plenty of taxes.
• Over 60% of families who don't owe federal income taxes are working -- they're just not making enough income to have to pay more. In fact, of the working families who are low-income, virtually all, or 96%, work at least half-time and over 70% work full-time or more.
• In the last two years, Mitt Romney paid an average tax rate of 14% on the money he's made off of the wealth he already has.
• Romney's VP pick Congressman Ryan has proposed a plan that would've let Mitt Romney pay less than 1% in income taxes.
• So Romney pays a lower rate than pretty much everybody, including a lot of middle-class families and working people who pay payroll taxes with each paycheck.
• Many millionaires and billionaires -- approximately 55,000 -- are paying lower taxes than millions of middle-class Americans. In fact, in 2009, 1,500 millionaires managed to pay no federal income taxes on their millions.
• An important new comprehensive research report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service shows that over the past 65 years, tax cuts for the richest few are correlated only with income inequality, not economic growth.

We develop messaging by aggregating, analyzing and distilling polling, tested messaging, and expert recommendations, and monitoring the media to identify what is and isn't working. See here for some of the experts and organizations we draw on.