Mitt Romney's Middle-Class Tax Cut Promise Contradicts Recent Claim

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney contradicted his recent statements when he said he would push for middle-class tax relief during the first presidential debate.

“My view is that we ought to provide tax relief to people in the middle class,” Romney said during the debate. “Middle-income Americans have seen their income come down by $4,300 [under President Barack Obama]. This is a -- this is a tax in and of itself. I'll call it the economy tax. It's been crushing.”

The statement contrasts with comments the Republican nominee made last month, when he told members of an Ohio audience they should not “be expecting a huge cut in taxes because I'm also going to lower deductions and exemptions,” as reported by HuffPost’s Sam Stein.

Median annual income has dropped nearly 5 percent since the recovery began in June 2009, according to a recent study, a significant enough decline to lead Vice President Joe Biden to say earlier this week that the middle class had been "buried" during the Obama administration's first term.

Obama has said he would sign a one-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for the first $250,000 of U.S. income.