Obama slams 'trickle-down fairy dust'

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PUEBLO, Colo., Aug. 9 (UPI) -- President Obama told a crowd in Colorado Thursday Mitt Romney and congressional Republicans want to let "corporations run roughshod."

Obama spoke before a crowd of about 3,500 at the Colorado State Fairgrounds in Pueblo, reprising his attack on "trickle-down fairy dust tax cuts."

The president said Republicans in Washington "think compromise is a dirty word" and want "to go back to the same top-down economics that got us into this mess in the first place. ...

"Their idea is, is that if we give these big tax cuts to folks who don't need them and are doing really well, and we let corporations run roughshod, even if they're not doing the right thing, that somehow that's going to lead to jobs and prosperity for everybody," Obama said. "That's what they're proposing. That's what they will do if they win this election."

The president said the centerpiece of likely Republican presidential nominee Romney's "entire economic plan is a new $5 trillion tax cut -- a lot of it is going to the wealthiest Americans. But last week, we found out he expects the middle class to pick up the tab to pay for it."

"So you've got a $5 trillion tax plan and to pay for it you raise taxes on middle-class families with children by an average of $2,000 -- not to reduce the deficit, not to grow jobs, not to invest in education, but just to give another $250,000 tax cut to people making more than $3 million a year."

"They have tried to sell us this trickle-down tax cut fairy dust before. It did not work. It did not work then. It is not going to work now."

Obama said he needs a second term because it will "take more than one year or one term or even one president" to restore the economy.

After the speech, Obama, still on the campaign trail, was set to head off to Colorado Springs.