Breaking Through "He Said, She Said"

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ROMNEY'S TAX PLAN

Average voters get that Mitt Romney is hiding his tax returns for suspicious reasons, even if they aren't following the fact checks debunking his mathematically impossible claims about his $5 trillion tax plan favoring the wealthy. Here's how to get the point across about his tax plan: connect it to his tax returns.

First he hid his tax returns. Now he's hiding his tax plan.

Connect: Voters want leaders who say what they mean and whose words match their actions.

State of play: Mitt Romney is trying to get away with saying that he won't raise taxes on the middle class, give the wealthy more tax cuts, or add to the debt -- but his own plan and simple math show he's promising the impossible.

Debunk: It's basic arithmetic -- the numbers in Romney's tax plan only work if he raises taxes on the middle class. That's the tax plan with his name on it and the plan the rest of us are talking about.

Define: First he hides his tax returns so he doesn't have to come clean on them. Now he's hiding his tax plan because he doesn't want us to believe he would make working families pay more -- just so the wealthy will pay less.

Discredit: Who do you believe: a politician who's trying to have it all ways to win the election -- or nonpartisan experts who have nothing to gain?

Values: Which America do we want: a country that works for all of us -- or one that works for the wealthiest few at the expense of everyone else?

ROMNEY'S MEDICARE PLAN

Despite Romney's deceptive $700 billion Medicare attack, voters outside the Beltway instinctively know which party to trust on Medicare. Tap into this reservoir of trust to break through the noise.

Who should you trust: The party that created and fought to protect Medicare -- or politicians who want to privatize it?

Connect: We need leaders who get that Medicare belongs to all of us: we work for it, pay into it, and earn it.

Gut check: Who should you trust on Medicare? The party that created it and fought to protect it for half a century -- or a politician who turned down Medicare for himself and wants to privatize it?

Reaffirm: The health care law guarantees Medicare coverage for life, preserves every dime of benefits, and adds almost a decade to the Medicare trust fund.

Contrast: Romney's plan does none of those things. His plan would privatize Medicare -- making seniors go fight with the big insurance companies to get coverage with nothing more than a little coupon.

Debunk: By restructuring Medicare into a voucher system, his plan undermines and ends "traditional Medicare" and raises out-of-pocket costs for all seniors, whether they have Medicare now or later.

Values: After a lifetime of paying into Medicare with each paycheck, Americans expect Medicare to be there for them when they retire -- not the little vouchers and big new costs that Romney is pushing.

MORE RESOURCES

The Tax Plan He's Hiding (Messaging on Romney's tax returns and tax plan)

The VP Debate Tonight (Messaging for highlighting the choices facing voters in this election)

Debate Debrief: Romney vs. The Truth (Messaging for responding to Romney's debate style by bringing the focus back to values and people)

The Debate: Ten Offensive Plays (Messaging for going on offense with lines about the 47%, sabotage, offshoring, and more)

The Debate: Their Attack Playbook (Messaging for responding to classic Romney attacks by turning the tables)

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.