"Look, the centerpiece of Governor Romney’s entire economic plan -- the centerpiece of it, his main idea -- [font size="+1"]his one big idea is to give another $5 trillion tax cut on top of the Bush tax cuts that he’s keeping -- he wants to keep in place -- $5 trillion[/font]. To give you some sense of perspective, our entire defense budget is about half a trillion dollars a year. So this tax cut would be the equivalent of what we spend on the national defense every single year for the next 10 years -- $5 trillion. [font size="+1"]Last week we found out that he expects you to pay the tab. Governor Romney’s tax plan would actually raise taxes on middle-class families with children by an average of $2,000 to pay for this big tax break that’s going mostly to the wealthiest folks.[/font] "

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"Understand, this is not asking you to pay more taxes to reduce our deficit or to help kids get an education or to rebuild some roads and bridges and ports around the country. This is asking you to pay more to give an average $250,000 tax break to folks making $3 million a year or more. That is his big idea."

"Now, they have tried to sell this kind of trickle-down fairy dust before. (Laughter.) And frankly, they tried it as recently as 2001, 2002, 2003. And what did we get? The most sluggish job growth in generations, incomes and wages going down, jobs going overseas, and a huge economic crisis -- and, by the way, the deficits kept on going up so by the time I walked into office we had a trillion-dollar deficit.

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So they don’t have a plan to cut the deficit. They don’t have a plan to create jobs. They sure don’t have a plan to revive the middle class. We don’t need more tax cuts for folks like me -- folks who are doing fine. We need tax relief for working Americans." (Applause.)
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Now, look, over the weekend my opponent chose as his running mate the ideological leader of the Republicans in Congress. And I've gotten to know Congressman Ryan. He's a good man. He's a family man. He's a very articulate spokesperson for Governor Romney's vision. The problem is it's the wrong vision for America. It's a vision that I fundamentally disagree with. (Applause.)

Their main recipe for solving America’s problems is getting rid of regulations on big corporations and big banks, and then giving more tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans. And their theory is that somehow that’s going to lead to jobs and prosperity for everybody. In fact, the centerpiece of Governor Romney’s entire economic plan is a new -- you heard this from Dave -- is a new $5 trillion tax cut, a lot of it going to the wealthiest Americans.

[font size=+1"]Now, keep in mind, these are the folks who say the deficit and the debt are the biggest problem we’ve got. And yet, they now want to give a $5 trillion tax cut. I know the numbers get so big, but I just want you to get a sense -- our entire defense budget annually is $500 billion. So what this means is, a $5 trillion tax break over 10 years, that’s the equivalent of the entire defense budget going out as a tax cut every single year.

Now, keep in mind that this is going disproportionately to the wealthiest Americans. Last week, we found out that Governor Romney expects you, middle-class families, to pick up the tab for this big tax cut.[/font]

AUDIENCE: No!

THE PRESIDENT: [font size=+1"]And please don’t take my word for it. You can go to their website and look at their plan. And then independent economists have looked at this thing and they said that Governor Romney’s tax plan would actually raise taxes on middle-class families with children by an average of $2,000.[/font]

AUDIENCE: Booo --

THE PRESIDENT: Now, keep in mind, this is not $2,000 to reduce the deficit, or to grow jobs, or to invest in education, or make college more affordable, or to rebuild our roads. This is $2,000 to give another $250,000 tax cut to people making more than $3 million a year.
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