Romney takes swipe at ‘web of dependency’

ATLANTA: Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama yesterday of fostering a “web of dependency”, amid a sharpening electoral battle over their competing visions for US society.

Under attack because of videotaped comments dismissing 47 percent of Americans as looking for government handouts, the Republican presidential nominee defended his views as the path to prosperity.

“My course for the American economy will encourage private investment and personal freedom,” Romney wrote in an opinion piece in USA Today. “Instead of creating a web of dependency, I will pursue policies that grow our economy and lift Americans out of poverty.”

He backed down on the concept at a high-end Atlanta fund-raiser, the third event in two days in which he attacked Obama for embracing a more socialist-styled role for the government.

America “does not work by a government saying ‘become dependent on government, become dependent upon redistribution’. That will kill the American entrepreneurship that’s lifted our economy over the years,” Romney told donors.

“The question of this campaign is not who cares about the poor and the middle class,” Romney went on.

“I do. He does. The question is who can help the poor and the middle class? I can! He can’t!”

Romney trails in the polls with just 48 days to go before the November 6 elections. Deficits in key battlegrounds like Ohio and Florida are especially worrying for the Republican challenger as they could decide the race.

Romney has acknowledged that his bombshell comments at a May fundraiser, secretly videotaped and then made public this week by Mother Jones magazine, were badly phrased.

But the former Massachusetts governor and his campaign have stepped up their attacks on social welfare “entitlements” as they seek to frame a philosophical debate over the choices facing Americans.

In doing so they have seized on a 14year-old audio recording from 1998 in which Obama, then a state senator in Illinois, can be heard advocating for government-backed wealth redistribution.

“The trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level, to make sure everybody’s got a shot,” Obama says in the audio.

The White House responded yesterday by saying Romney’s camp was adopting “desperate” tactics that were examples of a campaign “having a very bad day or a very bad week”.

Romney, who has been holding a series of fund-raisers in California, Utah and Texas, goes to the key swing state Florida today. – Sapa-AFP