Romney ups criticism of Obama’s second-term plans
FLORIDA, USA (AP) — Heading into the campaign’s final weeks, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is upping his criticism of President Barack Obama’s plans for a second term, accusing the Democrat of failing to tell Americans what he would do with four more years. The Obama campaign is aggressively disputing the notion, claiming it’s Romney who hasn’t provided specific details to voters.
At campaign events, in a new ad and fundraising appeal out today, Romney is setting up the closing weeks as a choice between what he says is a “small” campaign that’s offering little new policy and his own ambitious plan to fundamentally change America’s tax code and entitlement programmes.
The new Romney ad criticises the president’s policies on debt, health care, taxes, energy and Medicare, arguing that Obama is simply offering more of the same. The campaign did not say where the spot would air. The fundraising appeal hits Obama for raising taxes and increasing the debt by $5.5 trillion, repeating the lack-of-agenda criticism.
“Although President Obama won’t lay out his plan for a second term, we already know what it will be — a repeat of the last four years. We can’t afford four more years of crushing debt and wasteful spending,” Romney says in the letter, adding he has a clear plan to put America on a path to prosperity.
Both Obama and Romney retreated from the campaign trail today to bone up on foreign policy, leaving the work of courting voters to their running mates.
Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan continued the no-agenda theme against Obama at campaign stops near Pittsburgh and in Belmont, Ohio.
“He’s not even telling you what he plans on doing,” Ryan told a rain-soaked crowd of about 1,100 people at a campground in coal-rich eastern Ohio.
Obama’s campaign disputes the notion that the president hasn’t outlined a detailed second-term agenda, pointing to his calls for immigration reform, ending tax breaks for upper income earners, fully implementing his health care overhaul and ending the war in Afghanistan.
In a statement sent after Romney’s Friday night event, Obama campaign spokesman Danny Kanner ticked through a series of policy items, calling them “just part of President Obama’s agenda for a second term.”
Obama, at the Democratic National Convention, called for creating one million manufacturing jobs over the next four years with a mix of corporate tax rate cuts and innovation and training programmes.