Mitt Romney promised Thursday that his economic program will create
12 million new jobs in the next four years, and likened President Barack Obama
to a "dog trying to chase its tail" when it comes to strengthening
the sluggish recovery.
Firing back instantly, Obama said his rival favors
"trickle-down fairy dust" that has failed to fix the economy in the
past, and unleashed a new television ad with a scathing summation of Romney's
tax plans: "He pays less. You pay more."
The two men campaigned in battleground states
hundreds of miles apart, the incumbent in Florida, his challenger in Colorado,
both on a mission to convert undecided voters to their side in a race dominated
by the economy and high joblessness.
Nor was there any summer lull in the television ad
wars. Americans For Prosperity, an independent group that backs Romney, intends
to launch a $25 million ad campaign beginning next week, according to officials
familiar with the arrangements. The organization was founded by David and
Charles Koch, billionaire brothers, and has spent about $15 million in swing
states this year on ads attacking Obama.
For Romney, the day meant a return to domestic
campaigning after a weeklong overseas trip. Aides say he intends to disclose a
vice presidential pick before the Republican National Convention opens on Aug.
27 in Tampa, Fla., but the former Massachusetts governor told reporters:
"I've got nothing to give you" by way of information on his decision.
Instead, he unveiled what aides called Romney's
plan for more jobs and more take-home pay, backed by an eight-page paper
arguing that the economic stimulus and other policies backed by Obama
"exacerbated the economy's structural problems and weakened the recovery ...
At the present rate of job creation, the nation will never return to full
employment," it said, on the eve of the release of the government's
official report on July joblessness.
Friday's jobs report, Obama planned to use the
backdrop of the White House and surround himself with families who would
benefit from the election year middle-class tax cut he's pushing Congress to
adopt. "As dysfunctional as Washington can be, this fight is far from
hopeless," White House senior adviser David Plouffe said in an email.
In remarks in Golden, Colo., Romney said his
economic policies would lead to creation of 12 million jobs in the four years
of his term, if he is elected, and help make North America energy independent,
a pledge that aides said included Canada and Mexico as well as the United
States.
Romney pledged expanded international trade,
particularly with Latin America, and vowed to confront China over its own
policies. "I'm finally going to sit down with the Chinese and they're
going to understand that if they cheat there are going to be consequences,
because we're not going to let them walk all over us," the former
Massachusetts governor said.
He said he would help small business owners,
improve the education system and cut spending to reduce the deficit, but he offered
relatively few specifics.
Romney previously has said he wants to extend the
tax cuts due to expire on Dec. 31 and grant a new 20 percent cut in tax rates,
in addition, to stimulate growth. He has also said he will reverse some of
Obama's proposed defense cuts, and simultaneously reduce spending on other
programs in a way that deficits would gradually subside.
But he so far has refused to identify which
existing tax breaks he would curtail to accomplish his goals, and generally
avoided naming individual programs he wants to cut or eliminate.
In his remarks during the day, Romney said he
wants federal education funds that aid the disadvantaged and disabled to be
tied to the student rather than flow to school districts, as is now the case.
But he did not specify how much he would cut from them to achieve his goal of
reducing federal deficits.
He also criticized Obama for signing legislation
that cut $500 billion from Medicare over a decade. Aides said he would restore
the funding, which was reduced as part of the president's health care bill. But
they had no additional details.
Romney said Democrats have a different view.
"They think we should just raise taxes. ...The problem is when you raise
taxes you lower growth," he said.
Obama's approach is "like a dog trying to
chase its tail, you just don't ever get there," he added. "So the
right answer is not to raise taxes. The right answer is to cut taxes and cut
spending."
Obama and other Democrats support extending
existing tax cuts except for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and
couples with incomes over $250,000—and their disagreement with Romney and the
Republicans on this point has emerged as arguably the most fundamental one of
the campaign.
It's an argument that Obama seems eager to have—using
campaign appearances and paid television advertising to do so.
For the second day in a row, Obama cited a study
by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center that says Romney and other millionaires
would receive a tax cut of approximately $250,000 a year if the former
Massachusetts governor gets his way.
"This analysis also found that if Gov. Romney
wants to keep his word" about reducing deficits, "the average
middle-class family with children would be stuck with a tax increase of more
than $2,000," he added.
The president's new campaign ad was delivering the
same highly personalized message. It says Romney has paid a lower proportion of
his income in taxes than many people of lesser means and adds:
"He pays less, you pay more," the ad
says.
Romney's personal wealth has been estimated as
high as $250 million, but he has not so far made public a detailed disclosure
of his holdings. His aides have sought to dismiss the report as a partisan
attack by former aides to the president.
But Obama, picking up on what his own campaign
staff said Wednesday, told an audience near Orlando, Fla., that the Tax Policy
Center was headed by a former aide to President George W. Bush.
Romney, too, rolled out a new ad, giving a
less-than-warm welcome to Obama on a day Air Force One touched down in Florida.
It notes that the state still suffers from high unemployment, record home
foreclosures and an increase in poverty.
"Barack Obama: What a disappointment,"
it says.
The president's stop in Florida reflected his
campaign's efforts to build support among Hispanic voters, particularly Puerto
Ricans. He was greeted on the tarmac of Orlando International Airport by
Kenneth McClintock, the lieutenant governor of Puerto Rico and Alejandro
Garcia-Padilla, a state senator in Puerto Rico.
Romney, meanwhile, appeared with a group of
Republican governors at an event near Aspen, Colo., some of them mentioned as
potential running mates. That teased speculation about Romney's vice
presidential pick, as some of the attendees—New Jersey's Chris Christie,
Louisiana's Bobby Jindal, South Carolina's Nikki Haley and Virginia's Bob
McDonnell—have been mentioned as possible Romney running mates.
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