Republican Mitt Romney started his campaign calling for big tax cuts, but now he has changed course. He's warning middle-class families not to raise their hopes too high.
Romney couldn't have been more emphatic than he was last November at a candidates' debate in Michigan.
"What I want to do is help the people who've been hurt the most, and that's the middle class," he said. "And so what I do is focus a substantial tax break on middle-income Americans."
He put a middle-class tax cut at the top of his priority list: a 20 percent reduction in tax rates across the board.
"Right now, let's get the job done first that has to be done immediately. Let's lower the tax rates on middle-income Americans," he said.
Then, at a debate in Tampa this January, Romney got a little more specific.
"The real question people are gonna ask is, who's going to help the American people at a time when folks are having real tough times? And that's why I've put forward a plan to eliminate the tax on savings for middle-income Americans," he said. "Anyone making under $200,000 a year, I would eliminate the tax on interest, dividends and capital gains."
Shaking Up Tax Plans
But then came Romney's victory in the primaries, and a new set of goals to meet.
"Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes," campaign adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said on CNN. "It's almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up, and we start all over again."
Economy
Reading Between The Candidates' Economic Lines