President Obama Hits Mitt Romney for ‘Cradle to Grave Tax Hikes, Fees’
President Obama Hits Mitt Romney for ‘Cradle to Grave Tax Hikes, Fees’
President Obama today delivered his final pitch to voters in the Live Free or Die state, accusing rival Mitt Romney of being untrustworthy, and slamming his record of “cradle to grave tax hikes and fees” as governor of neighboring Massachusetts.
“During Gov. Romney’s campaign for governor down there, he promised the same thing he’s promising now, said he’d fight for jobs and middle class families,” Obama said. “But once he took office, he pushed through a tax cut that overwhelmingly benefited 278 of the wealthiest families in the state and then he raised taxes and fees on middle class families to the tune of $750 million. Does that sound familiar to you?
“There were higher fees to be a borrower, higher fees to become a nurse. There were higher fees for gas, there were higher fees for milk, there were higher fees for blind people to get a certificate that they were blind,” Obama said.
“He even raised fees to get a birth certificate — which would have been expensive for me,” he joked, alluding to the conspiracy theories about the authenticity of his own birth record.
“He raised fees for marriage certificates and fees for funeral homes,” Obama continued. “So there were literally cradle to grave tax hikes and fees.”
A study by the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures found that in 2003, the first year of Romney’s tenure in Massachusetts, the state imposed roughly $500 million in higher fees, more than any other state. Mortgage-recording fees increased from $36 to $158; driving permits increased from $15 to $30; and marriage licenses went from $4 to $50, the study found.