Fact Check: Obama Ad Bashes Romney Across the Board - 8 News NOW

Claim: An advertisement endorsed by President Barack Obama says this about Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney: "Mitt Romney's plan rolls back regulations on the banks that crashed our economy. Medicare voucherized. Catastrophic cuts to education. Millionaires will get one of the largest tax cuts ever while middle-class families pay more."

Verdict: Mixes true and misleading statements. Romney has said he would repeal the Democrat-backed Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a set of financial regulations approved in response to the economic recession. His campaign website states that he advocates a more "streamlined, modern regulatory framework."

The Obama campaign has consistently attacked Romney's Medicare position by showing senior citizens, but the ad is misleading here as similar claims have been in the past. Romney has made clear that his plan will not affect current seniors or those nearing retirement. But he proposes that Medicare be reformed for younger generations into a system where each recipient will get a fixed amount that can be used to purchase an insurance plan. His proposal is that all insurance plans must be at least comparable to what Medicare provides now. If seniors choose more expensive plans, Romney proposes that they pay the difference between the government benefit and the costlier plan. Seniors still would have access to fee-for-service Medicare but be required to pay the difference if there are less expensive private options.

The catastrophic cuts to education claim is based on a Denver Post endorsement of Obama in which the newspaper wrote that Romney would increase defense spending while overseeing "catastrophic cuts to other discretionary programs." The assumption is that education would be among those cuts. Romney's education plan, as outlined on his website, advocates giving parents and students greater choices over which schools to attend and aims to reward good teachers. His proposed higher education reforms include strengthening and simplifying the financial aid system and promoting greater private sector participation. But nothing in the plan states that Romney is planning deep cuts to education.

Finally, the ad again relies on the frequently quoted study from the Tax Policy Center to attack Romney's tax plan. The study concluded that Romney's plan would benefit wealthier Americans while hurting the middle class. But the study's authors based their conclusions on incomplete information because Romney has not detailed the tax loopholes he would close or deductions he would reduce or eliminate in his bid to broaden the tax base. This has left Romney open to criticism that he hasn't been fully honest with the public about his tax proposal. But his response has been that his tax plan represents a framework of goals he intends to achieve if elected. He continues to insist that middle-income Americans would see tax cuts under his plan.