'Romney Hood' Steals From Middle Class, Gives to Rich: Obama (Update 1)

Updated from 12:54 p.m. EDT with Romney campaign comments

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Barack Obama thinks Mitt Romney is Robin Hood in reverse.

Speaking at a rally in Stamford, Conn., on Tuesday, the president slammed his Republican candidate's tax plan, which a Tax Policy Center study found would raise taxes on middle- and lower-income households and cut them for high-income taxpayers.

"He'd ask the middle class to pay more in taxes so that he could give another $250,000 tax cut to people making more than $3 million a year," Obama said Monday night. "It's like Robin Hood in reverse -- it's Romney Hood."

Romney's campaign responded to the study and said it ignored proposed reforms that would make American corporate tax rates comparable with its trading partners. The campaign also said the study ignored economic growth that would result from Romney's deficit reduction and corporate tax plan.

"This is just another biased study from a former Obama staffer that ignores critical parts of Governor Romney's tax reform program," Lanhee Chen, Romney's policy director, said in a release.

The Obama staffer mentioned is Adam Looney, former senior economist on the president's Council of Economic Advisers.

In an interview with CNN, a host asked Romney about a poll that showed a majority of the public thinks the former Massachusetts governor would allow for an extension of tax cuts for the wealthy. Romney turned it into a slam against the president's raising taxes on small businesses.

"The great majority of small businesses pay taxes at the individual rate. So as he raises these taxes, quote, on the wealthy, he's raising taxes on small business. That kills jobs," Romney said Sunday.

-- Written by Joe Deaux in New York.

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