By Seth McLaughlin
Rep. Paul Ryan (right), the Republican presidential running mate, listens at right ... more >
“It seems the first victim of an Obama campaign is truth — it has been sad and disappointing,” Mr. Romney said, alluding to Mr. Obama’s charge that Mr. Romney’s plan to cut tax rates would shift more of the tax burden from the rich to lower-income earners. “Let me tell you the heart of my tax proposal: I will not raise taxes on the American people; I will not raise taxes on middle-income Americans.”
The town-hall-style event here marked the first joint appearance that the Republican ticket has made in New Hampshire — a small state that could play a big role on Election Day.
Mr. Ryan ventured out on his own in recent days — even teaming up with his 78-year-old mother, Betty Douglas, over the weekend in Florida, where he took on the issue that is seen as his biggest political liability: his plan to reshape Medicare into a voucher program.
The Wisconsin Republican and House Budget Committee chairman pounded home the message that he “wants” the debate on Medicare. Mr. Ryan said Mr. Obama’s Affordable Care Act siphons $716 billion from the retiree health program to help pay for “Obamacare” and empowers an unelected board to find cost savings in Medicare that will result in denied care and restricted access for seniors.
“Medicare should not be a piggy bank for Obama,” Mr. Ryan told the roughly 3,000 people in attendance. “It should be a guaranteed promise that our seniors can count on.”
Democrats say the charge is false and point to a recent Congressional Budget Office report that found that Mr. Obama’s reduction in projected Medicare spending comes from squeezing savings out of providers and insurance companies over the next 10 years. Democrats also warn that the GOP plan — which would replace Medicare’s open-ended commitment with a fixed government subsidy that recipients would use to purchase private insurance — would shift the costs of the program onto the backs of seniors.
That is the message that Mr. Obama ran with Saturday in nearby Windham, N.H., where he called Mr. Romney’s economic plans “trickle-down snake oil” and pointed to the recent analysis of the Tax Policy Center that found the Republican’s economic approach “would actually raise taxes on middle-class families with children by an average of $2,000.”
He told the more than 2,000 people gathered to see him that the Romney-Ryan Medicare plan would force seniors to shell out an additional $6,400 for health care.
“Here is the bottom line: My plan saves money in Medicare by cracking down on fraud and waste and insurance company subsidies,” Mr. Obama said. “And their plan makes seniors pay more so they can give another tax cut to millionaires and billionaires.”
The dueling visits in the closing days of summer from the presidential contenders underscore the key role the Granite State could play in deciding who wins the November election, despite its holding just four of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election.
The state proved pivotal in the 2000 election when George W. Bush scraped out a 5-ppoint victory over then-Vice President Al Gore. It was a different story in the 2008 election, when Mr. Obama won New Hampshire on his way to a landslide victory over Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
The latest realclearpolitics.com average of presidential polls shows Mr. Obama leading by more than 2 percentage points in New Hampshire.
The town-hall event comes as the candidates gear up for the homestretch of the election, which will crank into warp speed after Mr. Romney’s official coronation next week at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. Days later, Mr. Obama will receive his party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.
Mr. Romney also fielded questions about his plans to balance the federal budget, to reduce the rising costs of student loans and to strengthen ties with Israel. In the exchanges, Mr. Romney told the crowd that the Federal Reserve should be audited and that Mr. Obama needs to provide the nation with an update on the war in Afghanistan.
“When men and women are in harm’s way, I expect the president of the United States to address the nation on a regular basis and explain what’s happening,” he said. “This is something he ought to do time and time again so the people of America know where we stand.
The Romney campaign also doubled down Monday on their criticism of the Obama administration’s decision to consider granting waivers to states — a charge that the White House and independent fact checkers say is false.
“Since 1996, welfare recipients were required to work,” the narrator says in the ad. “This bipartisan reform successfully reduced welfare rolls. On July 12th, President Obama quietly ended the work requirement gutting welfare reform.”
No comments:
Post a Comment