Taxes Take Center Stage on Campaign Trail

At U.S. News, "Obama, Romney Campaign in Swing States, Talk Taxes":

The twists and turns of the presidential campaign led President Barack Obama to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Tuesday to campaign for his proposal to extend most of the Bush-era tax cuts and Republican hopeful Mitt Romney to Grand Junction, Colo., to take questions from a town hall audience.

A new Washington Post/ABC News national poll showed the two men deadlocked at 47 percent support each, cementing the importance of swing states like Iowa and Colorado. Other new swing-state surveys showed Obama leading Romney 50 percent to 42 percent in Virginia and the two candidates virtually tied in North Carolina.

Romney, during his town hall on Tuesday, continually labeled Obama a "old-style liberal" in an attempt to stem some of the momentum the Democrat's campaign has sought to build based on news reports describing Romney as profiting from outsourcing jobs and criticism he's faced for declining to further disclose his personal finances.

"If there's an outsourcer in chief, it's the president of the United States, not the guy who's running to replace him," Romney said, referring to federal monies sent to renewable energy companies that manufacture components like solar panels in China.

Romney also took aim at the president's proposal to extend the Bush-era tax cuts to all but those making more than $250,000 a year.

"You've got to be careful--when people in Washington say they are lowering taxes, hold onto your wallet," Romney said. "Because in fact he didn't lower taxes for anybody. For some people he announced your taxes are going to stay the same. And then for others, for job creators and small businesses, he announced a massive tax increase."

The former Massachusetts governor said in light of last week's weak job growth report, Obama's proposal is "the sort of thing only an extreme liberal could think of" ....

But Obama pressed his case at a campaign event in Iowa, claiming that his proposals seek to strengthen the middle class to grow the sluggish economy.

"All we ask is for our hard work to pay off; for our responsibility to be rewarded," Obama said. "We tried what they're selling and it didn't work."

The president, echoing a theme he's highlighted in other recent campaign stops, knocked Congress for creating a stalemate that's stalling the economy.

"What's holding us back from meeting this challenge is a stalemate in Washington between two fundamentally different views," he said. "This election is about breaking that stalemate."

I don't trust the Washington Post's polls, but Ed Morrissey took a stab at that latest one: "This just in: Bain attack still not working":

Two analyses from the flawed WaPo/ABC poll, as well as spending in swing states, deliver grim news to Team Obama this morning. Their main line of attack in which they hope to paint Mitt Romney as an uber-rich vampire capitalist clearly isn’t moving the needle among voters — and that’s true despite an overwhelming spending advantage Barack Obama has enjoyed in the early going. Unless they can come up with a better argument, Romney’s fundraising will shortly put them in a very big hole.

Read it all at the link (via Memeorandum).